Nawaz Sharif spoke to reporters from his family's estate outside the eastern city of Lahore on Monday, two days after his Pakistan Muslim League-N party won a resounding victory in national elections.

His comments were the first indication since the vote about how he would approach relations with the U.S., a strategic ally with whom Pakistan has often been at odds.

Some of his rhetoric on the campaign trail suggested he could have a more adversarial relationship with Washington than the outgoing government.Sharif also was outspoken in his opposition to drone strikes, which are unpopular in Pakistan.

However, analysts caution that while such rhetoric sells on the campaign trail where anti-American sentiment is high, Sharif would likely take a more nuanced approach to U.S. relations once in office.

"I think we have good relations with the United States of America. We certainly have to listen to each other," he said. "If there are any concerns on any side, I think we should address those concerns."

The CIA's drone campaign targeting al-Qaida and other militants in the tribal regions has been extremely controversial in Pakistan where people say it frequently kills innocent civilians something Washington denies and that it violates Pakistan's sovereignty.

"Drones indeed are challenging our sovereignty. Of course we have taken this matter up very seriously. I think this is a very serious issue, and our concern must be understood properly," said Sharif.

Pakistan occupies a strategic location next to Afghanistan and will likely play a strong role in any reconciliation deal with Taliban militants there. Also, much of the American military equipment that must be shipped out of Afghanistan when the international coalition there ends its combat mission in 2014 will go through the port city of Karachi in southern Pakistan.

Sharif said that he would facilitate the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"American troops are being withdrawn in 2014. We will extend full support to them. We will see that everything goes well and smoothly," he said.

So emotionally drained was the audience at Saturday afternoon's performance at the Metropolitan Opera that silence lingered in the house for several moments after the curtain fell. Only then did tumultuous applause erupt for the terrific performance that had just taken place.

But there is another death scene much earlier in the opera that is almost as wrenching. As the old prioress, Madame de Croissy, lies writhing on her deathbed, she cries out that God has forsaken her and the Carmelite order. As vividly portrayed by the veteran mezzo-soprano Felicity Palmer, the agonies and blasphemies of the prioress were painful and even shocking to witness.

Palmer was part of a uniformly strong cast the Met assembled for this revival of the classic John Dexter production, first seen in 1977 and absent from the stage for a decade.

As Blanche, mezzo Isabel Leonard sounded vibrant, even if she didn't always capture the vulnerability of the young postulant who struggles with her fear of death. Though the role was written for soprano, it is often taken by mezzos, and Leonard matched her rich lower register with secure high notes. Her voice contrasted nicely with the light soprano of Erin Morley, who was captivating as Sister Constance, the cheerful country girl who comforts Blanche.

Soprano Patricia Racette brought a sense of serenity and strength to the role of Madame Lidoine, who succeeds the old prioress and leads the nuns to their martyrdom. Mezzo Elizabeth Bishop sang with plush tone as Mother Marie, who is prevented by fate from joining her sisters in death. Baritone David Pittsinger etched a sympathetic cameo as Blanche's aristocratic father, and as her brother, tenor Paul Appleby sang with honeyed tone in the scene where he bids Blanche farewell the closest thing this opera has to a love duet.

Conductor Louis Langree led the orchestra in a wonderfully idiomatic account of the haunting and lushly melodic score.

Dexter's staging looks barely touched by time and remains a marvel of simplicity, starting with the opening image of 13 nuns lying prostrate with arms outstretched on a raised wooden platform shaped like a cross. It reportedly cost less than $100,000 at the time mere pocket change compared with many lavish and less effective productions that have come and gone from the Met stage since.

"Dialogues," first performed at La Scala in 1957, is one of a handful of post-1950 operas that have found a permanent place in the repertory. It's a shame the Met scheduled only three performances in the closing days of the season. Let's hope it won't be another 10 years before we see it again.

___

Online:

http://www.metoperafamily.org/metopera/

Lt. Col. Paddy Ankunda, the Ugandan army spokesman, said four of Gen. David Sejusa's aides are now in police custody for offenses he didn't specify.

"We are waiting for him," Ankunda said, referring to Sejusa. "We are not intimidating him. But he has to come back, especially if he thinks he has no case to answer."

