PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Henrik Stenson of Sweden birdied the ninth hole after a two-hour weather delay to extend his lead to two shots over Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia in Saturday's third round of the Players Championship.

Stenson, the 2009 champion, took advantage of early bogeys by overnight leader Garcia and world number one Woods to seize the lead with a birdie at the sixth hole that lifted him to 11 under par for the tournament.

Two holes later a warning horn sounded due to the threat of lightning. Upon his return to the course, Stenson extended his lead on the par-five ninth to reach 12-under.

Woods, Garcia were at 10-under through eight holes and were joined on that total by big-hitting Australian Marc Leishman, who birdied the par-five 11th after returning to the course.

Tied for fifth on nine under par were 49-year-old Jeff Maggert (66) and 25-year-old David Lingmerth of Sweden (through 9).

Early starters had fired away at the pins, but as the greens got firmer and the breezes blew stronger, the top contenders had more difficulty scoring.

After the storm passed through the Stadium Course at TPC Sawgrass, the greens had been newly softened by rain and the air had gone still giving players hope for conditions receptive to scoring.

Garcia, the 2008 champion, began the round with a one-shot lead over Woods, who won in 2001, in what is generally referred to as golf's fifth major.

A two-shot swing on the par-five second hole put Woods into the lead on 11-under when the American birdied and the Spaniard took bogey.

Garcia glared over towards at Woods after the Spaniard was distracted on his backswing during his second shot from the fairway by the crowd's roar when the world number one pulled a five-wood for his escape from the trees on the left.

Woods three-putted the par-three third hole to fall back into a tie at 10 under par.

Maggert had joined in a four-way tie for the lead at 10-under after he birdied the par-five 16th but he took his first bogey of the day at the 18th to slip back.

(Editing by Gene Cherry)

So before deploying to Afghanistan last year for her second war tour, she legally changed her name to Naida Christian Nova.

This did not solve her problems.

Instead, matters escalated. Nova complained to her superiors about constant anti-Muslim slurs and jokes. She says they responded with a series of reprisals intended to drive her out of the Army, leading her to consider suicide.

"My complaints fell on deaf ears every time," said Nova, 41, a member of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C. "Any time I would say something about it I was treated like I didn't know what I was talking about or that I'm an idiot or that I was a Muslim sympathizer. It was just a very lonely feeling."

Determined to remain in the service for at least eight years, until she is eligible for retirement, Nova recently re-enlisted. But she agreed to tell her story to The Associated Press because "I don't want this to happen to anyone else if I can help it. It's a horrible to feel like people are against you when you are supposed to be on the same team."

Fort Bragg spokeswoman Sheri L. Crowe said the Army would not comment on the case, and referred questions to the U.S. Department of Justice. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina, assigned to defend the Army, also declined comment.

But her account is supported by an affidavit filed by an old friend, Sharon Deborah Sheetz, who said that Nova had confided in her about the harassment she had suffered, telling Sheetz that she was so unhappy that she no longer wanted to live.

A Farsi linguist who works in military intelligence, Nova's multicultural background exemplifies the kind of soldier Army recruiters prize U.S. citizens with ethnic ties to a part of the world many Americans can't find on a map.

Nova's father, Roy Hosein, was born into a Muslim family on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, where his parents had emigrated from India. He converted to Christianity after meeting Nova's mother, a Catholic from the Philippines, and became a U.S. citizen shortly after his daughter was born in New York. He changed the spelling of his family name to Hosan in the hope his children would avoid discrimination.

"He Americanized it," his daughter explained. "He got Hosan from Hosanna. He kept hearing it in church."

She reported for basic training two months after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

"Before 9-11, my last name never raised an eyebrow," she said. "But after 9-11, I felt compelled to tell people I am a Christian and felt I had to prove I was loyal to the United States."

Her first deployment was to Iraq in 2005. She said other soldiers, including her supervisors, mocked her family name and made crude jokes.

"I was called Sgt. Hussein, as in Saddam Hussein," she said. "Even when I would correct them on the pronunciation of my name, I was still called Sgt. Hussein. I was asked what God I pray to. And there were a lot of references to hajjis, used as a derogatory term."

Hajiis, in fact, are Muslims who have made the pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian birthplace of the prophet Muhammad. But Nova said she regularly heard U.S. troops use the word as racist slang for enemy, terrorist or suicide bomber.

