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1. THE HOME STRETCH - Chris Froome is on the cusp of Tour de France victory. After Monday's rest day, the 28-year-old Briton is set to embark on six final stages in defense of his yellow jersey - having virtually sewed up a win with a tour-de-force performance atop famed Mont Ventoux a day earlier. Tuesday's Stage 16 - aside from a largely ceremonial ride into Paris for Sunday's finish - is probably the least challenging of the remaining legs to the three-week cycling showcase, taking riders through medium-sized mountains over 168-kilometers (104 miles) from Vaison-la-Romaine to Gap in the Alps in eastern France. Many rivals and race prognosticators say Froome has simply been too dominant in the mountains and the time-trial so far - and both of those challenges weigh heavily in the third week with three grueling days in the Alps featuring after Wednesday's second time-trial. Cycling cognoscenti say that means one thing: Froome would have to face a catastrophe to lose now.

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2. TIME WILL TELL - Fans whistle jeers of doubt as Froome whirrs up a mountainside to dust his rivals; chatter erupts in social media comparing him to a doped-up Lance Armstrong; French sports newspaper L'Equipe runs a cheeky front-page headline ''Froome: Naturally.'' After his striking show of dominance in Sunday's 15th stage, the Briton is facing suspicion about doping - and insists he is clean. After the ravages of drug use and cheating over the past 20 years to the sport's image, many fans say the suspicion is warranted. Froome himself has said such questions are fair - even if he's shown growing exasperation over being asked about it repeatedly. His Sky team volunteered Monday to open all of his training and performance data, plus blood readings, to independent scrutiny to try to silence the suspicions. Jonathan Vaughters, manager of the Garmin-Sharp team said he believes in ''innocent until proven guilty'' when it comes to doping. His American squad has been on the forefront of the anti-doping fight. Vaughters said he has no reason to doubt Froome. ''But I think you just need the passage of time to let the full fruition of truth evolve,'' he said ''And for now, I'm confident that the truth 10 years from now will be the same as now.''

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3. CONTADOR'S CONSTRAINTS - At the start of his rest-day news conference, Alberto Contador received a question about whether he believed Froome's performance deserved suspicion. The Spaniard responded, but only after laying down the ground rules first: No more than two questions related to doping. ''If you want to ask more about that I will go to my room because I have a very hard week at the Tour ahead.'' The two-time Tour winner might find the subject a bit sensitive - he was stripped of his 2010 Tour title and had to sit out the race last year. The 30-year-old Saxo Bank team leader once known as ''El Conquistador'' said he doesn't doubt Froome and is ''absolutely confident in his performance. In any case, that's what the (doping) controls are for.''

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4. WRIST DAY HELP - Monday's rest day - or should it be wrist day? - featured the president of the Association of Professional Riders giving lifesaver bracelets to every rider still in the race. These wrist bracelets, called ICE (In Case of Emergency) are equipped with software inserted in a USB key. This is designed to provide personal medical information - allergies, diseases, any medication the rider may be taking - that could facilitate treatment in case of an accident or crash. The plastic bracelet is lightweight, shock resistant and water proof. ''We felt it was important to allow all riders, wearing a simple bracelet in racing or training, to have one more tool for their safety,'' CPA president Gianni Bugno said. ''With the hope, of course, that no one will ever need to use it seriously.''

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5. TAKING A RIDE - How do some riders while away boring rest days? Taking journalists for a ride. David Millar told The Associated Press that he and Garmin-Sharp teammate Ryder Hesjedal of Canada planned to go sky-diving on Monday afternoon, saying that he needed to ''re-charge the adrenal glands'' to get a different kind of adrenaline rush than that of riding 80 kilometers per hour (50 mph) on steep downhills, for example. ''Take it up a level,'' the Scottish veteran said while he lounged in a lawn chair outside the team's hotel. But Garmin-Sharp spokeswoman Marya Pongrace became queasy as the AP inquired if such a hair-raising outing was really planned, and ultimately got Millar to fess up: ''It's not true,'' he said with a laugh.

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AP Sports Writer Jerome Pugmire in Entrechaux, France, contributed to this report.

The longtime Calgary Flames forward, who was traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins in March, signed a one-year deal with the Bruins on Friday. The right wing will have a base salary of $1.8 million along with $4.2 million in available incentives, which gives him a $6 million salary cap charge.

The 36-year-old Iginla entered this past season having scored at least 30 goals 11 straight times. He registered 14 goals and 33 points in 44 games between Calgary and Pittsburgh, and then had four goals and eight assists in 15 postseason games with the Penguins.