Police and the military have deployed at Uganda's Entebbe International Airport in anticipation of Sejusa's return from a trip to London. Joseph Luzige, a lawyer for Sejusa, said his client could be arrested on arrival and has told the general to "prepare for anything."

"Certainly they want to arrest him, so we have to prepare for that as well," he said.

Sejusa last month wrote a letter to the internal security service calling for an investigation into allegations that high-ranking officials could be assassinated for opposing plans for Museveni's son to succeed his father as president. Sejusa cited himself and the country's prime minister among those in danger.

The allegations have sparked calls for an inquiry among lawmakers who believe Sejusa knows what he's talking about. A decorated hero of the bush war that brought Museveni to power almost three decades ago, Sejusa sits on the army's high command and directs the country's foreign and domestic intelligence services. He is also a qualified lawyer who represents the military in the country's parliament.

Frank Tumwebaze, a government minister who speaks for Museveni, said in a letter published in the local Observer newspaper Sunday that Sejusa has "clear presidential ambitions" and wants "to create a false wave on whose crest he intends to ride" to the presidency.

"With the international community standing on the side of political dissent, who would dare touch a presidential candidate? This is a trend so ugly that comrades of our political generation must shun and despise," Tumwebaze wrote. "To oppose Museveni or the (ruling party), one need not first allege how he or she is being targeted for murder when it is a known fact that the (ruling party) does not eliminate opponents."

The official army hierarchy has ruled Sejusa out of order, saying he is spreading propaganda that undermines unity in the army. Gen. Aronda Nyakairima, the top commander of the Ugandan military, said last week that Sejusa's leaked letter to the internal security service promotes the "agenda of the radical and anarchic political opposition."

Museveni's son, an army brigadier named Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has been rapidly promoted over the years, leading some opposition politicians and analysts to believe he's being groomed to take his father's job. Kainerugaba is now in charge of the country's special forces, an elite unit that protects the president and guards the country's assets such as oil fields.

Museveni is "clearly attempting to ensure" that Kainerugaba or someone from his ethnic tribe becomes his military successor, according to a report in February by the the global intelligence think tank Stratfor. The report predicted that "Kainerugaba will almost certainly be promoted to general within the next two years."

"This places Uganda on another trajectory toward a split or at least toward significant tensions between the political leadership and the army," Stratfor's report said. "There are many fault lines where this could erupt."

Museveni, who has held power since 1986, has never said publicly that he sees his son as a political heir.

Thewas best seen in remote parts of western Australia, where the moon covered most but not all of the sun, leaving a spectacular ring of light around the lunar silhouette. Because the eclipse's path crossed the International Dateline, it began in Australia on Friday, May 10, local time, but ended late Thursday, May 9.

"For the three of us here this was our first , we have done many lunar eclipses, but this was just spectacular!" Michael Johnson of Columbus State University's Coca-Cola Space Science Center told SPACE.com in an email from Coen, Australia, where his team provided a live webcast of the entire solar eclipse. "During the maximum eclipse it was hard not to just stare at the sun (something we had told everyone online and at the site not to do several times)." []Annular solar eclipses are odd celestial events in which the moon passes between Earth and the sun, but is just a bit too far from Earth to completly block out the star, as it does in a total solar eclipse. The result: The moon covered about 95 percent of the sun, casting a to satellites.

Eclipse views from Australia to Hawaii

Only observers along a slender path across Western Australia and some South Pacific islands were in the right position to observe the entire solar eclipse. Some skywatchers, like those in Hawaii, were able to see a partial solar eclipse.

Eclipse watcher Sarah Smigal on Honolulu said she used a child's solar filter tousing a Nikon d3100 camera and a zoom lens. Her photos clearly show the moon taking a "bite" out of the sun.

In the neighboring island of Oahu, observer Kalani Pokipala captured a partial view of the solar eclipse from East Honolulu by photographing the event through an Orion telescope equipped with a welder's glass filter attached for safety. The filter gave the sun an eerie, greenish hue. Pokipala also projected the eclipse onto a piece of cardboard so others could view it safely.