"My uncle is a hajji, because he made the pilgrimage to Mecca in 2005," Nova said. "I would stand up for what I thought was right and say, 'Not all terrorists are Muslims and not all Muslims are terrorists.' That just opened the door for more harassment."

Mikey Weinstein, a former U.S. Air Force officer who founded Military Religious Freedom Foundation, said Nova's experience is not uncommon. Military personnel who are Muslim or perceived to be of Middle Eastern descent are often targets for discrimination, he said.

"When a Muslim soldier, sailor or airman stands up for themselves, they are the subject of vicious reprisal and retribution," said Weinstein, who is Jewish. "What (Sgt. Nova) has gone through is horrible, but it is typical."

In 2007, while serving in Harrogate, England, Nova said co-worker told her and others a racist joke about Muslims. When she objected, Nova said, a supervisor warned her to stop making trouble. Instead, she filed a formal complaint with the Army's Equal Opportunity Branch, the program charged with ensuring the military provides an environment "free of unlawful discrimination and offensive behaviour."

Within days, Nova said she was removed from her job and ordered to take a "command directed" mental health evaluation.

"In writing, the referral said my values were not in line with mission," she said. "They considered me a 'Muslim sympathizer,' that I was too loyal to Muslims."

Rather than address her complaint, Nova said, the Army transferred her to the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg. Though she hoped to make a fresh start with her new unit, word of her complaint followed her to North Carolina.

That treatment worsened after a November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan, a Muslim, is charged with killing 13 people. His name sounded a lot like hers.

Nova changed her name shortly before deploying to Afghanistan last year. She arrived just after worn copies of the Quran were found to have been burned with trash from a U.S.-run prison outside the capital of Kabul, a widely reported incident that triggered violent protests.

The Army responded by initiating a new training program on the proper handling and disposal of Islamic materials. But Nova said she discovered that her unit trashed and burned documents collected through intelligence gathering that contained what could be considered sacred writings.

Nova conferred with an on-base military chaplain, and suggested designating a special box for Islamic materials so they could be disposed of in a more appropriate manner.

"When I brought this up, I was told 'Sgt. Nova, you can't bring your religion to work ...,'" she recalled. "I changed my name, but that didn't change other people's ignorance."

After just two months in Afghanistan, she said her commanders removed her from her job and ordered her back to Fort Bragg.

With the help of a Fayetteville lawyer, Mark Waple, she filed a formal complaint with the Army's Inspector General in October seeking a voluntary discharge due to being subjected to "adverse treatment and negative, prejudicial remarks ... concerning the Muslim faith."

Nova said she grew so depressed that she considered suicide. She checked herself into an on-base hospital for treatment, staying for about a week before returning to duty.

After learning of her IG complaint and hospitalization, Nova's commanders at Fort Bragg responded by filing paperwork to involuntarily end her military career and bar her from reenlistment for "ineffective leadership."

Nova's Army performance review from a few months earlier, a copy of which she provided to AP, shows her as meeting expectations in all categories, with her senior commander rating her potential for promotion and increased responsibility as "superior."

The forced discharge could have imperiled Nova's ability to get a civilian job, denied her Veterans Affairs medical care and educational benefits.

After exhausting her administrative options for fighting her case, Waple helped Nova file a complaint in federal court alleging discriminatory treatment and asking a judge to prevent her discharge.

Rather than fight the case in court, the Army retreated. Shortly before a key hearing before the judge, Waple says he got a call from Army lawyers informing him that the disciplinary action against Nova was "completely off the table." She, in turn, agreed to drop the lawsuit.

Nova re-enlisted in the Army on April 8. She recently married, and is preparing to ship out next month to attend a senior leadership course and then report to a new assignment in Germany.

"I want to put all this behind me. I want to move on to my next duty assignment ...," said Nova. "My beliefs aren't any different from what the Army states as its beliefs and values. I would like to be treated fairly."

___

Follow Associated Press writer Michael Biesecker at twitter.com/mbieseck

Zynga management on Wednesday pleaded for more time for the turnaround effort, saying that the company's business, although stabilized, may not pick up until the latter half of the year.

Analysts said until the company showed more progress on its mobile strategy, it would have to fall back on its popular "Farmville" game and new games such as "Draw Something 2" to draw in and retain gamers and investors.

"Zynga keeps hinting at meaningful changes to come ... profitably, on mobile, but we will need to see it before we can give them credit for it," Macquarie Equities Research analyst Ben Schachter said.

