Graves says he was only in it to get rid of Bachmann, who is aof Democrats nationwide. Once she was out, there was no reason for him to stay in. Here's how he :

Basically, after all that's gone on, and with Michele Bachmann now stepping down, I've been talking to my friends and family and frankly, the feeling is, "Mission Accomplished." She wasn't representing the people of the 6th District appropriately, and now she won't be representing them. There's no way anyone could run and win who would be worse than Michele Bachmann. So we accomplished that task...

I'm not a politician; I'm a business guy. Now there are zero things on my agenda that I feel a need to do in public life. []

Absent Ms. Bachmann from the campaign environment the chances of Jim Graves of getting significant outside support for his doomed candidacy would have been somewhere between zip and nil... Brutal truth of it is, a R+8 district is not within reach of the average Democrat this cycle. []

One thing is clear: The seat will most likely not be switching hands. Graves was "arguably the strongest and most well-financed candidate Minnesota Democrats had," says , meaning Democrats' chances of winning just got a lot lower.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Actor Leonardo DiCaprio and Christie's auction house raised $38.8 million through a charity art auction and donations, Christie's said on Tuesday, with proceeds to benefit environmental and conservation causes.

The 33 works in The 11th Hour Auction organized by the star of the new film "The Great Gatsby" sold for $31.74 million on Monday evening and set 13 records for artists including Carol Bove, Joe Bradley, Mark Grotjahn, Raymond Pettibon and Mark Ryden among others.

A $5 million matching donation for three of the lots and additional gifts from donors brought the overall total to $38.8 million for The Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, according to Christie's.

"All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you," DiCaprio told the audience at the end of the auction.

Many of the works, which were created for and donated to the auction by the artists, sold in spirited bidding in a packed auction house. Art collectors from around the globe also placed bids by telephone.

"Christie's is thrilled with the exceptional results of the sale, which realized $38.8 million," said Loic Gouzer, international specialist at Christie's and the head of the sale.

"The works of art were of incredible quality and range, and highlight the generosity of the many artists who donated," he added.

A panel of environmental experts and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation will decide which conservation projects will benefit from the proceeds of the sale.

At the opening of the auction, DiCaprio, who has supported environmental issues through his foundation since 1988 and also produced and narrated the 2007 documentary "The 11th Hour" about the state of the environment, urged the audience to dig deep into their pockets.

"Bid as if the fate of the planet depended on us," he said.

And they did. All of the 33 works were sold and many fetched prices that were three or four times their pre-sale estimates.

The top lot of the sale was an oil on cardboard mounted on canvas by Mark Grotjahn called "Untitled (Standard Lotus No. II, Bird of Paradise, Tiger Mouth Face 44.01)," which sold for $6.2 million as two determined bidders pushed up the price.

Zeng Fanzhi's "The Tiger," an oil on canvas, fetched nearly double its high estimate with a price of $4.8 million, and Bharti Kher's sculpture "The Skin Speaks a Language Not Its Own" went for $1.7 million.

Each of the three works had a pre-sale estimate of $1.5 million to $2.5 million.

DiCaprio donated "Ocean V" by Andreas Gursky, which sold for $600,000, and he bought an acrylic on canvas by Takashi Murakami for $700,000.

A portrait of DiCaprio painted by Elizabeth Peyton sold for $1 million.

Gouzer and DiCaprio had approached the artists and explained what they had hoped to accomplish with the auction, which they have been planning for a year.

"We explained that we wanted great works and they were very reactive because of the cause. The artists are very sensitive to the fact that we are destroying our planet," Gouzer said in an interview ahead of the sale.

(Reporting by Patricia Reaney; Editing by Vicki Allen)

In 2011, the once energetic toddler was diagnosed and hospitalized with systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis. At one point, she was taking eight daily medications. She was so afraid of the frequent steroid injections that she had to be put under anesthesia to keep her still enough for the procedure.

"In the beginning when there were all those unknowns, we knew we had to get to the bottom of it," said her mother, Kim Pruden, a 35-year-old speech pathologist from Phoenix.

"But at the same time, we had to keep that poker face with her to give her the confidence that, 'You are O.K. and you are going to be O.K.'"

