Both women were dominant in the first two elimination rounds, but Ricker had the last word over her rival in the final.

The first-place finish means Ricker, a native of Squamish, B.C., has secured a spot representing Canada at the Sochi Olympics next year.

Maltais, from Petite-Riviere-Saint-Francois, Que., finished a few meters behind Ricker in the final race.

On the men's side, Alex Pullin of Australia won gold, while Robert Fagan of Cranbook, B.C., was the top Canadian and finished in seventh.

The competition is taking place at the Stoneham Mountain Resort north of Quebec City.

Stronger results from the television and cable operations, however, helped the company squeeze out a 0.4 percent rise in total revenue to $959.1 million.

The first-quarter earnings indicated that its namesake newspaper can't shake the problems clinging to the sector, mainly a drain in advertising revenue and the loss of readers, who are reading news elsewhere.

Total revenue at the newspaper division dropped 4 percent to $127.3 million because of lower ad sales at its print edition. It reported an operating loss of $34.5 million mainly due to severance costs.

At its education division known as Kaplan, revenue fell 3 percent to $527.8 million.

Net income for the quarter was $4.7 million, or 64 cents per share, compared with $31 million, or $4.07 per share in the same quarter last year.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

But as this year's elections nears, former President Michelle Bachelet, who was detained and tortured under the regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet, is reaching out to the now-legal Communist Party and other left-leaning groups in her bid to return to the nation's top post.

It's a politically pragmatic move in a country plagued by mounting social demands and frequent protests.

But it's also part of Bachelet's goal, assuming she regains the presidency, to oversee an overhaul of the education and tax systems, which would be the country's most wide-ranging reform in four decades.

Chile, the world's top producer of copper, is respected for its fast-growing economy, strong institutions and low unemployment. But it also has the worst inequality rate among the 34 countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

As a presidential candidate, Bachelet needs the backing of the Communists and liberal social groups in the face of mounting demands and protests clamoring for a wider distribution of Chile's copper wealth, the preservation of the environment and free education.

Chile currently has two major electoral blocs, the center-left Concertacion coalition Bachelet leads and a center-right grouping that has said it will not back her proposals. Belonging to the country's Socialist Party, Bachelet says a change in the constitution is needed to break with the two-coalition system in place since the military dictatorship and allow one side or another to collect enough votes for significant change.

Enormously popular in the last year of her 2006-2010 presidency, Bachelet is now the front-runner in the Nov. 17 vote. A survey by the pollster Centro de Estudios Publicos found that 54 percent of respondents who had made up their minds on a candidate said they would vote for Bachelet, far ahead of any other name. If that number holds, it would help her avoid a runoff election mandated if no candidate wins a majority of votes.

The CEP poll, conducted between November and December of last year, interviewed 1,484 people and had a margin of error of three percentage points.

Bachelet recently announced her plans to run for president after spending 2 1/2 years in New York as the first executive director of UN Women, the United Nations' new agency for women and gender issues.

"Given the characteristics of Michelle Bachelet, the question is not whether she'll win in the first or second round but whether she'll win the whole thing, and the answer is yes," said Bernardo Navarrete, a University of Santiago political scientist.

Bachelet hasn't directly mentioned courting the Communist Party but has echoed their demands for education and constitutional reform.

"Chile needs a founding document born in democracy, a constitution aligned with the present conditions of Chile, that guarantees the economic and social rights to all Chileans," Bachelet said while announcing her pre-candidacy last month.

The other leading political group in Chile is the center-right Coalition for Change, which has been unable to capitalize on the country's economic success under the bloc's standard-bearer President Sebastian Pinera. Pinera enjoyed only a 31 percent approval rating in the late-2012 poll, and 29 percent approval for his handling of the economy.

On top of that, the coalition was dealt a tough blow this week when its presidential candidate Laurence Golborne, a charismatic businessman seen by the Pinera government as its best hope, was forced out of the race by a financial scandal.

