Julien's Auctions said on Monday that it expects a signed white training robe, worn by Ali in November and December 1981 while he prepared for his final bout against Trevor Berbick, to sell for between $25,000 and $35,000 during a two-day auction starting May 31.

Ali, 71, shot to international recognition by winning the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics at age 18. He later won the world heavyweight championship in 1964 and became a socially conscious cultural icon by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Also on offer from Ali's early career is a "Most Outstanding Boxer" trophy from the 1960 American Athletic Union's boxing championships, which is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

A signed commemorative torch from the 1960 Rome Summer Games is estimated to sell for between $25,000 and $35,000.

The loquacious boxer signed the torch's light blue cannister as Cassius Clay, his birth name and Muhammad Ali, the name he adopted in 1964 after joining the Nation of Islam.

The items are from the collection of Harlan Werner, a longtime memorabilia dealer and former agent for the Ali family.

Other Ali items up for auction are autographed boxing trunks, globes and photos of the boxer with other American sports heroes, including long-time boxing rival Joe Frazier, baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio and basketball star Magic Johnson.

Other notable items in the auction include a baseball signed by Hall of Fame players Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig ($8,000-$10,000), and a signed match-used cricket bat of Indian Sachin Tendulkar ($8,000-$10,000).

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bill Trott)

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Highly-rated technical director James Allison is leaving Lotus and will be replaced by Nick Chester, the Formula One team said on Wednesday.

The announcement before the first race of the European season in Spain this weekend will be seen as a blow for Finnish Lotus driver Kimi Raikkonen, the 2007 world champion who is second in the standings to Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel.

Allison has been with British-based Lotus, previously Renault, since 2005 after previous stints in the 1990s when they raced as Benetton.

No details were given about his likely destination, although early speculation focused heavily on Ferrari given his past employment there.

Allison worked for the Italian team for five years - during Michael Schumacher's dominant years - overseeing trackside aerodynamic operations prior to joining Renault.

"It's just a rumour," Ferrari president Luca Di Montezemolo told a corporate presentation at Maranello when asked about the speculation surrounding Allison.

Chester was previously Lotus's engineering director. He worked for now-defunct Arrows before moving to the Enstone factory in 2000.

"He is already directly involved with this and next year's cars, ensuring a smooth transition which has been underway for some time," said team principal Eric Boullier.

"The 2014 technical regulation changes present many challenges, while our current position of second place in both the constructors' and drivers' world championships mean we cannot lose sight of this year's development battle," he added.

"Nick really has his work cut out, but we know he is more than capable of handling the tasks ahead."

Formula One faces major rule changes at the end of the season, with a switch from the current 2.5 litre V8 engines to a new 1.6 litre turbocharged hybrid V6 unit.

Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff said last month that they expected to have more than half their workforce devoted to the 2014 car by some time in May.

"There is no doubt that at a point in the summer everybody will switch their main resources to the 2014 car, as this is a very complex and complicated machine," he said.

"Of course, it all depends where you are in the standings. Those who are fighting for the title will of course concentrate longer on this year's car." (Additional reporting by Jennifer Clark in Maranello, editing by Clare Fallon and Ken Ferris)

The splashy announcement of his Nike deal, and the commercial with Tiger Woods that raised hopes of a big rivalry. The missed cut in Abu Dhabi. The first-round exit from the Match Play Championship. Quitting halfway through the second round of the Honda Classic. The loss of his No. 1 ranking.

And now, McIlroy is ready to get started.

"I've always said the main golf season is from the start of April to the end of August, so that's when I want to play my best golf," McIlroy said Tuesday.

It all starts with the Masters.

McIlroy can't simply dismiss the last three months and the endless questions about the state of his game and his new equipment. He at least brings some measure of form to the first major championship of the year. Desperate to find his game, he added the Texas Open at the last minute and in turned out "almost perfectly." The 23-year-old from Northern Ireland didn't think about his swing, only his score. He challenged in the final round and wound up the runner-up.

