That left Spurs needing other teams to drop points in the race for England's final two Champions League spots.

Oscar put Chelsea ahead in the 11th minute, but Emmanuel Adebayor tied the score in the 26th with a 22-yard shot following a run from inside his own half.

Ramires' 39th-minute goal looked to have earned Chelsea three points that would virtually have secured the team a place in Europe's top competition for an 11th straight season. But Sigurdsson placed a curling shot into the corner in the 80th.

Chelsea (20-7-9) is third with 69 points with two games left, two points ahead of Arsenal (19-7-10). Tottenham (19-8-9) is one point behind the fourth-place Gunners in the race for the last Champions League berth.

"Obviously with a point we don't depend on ourselves any more, someone else will have to drop points," said Tottenham manager Andre Villas-Boas, making his first return to the club that fired him 14 months ago.

Chelsea closes at Aston Villa and home against Everton, while Arsenal hosts Wigan and finishes at Newcastle. Tottenham is at Stoke and home against Sunderland.

"We had the chance today," Chelsea manager Rafa Benitez said. "Twice we had the advantage and we could have killed the game."

American midfielder Clint Dempsey entered in the 70th minute for Spurs.

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MADRID (AP) Real Madrid delayed Barcelona's title celebration, beating Malaga 6-2 to prevent its rival from clinching its 22nd Spanish league title and fourth in five years.

Raul Albiol scored on a header from Luka Modric's corner kick in the third minute, but Roque Santa Cruz tied the score in the 15th. Cristiano Ronaldo put Madrid ahead for good in the 26th, five minutes after his penalty kick was saved by goalkeeper Wilfredo Caballero. Sergio Sanchez received a red card for fouling Ronaldo, leading to the penalty kick.

Ronaldo's goal was his 200th for Real Madrid and 54th this season.

Mesut Ozil made it 3-1 in the 33rd. Antunes cut the gap three minutes later, but Madrid pulled away on goals by Karim Benzema in first-half injury time, Modric in the 63rd and Angel Di Maria insecond-half injury time.

American defender Oguchi Onyewu came on in the 76th minute for Malaga, his first league appearance since Nov. 10 and first in any competition since the Copa del Rey on Jan. 8.

Barcelona (28-2-4) has an eight-point lead over Real Madrid (25-5-5) with four games left and would clinch with a win Sunday at third-place Atletico Madrid (22-7-6), which won 3-1 at Celta Vigo.

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MILAN (AP) Mario Balotelli scored twice to help AC Milan beat already-relegated Pescara 4-0 in the Serie A as it closed in on its 10th Champions League berth in 11 years.

Balotelli put Milan ahead in the ninth minute and converted a penalty kick in the 57th, his 11th goal since joining Milan in January. Sulley Muntari scored in the 33rd and Mathieu Flamini in the 51st.

Milan (20-8-8) is third which gains a berth in the Champions League playoff round with two games left. Fourth-place Fiorentina (19-10-7) remained four points back, winning 1-0 at Siena on Gonzalo Rodriguez's 14th-minute goal.

Napoli (22-5-9) clinched second and a berth in the Champions League group stage, winning 3-0 at Bologna on goals by Marek Hamsik and Blerim Dzemaili around Edinson Cavani's penalty kick.

Juventus (27-4-5), which clinched the title last weekend, won 1-0 at Atalanta on Alessandro Matri's goal in the 18th minute.

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PARIS (AP) Relegation-threatened Evian routed Lorient 4-0 to reach the French Cup final against Troyes or Bordeaux on May 31 at Stade de France.

Evian, one point above the relegation zone with three games left in the French first division, got goals from Milos Ninkovic, Yannick Sagbo, Kevin Berigaud and Najib Baouia.

Troyes and Bordeaux play Tuesday, a week after their semifinal was postponed by bad weather.

The first stage is an 81-mile leg that will follow a circuit in downtown Naples.

''It would be a dream to take the pink jersey in the first stage,'' Cavendish said. ''It's just incredible to ride the Giro. It's one of maybe two races I insist on doing each year. I also have a place in Italy, so it's kind of like my home tour.''

Cavendish has won 10 stages in the Giro and worn the leader's pink jersey twice, including when his former team Columbia won the opening team time trial in 2009. But taking the lead with an individual win would be different.