The coalition chose Economy Minister Pablo Longueira as his replacement. A veteran politician who was close to Pinochet, Longueira has criticized Bachelet for reaching out to the Communist Party and has indicated he would oppose any efforts to return to a more state-funded education system.

Bachelet's military father worked for Socialist President Salvador Allende and, like his wife and daughter Michelle, was detained and tortured after the Sept. 11, 1973, coup that ended Allende's rule. Bachelet's father eventually died of a heart attack in custody.

Pinochet pushed for the privatization of state enterprises and ended central control and funding of the nation's school system. Reversing those laws became a rallying cry during student marches over the past two years that have halted Chile and pushed education reform to the top of the national agenda.

Student leaders have focused their demands on restoring free, quality public education and have said they can bring about that change through votes, after previously pouring most of their energies into street protests.

Among the top Communist Party leaders Bachelet must woo is well-known student activist Camila Vallejo, who inspired millions during the education protests. Vallejo is running for Congress, part of a push by her party to win 10 legislative seats.

Without the backing of leftists such as Vallejo, Bachelet "would be unable to crystalize reform processes because she would lack enough votes," said Marcelo Mella, a political analyst at the University of Santiago.

But since Chile's return to democracy in 1990, the Communist Party has resisted joining the Concertacion coalition and instead banded with other more leftist groups. Vallejo has said she won't give Bachelet her vote or support without knowing more about her political agenda. The goal, Vallejo has said, is electing more non-Concertacion lawmakers who would support raising corporate taxes and undoing Pinochet-era education, health and pension reforms.

"What we need at this moment is a Congress that is mostly in the opposition and that has enough lawmakers to allow us to make changes," Vallejo told the University of Chile radio station in an interview.

"That's what we need in such a crucial moment. Even candidate Michelle Bachelet says it."

The German manufacturer said the 44-year-old's drive in a 2011 car around the old 20km track, before the start of a 24-hour race on May 19, would be a 'thank you' to his fans for their years of support.

It will also be the first outing on the track, dubbed 'The Green Hell' by triple champion Jackie Stewart in the 1970s, by a modern works Mercedes 'Silver Arrow' Formula One car since Argentine Juan Manuel Fangio won there in 1954.

Schumacher, who grew up in nearby Kerpen, retired from Formula One last season and is now a brand ambassador for Mercedes.

Paul, who has said he is considering a run for the White House, said Sanford has been an advocate for limited government and cutting spending.

"Mark has proven during his time in office that watching out for taxpayers and holding the line on spending are his top priorities," Paul said in a statement a week before the special congressional election.

Both Sanford and his Democratic opponent, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, were to appear at events Tuesday, a day after their first campaign debate in which Colbert Busch for the first time raised the issue of Sanford's past. Sanford's political career was derailed after he left the state to visit his mistress in Argentina, telling his staff he was out hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Sanford is trying to rebound from the scandal, which forced him to pay the largest ethics fine ever in South Carolina because of state travel expenses he used for the affair.

The new television ad from the House Majority PAC featured a woman who says that she is a lifelong Republican but that she could not vote for Sanford because his betrayal of South Carolinians "is more than a mile long."

During the campaign, Colbert Busch had refused to bring up Sanford's personal past. But that changed Monday during their debate in the race for state's vacant 1st Congressional District seat.

As Sanford stressed his efforts to rein in spending as a three-term holder of the congressional seat and a two-term governor, Colbert Busch reminded him that he once used taxpayer funds to "leave the country for a personal purpose" referring to the extramarital affair with the Argentine woman, to whom he is now engaged.

Monday's debate took place before a lively audience, whose members frequently erupted in shouts or applause.

When Colbert Busch first made the remark about Sanford's affair, the former governor said he didn't hear it and asked to have it repeated. Ultimately, he didn't respond.

Later, he was reminded by a questioner that he voted to impeach President Bill Clinton because of his involvement with Monica Lewinsky and asked if he would vote that way again.