Whether he's ready for Augusta National won't be known until Thursday. But at least he knows it's there.

"I've went through these patches before where I haven't played so well and the game feels quite far away, and then something clicks and then all of a sudden, it's back again," McIlroy said. "I probably should have learned more from it from last summer when I was going through those struggles. ... When I don't play my best, it's when I get into bad habits in my golf swing. Whenever my golf swing is where I want it to be, that's when I produce results.

"And that's what I've seen has started to happen over the past few weeks."

The problem has been the swing, not the clubs he was swinging.

Even so, McIlroy conceded the adjustment took some time. Woods took nearly five years before working all the Nike clubs into his bag. McIlroy did it all at once, and when he played poorly the first two months of the year, it only added to the scrutiny.

"The way I was hitting the ball at the start of the year, I needed a short game just to get myself around the golf course," McIlroy said. "Off the tee has been a big improvement. There was a little bit of an adjustment period getting the driver that really suited me. And once I got that, you gain confidence whenever you play rounds and you see yourself hitting good drives, hitting it in the fairway and setting yourself up with iron shots into the greens."

McIlroy has plenty at stake this year.

He already has two legs of the career Grand Slam, having set the scoring record at the U.S. Open when he won at Congressional in 2011, and then lapping the field at Kiawah Island last summer to win the PGA Championship. A win this year would put him exclusive company. Dating to 1960, Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Tom Watson, Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are the only players to win majors in three straight seasons.

Boy Wonder would love for that to happen at the Masters, and he's provided enough evidence that it could happen. McIlroy smiled when he was introduced for his news conference, and the moderator mentioned his best finish was a tie for 15th. That was in 2011, the year he took a four-shot lead into the final round, and still was leading by one shot going to the back nine until his game imploded. He closed with an 80.

A year ago, he was one off the lead going into the weekend, and this time self-destructed on the front nine. He closed with 77-76 and tied for 40th.

But there is no denying the affection McIlroy has for the Masters, which he calls his favorite major. He remembers playing Augusta for the first, so inspired by the purity of the place that he was afraid to take a divot.

Just a month ago, he was happy to make the cut and make progress. Now his goals are back where they should be.

"Would anything less than a win be a disappointment this week? Yeah, it would be," he said. "Every time you come here to Augusta, you're wanting to win that green jacket, and every time that you don't, it's another chance missed. But if I'm sitting here on Sunday night and I've finished second or if I've give it a good run, you can't be too disappointed because you've had a great tournament. But the ultimate goal is getting one of those jackets."

Among those who could be in his way is Woods, the prohibitive favorite with wins at Torrey Pines, Doral and Bay Hill in the last few months.

There was hope of a rivalry between generations, only that hasn't materialized. They only thing they have in common this year is that both have a swoosh on their shirts, both started the year by missing the cut and both have celebrity girlfriends tennis star Caroline Wozniacki for McIlroy, Olympic ski champion Lindsey Vonn for Woods.

Woods has had plenty of rivals over the years, and sees McIlroy as the next one.

"Over the course of my career, I've had a few. Certainly, Rory is this generation," Woods said. "I've had Phil (Mickelson) and Vijay (Singh) and Ernie (Els) and David (Duval) for a number of years, and now Rory's the leader of this new, younger generation. So, yes, definitely."

McIlroy isn't so sure.

Never mind that he became the first player to win consecutive PGA Tour events with Woods in the field, or that he built a big gap in the world ranking by the end of last year. Padraig Harrington once said it could be McIlroy not Woods who has the best chance of breaking Jack Nicklaus' record of 18 professional majors.

Not so fast, McIlroy replied.

"When you speak of rivals, you tend to put rivals who have had similar success," McIlroy said. "He's got 77 PGA Tour wins. I've got six. He's got 14 majors. I've got two. If I saw myself a rival to Tiger, I wouldn't really be doing him much justice."