The company now gets 22 percent of its revenue from its mobile platform, up from 12 percent a year earlier, but that share remains modest compared with similarly sized technology companies such as Twitter Inc, which gets more than half of its revenue from mobile users.

"Zynga is unlikely to ever dominate the mobile gaming market in the same way that it has the web-based gaming market for many years," Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter said.

The company aims to tap gamers on smartphones as it loses users on PCs but doubts remain over whether this can sustain its revenues and profits.

"Zynga's path toward renewed growth is uncertain and fraught with competitive and internal risks," Piper Jaffray analyst Michael Olson said in a research note to clients.

The company has also said it would tap into potentially lucrative new revenue streams, after it revised its once-lucrative business partnership with Facebook Inc.

Zynga has in recent months sought to establish a more independent network even at the risk of less visitor traffic from the social media giant and is looking to launch real-money casino games around the world, starting with Britain.

Analysts said though real-money gambling games is a good long-term opportunity, it is unrealistic to think it would boost Zynga's prospects anytime soon.

"Zynga must overcome significant competitive and legislative issues, among others. The near-term impact of real money gaming should be limited," Wedbush's Pachter said.

Shares of the company fell to $3.01 in early trading on Thursday. The company's stock, which listed on the Nasdaq in February 2011 at $10, has lost nearly a third of its value over the past year.

(Reporting by Sayantani Ghosh in Bangalore; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)

Cruz is the newest Hispanic addition to popular children series' cast, playing Armando, or "Mando."

"'Sesame Street' is a magical place. It doesn't matter if you are working there or just visiting, or if you're watching on TV, that magic is always there," Cruz, 26, told The Associated Press. "I grew up watching the show, and for me it was a place that really existed and to which as a child I aspired to go, a place so diverse that I could see myself in the faces of the people that were there. Being on the set now is that, but with cameras."

Cruz's character is a Hispanic writer from Brooklyn who writes everything from short stories to essays and movie scripts. He also loves technology and social media.

The addition expands a cast of Hispanic characters that includes Maria (Sonia Manzano) and Luis (Emilio Delgado), who debuted on "Sesame Street" in 1971 as human characters, as well as Rosita, the charming turquoise monster who joined in 1993 with Mexican puppeteer Carmen Osbahr, who also voices Ovejita.

The show wants to reflect the population changes in the U.S., where Hispanics are the fastest growing minority. It also features African-American, Asian and American Indian characters.

"It's a show that's always cutting edge, that is always aware of what's going on with the population, so by including a character that is young, with new perspectives, Latino, and that bring that new generation, it is carrying on with that message," Cruz said.

Cruz grew up poor in Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, and his mother tuned in to "Sesame Street" so his son would learn English. Cruz studied music and dreamed of being an actor, eventually attending New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. Before "Sesame Street," he appeared on "The Good Wife" and in films "In The Blood," ''White Alligator" and "Chaser."

The casting call for a new Hispanic character on "Sesame Street" attracted hundreds of bilingual actors last August.

"I hadn't seen it, (but) many people who knew me and read the description of what they were looking for sent me messages through Facebook, email and phone telling me, 'You have to do this audition, this is perfect for you.' And that's how I began this process," he said.

"Mando" will make his debut on the 44th season of "Sesame Street," which starts airing on September 16. Carol-Lynn Parente, executive producer of "Sesame Street," said she and her team knew immediately that Ismael was the perfect addition.

"He has a passion for creative expression and a warmth that comes right through the camera," Parente said in a statement.

___

Online:

www.sesamestreet.org

___

Follow Claudia Torrens on Twitter at //www.twitter.com/ClaudiaTorrens

(Reuters) - Seven years after Congress passed a new whistleblower law for the Internal Revenue Service, the tax-collecting agency stands accused of not doing enough, or of not acting swiftly enough, to reward informants who expose tax improprieties.

On Wednesday, under growing pressure from the senator who spearheaded the 2006 legislation, the IRS holds a hearing on proposals it has crafted only now for implementing elements of the law.

Separately, come June, in the first hearing of its kind, the Tax Court is demanding that the IRS explain whether it has made a decision on the claims of a former banker who asserts that six years on, he still is waiting for the IRS to tell him the status of his whistleblower claims against a former employer.

The new proposals to be debated on Wednesday include rules for submitting information to the IRS and the criteria for determining the size of an informant award, among others. In a nod to delays, the new rules include allowing whistleblowers, should they die during the process, to leave any award recovery to heirs. After the hearing, the IRS will weigh the feedback it received before putting in place final regulations.