The last time the Giro opened with a regular-length sprint stage came 10 years ago, when Alessandro Petacchi edged out Mario Cipollini in Lecce. The last time there was a sprint in Naples was when Cipollini won before 200,000 fans in 1996.

Other contenders include Matthew Goss of Australia, John Degenkolb of Germany and Italian trio Daniele Bennati, Manuel Belletti and Sacha Modolo.

''Straight out the door and we're into a 130-kilometer road race,'' Goss said. ''Sometimes it's nice to have a prologue, because you get yourself in the rhythm, you get your body used to racing that intensely. Saturday is going to be a straight into it. But I look forward to it. You get a good opportunity to take the jersey.''

Cavendish is also aiming for the red-points jersey.

''My goal is to win at least a stage,'' Cavendish said. ''Hopefully a jersey comes from that. The riders who go in to hunt for jerseys are more the attacking riders like (Peter) Sagan. For me, I have to rely on winning stages to get jerseys.''

However, Sagan isn't riding the Giro.

The Naples course features two mild climbs in the Posillipo neighborhood and several loops down the finishing straight alongside the bay.

''It's quite straight forward and it's going to be a sprint,'' Cavendish said. ''Of course, there are a lot of corners and cobblestones that can make it a little more challenging. But I think it should be OK.''

Traffic will be banned in the car-clogged Naples city center, with the only exception for wedding brides.

The second stage Sunday is a team time trial on the nearby island of Ischia.

The race ends May 26 in Brescia.

The passage was a significant victory for Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley, a Roman Catholic who opposes capital punishment and is considering seeking the 2016 presidential nomination. Death penalty opponents said the governor helped maintain the national momentum of repeal efforts by making Maryland the sixth state in as many years to abolish capital punishment.

"I don't know exactly what the timing is, but over the longer arc of history I think you'll see more and more states repeal the death penalty," O'Malley said in a brief interview after the bill signing. "It's wasteful. It's ineffective. It doesn't work to reduce violent crime."

NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous, who worked to get the repeal bill passed, noted the significance of a Democratic governor south of the Mason-Dixon line with presidential aspirations leading an effort to ban capital punishment. Jealous noted that in 1992, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton left the presidential campaign trail to oversee the execution of a man who had killed a police officer, a move widely viewed as an effort to shed the Democratic Party's image as soft on crime.

"Our governor has also just redefined what it means to have a political future in this country," Jealous said. "You know, it was just 20 years ago that a young governor with possibilities below the Mason-Dixon stopped during his presidential campaign" to oversee an execution.

West Virginia, which is also south of the Mason-Dixon line, abolished the death penalty in 1965.

Maryland is the 18th state to abolish the death penalty. Neighboring Delaware also made a push to repeal it this year, but the bill has stalled.

Diane Rust-Tierney, executive director of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Maryland is keeping the momentum going for other states to follow.

"It doesn't always happen overnight," Rust-Tierney said. "The more people study it, the more people understand it. This was a seven-year effort here in Maryland."

Supporters of capital punishment said the governor was taking away an important tool to protect the public. Del. Neil Parrott, a Washington County Republican, criticized the governor for moving ahead with banning the death penalty during the same session as he pushed for a gun-control bill to restrict firearms access to law-abiding citizens.

Parrott, who is chairman of a group called MDPetitions.com, scheduled a news conference on Friday to announce the group's decision on whether to launch a petition drive to try to put the death penalty ban on the ballot for voters to decide in 2014. He declined to say Thursday what the decision will be. They would need to get one-third of the 55,736 signatures needed to petition a bill to referendum by midnight May 31 to qualify to move forward.

State Sen. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat and constitutional law professor who opposes the death penalty, said he believes pressure is building around the country to focus law enforcement resources on things that are proven to lower the homicide rate.

"The trend lines are clear," Raskin said. "There's nobody who's adding the death penalty to their state laws. Everybody is taking it away."

Opponents of capital punishment also noted that the state won't have to worry about potentially putting an innocent person to death. Kirk Bloodsworth, a Maryland man who was the first person in the U.S. freed because of DNA evidence after a conviction in a death penalty case, attended the news conference.

The bill will not apply to the five men the state has on death row, but the governor can commute their sentences to life without parole. O'Malley has said he will consider them on a case-by-case basis.