But that's still a big improvement over its previous showing at the worlds in La Molina, Spain, two years ago when the team returned home with a just one podium finish.

Robert Joncas, Canada's high performance director, says he's satisfied with the results.

Joncas says the team will be aiming for five medals again next year at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

On the men's side, Spencer O'Brien and Mark McMorris won gold and silver, respectively, in the slopestyle event during the first weekend of competition.

For the women, Maelle Ricker won gold and Dominique Maltais took silver in the snowboard cross competition on Saturday.

Ricker, a 34-year-old from Squamish, B.C., is the only Canadian snowboarder guaranteed a spot in Sochi.

Joncas says there's room for improvement as the group gears up for the Olympics, but the building blocks are there.

"We're still very satisfied," he said.

On Sunday, the eight Canadians in the running in the parallel slalom finished off the podium.

In the women's competition, Russia's Ekaterina Zavialova won gold, beating out Patrizia Kummer of Switzerland in the final at the Stoneham Mountain Resort. Germany's Amelie Kober grabbed bronze.

In the men's, the Slovenian Rok Marguc won gold, Justin Reiter of the United States took silver and Roland Fischnaller of Italy got the bronze.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took his second-term "schmooze offensive" to the golf course on Monday, bonding in a bipartisan foursome as Republican Senator Saxby Chambliss hit a hole-in-one.

Obama, an avid golfer with a respectable 17 handicap, rarely takes politics to the greens, preferring instead to golf with friends and staffers far out of the sight of the reporters who travel with him.

But he invited Chambliss and two other senators to play the south course at the Andrews military base in suburban Washington, part of his effort to advance his second-term agenda by having better relationships with Congress. .

Chambliss hit a five iron 156 yards for a surprise hole in one on the 11th hole. The feat was the talk of Washington, but the Georgia Republican was modest about the shot.

"It was pretty special. The ball actually flew the route I wanted it to go," Chambliss told reporters back at the Senate, after the game was cut short after 15 holes due to a vote.

"I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have a hole in one. Anyone who says having a hole-in-one is skill, they're living in another world," he said.

Obama paired up with Democrat Mark Udall of Colorado, the top-ranked golfer in Congress as measured by Golf Digest in 2011. The magazine estimated Udall's handicap at 2.

But the hole-in-one helped deliver the match to Chambliss and Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who has a 2.1 handicap.

"The president got it out of the hole and handed it to me, and then they brought the flag out later. He signed the flag, and everybody signed the flag, and it was pretty neat," said Chambliss, who has golfed for 40 years, and has a 7.4 handicap.

Obama has waged bitter fights with Congress over how best to tame the deficit and on proposed new gun control laws after December's school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut.

But the president has also been criticized for failing to work more closely with the Senate and House of Representatives. He has responded in recent months by hosting dinners and lunches with small groups of lawmakers from both parties to try to find common ground on issues.

Chambliss said the foursome did not discuss immigration reform, a top priority for Obama, which begins to wind its way through Congress this week.

Chambliss said the foursome talked "a little bit" about the crisis in Syria, cybersecurity and fiscal issues.

"Actually, I told him since I'd made a hole-in-one, he ought to give us everything we want on entitlement reform," Chambliss quipped.

But it was not a day for detailed policy debates.

"This was a day to get away from the office and the president seemed like he enjoyed himself and I know the three of us did, and it was just like playing with my usual Saturday morning foursome," Chambliss said.

"There was a lot of jawing back-and-forth on short putts," said Chambliss, who plans to frame the ball and flag. "It was just a fun day."

Obama golfed 113 times in his first term, according to Mark Knoller of CBS News, who keeps statistics on the president.

He played with House Republican Speaker John Boehner (handicap: 7.9) in June 2011 and has played twice with Democratic Representative Jim Clyburn (11.3) from South Carolina, in August 2009 and again a year later, Knoller said.

So far in his second term, he has golfed about a dozen times, including his first-ever round with Tiger Woods, the world's top-ranked golfer.