The senator who pushed for the 2006 law, Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, complains the IRS risks alienating informants by taking years to process claims and then keeping them in the dark. He takes issue with provisions in the regulations which he feels wrongly limit potential whistleblower awards.

The IRS declined to comment, but in a February 11 letter to the senator, Acting Commissioner Steven Miller said the IRS had "made significant progress in implementing the law" and that while the number of awards made is "relatively small," he expects the pace of award grants to increase.

The 2006 law required the IRS to pay awards of 15 to 30 percent for information leading to additional tax collection on disputes involving $2 million or more, and establishing a new whistleblower office reporting directly to the IRS commissioner. Prior to the 2006 law whistleblowers were rewarded but awards to informants were at the IRS's discretion, and generally small.

MIXED PERFORMANCE

In broad terms, the IRS whistleblower program has brought in more tax revenue under the new rules than it had prior to 2006, but its performance has been mixed.

Whistleblower tips last year led to $592 million in additional IRS tax collections, nearly four times as much as the $156 million collected in 2008, according to the agency.

The IRS does not disclose how many whistleblower awards it has made based on the 2006 rules, arguing that to do so could jeopardize taxpayer privacy. Lawyers who represent whistleblowers estimated that the number of awards has been 10 or fewer.

The IRS's only public whistleblower award was September's record-setting $104-million payment to former UBS AG banker Bradley Birkenfeld. A convicted felon, Birkenfeld turned in clients he had formerly helped to stash money in secret Swiss accounts. His work helped the IRS collect hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes.

New whistleblower tips to the IRS fell to 332 last year from a 2009 high of 472, according to the IRS, at a time when whistleblowing tips at other agencies have been on the rise.

For instance, a newly relaunched SEC whistleblower program got more than 3,000 tips in 2012, alleging securities and other types of frauds. At the Justice Department, new whistleblower cases rose 71 percent to 647 in 2012, from 379 in 2008. The IRS declined comment on the comparison.

Compared to programs at the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the IRS program offers the fewest protections for whistleblowers, said Tom Devine, of the Government Accountability Project, a non-profit group that advocates for whistleblowers.

IRS whistleblowers have no legal protection against retaliation by former employers, something the proposed regulations don't take on. Unlike other programs, there are no deadlines by which the IRS must decide a case, and no requirement that it communicate with the whistleblower after submission of a tip.

TAX COURT CASE

In the case of the whistleblower whose complaint will be heard in Tax Court, Joe Insinga, 62, alleges that his former employer Rabobank Group, a Dutch financial concern, helped a number of large corporate clients lower their taxes inappropriately. To support the case, which he brought to the IRS in 2007, he says he provided the tax agency with loan applications, an internal audit report and other documents.

Frustrated for not knowing the status of his case or whether he will ever get the monetary reward he had hoped for, Insinga went to Tax Court in March 2012.

He asked the court to compel the IRS to indicate whether a reward would be forthcoming or not. The IRS responded by arguing that the Tax Court had no jurisdiction in the case. But the court rejected this and last month set a hearing for June 18.

In his order calling for the hearing, Tax Court Judge David Gustafson wrote that could include trying to find out whether the IRS has completed its consideration of Insinga's claim, and if not, what it is still doing on the claim and what it plans to do in the future.

Insinga's case could have wide implications if the Tax Court upholds his position and forces the IRS to be more forthcoming with the more than 1,000 informants the IRS says are actively involved in its program.

The validity of Insinga's claims about Rabobank could not be determined. Rabobank declined a request for an interview, but a spokeswoman said in a statement that Insinga's assertions mischaracterize the facts.

Rabobank does not engage in activities to mislead tax authorities and has always cooperated with all government requests, she said. It is unknown whether the IRS has acted on Insinga's information against Rabobank or any other party.

Some former IRS staffers said it was not surprising that some cases stretch out as long as seven years, given that time-consuming audits can be involved.

After seeing companies he had identified settling tax issues with the IRS for hundreds of millions of dollars, Insinga says the long wait has caused regrets. "If I knew in 2007 what I know today, I would never do it again," he said in an interview.