"I would reverse the question," Sanford said. "Do you think President Clinton should be condemned for the rest of his life for a mistake he made in his life?"

On the issues, Colbert Busch, who worked for years for a shipping company, criticized Sanford for voting in Congress against money for dredging the Charleston Harbor shipping channel and building a higher bridge so the Port of Charleston can handle a new generation of larger container ships.

Sanford shot back that if it bothered her so much before, she wouldn't have written him a "$500 check as I left the Congress to run for governor," referring to her contribution to his campaign in 2001.

He added: "I was against earmarks before being against earmarks was cool."

Colbert Busch also said that, if elected, she would return 10 percent of her congressional salary to the government.

The candidates differed over issues such as immigration reform, the federal health care overhaul and abortion during the debate sponsored by the Patch news service, the South Carolina Radio Network and Charleston television station WCBD.

Sanford repeatedly tried to tie Colbert Busch to House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and labor unions, but she said she would be an independent voice and responsible only to the residents of the district. They also had different takes on the state of affairs.

"We're at an incredible tipping point as a civilization, and I think if we don't get spending right in Washington, D.C., there will be real consequences," Sanford warned.

"Here's the fundamental difference," Colbert Busch responded. "This is not the end of our time as we know it. The sky is not falling Henny Penny. In fact our best days are ahead of us."

The debate was their first joint appearance in the campaign that began after then-U.S. Rep. Tim Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate seat vacated by fellow Republican Jim DeMint.

Sanford and Colbert Busch are vying along with Green Party Candidate Eugene Platt in the May 7 special election in the district.

In a petition seeking review, the Justice Department said the decision undermines a key presidential power that has been used for more than a century to appoint hundreds of government officials while the Senate is out of town.

The government asked the high court "to remove the resulting constitutional cloud over the acts of past and present recess appointments and to restore the president's capacity to fill vacant offices temporarily when the Senate is unavailable to give its advice and consent."

If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the administration's appeal, it is unlikely to hear arguments until the next term begins in October.

The petition challenges the decision of a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which ruled in January that President Barack Obama violated the Constitution when he bypassed the Senate to fill three vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board. Since then, Republicans have claimed the board lacks any legitimacy to act.

But the ruling went far beyond a single agency. The court said recess appointments can be made only during the once-a-year break between sessions of Congress. Two judges on the panel also ruled for the first time that a vacancy must actually occur while the Senate is away in order to be filled during the same break.

If it stands, the government argues, the decision would mean that more than 500 recess appointments made by Republican and Democratic presidents alike since 1867 were invalid. It would threaten all 32 recess appointments that Obama had made during his presidency, including that of Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The lower court ruling conflicts with other appeals courts and could threaten hundreds of opinions issued by the labor board and a host of other federal agencies, the petition argued. It would also "allow the Senate to disable the president from making recess appointments even when the Senate is unavailable to give its advice and consent." And it "creates periods of potentially significant duration in which there is no power to fill vacant offices, not even temporarily, no matter how long the recess or how great the need that an office be filled," the petition said.

Business groups and Republican lawmakers challenging Obama's recess appointments have said they welcome the chance for the Supreme Court to rule on the case. Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said his boss remains confident the Supreme Court will affirm the ruling.

Obama made the recess appointments last year to keep the labor board functioning after Senate Republicans protesting what they said was the agency's pro-union tilt vowed to block any of his future nominees from being confirmed.

The president recently asked the Senate to confirm a package of three Democrats and two Republicans to fill the five seats on the labor board. Two of those nominees are currently sitting on the board as recess appointments.

___

Follow Sam Hananel on Twitter: http://twitter.com/SamHananelAP

It's admittedly early, with more than 18 months before the November 2014 elections.

But candidate recruitment efforts are well underway. And, so far, Republicans haven't been able to field a top-tier candidate in Iowa or Michigan, swing-voting states where the GOP hopes to make a play for seats left open by the retirement of veteran Democratic senators. Also, the GOP is facing the prospect of contentious and expensive primary races in Georgia and perhaps West Virginia, two GOP-leaning states where sitting senators one Republican, one Democrat are retiring.