In 1,232 NHL regular-season games, Iginla had 530 goals and 576 assists. He is 32nd on the NHL's career goal list and 57th with 1,106 points.

Iginla has added 32 goals and 29 assists in 69 career playoff games.

In other moves Friday, the Bruins signed goalie Chad Johnson to a one-year, $600,000 deal. Boston gave forward Bobby Robins a two-year, two-way contract; forward Nick Johnson a one-year, two-way deal; and defenseman Mike Moore a two-way, one-year contract.

Iginla spurned the Bruins' advances at the trade deadline in March and chose to go to Pittsburgh. He had a no-trade clause in the final year of his contract with Calgary and narrowed his list of teams he would accept a trade to when it was clear the Flames wanted to move him.

The Flames and Bruins agreed to a trade, but Iginla nixed it when he decided he wanted to play with Sidney Crosby and the Penguins instead.

Boston swept the Penguins in the Eastern Conference finals, but the Bruins will have a much different look next season than they did last month when they lost to Chicago in the Stanley Cup finals.

Nathan Horton signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday, and Tyler Seguin and Rich Peverley were traded to the Dallas Stars on Thursday.

Knowing he was losing Horton and not expecting Jaromir Jagr to return to Boston, Bruins general manager Peter Chiarelli said it was his goal to "reconstruct" the right side of his forward lines. Loui Eriksson was acquired in the deal with the Stars, and adding Iginla was the next step.

Iginla's contract is cap-friendly, counting just $1.8 million next season. If he achieves any or all of the performance bonuses, that will count against the 2014-15 cap.

Under the agreement, AT&T will acquire all of Leap's stock and approximately 5 million subscribers for $15 per share in cash or about $1.2 billion. The offer represents a premium of 88 percent to Leap's Friday closing price of $7.98. As of April 15, Leap had $2.8 billion in debt, the companies said in a statement.

Leap's shares more than doubled to $16.80 in after hour trade after closing at $7.98 on Friday.

The deal is the latest in a series of acquisitions in the wireless industry and follows Softbank's acquisition of Sprint.

As the No. 2 wireless provider in the United States, AT&T has been looking to grow in a mature market and has been urgently seeking access to additional wireless spectrum. It has held talks to buy smaller rival Leap Wireless International last year, Reuters reported.

The proliferation of bandwidth-hungry smartphones and tablets has U.S. wireless carriers clambering to gain access to more airwaves. Clearwire was recently part of a tug a war over its valuable spectrum between Sprint and Dish Network Corp.

"Its mostly about the spectrum for AT&T," said Todd Rethemeier, an analyst with Hudson Square Research.

"It's Leap's only alternative. Continuing as an independent company is not a viable option for Leap at this point."

Two years ago, AT&T struck a deal to buy T-Mobile USA for $39 billion, but U.S. regulators blocked the attempt by the No. 2 and No. 4 U.S. wireless carriers to merge.

Based in San Diego, Leap's network covers about 96 million people and operates under the Cricket brand.

AT&T said it will retain the Cricket brand name and expand its presence in the U.S. After the deal closes, AT&T said it plans to use Leap's spectrum in furthering its development of AT&T's 4G LTE network.

The combined company will have the financial resources, scale and spectrum to better compete with other major national providers for customers interested in low-cost prepaid service, the companies said.

Almost a third of Leap's shareholders have voted in favor of the transaction.

At the end the of the first quarter, $19 billion hedge fund Paulson & Co owned 7.8 million shares of Leap Wireless, according to a regulatory filing.

The deal is expected to close in nine months and is subject to regulatory review.

Leap said Lazard served as its sole financial adviser.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba, Nicola Leske Sinead Carew, and Katya Wachtel in New York and Neha Alawadhi in Bangalore; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Total consumer installment credit advanced by $19.6 billion to $2.8 trillion, Federal Reserve data showed on Monday. Economists polled by Reuters had expected consumer credit to rise $12.5 billion during the month.

Consumer debts grew both for non-revolving credit, which includes loans for cars and college tuition, as well as for revolving facilities like credit cards. Overall consumer debt rose the most since May 2012.

The report does not cover borrowing for homes, which has grown considerably more expensive in recent weeks as Wall Street bets the Fed will ease its monetary support for the economy by the end of the year. Analysts worry a rapid rise in interest rates could deal a blow to the economy's slow recovery from the 2007-09 recession.

