Cut a staggering $4 trillion from deficits while protecting big benefit programs, subsidizing more health care, plowing extra money into education and avoiding tax increases on everyone except the rich? Not on this Earth.

The postelection reality is starting to shake out now, though how it will all settle can't yet be known.

To reach for his promised deficit reduction, Obama has proposed breaking his tax promise. Toward the same end, his pledge from four years earlier that he wouldn't trim cost-of-living benefits in Social Security has given way to a proposal to do just that.

None of that might happen.

Republicans, who oppose tax increases, and Democrats, who object to curbs on entitlements, could block his path and in doing so save Obama from breaking his own promises.

If they do, though, that big pledge to bring down deficits by $4 trillion would surely have no hope at all.

That's the overarching dilemma in a catalog of campaign promises facing varying prospects over the next few years.

Obama is driving toward success on his energy goals. He's got a decent chance of achieving an immigration overhaul. Activists who once ridiculed his promise to be a "fierce advocate" of gay rights say he's come around and become just that.

Much else is bogged in the budget swamp or is a nonstarter for one reason or another. Anything costing big money comes with big obstacles, and one promise that cost relatively little, gun control, is dust. Yet Obama, in powering through with his health care overhaul, financial regulation and stimulus spending in his first term, has shown that tough causes aren't always lost ones.

A look at Obama's leading promises and what's happening with them:

Debt:

The promise: Cut deficits by $4 trillion over a decade.

Prospects: Deals with Congress to cap spending and raise taxes on wealthier people, along with the resulting savings on interest payments on the debt, have already achieved a projected $2.6 trillion in deficit reduction for the years ahead. But the rest of the $4 trillion will be tough. To get there, he proposes a 10-year $583 billion tax increase, an additional layer of tax increases from slower indexing of tax brackets for inflation and modest curbs to federal health care programs, all helping to produce further interest savings.

Republicans are so far standing firm against further tax increases and liberal Democrats are a tough sell on trimming entitlement programs and other spending. This, as the Congressional Budget Office warns that "such high and rising debt would have serious consequences" if unchecked. Among those consequences are reduced national savings and investment, a potential fiscal crisis and higher interest costs for the government.

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Economy:

The promise: An approach to deficit reduction that doesn't undermine the recovery or unduly burden the middle class. Also, cut some corporate tax rates, penalize those who shift work overseas and create 1 million manufacturing jobs by 2016.

Prospects: Obama has had mixed success cutting the deficit without slowing growth. He struck a deal with Congress to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a set of tax increases and spending cuts in January. Businesses responded by stepping up hiring and spending.

But he and Republican leaders allowed Social Security taxes to rise, cutting take-home pay for nearly all working Americans. He wasn't able to avoid $85 billion in automatic spending cuts that started March 1.

Manufacturing has been creating more jobs but adding 1 million more by 2016 is unlikely. That would require 250,000 new factory jobs per year, nearly double the current pace. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent in April, the lowest in four years of recession and ragged recovery. The economy is growing modestly but steadily. It expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter.

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Education:

The promise: Raise the high school graduation rate from 78 percent to 90 percent by 2020 and make the country No. 1 in college graduates by that year. Cut federal money to colleges that don't control tuition costs.

Prospects: A rocky path at best. There's little momentum in Congress for the spending required, his pledge to make the U.S. first in college graduates is a long shot and tuitions are climbing without the promised federal penalty.

Obama has proposed $36 billion for Pell Grants in 2013. Yet those grants now cover less than one-third of the cost of a four-year public college. In 1980, they covered 69 percent of the costs.

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Energy:

The promise: Cut oil imports by half by 2020.

Prospects: He could well deliver on this promise. New drilling technologies have unlocked enormous domestic reserves of crude oil and natural gas. Policies that mandate increasing use of renewable fuels and better vehicle fuel economy have helped slash demand. That has translated into a dramatic reduction in oil imports and increase in diesel and gasoline exports.