The state's last execution was in 2005, when Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich was in office.

Last year, the Death Penalty Information Center said in an annual report that just four states carried out more than three-fourths of the executions in the United States last year, while another 23 had not put an inmate to death in 10 years.

Though it focuses on the human element, MyMoneyCircles is anythingbut soft and fuzzy. The website refers to its approach as a "boot camp"for personal finance. But what exactly does a personal finance boot campentail?

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The personalized support system at MyMoneyCircles is designed to helpusers make the changes necessary to meet these goals. By engagingparticipants throughout the process, and providing advice tailored totheir needs, the site aims to lead them each step of the way toward .

Here are some of the methods MyMoneyCircles will use to engage,encourage, and energize those who want to improve their personalfinances:

Central to the program is the expertise of Lynnette Khalfani-Cox.Khalfani-Cox, also known as "The Money ," is a best-selling authorand frequently-quoted expert in the national media. Khalfani-Cox's inputdrives both the design and content of MyMoneyCircles, and she willanswer individual participant questions too. A variety of financialspecialists--full disclosure, this author will be one of them--will alsobe available to provide advice.

Access to this expertise will begin in early January, but those interested can sign up for the first boot camp now at .

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Stephen E. Arnold is a technology and financial analyst with more than thirty years of experience. In addition to “Google: The Digital Gutenberg,” he is the author of more than 50 journal articles and a number of other books, including “Internet 2000” and the first three editions of the 600-page encyclopedia of search called “The Enterprise Search Report.” His newest studies of open source search are available from one of the global leaders in technology consulting, IDC, at . Visit Beyond Search atfor more information about an audio version of his 2013 Cebit lecture, andfor his free Augmentextinformation services: The Trend Point, EMRxNow, RxScriptMD, and Gourmet de Ville.

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Oil and gas drilling companies had pushed for the change, but there have been differing scientific estimates of the amount of methane that leaks from wells, pipelines and other facilities during production and delivery. Methane is the main component of natural gas.

The new EPA data is "kind of an earthquake" in the debate over drilling, said Michael Shellenberger, the president of the Breakthrough Institute, an environmental group based in Oakland, Calif. "This is great news for anybody concerned about the climate and strong proof that existing technologies can be deployed to reduce methane leaks."

The scope of the EPA's revision was vast. In a mid-April report on greenhouse emissions, the agency now says that tighter pollution controls instituted by the industry resulted in an average annual decrease of 41.6 million metric tons of methane emissions from 1990 through 2010, or more than 850 million metric tons overall. That's about a 20 percent reduction from previous estimates. The agency converts the methane emissions into their equivalent in carbon dioxide, following standard scientific practice.

The EPA revisions came even though natural gas production has grown by nearly 40 percent since 1990. The industry has boomed in recent years, thanks to a stunning expansion of drilling in previously untapped areas because of the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which injects sand, water and chemicals to break apart rock and free the gas inside.

Experts on both sides of the debate say the leaks can be controlled by fixes such as better gaskets, maintenance and monitoring. Such fixes are also thought to be cost-effective, since the industry ends up with more product to sell.

"That is money going up into the air," said Roger Pielke Jr., a professor of environmental studies at the University of Colorado, adding he isn't surprised the EPA's new data show more widespread use of pollution control equipment. Pielke noted that the success of the pollution controls also means that the industry "probably can go further" in reducing leaks.

Representatives of the oil and gas industry said the EPA revisions show emissions from the fracking boom can be managed.

"The methane 'leak' claim just got a lot more difficult for opponents" of natural gas, noted Steve Everley, with Energy In Depth, an industry-funded group.

In a separate blog post, Everley predicted future reductions, too.

"As technologies continue to improve, it's hard to imagine those methane numbers going anywhere but down as we eagerly await the next installment of this EPA report," Everley wrote.

One leading environmentalist argued the EPA revisions don't change the bigger picture.

"We need a dramatic shift off carbon-based fuel: coal, oil and also gas," Bill McKibbern, the founder of 350.org, wrote in an email to The Associated Press. "Natural gas provides at best a kind of fad diet, where a dangerously overweight patient loses a few pounds and then their weight stabilizes; instead, we need at this point a crash diet, difficult to do" but needed to limit the damage from climate change.