Yet despite an increase in interest rates on many kinds of loans in May, nonrevolving credit increased $13.0 billion during the month. Some analysts had expected a strong reading in that category because other reports showed strong vehicle sales during the month.

Revolving credit jumped by $6.6 billion in May. Borrowing costs, however, have since continued to rise.

(Reporting by Jason Lange; Editing by Andrea Ricci)

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore's move to tighten regulation of news web sites, already under fire from bloggers and human rights groups, has attracted criticism from an unexpected quarter - large Internet firms with a big presence in the city-state which say the new rules will hurt the industry.

Web giants Facebook Inc, eBay Inc, Google Inc and Yahoo! Inc have said the revised rules "have negatively impacted Singapore's global image as an open and business-friendly country".

The comments, made in a letter to the Minister for Communications and Information, Yaacob Ibrahim, by the Asia Internet Coalition, an industry body, are the first sign that Singapore's success in wooing major players is not assured.

Google, eBay, Facebook and Yahoo all have a major presence in the city-state.

Google said separately it was concerned about the long-term implications of the regulation - especially for local Internet entrepreneurs who it said now faced greater uncertainty and legal risk.

Minister Yaacob, however, told parliament on Monday that his ministry intended to move ahead with the legislation, despite calls from lawmakers to delay its implementation, and dismissed some of the concerns raised.

"The overall law is not meant to force sites to close down by causing them financial difficulties. MDA have already indicated and replied earlier that they will be prepared to exercise flexibility where warranted should a site have genuine difficulties putting up a bond," he said.

In late May, the Media Development Authority (MDA) said websites that regularly report on Singapore would have to be licensed and listed 10 news sites that would be affected, based on criteria such as having 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore each month.

Websites affected by the new licensing regime would have to put up a S$50,000 ($39,300) performance bond as well as take down within 24 hours any story that authorities deemed objectionable.

"Singapore aims to be the future, but this regulation looks a lot like the past," Google's Ann Lavin, director of public policy and government affairs, Southeast Asia, told Reuters.

MDA had said the changes would make the rules governing news websites more consistent with those affecting newspapers and other traditional media platforms. It also said there was no change in its content standards, a point reiterated by Yaacob.

GROWING SECTOR

The Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) was set up in 2011 by Google, Facebook, Yahoo and eBay to lobby for free and open access to the Internet and promote e-commerce.

The Internet and related industries have become an important sector for Singapore, with revenues last year growing 23 percent to S$103 billion ($81 billion). The sector employs more than 144,000 people out of the city-state's 3.2 million workforce, according to government data.

"When you look at other countries in the region, it's hard to see anyone immediately breathing down the neck of Singapore and Hong Kong," said John Ure, executive director of AIC. "But things can change. Five to 10 years is not a long time."

Ure said the coalition's members had been unnerved by the announcement coming "out of the blue" at a time when it had been holding discussions with the Singapore government on several Internet-related issues.

The regulations, he said, "muddied the waters" and that "anything that is seen to be a hindrance to the free flow of content and data" was of concern to his members.

Singapore has attracted major Internet companies in part because of its commitment to what it has called a "light touch" when it comes to policing the Web.

Yahoo's popular Singapore news site was the only foreign website among the 10 listed by the MDA, but critics fear the rules could be extended to cover other websites, including those critical of the government.

A Yahoo spokesman said it had no official comment on the regulation but that the AIC's position was "broadly consistent with ours".

"MONSTERS UNDER THE BED"

Opposition lawmaker Lina Chiam told parliament there were still many unanswered questions about the new MDA regulations despite recent attempts at clarification.

"The definition of news sites under the regulations, as they stand, is so arbitrary, and can encompass any website posting at least one news-related article in a week," she said.

"That is why Singaporeans continue to believe that the regulations had been crafted to censor blogs, especially those that discuss politics."

Lobby group Reporters Without Borders, in its latest report, ranked Singapore 149th globally in terms of press freedom, down 14 places from 2012 and below many of its neighbors.

In 2011, the city-state's tiny opposition made big gains against the long-ruling People's Action Party in a parliamentary election, partly by using social media such as Facebook and YouTube to reach voters.

Rights groups have joined local bloggers in criticizing the move. Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, said that major Internet companies adding their voice should give Singapore serious pause about its approach.

The government, "like a little boy in a dark bedroom, imagines that every bump in the night means there are monsters under the bed ready to pounce on Singapore's much vaunted social stability", he said.