But oil and gasoline are global commodities. If Mideast turmoil disrupts oil production there, prices worldwide will rise, even if the U.S. gets little or no oil from that region. The U.S. economy won't ever be free from the effect of high oil prices. It just may be able to get much less oil from abroad.

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Entitlements:

The promise: No cuts in Social Security cost-of-living increases. Protect Medicare from Republican proposals to turn it into a voucher-like program.

Prospects:Obama is ready to break his Social Security pledge from the 2008 campaign. He favors a new measure of inflation that would gradually trim benefit increases in Social Security, Medicare and other programs. The change, if adopted, eventually would cut Social Security benefits $560 a year for an average 75-year-old, $136 for a 65-year-old.

His approach to Medicare savings is different from one proposed by House Republicans to transform the program. He'd cut Medicare payments to service providers and is proposing that a growing share of seniors pay higher premiums over time, based on their incomes. Such Medicare changes were foreseen before the 2012 election. Meantime, Washington is expanding Medicaid to bring in more of the low-income uninsured.

For years, budget hawks have insisted that huge entitlements must be on the table for true fiscal discipline to be achieved. They're on the table now.

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Gay rights:

The promise: Be a "fierce advocate" for gay rights. Obama endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

?Prospects: The course for gay marriage will be shaped by the Supreme Court, expected to rule on the matter in June. It's allowed in 10 states and the District of Columbia; many other states seem unlikely to follow suit unless forced by Congress or the court. But cultural attitudes are changing, as did Obama's views. His administration argued in favor of gay marriage rights to the court.

It seems unlikely the court will order gay marriage to be legalized in all states but its ruling could help same-sex married couples on estate taxes, Social Security benefits and other tangible matters. In his first term Obama lifted the ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces.

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Global warming:

The promise: "Continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet."

Prospects: Obama probably will take more steps to reduce the pollution blamed for climate change, but they are unlikely to be of the scale needed to help much in slowing the heating of the planet. Any policy to reduce heat-trapping pollution will target coal burned by power plants and oil refined for automobiles; those industries have powerful protectors in both parties.

Obama has acted on his own, to increase mileage standards and impose pollution control on future power plants. More such executive action is likely; a law is not.

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Gun control:

The promise: Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, expand background checks, and more, a postelection pledge made after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Prospects: Obama said he would "put everything I've got into this." His everything wasn't enough. Entrenched support for gun rights and a powerful campaign by the National Rifle Association blocked efforts to pass a single aspect of Obama's package, the first attempt to significantly change the nation's gun laws in over two decades.

Polling found as many as 90 percent of those questioned supported expanded background checks, but even that fell short in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

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Health care:

The promise: Ensure access to affordable insurance for all and no gutting of Medicare or Medicaid.

Prospects: Obama is likely to achieve his goal of extending coverage to the uninsured. Affordability is another question. Costs are expected to go up, not down, contrary to what Obama promised in his first term.

Some Medicare cuts Obama is willing to enact would hit beneficiaries. Well-to-do seniors and growing numbers of upper middle-class retirees could face higher monthly premiums.

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Immigration:

The promise: Overhaul the immigration system to provide eventual citizenship to those who came here illegally, tighten borders and smooth legal immigration.

Prospects: Obama failed to deliver on his first-term promise to rework immigration law. His chances of pulling that off are much better now.

Even with a bipartisan Senate group having released legislation to accomplish those goals, however, success is not certain. Even so, the political climate is ripe for change thanks to a shift in Republican attitudes in 2012, when Latino and Asian voters backed Obama in record numbers.?

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Iran:

The promise: "Do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Prospects: Sanctions are destroying Iran's economy but not its will to enrich more uranium. By his own timeline, Obama has about a year left to see if diplomacy and sanctions can get Iran to slow its enrichment of uranium and assure the world its nuclear program is peaceful. If the U.S. and its partners cannot succeed, the stage may be set for an American or Israeli military intervention.