The EPA said it made the changes based on expert reviews and new data from several sources, including a report funded by the oil and gas industry. But the estimates aren't based on independent field tests of actual emissions, and some scientists said that's a problem.

Robert Howarth, a Cornell University professor of ecology who led a 2011 methane leak study that is widely cited by critics of fracking, wrote in an email that "time will tell where the truth lies in all this, but I think EPA is wrong."

Howarth said other federal climate scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have published recent studies documenting massive methane leaks from natural gas operations in Colorado and other Western states.

Howarth wrote that the EPA seems "to be ignoring the published NOAA data in their latest efforts, and the bias on industry only pushing estimates downward never up is quite real. EPA badly needs a counter-acting force, such as outside independent review of their process."

The issue of methane leaks has caused a major split between environmental groups.

Since power plants that burn natural gas emit about half the amount of the greenhouse gases as coal-fired power, some say that the gas drilling boom has helped the U.S. become the only major industrialized country to significantly reduce greenhouse emissions. But others believe the methane leaks negate any benefits over coal, since methane is a highly potent greenhouse gas.

The new EPA figures still show natural gas operations as the leading source of methane emissions in the U.S., at about 145 million metric tons in 2011. The next biggest source was enteric fermentation, scientific jargon for belches from cows and other animals, at 137 million metric tons. Landfills were the third-biggest source, at 103 million metric tons.

But the EPA estimates that all the sources of methane combined still account for only 9 percent of greenhouse gases, even taking into account methane's more potent heat-trapping.

The EPA said it is still seeking more data and feedback on the issue of methane leaks, so the report may change again in the future.

The EPA revisions have international implications, too. The agency says the new report, Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks, was submitted to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change by an April 15 deadline.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Two measures that would take lawmakers out of setting college tuition rates started advancing Tuesday in the Louisiana House.

The House Education Committee approved a bill that would allow boards for the state's four public college systems to increase tuition and fee amounts under a policy that would be established by the Board of Regents, which oversees higher education in the state.

The policy would include an outcome-based performance standard that schools would have to meet before they are allowed to raise tuition.

The proposal, by Rep. Walt Leger, D-New Orleans, was approved 13-4.

Currently, the power to increase tuition and mandatory fees lies with the Legislature. It takes a two-thirds vote of lawmakers to boost tuition, and Louisiana is the only state in the nation with such a requirement.

Leger said higher education officials needed the flexibility to govern their budgets and that lawmakers needed to get out of the "tuition business."

The proposal "seeks to put us in line with 49 other states and take us out of the business of having to vote by a two-thirds majority to deal with tuition issues, instead give it to the experts who work in higher education."

The bill would set a tuition cap equal to the Southern regional average.

Backers of the bill said higher education officials need the flexibility to set tuition that would give them a predictable revenue stream. The bill was amended to include a caveat that state funding for higher education would not be decreased if tuition were to be raised.

While agreeing that higher education has taken financial hits, Rep. John Bel Edwards, D-Amite, said tuition has steadily increased over the last five years. However, money from the state's general fund for higher education has consistently decreased, he said.

"That's not the component that's broken," he said. "We used to fund higher education from the general fund at 70 percent, now it's at 35 percent. Will we go to zero?"

Edwards voted against the bill.

A second bill approved Tuesday by the House and Governmental Affairs Committee without objection would take a different approach.

That measure by Rep. Thomas Carmody, R-Shreveport, would spell out in the Louisiana Constitution that college tuition and fee increases don't require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature like other fee hikes.

"We do believe this is a sound concept, one that has been repeatedly recommended by policy groups," said Commissioner of Higher Education Jim Purcell, who said Louisiana's tuition rates are among the lowest in the South.

James Caillier, executive director of the Taylor Foundation which works on higher education issues, raised objections to Carmody's bill, saying it could make college out of reach for some students.

"We should try to make higher education as affordable as possible," Caillier said.

He said tuition shouldn't continue to be raised without the schools showing improved graduation rates and other performance measures.

The constitutional amendment would need support from two-thirds of lawmakers in the House and Senate, along with voters at a statewide election before it could take effect.

Both bills head to the full House for debate.

The education committee also approved a college tuition bill sponsored by its chairman, Rep. Stephen Carter, R-Baton Rouge, that would authorize a one-time tuition and fee increase by college boards in 2016.