(Additional reporting by Patrick Temple-West in Washington; Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh, Howard Goller and Phil Berlowitz)

RELATED:

Reacting to the Wednesday's hearings about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya, Peggy Noonan considers where Obama's White House fell short in its response, which inititally painted the attacks as spontaneous rather than deliberately planned. "The Obama White House didn't want any story that might harm, get in the way of or lessen the extent of the president's coming victory. The White House probably anticipated that Mitt Romney would soon attempt to make points with Benghazi. And indeed he did pounce, too quickly, the very next morning, giving a statement that was at once aggressive and forgettable, as was his wont," she writes. "The president's Republican challenger was looking for gain and didn't find it. But here's the thing. More is expected from the president than mere politics. That's why we tend to re-elect them. A sitting president is supposed to be bigger, weightier, more serious than his rival." Meanwhile at The Washington Post  on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role in the administration's response: "I could actually see this helping Clinton politically if her critics, who in the past have overplayed their hand, don’t get a grip. But there is clear political danger here for her, too, which this week’s testimony suggests was evident to Team Hillary from Day One."

RELATED:

"Either by chance or chutzpah — and often both — a character makes it in front of the camera who is either engaging or emblematic — and often both," writes Gary Younge. "Charles Ramsey, who became an internet sensation after he rescued Amanda Berry and her daughter from a house in Ohio, is one such rare, penetrating voice." Young explains the dynamic at play, which took another turn fromtoto something else when : "Working-class African Americans are generally wheeled on as exemplars of collective dysfunction. So when Ramsey emerges as heroic, humane, empathetic, funny, compelling, generous and smart, there is a moment of cognitive dissonance on a grand scale. Here is a man with a criminal past and a crime-fighting present. In his profanity, loquaciousness and animation he conforms to stereotype. ... In his empathy, intelligence and selflessness he contradicts the stereotype." (As , "If I had so much hatred for women, I would have minded my own business this week and walked away instead of risking my life to save someone else.") Younge's colleague , in a letter to Ramsey, adds, "Words can't express what you have done for the families that finally have answers. ... There's not much we can do for the cowards who don't see that you did what the Cleveland Police Department and the FBI could not do for an entire decade." 

RELATED:

Why do peoplefor fake news sites like The Daily Currant? "It's not only because we think these things are true; it's also because we want to believe that they are true. It's why conservatives go to Fox News, liberals to MSNBC, and libertarians spoon with a copy of Atlas Shrugged in bed at night. In the case of Jim Porter, the NRA president, it fits squarely into a pre-existing belief that the Evil Right from the South would actually be looking forward to a time when slavery was legal again," referring toabout Porter. "Satire is at its best when it takes a lie and makes it seem true, not when it takes a truth and twists it into a lie." Over at Salon,  The Onion in particular, overabout Chris Brown and Rihanna: "When it comes to what’s funny or not funny, one’s mileage may, as the saying goes, vary. What you find hilarious, someone else might find horribly unfunny or gratuitously mean. But while any one of [these] Onion jokes might not be cause for concern, taken together they suggest an organization whose masterful light touch is slowly eroding into bile."

RELATED:

 Does Elizabeth Warren truly considera politically viable option? Megan McArdle doesn't think so: "Banks get a very low rate because they're borrowing for very short periods of time — often overnight, always less than a year. ... Students, on the other hand, are borrowing for a decade, and the only thing they're putting up as a guarantee is their character.  How good a collateral is their character?" McArdle continues: "This isn't really a serious proposal, in the sense that it has any chance of getting passed. Elizabeth Warren is a very smart woman who knows how the financial system works; she's very well aware of why student loans are expensive relative to the Fed's discount window. ... But passing this bill probably isn't the point.  Rather, it's a populist values statement: we like students, we don't like banks. As such, it's probably going to be quite effective. But only among people who don't know much about the banking system." : "Advocating against charging students nine times what banks pay is likely to win Warren some popular support, but that doesn’t mean the proposal is likely to make it through Congress."

Police officer Mohammed Wahid Khan says the bomb was detonated by remote control Tuesday as a vehicle carrying local Pakistan People's Party leader Zahir Shah passed by in Babagam village in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Khan says the dead included Shah, two of his guards and two of his supporters. The blast also wounded five people.

Police officer Mohammed Rasool says Shah was in the area campaigning for his brother, who is running for provincial assembly.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The suicide rate among Americans aged 35 to 64 rose sharply between 1999 and 2010, a trend that could reflect the stresses of a sharp economic downturn as well as other traditionally overlooked challenges of middle age, according to a federal report released on Thursday.