'Ring of Fire' revealed

But the main event, the "ring of fire" created at maximum eclipse, was what floored most observers.

Astronomer Jay Pasachoff of Williams College led a 10-person expedition to a spot about 62 miles (100 kilometers) north of Tennant Creek in Australia's Northern Territory. The team hoped to .

"We can report good success in observing 4 minutes, 20 seconds of annularity at the eclipse today," Pasachoff told SPACE.com in an email report. []

Pasachoff said the team had to wait out some clouds that threatened to interfere with their observations.

"The clouds thinned considerably before annularity, which was observed in pretty clear sky," he added. "The air cooled noticeably when the sun was almost entirely covered, and the shadows sharpened because they were being cast by a thin crescent of sun."

The California-based online skywatching company Slooh Space Camera webcast a live view of the eclipse from Groote Eylandt in Australia's Northern Territory.

"Wow! That was an amazing event," Slooh President Patrick Paolucci told SPACE.com. Paolucci said Slooh had hoped to provide three views of the eclipse from different spots in Australia, but one feed experienced technical glitches while a health issue on site prevented the other.

"The feed in Queensland at a local high school was a bummer - they had over 300 school kids attending the live event - we had a bunch of stuff planned, but the bandwidth at the school overloaded and completely dropped - they never could broadcast," Paolucci said.

The May 9-10 eclipse marked the first solar eclipse of 2013 and came on the heels of anvisible from parts of Africa, Asia and Australia. Another minor lunar eclipse will occur on May 25, followed by a third on Oct. 18.

On Nov. 3, a rare hybrid solar eclipse will occur. It will start out as an annular solar eclipse, yet end as a total solar eclipse, depending on viewing location.

"We now look forward to the next total eclipse of the sun, which will be visible from Gabon, Africa, on November 3," Pasachoff said. "Another annular eclipse, on April 29, 2014, will have its annularity visible only from an inaccessible ocean spot off Antarctica, but Australia will see about 60% coverage."

An indescribable sight

But for some observers, just catching a moment when the moon and sun align can be amazing.

Amateur astronomer Robert White, who lives in north Queensland, grabbed his Fuji Finepix digital camera to photograph the eclipse as soon as he heard it was happening.

"I observed it through clouds that were passing through the area in our backyard," White told SPACE.com in an email. "I had been getting my son ready for school and was listening to the TV when they said the eclipse was happening."

White had protective lenses and glasses left over from the , which was also visible from Australia, so he grabbed them and went outside to take a look.

"This one wasnt quite to par as that one, but it was still a great thing to view," White said. "To feel the dilution of light as the moon passed in front is almost and indescribable feeling."

Editor's note:If you lived in the observing area of this week's solar eclipse and safely snapped an amazing picture of the sun that you'd like to sharefor a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at.

Email Tariq Malik ator follow him andFollow us , and . Original article on .

The latest salvo came a day after China's foreign ministry dismissed as groundless a Pentagon report which accused China for the first time of trying to break into U.S. defense computer networks.

The Pentagon also cited progress in Beijing's effort to develop advanced-technology stealth aircraft and build an aircraft carrier fleet to project power further offshore.

The People's Liberation Army Daily called the report a "gross interference in China's internal affairs".

"Promoting the 'China military threat theory' can sow discord between China and other countries, especially its relationship with its neighboring countries, to contain China and profit from it," the newspaper said in a commentary that was carried on China's Defense Ministry's website.

The United States is "trumpeting China's military threat to promote its domestic interests groups and arms dealers", the newspaper said, adding that it expects "U.S. arms manufacturers are gearing up to start counting their money".

The remarks in the newspaper underscore the escalating mistrust between China and the United States over hacking, now a top point of contention between Washington and Beijing.

A U.S. computer security company, Mandiant, said in February a secretive Chinese military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks that targeted the United States and stole data from more than 100 companies.

That set off a war of words between Washington and Beijing.

China has said repeatedly that it does not condone hacking and is the victim of hacking attacks -- most of which it claims come from the United States.

"As we all know, the United States is the real 'hacking empire' and has an extensive espionage network," the People's Daily, a newspaper regarded as a mouthpiece of the Chinese Communist Party, said in a commentary.