The couple has their "breakdown" moments after Campbell goes to bed at night.

One of the greatest misunderstandings about arthritis is that it affects only adults. More than 300,000 children in the United States are living with the disease, according to the , which has launched a new public awareness campaign to debunk the myths of arthritis during the month of May.

In addition to swelling in the joints, children can suffer muscle and soft tissue tightening and bone erosion that affect growth patterns.

Symptoms may include a non-contagious fever and rash. Inflammation can affect the spleen or the membranes that covering the lungs and heart.

It's important to recognize the symptoms of arthritis early, as many forms of arthritis can cause irreversible joint damage, often within the first two years of the disease. There are more than 100 types of arthritis and knowing what type you have makes a difference in how it is treated.

Today, at age 3, Campbell gets intravenous injections of powerful immune-suppressant medicines known as biologics, but office visits can last anywhere from two to five hours long. She calls the tiresome procedures her "stupid tubes."

Pruden laughs that the ordeal is like "going to Disney World for kids to get poked with needles."

Pruden and her husband John take a positive approach with their daughter whose joints are always aching.

"We keep her moving, we keep her active and we take one day at a time," she said. "When she is not feeling well, we respect that, but it's important not to make that a crutch or an excuse."

Arthritis is an umbrella term used to describe the many autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.

One family hard-hit by the disease recently moved from rainy Seattle to Charleston, S.C., for the warm climate, which is easier on the aching joints of sufferers.

Sisters Amelia, 5, and Liberty, 3, have juvenile idiopathic arthritis, which affects their joints "from head to toe," according to their mother, Lisa Schultz, who was recently diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis.

Their father has had gout since he was 20, which is also a form of arthritis.

Amelia was diagnosed in April 2010 when she was nearly 2. She suddenly stopped walking and reverted to crawling.

"She started limping in the morning and wanted to be carried," said Schultz, 37 and a stay-at-home mother. "She would cry when I changed her diaper, too. I would lift her up and she would say her toes hurt when I put on her socks. Her second toe was almost the size of her big toe and her knees were the size of oranges."

V ch Cp Quc gia Php, Bordeaux s d Europa League ma ti - nh: Reuters

* Bordeaux ng quang Cp Quc gia Php khi nh bi Evian vi t s 3-2 trn chung kt din ra rng sng nay (1.6, gi VN). Ngi hng ca Bordeaux trn ny l Cheick Diabate khi ngoi vic ghi bn m t s pht 39, tin o ngi Mali l ngi trc tip em cp v cho i bng x s ru vang vi pha lp cng pht 89. Vi danh hiu Cp Quc gia th 4 trong lch s (trc ng quang vo nm 1941, 1986, 1987), Bordeaux c tng thng bng mt sut d Europa League ma ti.

* Ban lnh o CLB Liverpool va phi trn an ngi hm m khi tuyn b s khng bn Luis Suarez bt k gi no, sau khi tin o ngi sao ny p m mun ri sn Anfield ma h ny trc s cho n ca Real Madrid, theo Goal.com.

* Ban lnh o CLB Real Madrid cho bit ang xem xt kh nng bn quyn t tn sn vn ng to thm doanh thu cho i bng, nhng vn cam kt vi ngi hm m s gi tn chnh ca sn l Bernabeu Santiago v ngha lch s, theo AFP.

* Lin on Bng th gii (FIFA) va to ra mt du mc lch s khi Lydia Nsekera (47 tui, Ch tch Lin on Bng Burundi) tr thnh ngi ph n u tin c bu vo Ban chp hnh ca t chc ny ti i hi thng nin t chc ti Maritius, theo AFP.

HLV Van Gaal mun dn dt mt i bng Premier League - nh: AFP

* HLV Louis van Gaal va tuyn b s t chc HLV tuyn H Lan sau World Cup 2014 tm kim c hi th thch Premier League, theo Reuters. Nh cm qun ny cho bit l do l ng ch thch ra sn hun luyn cc cu th hng ngy vi CLB, ch khng mun lm vic theo kiu tp trung nh cc tuyn quc gia.