Golf handicaps are a measure of ability and a lower handicap signifies a better player.

(Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Patricia Zengerle; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

That slut-shaming intersects with and mars efforts to preventmight surprise you. Slut-shaming, the sex-negative way of describing someones sexual activities, combines social repercussions, fear, andas its name suggestsshame in an attempt to control the actions of those who are sexually active. The impact is, generally speaking, an increase in STD transmission rates. Young adults who are slut-shamed become embarrassed about their sexual interests, stop communicating what they want and need, and lose the confidence to plan, negotiate, and navigate safer-sex practices. 

RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) - The Catholic Church has excommunicated a Brazilian priest after he defended homosexuality, open marriage and other practices counter to Church teaching in online videos.

In a statement released late on Monday, the priest's diocese said Father Roberto Francisco Daniel, known to local parishioners as Padre Beto, had "in the name of 'freedom of expression' betrayed the promise of fealty to the Church."

The priest "injured the Church with grave statements counter to the dogma of Catholic faith and morality." The actions amount to "heresy and schism," the statement said, the penalty for which is excommunication, or expulsion from the Church.

The rare punishment follows what Daniel's bishop and the priest himself said were repeated rebukes about the videos and other public activities, such as a radio broadcast and local newspaper column, in which he challenged Church doctrine.

The 47-year-old cleric, who studied theology in Germany, is popular in the southeastern city of Bauru, where he has been a priest since 2001. He is known for his rock T-shirts, a silver stud pierced through his right ear and his habit of posing, as on his official Facebook page, with a glass of beer.

On Facebook and Twitter, Daniel posted a brief statement about the excommunication: "I feel honored to belong to the long list of people who have been murdered and burned alive for thinking and searching for knowledge."

SPREAD OF MODERATE VIEWS

Daniel's excommunication, which prompted headlines across Brazil and protests in social media, illustrates the rising influence of more moderate social views in Brazil, Latin America's biggest country, and much of the rest of the region.

Progressive stances on sexuality, birth control, scientific research and other delicate topics for the Church are increasingly common in Latin America, home to 42 percent of the world's Catholics, more than any other region worldwide.

The shifting views are among the many challenges faced by Pope Francis, an Argentine who ascended in March to become the first Latin American pope in history.

The excommunication comes just two months before Francis is scheduled to attend World Youth Day, expected to attract as many as 2 million young Catholics to Rio de Janeiro.

Though Francis is known to be a traditionalist on social issues and Church doctrine, his appointment raised hopes that the first non-European pope in 13 centuries would do more than his predecessors to modernize Catholicism.

But Daniel's beliefs clearly went too far for church leaders.

In one of the recent videos he posted on YouTube.com and his own Website, the priest said a married person who chose to have an affair, heterosexual or otherwise, would not be unfaithful as long as that person's spouse allowed it. "If someone is in an extramarital relationship and that relationship is accepted by the spouse, then faithfulness still exists there," he said.

A "REBEL SON"

In a telephone interview, Daniel said his statements "are personal reflections that should be considered and discussed in the dialogue of the church." The excommunication, he said, is "the sad act of a lukewarm and disengaged church that is out of touch with today's society."

The diocese retained a church expert in canonical law to oversee the excommunication process. The diocese also initiated a separate process at the Vatican through which Daniel will be stripped of clerical authority.

Last Tuesday, Bishop Caetano Ferrari gave Daniel a letter asking him to take the videos offline and publicly retract his statements. In an interview posted on the diocese Web site shortly afterward, Ferrari called Daniel "brilliant," but characterized him as a "rebel son" who "crosses the line."

On Monday, Daniel said he went to the diocese headquarters planning to renounce his clerical duties rather than retract any of his comments. But before he had a chance, the bishop and canonical expert made him face a committee of Church officials.

"It was a trial," Daniel said. "I told them I was not there to be tried, that I had not been indicted."

Shortly afterward, the Church issued the statement announcing his excommunication.