The article -- which was published under the pen name "Zhong Sheng", meaning "Voice of China" -- said "in recent years, the United States has continued to strengthen its network tools for political subversion against other countries".

"Cyber weapons are more frightening than nuclear weapons," the People's Daily said. "To establish military hegemony on the Internet by repeatedly smearing other countries is a dangerous and wrong path to take and will ultimately end up in shooting themselves in the foot."

(Reporting by Sui-Lee Wee; Editing by Michael Perry)

Designated hosts Pakistan were disqualified from last month's Davis Cup tie, played in Myanmar because of security concerns, after referee Ashita Ajigala ruled that the grass court in Yangon had become unplayable and dangerous.

The Pakistan Tennis Federation (PTF) appealed against the ruling but the ITF's Davis Cup Committee upheld the Sri Lankan referee's decision at a meeting on Tuesday.

"It was the view of the Committee that the Pakistan Tennis Federation did not organize the tie to the required standards, notably with regard to the quality of the two available courts," the ITF said in a statement.

The tie was played in Myanmar after New Zealand refused to visit Pakistan due to safety concerns.

"The Committee noted that the poor quality of the original match court led the Referee to designate the practice court as the match court," the ITF statement read.

"Following the deterioration of the second court, specifically during the second match, the Referee determined that this court was now unplayable and a risk to player safety.

"The Referee also deemed that the court would not become playable in the next 24 hours due to its poor condition, and awarded the tie to New Zealand."

The PTF could still appeal to the ITF Board of Directors, the statement added.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; Editing by John O'Brien)

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Improving first-quarter results from some of China's biggest steel and cement firms suggest that Beijing's economic recovery plan may be starting to filter through into corporate profits.

That would bring a leavening touch to data released this week indicating that China's factories are expanding less quickly than expected, more evidence that the pace of recovery is slowing despite a boom in credit supply.

Earnings growth for China-listed companies averaged 10.5 percent for the first quarter, a big improvement from losses in the same period last year of about 10 percent, but still short of the 16.5 percent expected, according to research from CLSA-Fortune Securities.

"Commodities-related companies have all shown some kind of improvement ... but it's still very much a company-specific story at this point," said Shumin Huang, an investment manager with the Greater China team at JP Morgan Asset Management, who declined to make any specific stock mentions.

Most market watchers expect an increase in demand for building materials as the first quarter credit boom translates into fixed asset investment, which should pick up modestly in the second quarter as more infrastructure projects start.

Faced with the possibility of an A-share delisting were it to record a third straight annual loss, Angang Steel Co Ltdmade 550 million yuan ($89.21 million), its first quarterly profit in more than a year.

Angang shares in Hong Kong are now down 19 percent on the year, versus a 4.5 percent slide on the China Enterprises Indexof the leading Chinese listings in Hong Kong.

Although Angang has underperformed the H-share benchmark in the previous three years, it is still trading at 36 times its forward 12-month earnings, a 238.9 percent premium to its median, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine.

Lower fuel prices plus cost cuts the company started implementing in the fourth quarter last year helped. Standard Chartered analysts said Angang's steel inventory declined 10 percent from its peak in mid-March, but industry officials remain cautious.

Late last month, the China Iron and Steel Association warned its members to rein in expectations for the rest of the year. An anticipated increase in demand would not be enough to justify big rises in production in coming months, it said.

NEW YEAR, SAME PROBLEMS

There are also signs of a moderate pickup in cement prices, which some stock-pickers see as a barometer of economic activity in China.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Ting Lu said in a note on April 24 that reported increases of 10 to 15 percent in cement prices were "beyond what seasonality could explain" and in some regions of central China, cement prices were close to the peak recorded in the fourth quarter last year.

Analysts have tended to favor Anhui Conch Cement Co Ltdover its fast-expanding rival China National Building Material , whose quarterly earnings have raised more questions about the success of its aggressive acquisition strategy.

Anhui reported a 22 percent decline in quarterly profit from a year earlier, but Macquarie analysts said China's largest cement maker paid lower production costs. CNBM posted a worse-than-expected 48 percent decline in quarterly net profit, largely due to interest payments on its debt.