* Cu tin v ngi sao Freddie Ljungberg va tr li Arsenal vi vai tr i s khi s tr thnh thnh vin ca i bng thnh London trong chuyn du u chu nhm mc ch pht trin thng hiu cho pho th, theo Reuters.

* Barcelona va tm yn tm khi th thnh Victor Valdes tuyn b s khng ri i bng ma h ny, ng thi by t mong mun li chi cho i bng x Catalan cho n khi ht hn hp ng vo thng 6.2014, theo Goal.com. Trc , ban lnh o i ch sn Nou Camp phi vt chn ln c tm kim ngi thay th khi Valdes t chi gia hn hp ng v nhn li ngh hp dn chuyn ti AS Monaco.

* Kt qu cc trn giao hu quc t: 4 pha lp cng ca Poli, Gilardino, Pirlo v Aquilani gip nh bi San Marino vi t s 4-0, trong khi Th Nh K gy tht vng khi gc ng trc Slovenia vi t s 0-2.

Nguyn Khoa

Tuesday, May 28

Syrianska FC 2 Gefle 2

Standings P W D L F A Pts

1 Helsingborg 9 7 1 1 24 6 22

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2 IFK Gothenburg 10 6 3 1 15 6 21

3 Elfsborg Boras 10 5 4 1 20 9 19

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4 Malmo 9 4 4 1 14 9 16

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5 Kalmar 10 4 4 2 12 8 16

6 Mjallby AIF 10 5 1 4 18 15 16

7 Atvidabergs FF 10 4 2 4 13 9 14

8 IFK Norrkoping 10 4 2 4 15 17 14

9 Haecken 10 4 2 4 14 16 14

10 AIK Stockholm 10 3 4 3 15 14 13

11 Gefle 11 2 4 5 13 20 10

12 Brommapojkarna 10 2 3 5 11 20 9

13 Syrianska FC 11 2 3 6 8 18 9

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14 Halmstad 10 1 5 4 8 12 8

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15 OEsters IF 10 2 2 6 10 16 8

16 Djurgarden 10 2 2 6 7 22 8

1: Champions League preliminary round

2-3: Europa League

4: Europa League depending on domestic cup

14: Relegation play-off

15-16: Relegation

Next Fixtures (GMT):

Wednesday, May 29

Malmo v Helsingborg (1700)

Thursday, May 30

Djurgarden v Kalmar (1700)

IFK Norrkoping v AIK Stockholm (1705)

Friday, May 31

Osters IF v IFK Gothenburg (1700)

Saturday, June 1

Brommapojkarna v Malmo (1100)

Haecken v Elfsborg Boras (1400)

Helsingborg v Atvidabergs FF (1400)

Mjallby AIF v Halmstad (1400)

Weiner, who resigned from office two years ago in a sexting scandal, had the support of 19 percent of Democrats in a Marist poll released on Tuesday. That puts him six points behind early frontrunner City Council speaker Christine Quinn, who had support of 25 percent of Democrats.

A separate poll released on May 22, the day that Weiner formally declared his candidacy, had shown Quinn, who would be the city's first female and lesbian mayor, with a wider 10 point lead.

Another 22 percent of voters told Marist pollsters said they were yet undecided, while 12 percent backed Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and 11 percent were with former city comptroller Bill Thompson, who ran unsuccessfully against Bloomberg four years ago. John Liu, the city's current comptroller, follows with 8 percent.

Weiner, once a popular six-term Congressman representing parts of Brooklyn and Queens, resigned from Congress after admitting he had sent a lewd picture over Twitter and then lied about it repeatedly. He launched his campaign last Wednesday, saying he hoped voters would give him a second chance and pledging to be an advocate for the working class.

More than half of registered voters said Weiner deserves a second chance, while nearly 40 percent said Weiner does not have the character to be mayor, the poll found.

The candidates are due to face off in a Democratic primary in September. If no candidate wins more than 40 percent of the vote, the top two candidates will compete in a run-off election. The winning candidate will face the Republican candidate in November.

"He's a major factor in this race, he's made a run-off all but inevitable and he can't be overlooked," said Lee Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion.

All of the Republican contenders, including businessman John Catsimatidis and Joe Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, are regarded as long-shots.

