ARDMORE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - Justin Rose produced remarkable poise and a Ben Hogan-like finish to win his first major title by two shots at the U.S. Open on Sunday after overhauling 54-hole leader Phil Mickelson in the final round.

Rose closed with a level-par 70 in difficult scoring conditions at Merion Golf Club, posting a one-over total of 281 to become the first Englishman to win the year's second major since Tony Jacklin at Hazeltine in 1970.

American Mickelson, serenaded with 'Happy Birthday' chants from the fans on every hole after turning 43 on Sunday, bogeyed three of the last six holes for a 74 to tie for second with Australian Jason Day (71).

It was an especially emotional win for Rose, coming on Father's Day, and he pointed a finger skywards after two-putting for par on the 18th green to acknowledge the memory of his own father Ken, who died from leukemia in 2002.

"It wasn't lost on me that today was Father's Day," Rose said during the trophy presentation after mixing five birdies with five bogeys in the final round to win a fifth title on the U.S. PGA Tour.

"For it to all just work out for me, on such an emotional day, I just couldn't help but look up to the heavens and think that my old dad Ken had something to do with it."

Left-hander Mickelson, a huge fan favorite who has long coveted a first victory in his national open, had to settle for more heartache and a record sixth runner-up spot at the U.S. Open after carding a 74.

"For me, it's very heart-breaking," said Mickelson, who had previously finished second at the event in 1999, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2009.

"This could have been a really big turnaround for me on how I look at the U.S. Open and the tournament that I'd like to win, after having so many good opportunities.

"This week was my best opportunity, I felt, heading in, certainly the final round, the way I was playing and the position I was in."

Mickelson, a four-times major champion, had to hole out for birdie from a swale below the green at the par-four last to force a playoff but his shot ran through the back of the green from where he two-putted for bogey.

He dropped back into a share of second place with Day at three over, two ahead of Americans Hunter Mahan (75), Jason Dufner (67) and Billy Horschel (74), and twice former champion Ernie Els of South Africa (69), who were tied for fourth.

Tiger Woods, pre-tournament favorite after winning four times in just eight starts on the 2013 PGA Tour, carded a 74 for a 13-over total of 293, tying for 32nd in his worst finish after four rounds at a U.S. Open as a professional.

Helped by consecutive birdies at the 12th and 13th, Rose edged one ahead on a tightly bunched leaderboard and, though he bogeyed 14 and 16, he was handed the lead for good when Mickelson and Mahan both stumbled at the tricky par-four 15th.

BRUTAL CHALLENGE

Rose safely parred the short 17th before having to face the brutal challenge of the 511-yard, uphill last, the most difficult hole on the course during the week.

He struck a superb tee shot down the middle, his ball finishing close to the famous plaque marking where Hogan hit a one-iron approach to within 40 feet on the way to victory in the 1950 U.S. Open.

"When I walked over the hill and saw my drive sitting perfectly in the middle of the fairway, with the sun coming out, it was kind of almost fitting," said Rose.

"And I just felt like at that point it was a good iron shot on to the green, two putts, like Hogan did, and possibly win this championship. I felt like I did myself justice."

Rose hit his four-iron approach right at the flag for his ball to roll through to the back of the green before nestling on the fringe. From there, he used a three-wood to putt and very nearly sank the birdie attempt, his ball curling left-to-right before halting inches short of the cup.

"I feel like I established a game plan that really held true for me," said Rose, who will rise to third in the world rankings on Monday.

"The way I prepared this week and the way I everything played out, it just seems like it's just been a perfect week start to finish."

After a muggy, overcast and breezy morning, the wind began to pick up, causing all sorts of problems for players already battling to cope with slick, sloping greens, narrow tilting fairways and heavy rough.

South African Charl Schwartzel, Mickelson, Mahan, Rose and Day all enjoyed moments at the top of the leaderboard but it was Mickelson who provided the shot of the day when he stunningly holed out from the right rough to eagle the par-four 10th.

Mickelson watched from 75 yards out as his ball bounced short of the pin before rolling up into the cup, then jumped up and down with both arms raised skywards.

That briefly put him a stroke clear but Rose responded with birdies at 12, where he struck a superb approach to two feet, and at 13, where he drained an 18-footer. Mickelson's title bid effectively ended with bogeys on 13 and 15.

Northern Irish world number two Rory McIlroy, the U.S. Open champion at Congressional in 2011, finished at 14 over after signing off with a 76.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)

DeFeet says on its Twitter account that ''we have concluded our sponsorship of the Vini Fantini professional cycling team.''