Analyst sentiment is shifting on Chinese companies but remains particularly slow on the materials sector. Only 39 percent of the 148 companies in the materials sector recorded an increase last week in their Analyst Revision Model, a StarMine measure of analyst sentiment.

Corporate earnings have largely been flat for the past two years, and investors are concerned that the shrinking margins and high inventories that were the major problems for China Inc last year are dragging into 2013.

Almost three-quarters of China-listed companies and 54 percent of all Hong Kong-listed companies that have posted their earnings for last year missed market expectations, according to StarMine.

67 percent of the 138 China-listed companies that reported first quarter earnings missed expectations, according to StarMine.

"We are expecting a sequential recovery in the second quarter, but bear in the mind the first quarter is a historical low season," said William Fong, who helps manage about $4 billion worth of assets in a set of Barings China funds.

(Additional reporting by Reshma Apte and Patturaja Murugaboopathy in Bangalore; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

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Each year, the NPC confers its Aubuchon award on people whose work and lives have advanced the cause of press freedom and transparency. The annual award goes to one domestic recipient and one international one.

This year, for the first time, the Club is honoring a group of peoplewhistleblowers--rather than an individual person.

NPC President Angela Greiling Keane, a Bloomberg News reporter, said: "By conferring its domestic award on The Whistleblower, the Club is not only honoring those who have bravely stepped forward to become sources for news stories, often at personal risk to themselves or their careers. It is also recognizing a person whose identity is not yet knownwho may be trying to decide whether to speak to a reporter about wrongdoing at a government agency or corporation. In honoring The Whistleblower, the Club is acknowledging that, without sources, reporters can't do their jobs and our democracy can't properly function."

The decision to honor The Whistleblower is also a way of highlighting the extent to which people who speak to the press are increasingly under siege. The threats to sources run along a spectrum. On the lower end, they include a growing tendency to forbid officials and executives from speaking with reporters on the record or on background without handlers present. On the higher end, they include government attempts to prosecute whistleblowers under espionage laws and to try to compel reporters to disclose confidential sources. Sources are increasingly at risk because of the ease with which digital communications can be monitored.

The Club will use the prize money that goes with the domestic Aubuchon award to create programs to educate sources and reporters about protecting identities in this perilous environment.

This year's foreign winner is Zeynep Kuray, a woman reporter who was working for the Istanbul daily newspaper, Birgun, when she was arrested in December 2011. Kuray was one of at least three dozen reporters jailed in Turkey last year, most of whom remain there. She was just released at the end of April 2013, but her charges are still pending. The "evidence" against her includes her reporting on arrests of pro-Kurdish journalists and attorneys.

According to Reporters Without Borders, Turkey, one of America's NATO allies, holds more reporters in jail than any other countrymore, for example, than widely known offenders such as Iran and China.

"No reporter anywhere should be put in jail for the supposed 'crime' of doing his or her job," Greiling Keane said. "That standard applies to every country in the world."

The press-freedom honors will be presented at the Club's annual awards dinner Aug. 6, at which a host of winners in numerous journalism categories will be recognized.

The award is named after John Aubuchon, a former NPC president who was an ardent advocate of press freedom.

The National Press Club, founded in 1908, is the world's leading professional organization for journalists. Located in Washington, D.C., the Club counts among its members more than 3,000 journalists and news sources.

World Press Freedom Day was created in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly. It is celebrated on May 3 each year and has three goals: to evaluate the state of press freedom; to defend the press from attacks on its independence; and to honor those who have sacrificed, sometimes with their lives, to bring the public the news.

Contact: John M. Donnelly, Congressional Quarterly Senior Writer, , 202 650-6738

SOURCE National Press Club

Included onare spaceflight entrepreneur ; breast cancer researcher Kimberly Blackwell; asteroid hunter Don Yeomans; NASA Mars rover Curiosity's project managers; and the scientists who cured an HIV-positive baby.