Miringoff said that voters appear to be open to a Weiner candidacy, though Weiner is still hampered by heavy disapproval ratings. He noted that Quinn is viewed favorably by 60 percent of registered Democrats.

"She remains the most popular of all of the candidates," Miringoff said.

The poll was released hours before Weiner is due to participate in his first mayoral debate. Quinn, who has attended dozens of such forums in recent months, has said she will not attend.

The telephone survey of 1,001 New York City adults was conducted May 22 through May 24. There poll included 810 registered voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points, and 492 Democrats, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4 percentage points.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Scott Malone and Nick Zieminski)

Mohammad Yasin Osmani, the head of the Independent Joint Anti-Corruption Monitoring and Evaluation Committee, said in an interview last week that he and 39 other advisers who audit expenditures throughout the government "were not aware" of the decade-old payouts, which Karzai acknowledged at a news conference in Kabul on May 4.

But Osmani, like other Afghan government officials, was reluctant to criticize Karzai or accuse him of personal corruption, highlighting a growing friction between Afghanistan and the International Security Assistance Force led by the United States over an issue that threatens to upend the rebuilding effort here, and possibly U.S. plans for a post-2014 "strategic partnership" with Afghanistan. Many Afghan officials and politicians contend that their nation's reputation for rampant corruption is exaggeratedaccording to Transparency International, a monitoring group, Afghanistan is the most corrupt nation on earth, along with Myanmar, North Korea, and Somalia. They say that more to blame are poor procedures by ISAF and Washington that hand aid money directly over to graft-plagued contractors and subcontractors.

Ashraf Ghani, a former finance minister who is currently the chairman of the Afghan Transition Coordination Commission, said the Karzai cash controversy is viewed in Washington as simply more evidence of Afghanistan's corrupt ways. But he asked: "What does it say about the way the American government conducts itself?"

It is, perhaps, a fair point, especially coming after a decade in which the $60 billion American rebuilding effort in Iraq was deemed hopelessly corruptin part because, Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction Stuart Bowen concluded in his final report in March, in many cases U.S. officials did not consult with Iraqis closely or deeply enough to determine what reconstruction projects were really needed. Now the Afghans are saying the same thing. Even as the security transition to the Afghan National Security Forces is said to be going more smoothly, civilian transition from U.S. to Afghan oversight is a disaster, Finance Minister Omar Zakhilwal said in an interview. "The transition has not happened," he said, although as the ISAF-formed "provincial reconstruction teams" are being dismantled.

U.S. aid rules have themselves become a source of corruption, Osmani says. Too many private contractors skim off the top as they subcontract a job out, a practice that the Afghan government itself would not permit, he says. Beyond that, "nobody has the right [in the Afghan government] to monitor international community projects," and yet international auditors are often too leery of going to insecure areas. So little monitoring occurs. And in some cases U.S.-built projects appear to be following the pattern in Iraq. Osmani cited a case in which the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, John Sopko, criticized a $73 million contract given by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to DynCorp International for a shoddily built Afghan National Army base in Kunduz Province. "They didn't allow the [Afghan] government to go out and supervise the project!" Osmani said.

The finger-pointing on both sides suggests a long-married couple10 years of geopolitical marriage in this casewho are fed up with each other but can't bear the idea of divorce. And the mood is getting testier. In a recent report, Sopko accused the Afghan government of "targeting American contractors with unjust taxes and intimidation." Zakhilwal says the allegations are false. Even in the case of Afghanistan's biggest economic weakness, the heroin trade, Afghan officials say the corruption is far greater outside Afghanistan than inside. "From 2002 to 2009, $420 billion to $460 billion was made by international dealers [out of Afghanistan], while $18 billion made by the Afghan mafia," says Ghani, citing a report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. "The illegal economy is totally integrated into globalization: with credit and transport."