The annual rate of suicide rose 28 percent among Americans aged 35 to 64 during the study period, but changed little for older and younger people, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The number of suicides among people in their 50s doubled in that time frame.

"Traditionally, we focus suicide prevention on adolescents and the older retired population, but the results of this study really emphasized the public health burden faced by the middle aged population," said Dr. Thomas Simon, a researcher with the CDC's Injury Center.

"There are unique risks at each developmental stage," said Simon, pointing to bullying and confusion about sexuality in teenagers and getting used to retirement for seniors. "And then there are some particularly salient challenges for the middle-aged group: divorce, job loss, and dual care-giving."

The increase in the U.S. over the past two decades may also reflect the influence of the weak economy - suicides generally rise during downturns - and an increase in the use of prescription opioid painkiller drugs, the CDC said.

The U.S. economy twice went into recession during the study period, briefly in 2001 and sharply during the so-called Great Recession of December 2007-June 2009 that sent the unemployment rate as high as 10 percent.

The pressures of the downturn took a heavy toll on the middle-aged, some of whom had to care for both children and aging parents, as well as deal with their own health problems, the study found.

Simon said that more research is needed to determine whether suicide rates among middle aged people will fall if the economy improves or demographic shifts eventually alleviate the dual childcare and elder-care burdens faced by the so-called "sandwich generation."

The U.S. had an overall suicide rate of 12.4 for every 100,000 in 2010, according to CDC data. By comparison, the average for European Union countries was 10.2 per 100,000 inhabitants. Lithuania had the highest rate, with 29.4 suicides per 100,000 and Cyprus, Italy, Greece and Spain all had fewer than 6 suicides per 100,000 in 2010, according to Eurostat.

In the study, the CDC warned that the actual toll from suicide may be higher than it appears, as some possible suicides are classified as undetermined in the National Vital Statistics System, which provided the data on which the study was based.

The report drew attention to especially high increases of suicide among Native Americans, for whom the rate rose by 65 percent overall - 60 percent among men and more than 81 percent among women. The suicide rate rose 40 percent for non-Hispanic whites.

The most common ways people killed themselves were by using firearms, poison - often by overdosing on drugs - and suffocation, typically by hanging, a method for which the suicide rate increased by 81 percent between 1999 and 2010.

In 2010, there were 33,687 U.S. deaths from motor vehicle crashes, compared to 38,364 suicides, according to the CDC.

(Reporting by Atossa Araxia Abrahamian; Editing by Scott Malone, Lisa Von Ahn and Chris Reese)

For someone who has not won since 2005 and is without a top-10 finish on the European Tour for over two years, Derksen's two early bogeys seemed to suggest a continuation of his wretched form.

The twice European Tour winner, however, staged a remarkable comeback, rolling in three birdies to turn in 34 and firing four more in a strong back nine.

"It was a funny day, because I started well with a birdie from about five feet, but then three-putted the third and fourth and ended up in three divots on the fairways later in the round," said Derksen.

"It's only the first day, I know, but I haven't led a tournament for quite a while, so if I can keep rolling in the putts, hopefully we could be in for a good week," said Derksen.

With three of the European Tour's last five winners lurking two shots behind, it may not be easy in the $3.2 million tournament co-sanctioned by OneAsia and the European Tour.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat of Thailand, Frenchman Raphael Jacquelin and Australian Brett Rumford carded matching 68s with six players a further short back including former British Open champion Paul Lawrie.

"It was a good test for the first round back after my victory last week," said Rumford, last week's Ballantine's Champion, after a bogey-free round at Tianjin's Binhai Lake Golf Club.

"It's just a matter of 'keep doing what you're doing'."

Aphibarnrat, who won his maiden European Tour title at the Malaysian Open in March, was taking a similar approach.

"I have played well for three or four weeks in a row now, and will try to finish high up the leaderboard again this week," said the Thai who carded five birdies and a solitary bogey in his opening round.

(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi, editing by Ed Osmond)

[More from BGR: ]

Expect Labs is hoping to take its technology even further, however. Chief executive and founder Timothy Tuttle predicts that in a few years connected devices will know who we are, understand what we say, and be far more capable of interpreting our intentions and anticipating our needs.

[More from BGR: ]

The company said that the new investments will help it speed up development and extend its technology to different industry verticals and geographic markets.said that it looks forward to integrating new types of intelligent, voice-driven and context aware applications into its smartphones, tablets and smart TVs.

This article was