($1 = 1.2715 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting By Jeremy Wagstaff, Kevin Lim and John O'Callaghan; Editing by Alex Richardson and Ron Popeski)

Mikhail Grabovski, anyone?

Otherwise, many of the available impact players were swept up in the first few hours after the NHL's free-agency opened Friday.

A total of 60 players were signed in deals involving 26 of the league's 30 teams, according to a list posted on NHL.com. They included Columbus landing Nathan Horton to a $37.1 million, seven-year contract and Daniel Alfredsson leaving Ottawa for a one-year deal in Detroit. Toronto signed David Clarkson to a $36.75 million, seven-year deal, while Jarome Iginla signed a one-year deal with Boston, the team he jilted for Pittsburgh earlier this season.

And then another nine were traded, with the biggest move involving the Senators filling the void Alfredsson left by acquiring Anaheim forward Bobby Ryan in exchange for two forwards and a first-round draft pick.

At the rate players were being signed and swapped, Flyers general manager Paul Holmgren was relieved to have addressed most of his team's needs before the market officially opened.

"I didn't think the defense market was as strong as centers. The better ones went right away," Holmgren said, while formally announcing the team had signed captain Claude Giroux to an eight-year extension worth over $64 million. "I think we were fortunate to jump in on Mark when we did."

Holmgren was referring to defenseman Mark Streit, who was acquired in a trade with the New York Islanders before Philadelphia locked him up to a four-year, $21 million contract last week. Holmgren also could have mentioned Philadelphia getting Vincent Lecavalier this summer's most prized free agent to agree to a five-year deal on Tuesday.

That didn't stop Holmgren from signing goalies Ray Emery and Yann Danis on Friday to shore up what remains an unsettled position.

Beyond that, it's a wonder anyone's still available.

Former Flyers goalie Ilya Bryzgalov's still on the market. So are two ex-Detroit teammates, Damien Brunner and Daniel Cleary. As for defense, there's Toni Lydman.

And then there's Teemu Selanne, who usually takes his time in free agency. Ducks general manager Bob Murray is scheduled to contact Selanne next week to see whether the Finn is close to making a decision on returning for one more year.

Many players came to much quicker decisions.

Alfredsson was driven to the Motor City by the opportunity to win a championship, and was joined, soon after, by center Stephen Weiss, who agreed to a five-year, $24.5 million contract.

"It's all about trying to get the Stanley Cup," Alfredsson said.

For others, it was the lure of finding the right fit.

Horton was willing to give up big-city living in Boston, for the chance to raise his family in a more collegiate environment such as Columbus.

"It's a great opportunity for me and my family to be in a house and for it to be a little more quiet," Horton said, while noting he is also eager to help transform the Blue Jackets into contenders. "I want to be in the playoffs and everybody else does (here), and we've got the team to do it. That's why I'm so excited."

The Toronto Maple Leafs, coming off their first postseason appearance since 2004, also made a statement by signing Clarkson and keeping first-line center Tyler Bozak with a $21 million, five-year deal.

Tampa Bay reached a $25 million, five-year deal with 29-year-old center Valtteri Filppula to essentially replace Lecavalier.

Ottawa wasn't expecting Alfredsson to bolt.

"It was a devastating conversation, a disappointing one, hard to swallow," Senators general manager Bryan Murray acknowledged. "But I understand a veteran player that hasn't won and wants to win and sees a better opportunity."

The Senators, though, got younger and perhaps better up front by acquiring Ryan. Ottawa sent forwards Jakob Silfverbeg, Stefan Noesen and its first-round pick in next year's draft to the Ducks for the four-time 30-goal scorer.

A lot of other teams also made moves to jockey for position in the parity-filled league:

The Phoenix Coyotes, with a new owner, signed forward Mike Ribeiro to a four-year, $22 million contract.

The New Jersey Devils signed forward Ryane Clowe to a five-year, $24.25 million contract, and forward Michael Ryder to a two-year, $7 million deal.

The Stanley Cup champion Blackhawks re-signed defenseman Michal Rozsival, forward Michal Handzus and gave 40-year goalie Nikolai Khabibulin a one-year deal to replace Emery.

The Pittsburgh Penguins reunited with defenseman Rob Scuderi by giving him a four-year $13.5 million deal.

The New York Islanders re-signed goalie Evgeni Nabokov to a one-year, $3.25 million deal and defenseman Travis Hamonic to a seven-year, $27 million contract, and signed free-agent forward Pierre-Marc Bouchard to a one-year, $2 million contract.