The question of whether Afghanistan is just too corrupt to save has shaped the entire U.S. approach to post-9/11 Afghanistan, tilting the Obama administration gradually away from "nation-building" and toward a more pared-down counterterrorism strategy. In February 2008, three U.S. senators who are today the Obama administration's key foreign-policy heavyweightsJoe Biden, Chuck Hagel, and John Kerryhad a crucial dinner with Karzai at the Afghan president's palace. After Hagel raised the subject of corruption in Karzai's government, including runaway graft and narcotics connections, Karzai replied, "My dear senator, there is no corruption in my government." Things then got testier. The American visitors insisted they had a list of corrupt officials and that Karzai's brother was at the top of it, but the Afghan leader disingenuously denied it alluntil Biden, by the dessert course, threw down his napkin. "This dinner is over," he said, walking out. Hagel and Kerry followed.

Biden never really regained his trust in Karzai, and by 2009, after he became Barack Obama's vice president, he turned into the new administration's No. 1 skeptic about nation-building. The doubts about Karzai, culminating in charges of election fraud, also poisoned the Afghan president's relations with the late Richard Holbrooke, Obama's special representative for Afghanistan. Karzai continues to deny charges of personal corruption, including about the CIA money. "This money was not given to warlords," he said at the May 4 news conference in Kabul. "The major part of this money was spent on government employees such as our guards.... It has been paid to individuals, not movements.... We give receipts for all these expenditures to the U.S. government."

Even Osmani is skeptical about that last point. Asked whether he believed there were "receipts," he responded, "No." But there are clearly two sides to every corruption story, and the U.S. and Afghan governments need to get their stories straight if the "partnership" is to survive after 2014. 

By Larry Fine

NEW YORK, May 16 (Reuters) - The New York Knicks came alive in front of their home crowd and avoided elimination by beating the Pacers 85-75 on Thursday, sending their NBA Eastern Conference semi-final series back to Indiana for Game Six.

Led by 28 points from league scoring champion Carmelo Anthony, the Knicks played with desperation and fierce determination on defense to narrow the deficit to 3-2 in their best-of-seven series, which resumes on Saturday.

New York forced 19 turnovers and registered a dozen steals, double that of the Pacers, answering the Madison Square Garden chant of "Defense, Defense."

"We played with a sense of urgency tonight, knowing what was at stake," said Anthony. "We played like we really wanted it. We had to win and we went out there and did that."

The Knicks' bench outscored the undermanned Pacers 35-10 with J.R. Smith coming out of a slump to contribute 13 points and 29-year-old rookie Chris Copeland adding 13 points and a dose of high energy.

Playing without starting point guard George Hill, who suffered a concussion in Indiana's Game Four victory, the Pacers were led by Paul George's 23 points with David West adding 17.

Should the Pacers fail to finish off the Knicks with a victory at home on Saturday, the series would return to New York's Madison Square Garden for a deciding Game Seven on Monday.

DESPERATION GAME

New York coach Mike Woodson said winning in Indianapolis was a tough task as his team went 0-4 there this season, but the challenge could be met with the defensive intensity the Knicks brought in Thursday's do-or-die game.

"It was our defense," Woodson said about the key to Game Five. "We didn't give up a lot of second-chance buckets, we made it tough for them to score.

"It was a total team effort and we're going to have to have that same effort when we play at Conseco Fieldhouse."

Woodson gave special mention to Copeland, who had been used sparingly in the series, but gave New York a spark by hitting 3-of-4 from beyond the three-point line and grabbing a pair of steals.

"Cope was big for us with the way he played tonight," Woodson said.

New York started fast in a physical first half, scoring the first seven points of the game. They led by four after the first quarter and by 40-34 at halftime.

The Knicks extended their lead to 10 after three quarters, carrying a 67-57 advantage to the fourth quarter.

Indiana were hurt by poor shooting from the foul line, making just 19-of-33 attempts.

"That was just one of those nights," said Indiana coach Frank Vogel. "Every team in basketball has a night like this when you just don't knock them down.

"To me that's an encouraging thing. If we make our free throws, it's a different ball game."

Vogel would also not use Hill's absence as an excuse.

"I don't think that has anything to do with it," he said. "I think we've got plenty to beat the Knicks, with or without George Hill."

Pacers forward Paul George said he and his team mates had to match the intensity shown by the Knicks.

"They came out with a lot of energy and upped their pressure," said George. "We didn't play well.

"We got to come out and play like there's pressure. Approach Game Six as a desperation game."

(Editing by Peter Rutherford)