Chief executive Shane Cooper wrote that ''DeFeet will not support teams that do not provide a clear clean path 4 this new generation. I challenge other CEOs to stand up.''

The firm, based in Hildebran, N.C, announced its decision after the International Cycling Union said Monday that Giro stage winner Mauro Santambrogio tested positive for EPO on May 3, the opening day of the three-week race.

Vini Fantini said it has fired Santambrogio and teammate Danilo Di Luca, whose positive test was announced during the Giro.

Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan said forces freed 35 people trapped inside the building, killed four of the attackers and arrested another.

He says four security forces and one top government officials died during Saturday's violence, which began when attackers set off a bomb in a corridor in the hospital's emergency room and then took over areas of the hospital.

The interior minister did not have any information on the identity of the attackers, and there has been no claim of responsibility.

BELFAST (Reuters) - More than 1,000 trade unionists, environmentalists and anti-poverty campaigners confronted heavy security in Belfast on Saturday to voice their anger at G8 leaders who meet in Northern Ireland next week.

Stilt-walkers, drummers and protesters in Halloween masks chanted slogans against everything from U.S. foreign policy to local government cutbacks as they snaked their way through the city, flanked by hundreds of armed police.

The rally in Belfast was small and peaceful but revealed the concern of British authorities to protect the world's most powerful leaders.

"Corporations are running the world, not the people," said Tom Wright, 55, a Belfast protester carrying a metre-tall model of an oil derrick painted with the slogan "No Fracking Way!" The G8, he said, represented "pure and total evil".

The summit, which will include the first private, face-to-face meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin for a year, will take place at a secluded hotel near Enniskillen.

Top of the agenda will be Syria, with Obama facing tough talks with Putin, the government's most powerful ally. Leaders will also consider coordinated global action on tax avoidance and evasion.

The Saturday marchers came overwhelmingly from Ireland, north or south. Organisers said many protesters from abroad had been put off by the location of the summit and the reputation of Northern Irish police as among the most militarised in Europe.

"There used to be a large number of anti-capitalists who travelled to these protests, but there isn't the appetite now," said John Molyneux, 64, a veteran of G8 protests from Dublin.

"Now people are more focused on the struggles in their own countries: Greece, Spain, Turkey," he said.

The next major protest is planned for Monday, the first day of G8 meetings, when activists plan to march to the boundary fence of the security zone outside the hotel near Enniskillen , 80 miles (130 km) west of Belfast.

The meeting will bring together the leaders of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States, as well as senior European Union officials.

At least 100 armoured jeeps were parked in side streets along the protest route and officers took photographs and videos of the protesters. Police formed a human chain outside a city centre McDonalds, whose restaurants have been attacked at previous G8 meetings.

Some 3,600 police have been sent from the British mainland to reinforce 4,400 from Northern Ireland protecting the event.

Northern Ireland police regularly deal with sectarian rioting involving Catholic youths, who want Northern Ireland to unite with the Republic of Ireland to the south, and Protestants who want to remain part of the United Kingdom.

This year, dozens of police were injured during weeks of rioting after a decision to cut the number of days the British flag flies over Belfast city hall, with officers firing plastic bullets and water cannons.

Around 50 people draped in Union flags on Saturday held their weekly protest outside city hall calling for the flag to be flown all year round.

As well as anti-globalists, police are protecting the venue against the threat of an attack by militants who do not accept the Irish Republican Army's 1998 peace agreement with Britain, which ended three decades of violence.

(Editing by Andrew Roche)

"I think you could ask players on other teams and they'll tell you that he's not the type of guy that they like to play against," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews told reporters. "But that's what we love about him.

"We love having a guy like that on our team. He's not afraid... he drew a penalty, scored a huge goal, unbelievable goal, for anybody to score just going to the net.

"Doesn't matter how it goes in.

"Big game by this guy. I don't know if he had like nine, ten hits, whatever it was, but he kept going all night and didn't stop."

Chicago's fifth round pick in the 2011 draft, Shaw has developed more of a reputation as a fearless agitator than a scorer in his first full season in the league.

He had just nine goals in 48 games this season but already has five tallies in the playoffs, mainly as the result of dirty work in front of the opposition net.

While Game One in the best-of-seven series may go down as a Stanley Cup classic, Shaw's winner will not be remembered as fondly after it found the back of the net via a double-deflection.