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Taxes:

The promise: Raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. No tax increases for people making less. Ensure millionaires pay at least 30 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Prospects: Obama's 2014 budget, if passed, would break his promise to avoid any tax increases for middle and low-income people. He proposes a new inflation yardstick that would expose most people to higher income taxes, especially poorer workers.

He kept his promise to raise taxes on the rich, though at different income levels than he laid out in the campaign: $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Republicans dismiss his proposed minimum rate for millionaires as a gimmick.

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Associated Press writers Dina Cappiello, Philip Elliott, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Christopher S. Rugaber, Stephen Ohlemacher, Jonathan Fahey, Bradley Klapper, Erica Werner, David Crary, Nedra Pickler, and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Global tablet shipments more than doubled in the first quarter and while Apple remained the top seller, Asian manufacturers making low-end gadgets accounted for a major chunk of the growth, according to a report.

Tablet shipments reached 49.2 million units in the January-to-March period, 142.4 percent more than in the same quarter in 2012, market research firm IDC said on Wednesday. Apple's iPads accounted for 19.5 million units, an increase of 65.3 percent.

Samsung Electronics, Asus, Amazon Inc and Microsoft all grew their tablet shipments and eked out market share gains against Apple.

But the biggest jump in market share came from other Asian manufacturers churning out inexpensive devices sold globally to customers including Staples, Toys R Us, Hewlett-Packard and Toshiba, IDC analyst Ryan Reith told Reuters.

"There's no question the growth is at the low end of the market," Reith said. "It's 80 to 100 vendors distributing no-name brands across the world - and those are just the ones we can get a sense of."

Those devices are almost all based on Google's Android platform, have 7-inch displays and are powered by no-frills processors from Asian chipmakers like Rockchip and Allwinner Technology, Reith said, adding they often wholesale for less than $60 each.

Shipments of tablets outside the top five vendors surged to 15.5 million units in the first quarter and accounted for nearly a third of the market, up from a quarter of the market a year ago, according to the report.

That growth helped push the market share of tablets running Android higher than Apple's iOS platform for the first time. Android tablets accounted for 56.5 percent of shipments in the March quarter, compared to 39.6 percent for iPads. Tablets running Microsoft's new Windows and Windows RT platforms accounted for 3.7 percent of total shipments.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

It's been more than three weeks since Mandela was released after a 10-day stay in the hospital, the third time in five months that he was hospitalized for a recurring lung infection.

"We saw him, he's looking very good, he's in good shape," Zuma told the South African Broadcasting Corp. on the doorstep of Mandela's Johannesburg home. "We had some conversation with him, shook hands, he smiled, as you can see him, that he's really up and about and stabilized. We're really very happy. We think that he's fine."

But the SABC video shows Mandela in an armchair, his head propped up by a pillow, his legs on a footrest and covered by a blanket, looking grey-skinned and unsmiling with his cheeks showing what appear to be marks from a recently removed oxygen mask.

Zuma jokes and laughs with two officials of the governing African National Congress, some Mandela family members and the former president's medical team while Mandela stares straight ahead, unresponsive. Zuma tries to hold Mandela's hand but, given his lack of response, ends up covering it with his own.

"Smile, smile," Mandela is urged as one of his grandsons grabs a cell phone to take a picture.

Mandela attempts a weak smile but, as the flash goes off, he closes his eyes and purses his lips. Mandela is known to dislike camera flashes, because his eyes are sensitive after years of working in the glare of a limestone quarry when he was imprisoned on Robben Island.

Mandela does not appear to speak during the televised portion of the visit, except for an "Oh," that could have been a gasp for breath, and one word to his doctor.

Monday's video likely will cause more concern for the many South Africans who revere Mandela as the founder of a free South Africa and who were buoyed by the aging icon's release from the hospital and family statements that he is doing as well as can be expected, for a 94-year-old. Mandela's 95th birthday is in July.

Social networks buzzed with criticism after the SABC video was aired Monday night.

"Everyone around him was all smiles but him. It was so hard and painful to see," said a post on Instagram.

"I didn't like seeing that footage ... There was something undignified about the whole affair," wrote one Twitter user.