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AP Sports Writers Larry Lage in Detroit, Dan Gelston in Philadelphia and Rusty Miller in Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

It's not much of a war room, but who cares? After an election cycle in which slick Republican super PACs like American Crossroads and Restore Our Future were panned for spending hundreds of millions of dollars on television ads that failed to move the needle, America Rising is a leaner, meaner outfit with one mission and one mission only: opposition research on Democrats.

"Conservative donors are more skeptical and want to be more educated about where their money is going, which will benefit America Rising because they are like the sniper shot instead of the shotgun blast that throws all the ads up against the wall," said David Bossie, president of Citizens United, the conservative advocacy group whose Supreme Court case opened the floodgates for super PACS by allowing unlimited donations. "One of the things we were missing in 2012 was a really terrific research operation."

Through old-school public record searches and new-media wizardry, America Rising is vetting and tracking Democratic candidates in search of that hypocritical nugget, policy flip-flop or embarrassing gaffe. Those hits can be posted online or leaked to media outlets at little cost and then picked up by other groups that can generate television ads, phone calls or direct mail. America Rising also has a limited liability company that will sell its research to Republican groups; Crossroads and Citizens United have already signed on as clients.

"We're in a new campaign finance universe in which there's a need for outside groups to fill particular lanes," said Tim Miller, one of America Rising's founders and a former spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "I'm sure there were lots of stupid things that Democrats said last cycle that no one caught. Was there a gem out there that would have changed a race? Who knows?"

America Rising estimates that Democratic groups spent at least $15 million more on opposition research in the 2012 election, and it plans to get even by emerging as a major player in the 2014 mid-term elections and the 2016 presidential race. The group is eager to exploit what it sees as a mounting tension between red- and swing-state Democrats and the liberal activist base of the party. It's already going head to head against the Democratic opposition research group, American Bridge, in the raucous Virginia governor's race, matching every attack on Republican Ken Cuccinelli with an equally vicious missive against Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

Its biggest target is Hillary Clinton, the party's front-running candidate for president in 2016. Going after Clinton now, long before she's expected to announce her candidacy, gives America Rising a chance to throw punches before she heads a political organization that would fight back. What's more, it will take months to go through the vast public record on the former First Lady, senator from New York, presidential candidate and Secretary of State -- and it all has to be scoured with a 2013 sensibility. That means reviewing any remarks she ever made about the IRS, now the subject of a congressional probe into its targeting of conservative groups, or Obama's health care law, now going into effect, or border security, a sticking point in immigration reform talks.

"There's been talk for several cycles about filling a void on the research side because I think Republicans have gotten a little lazy and haven't done the field work as necessary," said Carl Forti, political director at Crossroads and a veteran of the Romney campaign and the National Republican Congressional Committee. "One of the criticisms we've all heard is that in order to put a good product out there television, mail, phones, whatever you need you have to have the best research possible. The beauty of America Rising is that many different groups can use their research instead of everyone doing their own."

The presence of Miller, along with co-founders Matt Rhoades, campaign manager for 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney, and Joe Pounder, the RNC's former research director, automatically confers heft and high expectations onto the fledgling group. It launched three months ago, shortly after a sweeping review of the 2012 election by the RNC found glaring gaps in the party's operations, including the time-honored practice of digging up dirt on one's opponents and the modern-day version of following them with a video camera. "We strongly recommend our side actively seek to define our opponents as early as possible in the process," said the RNC report. "Well-funded conservative groups should seek to hire activists to track Democrat incumbents and candidates with video cameras constantly recording their every movement, utterance, and action."

On the Democratic side, the dirty work is largely being done by American Bridge, the group founded in 2011 by right-winger-turned-liberal activist David Brock. One of its trackers on the ground in Missouri was the first to spot Republican Senate candidate Todd Akin's comment on a local news show that victims of "legitimate rape" rarely get pregnant. Within days, Romney and Senate Republican leaders were calling on Akin to drop out. Sen. Claire McCaskill, once viewed as one of the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents, easily won re-election. Akin's remarks not only minimized the need for Democratic spending in Missouri but .

American Bridge scored again when it caught Romney saying he made "not very much" from speaking fees. Researchers immediately pulled his financial disclosure forms and calculated that he had earned more than $374,000. American Bridge , and it was picked up by dozens of NBC affiliates and Comedy Central's The Daily Show. In all, American Bridge says it tracked 3,126 campaign events and completed 80 "books" on Republican candidates essentially dossiers detailing their worst failures and most embarrassing moments.