Michal Rozsival took control at the blueline moved towards the center of the ice and fired a shot into a crowd in front of Tuukka Rask, the puck richocetting first off Dave Bolland then glancing off Shaw past the Boston netminder.

"I take it as a compliment," Shaw said when asked if his style could best be described as irritating. "It's how my game has developed through my career.

"It's what's got me here. I got to stick to it, just compete and work to the best of my abilities."

After the game, Boston Bruins coach Claude Julien was asked if his team planned for the abrasive Shaw given his recent nose for the net.

"I don't think we do our game planning around Mr Shaw," Julien said. "Our game plan is against the Chicago Blackhawks.

"We know he's an agitator. We know he's good at embellishing, too, at times.

"We know all that stuff. We've done our research." (Writing by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by John O'Brien)

Leffler died after the crash during the first heat at southern New Jersey's Bridgeport Speedway, a dirt track about 15 miles southwest of Philadelphia.

A spectator, Chris Taitt, said he was at the race but looking the other way when the crash occurred. He says Leffler had been in second place, apart from other cars when his car slammed into a wall at the track's fourth turn.

Taitt, 40, of West Deptford, said the wing on the car was "flattened like a pancake," and the seat appeared to be displaced.

Leffler, 37, a native of Long Beach, Calif., has won twice on NASCAR's Nationwide Series and finished in both the Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500, two of car racing's signature events.

But apart from a last-place finish in Sunday's NASCAR race at Pocono, he had spent most of 2013 racing on dirt tracks.

The 410 Sprint Car race Wednesday promised $7,000 to the winner.

While it's in the minor leagues of car racing, it was the highest profile event so far this year, with better-known drivers, more expensive tickets and a bigger prize than the usual Friday and Saturday night events at the raceway.

Sprint car races can be more dangerous for drivers and spectators because the safety measures taken by series aren't at the same level. Many facilities lack the SAFER barriers that are standard in NASCAR and IndyCar, and the cars aren't always adequately protected.

Three drivers were killed last month in crashes on dirt tracks. Driver Josh Burton died of injuries sustained in a crash at Bloomington Speedway in Indiana; and two drivers were killed in a race in Nevada.

In March in California, two people were killed when a car careened off a dirt track and crashed on pit road.

While investigators tried to piece together what happened, the car-racing world was remembering Leffler, recalling him as a loving father to his 5-year-old son, Charlie Dean; an open person and a versatile driver.

"Jason Leffler was a great racer and an even better friend," said Tony Stewart, a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion who was once a teammate of Leffler's at Joe Gibbs Racing. "To not have him around to talk about whatever race one of us had just run, or were going to run, will be hard. My thoughts and prayers go out to his family, especially his son, Charlie, who Jason loved more than anything."

Leffler's representative, Spire Sports, said funeral arrangements are being made.

"Despite his many accomplishments, Jason still followed in the same footsteps of his heroes that would race anything, anytime. All Jason wanted to do was race. He was the life of every party and a true racer," Spire said in a statement. "We will miss Jason dearly and know that his family appreciates all the thoughts and prayers."

Panther Racing Owner John Barnes, for whom Leffler raced in 2004 and 2005, said Leffler had a "fierce competitive spirit and a devilish attitude. Jason was a small man with a huge right foot."

Thethat bears its name is on schedule to open to the public on June 29 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

"Everything is go," said Tim Macy, the director of project development and construction for Delaware North Parks & Resorts, which operates the complex for NASA. "We are looking forward to having a big turnout that Saturday."

Macy, together with Bill Moore, the visitor complex's chief operating officer, updated reporters about Atlantis' status on Thursday (June 6), the day before welcoming the press inside the 90,000 square foot (8,360 square meter) "" exhibition to get a first look at the historic spacecraft in its final display condition. []

"I cannot tell you the level of excitement and nervousness and all the energy that goes into this just as we get down to close under three weeks to Atlantis' [exhibit] opening," Moore said. "This is really the largest thing we've done."

"We think that visitation will definitely [see] a double digit increase," Moore added.

A very different type of attraction

Atlantis, which in July 2011 flew NASA's final flight of the shuttle program, now has a new mission as an educational museum display. Like its sister orbiters, it will be used to educate the public about the 30-year history of the shuttle fleet and, as NASA hopes, help inspire a new generation of space explorers.

Unlike the other shuttles Discovery at the Smithsonian in Virginia and Endeavour at the California Science Center in Los Angeles, as well as the prototype orbiter Enterprise at the Intrepid Sea, Air and Space Museum in New York City Atlantis is being displayed in "flight."