With President Barack Obama not on the top of the ticket, Republicans may have their best chance in years to try to retake the Senate, which would put a major crimp on the president's efforts to enact his agenda and shape his legacy in the final two years of his presidency. Republicans need to gain six seats to win control of the Senate. Democrats will be defending 21 seats to Republicans' 14, meaning the GOP has more opportunity to try to win on Democratic turf.

Only recently, Republicans were reveling in the fact that several veteran Democrats were retiring in states where the GOP had not had a chance to win in decades. Last week, Democrat Max Baucus of Montana became the latest to announce his retirement in a state that typically tilts Republican.

But a combination of no-thank-yous from prospective Republican candidates in Iowa, slow movement among others in Michigan and lack of consensus elsewhere over a single contender have complicated the early goings of what historically would be the GOP's moment to strike the sixth year of a presidency, when the party out of power in the White House usually wins congressional seats.

Despite that historical disadvantage, Democrats are fighting to reclaim the majority in the House, where control will be decided by a couple of dozen swing states.

After embarrassing losses in GOP-leaning Indiana and Missouri last year, the new Republican Senate campaign leadership is responding by wading deep into the early stages of the 2014 races, conducting exhaustive research on would-be candidates, making hard pitches for those they prefer and discouraging those they don't, to the point of advertising against them. The hope is to limit the number of divisive primaries that only stand to remind voters of their reservations about Republicans.

"It's more about trying to get consensus and avoid a primary that would reopen those wounds, rather than the party struggling to find candidates," said Greg Strimple, a pollster who and consultant to several 2012 Republican Senate campaigns.

This year, the party's top national Senate campaign strategists are so concerned about squandering potential opportunities by failing to convince popular Republicans to run in key places that they visited Iowa last week to survey the landscape after two top Senate prospects Rep. Tom Latham, a prolific fundraiser, and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds, a rising star decided against running despite aggressive lobbying by the National Republican Senate Committee.

Its senior spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin, and its political director, Ward Baker, met privately Wednesday with state Agriculture Secretary Bill Northey and state Sen. Joni Ernst, who have expressed interest. They invited Mark Jacobs, the former CEO of Reliant Energy, to breakfast Thursday. And they also tried again and in vain, it turns out to persuade veteran Gov. Terry Branstad, Iowa's longest-serving governor, to run for Senate instead of seeking another gubernatorial term.

Despite all that, the Washington delegation shrugged off the recruitment troubles, with McLaughlin saying: "It's more important to take the time to get it right than it is to rush and get it wrong."

McLaughlin and others have lamented the national party's decision not to intervene in the candidate selection last year, when Republicans lost races viewed as winnable in Indiana, Missouri and elsewhere.

Hence, the GOP's active role in Iowa this year.

The mission in Iowa: Beat Democrat Bruce Braley, a four-term congressman seeking to succeed retiring six-term Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin. Braley is the party's consensus prospect, winning Harkin's endorsement and already raising more than $1 million for his campaign.

Democrats are similarly set in Michigan, where veteran term Democrat Sen. Carl Levin is leaving office after six terms. The Democratic field has been all but cleared for three-term Rep. Gary Peters, who already has more than $800,000 toward his campaign. Last week, Debbie Dingell, wife of Michigan Rep. John Dingell, opted not to run for the Senate, after some of her key donors made clear they were for Peters.

But, as in Iowa, Republicans have faced recruitment challenges in Michigan.

So, the GOP's Senate campaign committee is planning a visit soon to Michigan, and hope to coax Rep. Mike Rogers into the race. There's a belief in GOP circles in Washington and in Michigan that the seven-term Rogers, a former FBI agent who now chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, would be a stronger candidate than two-term Rep. Justin Amash, a tea party darling with little money in his campaign account.