Another attacked the government: "Mandela is not in good shape, the government have the nerve to lie straight to our faces."

In a string of criticism there was one, mild thumbs-up: "I don't think it was opportunistic of the ANC to publicize their home visit."

Zuma is expected to run for re-election next year and Mandela's name is the biggest drawing card of his ruling African National Congress party.

Mandela's forgiving spirit and belief in racial reconciliation helped hold South Africa together when it came to the brink of civil war before elections in 1994. The Nobel Peace laureate, who was imprisoned for 27 years by the racist white regime, became the first democratically elected president of South Africa that year.

The online Slooh Space Camera will broadcast live shots of Comet ISON beginning today (April 30) at 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) using a remotely operated observatory off the west coast of Africa in the Canary Islands. This is the second ISON update in as many months from Slooh, and you can .

Slooh's President Patrick Paolucci, Slooh engineer Paul Cox and SPACE.com managing editor Tariq Malik will participatein today's webcast. "Our goal with these ISON update shows is to give the general public an early view of this comet as it heads toward the Sun and Earth prior to its encounters in late November and December respectively," Paolucci said in a statement. []

Slooh isn't the only organization watching ISON. NASA has organized ausing ground and space-based telescope to track the comet as it makes its way through the solar system.

It is now on its way toward the inner solar system from its birthplace in the Oort cloud a mass of icy bodies on the outer edge of the solar system. Its closest pass of the sun will bring it within 730,000 miles (nearly 1.2 million kilometers) of the star on Nov. 28.

The "sungrazing" comet is expected to brighten as it gets closer to the sun, earning its "comet of the century" moniker. It is possible that ISON will shine as brightly as the moon when it makes its close pass of the sun, but the comet could also fizzle out before brightening, NASA experts say.

Astronomers have trouble predicting ISON's brightness because it is the first time the comet has been observed.

ISON officially named C/2012 S1 (ISON) was first discovered in September 2012 by Russian amateur astronomers Artyom Novichonok and Vitali Nevski.

The comet is named after the International Scientific Optical Network, the telescope responsible for its discovery.

You can also follow the webcast directly at the .

Editor's note: If you have an amazing picture of Comet ISON or any other night sky view that you'd like to share for a possible story or image gallery, send photos, comments and your name and location to managing editor Tariq Malik at .

Follow Miriam Kramer onand . Follow us on , and . Original article on .

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Like her 2009 Pulitzer Prize-winning book "Olive Kitteridge," much of Elizabeth Strout's new novel takes place in a small Maine town in which the characters tackle big issues.

"The Burgess Boys" centers on the family dynamics that play out between the title characters, Jim and Bob Burgess, and their sister Susan, who calls upon her brothers to smooth out a scandal involving her son. As they deal with the fallout, the siblings' relationships shift and evolve.

"Those early impressions of the world, you share those with your siblings, and I think that's a very hard bond to break," Strout, 57, said in an interview.

The siblings are bonded by a tragic accident that killed their father when they were children, haunting them and their and their interrelations well into their adult years.

When Susan's loner teenage son Zach heaves a pig's head into a mosque, the brothers - flashy celebrity lawyer Jim and diffident public defender Bob - return to mitigate the legal consequences and smooth tensions between the white Mainers and the Somali immigrant community, as well among themselves.

The book has surged up the best seller list since its release on March 26, and currently holds the No. 3 spot on the New York Times list of best-selling fiction. Critics have lauded Strout's precision in capturing the texture of her characters, though some have criticized the book's scope as being too broad.

Strout acknowledged that childhood behavior patterns can be hard to change, but said the transformations that occur within the Burgess family show that it is possible to break old habits.

"I think by the end of the book they have shifted positions so dramatically in terms of their dynamics, and Jim has fallen so far from his original perch," she said. "And they've established a new way of seeing each other."

LOCAL TENSIONS, CLASHING CULTURES

In addition to family dynamics, Strout wades into the often troubled relationship between older, white Mainers and newer arrivals from different cultures like the Muslim refugees from Somalia.