"What we do isn't easy," said Rodell Mollineau, president of American Bridge. "Most of the research and most of that tracking is not going to produce a Todd Akin moment. We did a huge amount of research on Tim Pawlenty, and the day after we were done with the book, he dropped out of the race."

Until it finds permanent office space, America Rising's weekly brainstorming sessions are being held in a conference room of an Arlington apartment building where two staffers live. Seven men and one woman, all between the ages of 23 and 31, sat Friday morning around a glass-topped table. They relished some recent successes: itsand a tax complaint filed against Massachusetts Senate candidate Ed Markey was reported byandThe Boston Herald. A couple negative stories about McAuliffe have also been planted. "I think we had a really good week," said Pounder, resisting a box of donuts in the middle of the table.

Other matters: Someone needs to fill in for the tracker in Virginia, whose mother is sick. The Virginia Democratic Party's annual fundraiser, which will be attended by McAuliffe and headlined by Vice President Joe Biden, is likely to provide fodder for future attacks. "Those are two of the biggest buffoons in the Democratic Party, so we should definitely do something," says one staffer. Also on the to-do list: a trip to the National Archives to pull McAuliffe's lobbying records and closely review the 2012 press conference unveiling his electric car company in Mississippi.

Coming soon: "books" on potential Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton's links to the scandals dogging the State Department, and tracking of vulnerable Democratic incumbents like Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Mark Pryor of Arkansas and Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. Also on the radar screen: Democratic Reps. Scott Peters in California, Patrick Murphy in Florida and Steve Horsford in Nevada.

And if you think Markey's victory Tuesday takes him off the watch list, think again. America Rising is saving the Markey files for his 2014 re-election campaign.

"The discovery of non-harvested, GE (genetically engineered) wheat should not be used by America's trading partners to erect spurious, protectionist trade barriers ... in the absence of scientific evidence indicating that Oregon exports contain this strain of wheat," Sen. Roy Wyden, a Democrat, wrote to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack.

USDA could "co-ordinate closely" with the U.S. Trade Representative and the Department of State, among others, to "provide assurance and certainly to global wheat markets," Wyden said.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

John Pecman was named Commissioner of Competition for a five-year term, nearly a year after he stepped into the role as interim head of the country's Competition Bureau.

The bureau is an independent law enforcement agency tasked with ensuring fair competition in the marketplace.

Just last week, the bureau charged Nestle SAand Mars Inc with fixing chocolate prices. It also won a dispute recently with Royal Bank of Scotland , forcing the bank to hand over key documents in a global rate-rigging scandal, and it cleared a major telecoms deal: BCE Inc'sacquisition of Astral Media .

Subrata Bhattacharjee, co-chair of the national trade and competition group at the Heenan Blaikie law firm in Toronto, said Pecman is a strong appointment.

"Given his background, long history within the bureau, and some of the things he did as an acting commissioner, I would expect that he will continue to pursue vigorous enforcement, particularly in criminal cases, but also inject a more of a policy-driven approach than we have seen in recent years," Bhattacharjee said.

Pecman has worked nearly 30 years at the bureau, spending time in every enforcement branch. He is an economist with a masters degree from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Editing by Peter Galloway)

The league said the hearing would be to decide if the former New England Patriots tight end should be suspended or face other action before a resolution of the charges is reached. It said no player contract with Hernandez would take effect before a hearing.

Hernandez was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder and weapons counts in the shooting death of a friend, Odin Lloyd. Hernandez was cut by the Patriots after the arrest and before his court appearance and is being held without bail.

Meanwhile, Puma announced Thursday that it has ended its relationship with Hernandez.

The sportswear company ended the two-year contract it agreed to in April with Hernandez, Puma spokesperson Katie Sheptyck said. She did not say how much it was worth.

Hernandez "was going to be involved with our men's training program" but had not started working with Puma and his role wasn't specifically defined, Sheptyck said. The agreement didn't involve product endorsements, she said.

Last Friday, five days before Hernandez was arrested, the company that makes Muscle Milk said it was ending its endorsement deal with him.

CytoSport, based in Benicia, Calif., said in a one-sentence statement that in light of the investigation involving Hernandez, it was terminating its endorsement contract with him effective immediately.

The company, which makes Muscle Milk and other nutritional supplements for athletes, did not disclose the value of the contract or what it called for Hernandez to do.