Leaders in medicine

Kimberly Blackwell, 44, director of theprogram at Duke Cancer Institute, made TIME'slist for her work to develop treatments for this deadly disease. Blackwell's research focuses on a highly aggressive form in which cells produce too much of the protein HER2, which accounts for about one in five breast cancers, according to the Mayo Clinic. Blackwell's treatment approach, known as a "smart bomb," consists of an anticancer toxin that contains an antibody that can recognize the tumor, so healthy cells are not affected meaningfewer side effects and better chances of survival. Film studio executive Sherry Lansing, who wrote the TIMEpiece about Blackwell, had a mother die of cancer. "The brilliant work of Kimberly and scientists like her gives us real hope that we may, at last, be turning the corner in the fight against cancer," Lansing wrote.

Three AIDS researchers Hannah Gay, Katherine Luzuriaga and Deborah Persaud earned kudos from TIMEfor . Gay, a pediatrician at the University of Mississippi; Luzuriaga, an immunologist at the University of Massachusetts; and Persaud, a virologist at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, gave an HIV-positive baby HIV antiviral drugs within hours of its birth. Two-and-a-half years later, the child appears HIV-free, and does not require medication. Although this result represents only a single case, it "gives us more ammunition in the fight against HIV and AIDS," Mark Dybul, director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, wrote in TIME. The treatment offers hope for preventing AIDS in newborns, and possibly even adults a recent study claims 14 other patients have been able to keep their HIV under control.

Space pioneers

in this year's list, as stories of private rocket launches and meteorite impacts dominated the headlines. SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk, 41, appears on one of seven separate TIME covers and is listed in the "titans" category. TIME's tribute by business magnate Richard Branson hails Musk's achievements in private spaceflight (which include two successful unmanned missions to the International Space Station with SpaceX's Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket). Musk, who also founded the companies Paypal, Tesla Motors and SolarCity, also gets a nod for his work in developing clean, renewable energy.

NASA asteroid hunter , 70, made the list in Time's "pioneers" category. Yeomens finds and tracks near-Earth objects, and "is one of the reasons we can all sleep a little better at night," according to former astronaut Rusty Schweickart, who founded the asteroid-hunting B612 Foundation and wrote about Yeomans for Time. Yeomans leads a team at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) that uses data collected by telescopes around the world to predict the trajectory of space rocks that could pose a threat to Earth years or decades from now. This threat was brought home earlier this year by the meteor explosion over Chelyablinsk, Russia, on Feb. 15, and the unrelated flyby of Asteroid 2012 DA14. Someday a stray rock might warrant a deflection campaign to spare humanity from the same fate as the dinosaurs, Schweickart wrote. []

In light of the successful deployment of NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, TIME recognized the missions project managers Peter Theisinger and Richard Cook, of JPL. Theisinger, 67, and Cook, 47, orchestrated the harrowing task of sending an SUV-sized spacecraft to Mars and lowering it on cables to the Red Planet's surface, where it is currently exploring. Seven months after landing, the rover has already found , its primary mission goal. "We can't thank Pete, Richard and their team enough for getting [the rover] there safely, and we should continue to thank them for the wisdom and thrills the rover will bring us as it explores its new home," wrote Caltech space scientist and former JPL Director Ed Stone in TIME.

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Back then, pro boxing was deemed corrupting and exploitative, and the big purses not in line with socialist egalitarian ideals. Now the island is on verge of relaxing the monopoly of amateur boxing by joining a semi-pro league in which athletes are paid by sponsors and fight pro-style bouts, but still retain the Olympic eligibility that's all-important to Cuban sports authorities. Boxers also would fight without the headgear they have grown accustomed to.

While officials caution that no decision has been made yet, it could offer island boxers a chance to earn more money, gain more exposure in high-profile competitions and help staunch the flow of defections that has robbed Olympic delegations of some of Cuba's brightest talent and resulted in disappointing medal counts in recent years.

"It motivates me. It's something new. It's a challenge," world amateur featherweight champion Lazaro Alvarez told The Associated Press at a local tournament in an Old Havana gym. "I would really love to take part to be able to show the world what I am, what Cuban boxing is really all about."

The World Series of Boxing was launched in 2010 by the International Boxing Association and consists of a dozen teams in two divisions.