The book includes a few brief sections from the point of view of a local Somali man, and details the white population's sometimes clumsy attempts to reach out to the Somalis while privately puzzling over many of their practices.

Despite the seemingly provocative nature of throwing a severed pig's head into a mosque, meek and friendless Zach claims his action was a teenage prank gone wrong and that he had no idea that it would be taken so seriously.

Strout said she based the incident in "The Burgess Boys" on real events.

"As a citizen I certainly find the act reprehensible," Strout said. "As a novelist, I get the luxury of not having to judge the person who did it, but rather make him up."

"It seemed much more interesting to me, novelistically speaking, to go in there and not just have him some kind of skinhead who is just a complete racist, because where is the friction in that for the reader?"

Whether family or neighbors from other countries, Strout believes that the most effective way to surmount difference is what she summed up as "forced confinement with the other."

"I think really that the only way a person can open their heart to someone who is so much an other is really by knowing them ... whether that's in a classroom, or a soccer team, or a food pantry, or any of those things," she said.

"I mean, we're kind of more alike than we are different."

(Reporting by Andrea Burzynski; Editing by Chris Michaud and Eric Walsh)

Mothers who pick up their infants and walk with them when they are crying trigger a specific set of emotional and physical responses,published in the journal Current Biology on Thursday. Researchers believe the responses originally developed to promote bonding between a mother and her child.

In aof the study, scientists point out that the mothers of many mammalian species demonstrate this carrying behavior. They claim that this is the first time that the anecdotal evidence regarding the efficacy of carrying and other soothing techniques demonstrated by mothers has been the subject of scientific research.

Here is some of the key information that emerged on Thursday regarding this new study into the mother-infant bonding process.

* The behaviors that the scientists measured, which included a specific set of "central, motor, and cardiac regulations" all were triggered specifically by mothers carrying their infants while walking. Mothers who were sitting and holding their babies did not trigger nearly the same level of response in their infants, according to the researchers' report.

* Measured responses to being picked up and carried included a rapid decrease in heart rate, as well as a halt to voluntary movement and crying.

* Researchers who conducted the study believe that the behaviors developed to increase mother-infant bonding. Specifically, that these behaviors in infants, which they defined as "innate," are meant to promote "maternal proximity" by triggering a particular set of responses to being separated from their mothers, according to the report in Current Biology.

*the study was a particularly small one, involving a sample group of just 12 infants and their mothers. The babies were all between the ages of 1 month and 6 months old.

* Researchers observed that when an infant began crying, if their mother picked them up and began walking around, that there was an observable "automatic change" to the mother's actions, according to the MyHealthNewsDaily report.

* This response has led the researchers to speculate that carrying an infant may be a more effective way to soothe them than other techniques, including rocking.

* Although this particular study specifically looked at an infant's response when picked up by their mother, the scientists were quick to point out that any primary caregiver -- whether father, grandparent, or other adult in the household -- may be able to trigger the same responses.

* The researchers also tested mice to see if the same behavioral mechanisms would reveal themselves, which they did.

TORONTO (Reuters) - The playoffs for a National Hockey League (NHL) season that nearly never was open on Tuesday with memories of a bitter labor dispute all but forgotten in favor of an intriguing race for the Stanley Cup.

A compacted 48-game schedule that began in January with NHL players and owners apologizing to disgruntled fans and promising a season packed with unpredictable results delivered in spades, setting the stage for an equally fascinating playoffs.

The top-ranked Pittsburgh Penguins in the Eastern Conference and Chicago Blackhawks in the Western Conference begin as clear favorites to meet in a best-of-seven games Stanley Cup final that will be played in steamy late-June temperatures.

But if there are any lessons to be taken from past years, it is that anything can happen. The Los Angeles Kings proved this just last season by sneaking in as an eighth seed and upsetting the Western Conference's top three teams before defeating the New Jersey Devils to claim the franchise's first Stanley Cup.