National Republican officials also are working to head off primaries in several states and are taking sides when they can't. That includes in West Virginia, which Mitt Romney won and where six-term Democrat Jay Rockefeller is retiring.

Rep. Shelley Moore-Capito quickly announced her candidacy and became a favorite of the GOP establishment. Some conservatives complained about her votes for financial industry bailouts, and former state Sen. Patrick McGeehan has announced plans to challenge her. National Republican Senate Committee officials said they would campaign and run ads against McGeehan if he appeared to be a threat.

In Georgia, several Republican candidates are considering trying to succeed the retiring Republican Saxby Chambliss. But so far, the two who have entered the race are arch conservative House members Paul Broun and Phil Gingrey. So far, national Republicans are treading carefully there to avoid enraging the conservative base. But the primary field could eventually include up to a half-dozen people.

At the local level, some Republicans are worried the delay is costing precious organizing and fundraising time.

"Every day Iowa Republicans spend talking about potential candidate deliberations ... is a day lost," said former Iowa Republican Party Chairman Matt Strawn.

But others say that the meddling from Washington stifles the voices of voters, who they say ought to be in charge of shaping the party's future, even if the primary is loud and divisive.

"It's a truer reflection of where the Republican Party needs to go," said Iowa Republican Doug Gross, a veteran adviser to Branstad.

Canadian authorities claim the suspects 30 year-old Chiheb Esseghaier and 35-year-old Raed Jaser, had "direction and guidance" from al-Qaida members in Iran, though there was no allegations the planned attacks were state-sponsored.

Esseghaier is believed to be Tunisian and Jaser is from the United Arab Emirates.

Some al-Qaida members were allowed to stay in Iran after fleeing Afghanistan but were under tight controls.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters Tuesday that there is "no firm evidence" of any Iranian involvement and groups such as al-Qaida have "no compatibility with Iran in both political and ideological fields."

He called the Canadian claims part of hostile policies against Tehran.

PRIESTLY CELIBACY: Roman Catholic priests take vows of celibacy. Some Catholics say they should be allowed to marry, like Eastern Rite Catholic priests.

"For the moment I'm in favor of maintaining celibacy, with its pros and cons, because there have been 10 centuries of good experiences rather than failures. It's a question of discipline, not of faith. It could change."

CLERGY ABUSE: Francis says punishing the priest is more important than protecting the church's image.

"We must never turn a blind eye.... I do not believe in taking positions that uphold a certain corporate spirit to avoid damaging the image of the institution. That solution was proposed once in the United States: they proposed switching the priests to a different parish. It is a stupid idea; that way, the priest just takes the problem with him wherever he goes."

ABORTION: Francis is against it, from the moment of conception.

"The pregnant woman doesn't carry a toothbrush in her womb, nor a tumor. Science teaches that from the moment of conception, the new being has all the genetic code. It's impressive. It's not, therefore, a religious question but clearly a moral one, based on science."

SEX EDUCATION: Francis is for it, if done holistically, with love and not just sex in mind.

"I think it should be done throughout the growth of children, adapted to each phase. ... What happens now is many of those who raise the banner of sex education understand it as separate from the person's humanity. So, instead of counting on a sexual education law for the entire person, for love, it's reduced to a law for sex."

CONTRACEPTION: Francis thinks many Catholics are too obsessed about it.

"I see in certain illustrious elite Christians a degradation of what's religious. ... they prefer to talk of sexual morality, of everything that has anything to do with sex. That in this case you can do it, that in the other you can't.... We've left aside an incredibly rich catechism, the mysteries of faith and belief, and end up centering on whether or not to march against a proposed condom law."

DIVORCE: Francis agrees that divorcees who remarry cannot take communion, but wants them attending church.

"It's a very strong value in Catholicism, marriage until separated by death. Still, today in Catholic doctrine the faithful who get divorced and remarry are reminded that they are not excommunicated. While they live in a situation on the margin of the sacrament of marriage, they are asked to integrate in the life of the parish."