"Atlantis is a very different type of attraction," said Moore. "There are only three space-flown shuttles in the world. This will be the only one in the world that will be off the ground and in flight presentation."

After it arrived at the visitor complex in November 2012, Atlantis was mounted 30 feet (9 meters) into the air and then angled 43.21 degrees to one side. It then spent about five months shrink wrapped in 16,000 square feet (1,486 square meters) of white plastic to shield it from dust and dirt as its exhibition building was completed around it.

In April,so that its , a process that required careful execution as its two 60-foot long (18-meter) doors were designed to operate only in the microgravity environment of space. On Earth, they required metal support braces and guy wires.

"It [went] as smooth as buttah," Macy exclaimed. "It was fantastic. We were very cautious but our plan worked as it was supposed to work. Everybody was a little nervous but it worked."

"We have , extended the K-Band antenna and installed the Canadarm [robotic arm], so she's pretty much in show position," he added.

Quite a project

With Atlantis ready, Macy and his team are now focusing on completing the rest of the exhibition, including installing the 60 related exhibits that will tell the story of the orbiter, the International Space Station (ISS) and how astronauts worked outside the shuttle during spacewalks.

Interactive simulators and displays are being moved into place. A full-sizenow spans the building's two floors and Atlantis' wall-length digital screen backdrop has been loaded with a high-definition movie that will help give the shuttle the appearance of being back in space.

Outside the five-story facility, workers are assembling the towering gateway that will welcome visitors to Atlantis.

"We're finishing up the [external tank] ET and [solid rocket boosters] SRBs stack out front," Macy said.

Standing 184 feet (56 meters) tall, the full size replicas of Atlantis' launch components are partially in place. As of Friday (June 7), the bases for the two twin boosters still needed to be installed and the framework for the fuel tank was still being covered with orange panels.

"From the start of the construction in January 2012 to right now, it has been quite a project," Macy said. "It has been one of the largest projects we have taken on here at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex."

"We are in really good shape in terms of how close we are to our opening on the 29th of June," he said. "Construction is on time and on budget, and we feel really good about it."

for a gallery of photos showing space shuttle Atlantis in its final display position. Seefor continuing coverage of the delivery and display of NASA's retired space shuttles.

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Castro has been in power since a life-threatening intestinal disease forced his brother Fidel to step aside in 2006. Since then he has embarked on a program of social and economic reforms, while vowing that Cuba will remain socialist.

"Raul has done much of what I hoped he would," said Roberto Roman, a 54-year-old resident of the capital. "I agree with what he said about this being his last term. ... Raul should finish what he started."

Earlier this year Castro announced that his current presidential term, which ends in 2018, will be his last, for the first time since the 1959 revolution naming a date beyond which Cuba will not be led by him or his brother.

In a sign of the inevitable generational leadership change, Castro named as his new vice president and heir-apparent Miguel Diaz-Canel, who at 53 is relatively young compared to the octogenarians who occupy many top positions.

Castro's reforms have been gradually taking effect especially since 2010, including the legalization of many non-government jobs and private businesses, the private cultivation of fallow state land, the relaxation of limitations on overseas travel, and the legitimization of used car and real estate markets.

His critics, however, say change has been slow to come and lament the lack of political reform like multiparty elections.

Castro's birthday was not mentioned in state-run newspapers and no public celebrations were announced, but some people wished him well on social media and on the streets of Havana.

"I wish him success in his work," said Frank Gonzalez, 45.

Raul Castro was born June 3, 1931, in the eastern town of Biran.

The fourth seed Bruins closed out the series 4-1 against the sixth seeded Rangers to set up the showdown with the top-seeded Penguins for a place in the Stanley Cup Finals.

It is their first trip back to the Eastern Finals since the 2010-11 season where they went on to win the Stanley Cup.

Boston fell behind after Dan Girardi scored a power-play goal in the opening period but 22-year-old Torey Krug continued his strong post-season with a power-play goal of his own after three minutes of the second period.

It was Krug's fourth goal in his first five play-off games and sparked the Bruins into action.

Gregory Campbell snapped the tie with a goal 10 minutes later and he added a second goal in the dying seconds of the game when he managed to backhand the puck into an empty net despite being hooked right before the attempt.

"It was a tough series. They played hard and they are really similar to us," Campbell said.

"It was a physical series and most games could have gone either way but we fought hard."

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask saved 28 of 29 shots. (Reporting by Ben Everill in Del Mar; Editing by Greg Stutchbury)