The Kings are back in the postseason ready to open defense of their crown against the St. Louis Blues as part of a 16-team playoff for hockey's 'Holy Grail.'

To get their names engraved on Lord Stanley's famous mug, however, players must survive one of sports' ultimate tests of endurance and win four punishing best-of-seven series before finally hoisting the silver Cup.

No team knows more about the playoff grind than the Detroit Red Wings, who are in the postseason for a 22nd consecutive year while the Toronto Maple Leafs snapped what had been the longest active playoff drought by returning to the postseason for the first time since 2004.

The Red Wings, who needed a win in their final regular season game to extend their streak, open against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday while the Maple Leafs face the Boston Bruins in an Original Six matchup starting on Wednesday.

For hockey purists, the playoffs will provide a blast of nostalgia with all six original NHL franchises (Boston, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, Montreal Canadiens and New York Rangers) competing for the first time since 1996.

The opening round will also feature the first playoff clash between clubs from Montreal and rival Ottawa since the Montreal Maroons and the original Senators franchise faced off in 1928.

Not since the Canadiens celebrated the last of their 24 Stanley Cups in 1993 has the treasured trophy been paraded through the streets of a Canadian city and the country is thirsting to see that drought end.

PLENTY OF FIREPOWER

Canadian attention will be focused on Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and the Vancouver Canucks, who will all carry the hopes of a hockey-mad nation into the playoffs and try to return the Cup to its spiritual home.

Pittsburgh and Chicago enter the playoffs as the betting favorites with good reason after record-smashing seasons.

The Blackhawks, who open against the Minnesota Wild, spent the entire campaign atop the West standings earning points in each of their first 24 games to shatter the longest previous season-opening streak of 16 games set by Anaheim.

With plenty of firepower, led by Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews, the league's stingiest defense and spectacular play from journeyman netminder Ray Emery, Chicago lost just seven times in regulation to claim the franchise's second Presidents' Trophy, as the NHL team with the best regular season record.

In the East, the Penguins also took a run at the NHL record book reeling off 15 consecutive win in March to become the first team to post a perfect calendar month (minimum, 10 games).

Already with a star-studded lineup featuring league most valuable players Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, the Penguins loaded up for a Stanley Cup run at the trade deadline by adding former scoring champion Jarome Iginla from Calgary, Dallas forward Brenden Morrow and San Jose defenseman Douglas Murray.

Crosby, who was putting together another MVP campaign, missed the last month of the schedule with a broken jaw but is expected to be on the ice when the Penguins open against the New York Islanders on Wednesday.

With Crosby fit and Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin back in top form fans are anticipating a potential showdown between the league's two marquee players.

Ovechkin opened the season in a funk but finished in a flurry by scoring 23 goals in his final 23 contests to capture the Rocket Richard trophy as the league's top goal scorer.

The Capitals and Rangers will meet in the playoffs for the fourth time in five seasons with Ovechkin going up against Henrik Lundqvist, the NHL's reigning Vezina Trophy winner as top netminder.

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

MELBOURNE, April 20 (Reuters) - Australian soccer authorities will ask CONCACAF for a formal briefing as to the fate of over $400,000 earmarked for a stadium in Trinidad but which is alleged to have been misappropriated by the regional body's former president, Jack Warner.

CONCACAF's integrity committee released a detailed report on Friday which accused Warner and former general secretary Chuck Blazer of fraud and financial mismanagement.

CONCACAF is the governing body for soccer in North and Central America and the Caribbean.

As part of its findings, the committee reported that Warner had misused funds provided by Football Federation Australia (FFA) to support the upgrade of a stadium in Port of Spain, Trinidad.

"The evidence reviewed by the Committee also shows that Warner obtained through fraud and then misappropriated $462,200 provided to CONCACAF by Football Federation Australia ("FFA") in 2010," the report said.

The stadium was part of the Joao Havelange Centre of Excellence in which CONCACAF invested $25.9 million, which included loans from FIFA, but was found by the report to have been built on lands privately owned by Warner and not by the confederation.