HOMOSEXUALITY: The Vatican condemns gay acts, tolerates gay tendencies. Francis goes a bit farther.

Gay marriage is "an anthropological step backward. If there's a private union, then third parties and society aren't affected. But if they're granted marriage rights and can adopt, there could be children affected. Every person needs a masculine father and a feminine mother to help them settle their identity."

ORDINATION OF WOMEN: Francis is against it, but says women have a maternal role vital to society.

"If they're not part of it, a religious community doesn't only transform itself into a macho society, but also an austere one, hard and poorly respected. The fact that a woman can't be a priest doesn't mean they are lesser than the male. It's more in our conception, the Virgin Mary is above the apostles."

FEMINISM: Francis has issues with it.

"A philosophy of constant feminism doesn't give the woman the dignity she deserves. ...It runs the risk of becoming machismo in skirts."

EUTHANASIA: Francis challenges the approach of many modern health care systems.

Medicine should not "focus so much on whether someone lives three days more or two months more, but on assuring that the organism suffers as little as possible.One is not obligated to preserve life through extraordinary measures. This can go against the dignity of the person. Active euthanasia is something else that's killing."

DEATH PENALTY: Catholicism was once thought to tolerate it. Francis says it's never OK.

"Life is something so sacred that not even a terrible crime justifies the death penalty."

FUNDAMENTALISM: Francis says it warps and weakens the faithful.

"The teacher who is so arrogant as to make decisions for the disciple is not a good priest, he's a good dictator, an eraser of the religious personalities of others ... this kind of religiosity, so rigid, wraps itself in doctrines that pretend to provide justifications, but in reality they deny liberty and don't allow people to grow."

Do you regard the world you inhabit with a profound sense of resentment and contempt? Do you long to escape the bosses, relatives, and other sources of boredom that distract you from the reveries of your smartphone?If so, then perhaps Facebook Home is the product for you!This seems to be the upshot of the ads touting the social networks latest offering, itsand now making its way into the marketplace. While , Im left wondering why Facebooks advertising is so bad.

Also, Facebook is like doorbells, bridges, airplanes, dance floors, and basketball, because these are all things people use to connect and share, and remind us that we are not alone in a vast and dark universe. Obviously that didnt make a lot of sense  unless you conclude that people use Facebook as part of a futile program to ward off thoughts of some inevitable oblivion that awaits us all. The latest ads for Facebook Home strike, let us say, a lighter note. One involves a guy killing time more effectively with Home while stuck in the familiar dead zone of an airplane, pre-takeoff: Pictures and status updates spring to life around him. While some are jarringly weird, and the guy turns out to be one of those bozos who resist the flight attendants requests to power down, the spot is basically harmless.  A second installment, however, moves the over-arching idea (distraction everywhere!) to a workplace setting. The specific workplace is Facebook itself, where none other than Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg debriefs an improbably small group of employees on the wonders of Facebook Home. Immediately, the ads protagonist stops listening and begins conjuring up various digital entertainments   a goat screams at Zuck, a racquet-balling friend beckons, alternate realities involving swimming pools and all-terrain vehicles drown out the dull realities of the boss droning on about the new product.

In any case, if Facebook is going to roll out branding messages, it needs to figure out what sort of brand it means to be: Awe-inspiring  or kind of snarky and fun? Admittedly this is harder to do when the branding begins after hundreds of millions of people have already decided what your product is for, and have no real interest in being told how to use it or why. In contrast, consider how carefully Apple has treated its brand over the years. Can you imagine a commercial depicting Steve Jobs being ignored? Of course not. The company positioned his most blatantly self-promotional utterings as something we were privileged to hear. You might not take Apples hyperbole seriously, but you rarely doubt the company itself does.Facebooks marketing, so far, seems incoherent by comparison, a mere afterthought. Possibly that says something about how it regards traditional branding in general. And, actually, thats fine: Maybe a service that reaches such scale without advertising just doesnt need advertising.

*.