(Editing by Todd Benson and Cynthia Osterman)

"We want to go back and we want to review every step that was taken," Obama told a White House news conference. "We want to leave no stone unturned. We want to see, is there in fact additional protocols and procedures that could be put in place that would further improve and enhance our ability to detect a potential attack."

The 90-day review is also a political pre-emptive strike as Republican lawmakers question whether the administration's law enforcement and intelligence agencies failed to share crucial counterterrorism information the same error blamed for missing the clues before the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Some Republican lawmakers have already suggested forming a select committee to investigate the Boston bombings, just as they are calling for a similar committee to delve further into the militant attacks that killed four Americans last year in Benghazi, Libya.

Shawn Turner, a spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, said the review covers only the period before the Boston attack because the investigation of the bombings is still underway. Initiated earlier this week, it's being led by I. Charles McCullough III, the independent intelligence community inspector general. He is authorized to reach into any U.S. intelligence agency.

The effort includes inspectors general from the CIA, the Justice Department and the Homeland Security Department.

In a letter dated Tuesday and signed by the four inspectors, the officials said they had initiated and coordinated an independent review into the government's handling of intelligence leading up to the bombings. They said in the letter, which was released to The Associated Press, that they would carry out the review in a way to make sure they do not interfere with any ongoing intelligence activities, criminal investigations and prosecutions related to the attacks.

Homeland Security Deputy Inspector General Charles K. Edwards said in a statement Tuesday that "it is vital that we determine all the facts ... and thereby provide the entire law enforcement community with lessons learned and valuable insights."

Questions will center on whether the FBI, CIA and Homeland Security Department shared enough with each other about Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings who died in an escape attempt. The Russian government had tipped off the FBI and the CIA about his possible links to militancy. His brother, Dzokhar, also a suspect, is in custody.

The intelligence community review does not preclude any other reviews by Congress.

Bradley Schreiber, a Homeland Security senior adviser during the Bush administration and a veteran of such processes, said the 90-day review the intelligence inspector general has started may not provide enough answers.

"The only way you are going to get a thorough review ... is to have an independent panel review the circumstances," Schreiber said. "You need a third party, presidential commission that has clear lines of authority to cross jurisdictional boundaries."

Turner said that Clapper believes the review will show his agencies shared information about the suspect appropriately, a sentiment echoed by Obama.

"Based on what I've seen so far, the FBI performed its duties, the Department of Homeland Security did what it was supposed to be doing," Obama said, describing how the FBI interviewed the elder Tsarnaev.

Obama called it "hard stuff" to stop terror attacks, especially ones by what he described as "self-radicalized individuals" who choose to kill and maim "because of whatever warped, twisted ideas they may have."

Tamerlan Tsarnaev first came to the attention of U.S. officials in early 2011, when Russia told the FBI that Tamerlan and his mother were religious extremists. The FBI investigated them, and the Tsarnaevs' names were added to a Homeland Security Department database used to help screen people entering and leaving the U.S. But the FBI found nothing linking them to religious extremists or terrorists, and asked the Russians twice for more information to help with the investigation. The FBI never heard back and closed its investigation in June 2011.

In the fall of that year, the Russians reached out to the CIA with the same concerns. The CIA shared this with the FBI, and also asked that the names of Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, be entered into a massive government database of people with suspected terrorist ties. The FBI again reached out to Russia for more information, and never heard back.

When Tamerlan Tsarnaev traveled to and from Russia in 2012, his travel did not raise alarms because the FBI had closed its investigation into Tsarnaev a year earlier.

Members of Congress may not be satisfied with any Obama administration review.

"We should review what happened, be unafraid to follow the evidence, even if politically inconvenient, and make changes accordingly," Rep. Mac Thornberry, R-Texas, a member of the House intelligence committee, said in an email to The Associated Press. "The terrorists adapt, so must we."