The FFA said they had assisted CONCACAF in their investigation but had only "just been drawn to this area of the report".

"FFA ... looks forward to hearing formally from CONCACAF on its findings and taking the matter from there," the governing body said in a statement emailed to Reuters on Saturday.

The FFA said the funding related to "mandatory" World Cup bidding criteria and was intended to demonstrate their credentials in the area of international development.

"This was one of a range of international development projects FFA undertook, which were fully reported to the Australian government as part of its bid reporting processes."

Australia spent more than A$45 million of taxpayer funds on its ill-fated bid for the 2018 World Cup won by Qatar, splashing large sums on overseas soccer development projects, but was eliminated in the first round after garnering only a single vote from FIFA's executive committee.

David Simmons, a former Barbados chief justice, said the Centre of Excellence was no longer an asset of CONCACAF, but the regional body was looking into legal options.

Warner, who stepped down from his soccer functions two years ago and is Minister of National Security in the Trinidad and Tobago government, dismissed the report as "baseless" in a statement. (Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Alas, on Saturday she wasn't up to any heavy lifting.

The three-time Key Biscayne champion withdrew from the Sony Open because of a lower back injury shortly before her third-round match against fellow American Sloane Stephens.

Williams, seeded 19th, was extended to three sets in the second round Thursday against Kimiko Date-Krumm. She said her back began to bother her Friday, and she decided after warming up that she couldn't play.

"It's really disappointing," she said. "But I have faced disappointments in my life and my career. It's not the first; probably not the last."

The cancellation cost the tournament the day's most appealing match, pitting a rising star against a seven-time Grand Slam champion. The 20-year-old Stephens upset Serena Williams at the Australian Open and is ranked a career-best 16th.

"I'm a little bummed, but I guess a win is a win," Stephens said. "On to the next round."

She'll play defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska on Monday, and could face a rematch against Serena Williams in the semifinals.

With evening traffic on the island in a snarl, five-time champion Serena rode a bicycle to her third-round match and beat Ayumi Morita 6-3, 6-3. Williams borrowed the bike at her hotel, fearful she might be late if she took a car.

"It was probably one of my best memories I think ever, riding a bike to a match," the No. 1-ranked Williams said. "That's pretty cool."

Venus Williams wasn't in a mode for either bicycling or tennis. She said she hopes the back ailment won't prevent her from playing in her next scheduled tournament at Charleston, S.C., beginning April 1.

"That's always a concern, but I have dealt with injuries before in my whole career," she said. "I feel like also I know how to hopefully recover quickly from them."

The 32-year-old Williams hasn't beaten a top-10 opponent since August, and has played in just three tournaments this year. She lost in the third round at the Australian Open to Maria Sharapova, and was beaten by No. 109-ranked Olga Puchkova in the semifinals of the Brazil Tennis Cup last month.

Williams won the title in 1998, 1999 and 2001, and was appearing at Key Biscayne for the 14th time. Stephens found it difficult to imagine herself playing for so many years.

"Oh, man. That's crazy," she said. "I just turned 20, so I don't know. I mean, I hope. I mean, if I can I want to, but that's still really a long ways away for me."

Williams' injury was the second in two days to sideline a former Key Biscayne champion. Two-time winner Victoria Azarenka withdrew before her opening match Friday because of a right ankle injury.

On a sunny, humid afternoon, Sam Querrey won in his first match as the top-ranked American, rallying past Lukasz Kubot 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. The 20th-ranked Querrey this week moved ahead of No. 23 John Isner, who hit 25 aces and beat Ivan Dodig, 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (5).

Isner has won his past five winner-take-all third-set tiebreakers.

"I really tend to play my best in a tiebreaker, for whatever reason," he said. "I wish I could sometimes play a little better outside of that."

Second-seeded Andy Murray needed only 56 minutes to beat Bernard Tomic 6-3, 6-1. The absence of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal helps Murray's chances in the tournament, which he won in 2009.