However, the increase would have to be less than the average tuition and fees of Southern Regional Education Board peer schools and would come only if the school's graduation and retention rates were on par with its peer institutions.

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AP reporter Melinda Deslatte contributed to this story.

"You gotta sometimes have the courage to go out there and do something like this, and I think the overall effect will be positive," Piazza said Tuesday after his costume fitting for the role of a gangster in "Slaughter on Tenth Avenue."

Piazza will walk on stage and say a few lines in the company's May 3 production of the ballet George Balanchine choreographed as part of the 1930s musical "On Your Toes."

"If I have to take a few good-natured insults, you know, I've taken a lot of abuse before so, no question, I've got big shoulders," he said. "The bottom line is to draw attention to the show, to the arts, the art of ballet and dancing in general. It's something I'm very excited about."

He literally has big shoulders, too. In the ballet company's costume department, he swung his arms and shrugged his shoulders to test his range of motion in a taupe houndstooth suit usually worn by more lithe male dancers. Some tailoring would be required, along with a larger-sized fedora.

Even if he won't be dancing in the costume, he wanted to make sure his character could swagger convincingly to open a ballet featuring gangsters, strippers and an attempted murder plot.

Piazza, who had 427 career home runs and made 12 All-Star Game appearances, didn't know anything about Balanchine when he first stepped into the rehearsal studio, though he did impress the dancers with the exaggerated accent and smoking habit that he gave his character.

"He knows a lot about acting, which makes it a lot easier," said principal soloist Kleber Rebello, who will play the part of a jealous Russian dancer who hires Piazza's gangster to kill his rival.

"He'll be bringing different people, maybe people who haven't watched ballet yet. It's definitely a good opportunity," Rebello said.

Attracting new audience members has been a priority at the Miami Beach dance company, which is embracing new collaborations after a financial restructuring and a change in artistic director. One such collaboration paired two ballerinas with Miami Heat basketball players LeBron James and Dwyane Wade for a recent ad campaign promoting downtown Miami's cultural scene.

Piazza, whose daughter is a student at Miami City Ballet School, said he's eager to help boost the dancers' image among sports fans.

Philip Neal, who is staging the production and coaching Piazza in his role, said he was thrilled that athletes such as Piazza are highlighting the athleticism and discipline of dance, particularly for boys. Neal played Little League baseball before growing up to dance at New York City Ballet when Piazza played for the New York Mets.

"It's a very taxing and athletic activity," Neal said. "I'm really grateful for Mike to bring some light to that fact."

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Online:

Miami City Ballet: www.miamicityballet.org

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Follow Jennifer Kay on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jnkay

Over 15 tons of shaved ice were blown into the San Diego Zoo's panda exhibit Tuesday morning (March 19) to give the endangered bears a chance to play in the powder they would experience in their natural habitat.

The snow day was a first for or "Mr. Wu," as keepers have taken to calling him. The charismatic cub was born over the summer to panda mom Bai Yun, who was making "snow pandas" on Tuesday while Xiao Liwu climbed on top of her.

"Xiao Liwu was jumping on Mom, wrestling with her and getting used to being thrown in the snow by mama bear," Jennifer Becerra, San Diego Zoo senior keeper, said in a statement. "He was definitely enjoying the snow and running around. I've never seen him so wired up."

Xiao Liwu, whose name means "," was the sixth cub born to Bai Yun ("White Cloud"). All the San Diego Zoo giant pandas are on a research loan from China, as part of a long-term captive breeding program. (Four of Xiao Liwu's siblings have already been moved from California to China.)

Today there are 44 giant pandas living in zoos outside of China, where the bears' only current natural home exists. As just 1,600 pandas are thought to be left in the wild, researchers maintain that captive breeding is an important way study and conserve the endangered species. In addition to habitat loss from human activities and low reproductive rates, giant pandas' survival is also . A study released in the journal Nature Climate Change last year found that global warming could wipe out much of the bears' chief food source, bamboo, over the next century.

Rice was fired last week after a video that showed him pushing and kicking players and spewing gay slurs at them during practices between 2010 and last year.

The school's athletic director, top in-house lawyer and an assistant coach also resigned.

Also Monday, the chairman of the university's Board of Governors said that the chairman of the board's committee on athletics saw the video in December.