During four months of league play that begins each fall, semi-pro franchises such as the Algeria Desert Hawks and the USA Knockouts face off in home and away matches, with a post-season playoff in the spring. Some teams are backed by national boxing federations, while others receive at least partial private sponsorship: the Dolce & Gabbana Italia Thunder team, for instance.

Fighters earn $1,000 to $3,000 a month plus bonuses ranging from $500 to $2,000. Bouts are five rounds, unlike three in amateur, with a point system similar to the pros.

That would mean a big raise for Cuban fighters, the most successful of whom collect lifetime stipends of $100-$300 a month after winning Olympic or world medals. Others presumably earn an amount closer to the national average salary of around $20 per month.

In January, World Boxing Association president C.K. Wu visited Cuba for talks with local authorities and announced that they were seriously considering their own franchise.

"We have all the elements so that those who must make a decision have the pros and cons," said Alberto Puig, president of the Cuban Boxing Federation.

Juan Hernandez, a 44-year-old four-time world amateur welterweight champion who now works as a trainer, was optimistic that the island will join the league and breathe life into the sport.

"Cuba seems to be close to taking part in the World Series," Hernandez said. "I would have liked to participate in a tournament like that, of course. It's a great challenge and opportunity for the boxers of today."

If Cubans live for baseball above all other sports, boxing probably ranks second. The first bout took place in 1912 and the annals of Cuban greats include the likes of Kid Chocolate and Kid Gavilan, both winners of professional titles, plus other colorful names like "Lightning" Saguero, "Butter" Jose Legra, the Las Tunas Kid and "Puppy" Garcia.

But in 1961, two years after the Cuban Revolution, all professional sports were banned and the very concept has been anathema to the island government's Marxist ideals ever since.

"In our eyes, sport is not just another instrument of the market ... nor of profit for promoters, agents and all manner of parasites that feed off the athlete's hard work," Fidel Castro said as recently as 2005.

Cuba nonetheless devotes a considerable amount of its scant resources to developing amateur talent and has punched above its weight at international competitions, scoring relatively high in the medal tables for a nation of around 11 million people.

Former pugilists Felix Savon and the late Teofilo Stevenson are among the three boxers in history to win gold medals at three Olympic Games, and Cuba took seven gold medals out of 11 possible at Barcelona in 1992.

Yet low wages, decaying facilities and the lack of opportunities for athletes to test themselves against the best fighters on the professional circuit have all contributed to a long, slow decline and costly defections.

After Olympic champions Odlanier Solis, Yurioski Gamboa and Yann Barthelemy walked away from training in Venezuela in 2006, the Cuban boxing delegation was left short-gloved two years later in Beijing and went home without a single gold for the first time in 36 years.

The debacle set off a flood of national soul-searching, with Castro himself calling for a frank and honest reappraisal of "every human and material resource we dedicate to the sport. We should be profound in our analyses (and) apply new ideas, concepts and knowledge."

In 2011, the country lowered the age of competition from 11 to 9 years old, beginning with a pilot program in Havana, in line with many other countries' boxing programs, and going semi-pro could be the next step toward regaining Olympic glory.

In 2015, World Series league fighters will be battling for 30 automatic tickets for the Olympic games in Rio de Janeiro the following year. AIBA will also hold an individual competition with 70 automatic bids.

Cuban defectors have already shown they can be successful at any level. Guillermo Rigondeaux, who fled in 2009 after a failed defection attempt two years earlier, holds the pro title in the super bantamweight class, and Gamboa was world featherweight champion in 2010.

Island boxers interviewed by the AP were hesitant to talk about money, but their eyes lit up when asked about the league and what Cuba will bring to the competition. They spoke of having to learn to be more defensive as the lack of headgear would leave them more exposed to knockout, but expressed confidence that they're up to the task.

"I think that without boxers from Cuba it wouldn't be a great championship due to our country's skill at this sport," said Julio Cesar La Cruz, world titleholder in the light heavyweight class. "It would be part of my arsenal. It would be good to test myself there with the same goal (as always), which is to be an Olympic champion in Rio."

___

Associated Press writer Peter Orsi in Havana contributed to this report.