A Democrat on the House committee, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., also a member of the House intelligence committee, said: "Just because the FBI didn't find derogatory information about the suspects doesn't mean it wasn't there to be found. But nor should we leap to a conclusion of malfeasance. Instead, this review may produce one important component of the 'lessons learned' from the attacks."

___

Associated Press writers Eileen Sullivan and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington contributed to this report.

Follow Dozier on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kimberlydozier and on http://bigstory.ap.org/tags/kimberly-dozier

Having bossed the amateur circuit, where he also claimed three world championships, Zou will enter the paid ranks on April 6 when he faces Mexican Eleazar Valenzuela in a four-round bout in Macau.

Zou has prepared for the contest in the United States and on Wednesday was put through his paces at Roach's famed Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California and sparred with WBA and WBO flyweight champion Brian Viloria.

Zou's amateur success was built on lightning quick hand speed, body swerving elusiveness and his ability to throw punches from all angles but that style could come unstuck against heavy-punching professionals.

American trainer Roach, who has worked with some of the sport's greats including multiple world champions Bernard Hopkins and Manny Pacquiao, believes the 31-year-old Zou has room for improvement.

"For him to come into this venue like this, with Brian Viloria being his number one sparring partner and flyweight champion of the world and probably someone who he may be after some day, it's great for him and he has learned a lot," Roach told Reuters TV.

"He has a lot of potential but he still makes a lot of amateur mistakes. He has a lot of bad habits, but we are getting rid of them slowly. He's becoming a very good fighter," the American added.

Zou agreed he had a lot of adapting to do, but was looking forward to headlining the card which also features Viloria defending his titles against Mexican Juan Francisco Estrada.

"I'm pretty good and I think I am ready for the first fight," Zou said.

"From the start I'm learning what to do inside the professional boxing ring. But, now I am getting comfortable with the rules here and I feel ready."

Demonstrating ferocious accuracy and a mean left hook as he pounded the gloves of Roach during the session, Zou said he was also concerned about improving his fitness.

"As an amateur we do all of our boxing in three rounds. As a professional, you have 12 rounds to show what you can do. This is a big challenge for my physical condition. I am working on this," the Chinese said.

"The same thing for amateur boxing and professional boxing is skills and I think that I have it." (Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

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Over at National Review online is a larger version of the ad.

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"Enough politics," the NRA demands, then insisting Congress pass some laws somehow. And next to that ad, an article titled, "Every proposal on gun control fails in the Senate," something for which the NRA pushed very hard by . (Though, we'll admit, a filibuster is an excellent way of ensuring that politics are curtailed.)

Back at the Post:

That story,is about , accusing the NRA and its allies of having "willfully lied about the bill." Above that: "Get Serious, Congress," signed, the NRA.

Yesterday, Slate'swhich also ran at the Post. That ad read, "80 percent of police say background checks will have no effect on violent crime," encouraging readers to contact their senators, asking they support the police and support yesterday's background check filibuster. The Senate, being then unserious and not having had enough politics, complied.

As Saletan notes, the "80 percent" stat was itself a bit of a fudge, if not a lie.— conducted by , a sort of social site for cops — is just that, a survey. People choose whether or not to participate; on the site's main page right now is an enticement to "Take our Cybercrimes Survey and Win!" (Don't bother. You only "win" a "recently-written Thomson Reuters white paper on Predictive Policing.")

It then — relying on the honor system to ensure those responding were actually public safety officers — asks a series of questions. Like:

There is not, however, a question about the effect of more background checks on violent crime. Saletan thinks that maybe the NRA used that last question above, but there's a very big difference between "prohibiting private, non-dealer transfers" and "having background checks at gun shows."

There is a question that reads, "Would requiring mental health background checks on prospective buyers in all gun sales from federally-licensed dealers reduce instances of mass shooting incidents?" A plurality of the police and police impersonators taking the survey said no to that one, too, which is too bad since .

As referred to in this ad:

An ungenerous interpreter would suggest the evidence at hand indicates that the NRA is participating in politics, and perhaps not terribly seriously.