"When you know they aren't going to be here, then it obviously changes things a little bit," Murray said. "For tennis it's way better if all of the top players are here. I think we have been very lucky the last few years especially that a lot of the top players have fulfilled their commitments to all of the big events. So it's going to happen from time to time, and it's unfortunate for this event that it happened here."

Tomic, who fell to 2-15 against top-10 opponents, drew jeers from the stadium crowd during his lackluster performance.

Radwanska, seeded fourth, lost serve seven times and needed nearly 2 hours to beat Magdalena Rybarikova 7-6 (5), 2-6, 6-3. No. 9 Caroline Wozniacki lost to wild card Garbine Muguruza of Spain, 6-2, 6-4.

Querrey lost his first service game but held the rest of the way and hit 12 aces against Kubot. The 25-year-old Querrey said being the top-ranked American has provided only a modest boost in confidence.

"Some days more than others," he said. "I never thought about it out there today. Haven't really thought about it much. Felt like another day out there to me. Nothing new."

Querrey won despite a lack of rest. He's staying near downtown Miami, site of a weekend electronic music festival.

"I'm not sleeping well because of this Ultra Festival going on," he said. "I could hear the bass, and strobe lights were shining in my hotel, so it's hard to sleep."

Isner said the festival hasn't bothered him.

"I can sleep through anything," he said. "I can sleep through a train wreck. Do not hear it, which is good."

Coach Rick Pitino added this title to the one he won at Kentucky in 1996 and is the first coach to win a championship at two schools. Earlier in the day, Pitino was elected to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Hancock scored 22 points and Peyton Siva had 18 for the Cardinals (35-5), who trailed by 12 late in the first half before rallying for the school's third national title.

Trey Burke had 24 points for Michigan (31-8), which was in the final for the first time since the Fab Five led the Wolverines there in 1993. Little-used freshman Spike Albrecht added 17 points.

But the celebration belonged to the Cardinals, who added this to a Sugar Bowl victory this year and also have their women's team in Tuesday's national final against Connecticut.

Chane Behanan scored nine quick points early in the second half to help Louisville take the lead after trailing by double digits.

Behanan finished with 15 points and 13 rebounds, including eight on the offensive glass.

Albrecht came in for Burke and made his first four 3-point attempts, scoring all his points in the opening half. Albrecht finally missed with a little more than 11 minutes left; he was still 9 for 10 from long range for the tournament.

Hancock made all four of his 3-pointers to start a 14-1 run for Louisville that briefly gave the Cardinals a one-point lead late in the first half after they trailed by 12. Michigan's Glenn Robinson III made two free throws with 2 seconds left to give the Wolverines the lead at the half but Louisville led by as many as five early in the second.

The Cardinals came in having won six games this season after trailing by 10 or more, including Saturday night's semifinals, when they beat Wichita State 72-68 after also falling behind by 12.

It was a scintillating final act of a season that has been more of a grind, with scoring at its lowest (67.49 points per team) since 1951-52 and shooting at its worst (43.3 percent) since 1964-65.

The 131.2-points-per-game average during March Madness is the lowest since the 3-point line was brought to the game in 1987, though the teams had surpassed that with 5:30 left.

Sitting on the bench with the Cardinals was sophomore guard Kevin Ware, the team's inspiration since snapping his tibia in the regional final last weekend.

Needing a pickup without Ware, Hancock led the scoring against Wichita State. And rarely used walk-on Tim Henderson made two key 3-pointers during the comeback.

Pitino, meanwhile, was working the sideline hours after being chosen for the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Russ Smith, the Louisville team leader who Pitino has nicknamed "Russdiculous" for some of his wild and wildly effective antics on the court, finished with nine points on 3-of-16 shooting.

Michigan topped Syracuse 61-56 on Saturday despite an off night from Burke, who finished with only seven points on 1-for-8 shooting.

Burke, a sophomore, seriously considered leaving for the NBA after last season but decided he had unfinished business left in Ann Arbor. He picked up the AP Player of the Year award, among others, and is now one victory away from the ultimate prize in college hoops.