Mourinho believes Ronaldo injury could be serious

Ronaldo scored in the 51st, 67th and 77th minutes, his fourth three-goal game this season to go along with one four-goal match. He limped off with a muscle problem after the final goal, going straight to the dressing room. Real Madrid finished a man short.

"I don't know. It seems like a serious injury. That's the negative note from the game," Mourinho said. "Especially as Ronaldo doesn't just do small things."

Mourinho soon followed up his initial words with more encouraging ones over his star player's health.

"If Cristiano has something it's something minor, it's no drama," Mourinho added.

Ronaldo said he didn't think he will play Sunday against Racing Santander but didn't believe it was serious.

The Portuguese forward, the 2008 FIFA player of the year, matched Barcelona's Lionel Messi for the league lead with 27 goals and has 37 in all competitions this season. Ronaldo had not scored since Feb. 6.

Barcelona (23-1-2) has 71 points followed by Real Madrid (20-2-4) with 64. Real Madrid is 21-0 at home this season in all competitions.

Karim Benzema scored twice, and Angel Di Maria and Marcelo had one goal each. Malaga coach Manuel Pellegrini returned to Santiago Bernabeu Stadium for the first time since Mourinho replaced him after last season.

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Injury-free Nadal to play Belgium in Davis Cup

Nadal injured his left thigh in the loss to David Ferrer in the Australian Open quarterfinals. After practice on Thursday, Nadal said he's "perfect."

Bemelmans is ranked 144th and lost in straight sets to Nadal last year in Bangkok.

Sixth-ranked Ferrer will play the opening match against Xavier Malisse on the hard court of the 6,500-capacity arena in Charleroi, Belgium.

The 51st-ranked Malisse is the only Belgian player ranked in the top 100, while Spain has three in the top 10, including No. 9 Fernando Verdasco.

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Monumental's Grannan visits National Agents Alliance during 'Boot Camp'

PRLog (Press Release)– Mar 03, 2011– BURLINGTON, N.C. – Monumental Life Insurance Vice President of IMO Distribution Bob Grannan first visited National Agents Alliance in 2005, when the two companies were trying to put together an insurance product that would allow the two parties to form a partnership.

Grannan, who said no product came to fruition initially, said he continued to stay in touch with National Agents Alliance and President and Chief Executive Officer Andy Albright until deciding to offer a final expense product to families across the United States.

"The relationship started in 2005 when we first met, but we couldn't find a solution for both of us," Grannan said. "Over the years, we stayed in touch and finally got something put together. The timing was right and we got the final expense program in place."

Grannan was in Burlington, N.C. at the National Agents Alliance headquarters Feb. 24-25 for a "Boot Camp" event. He also attended National Agents Alliance's National Convention in Raleigh, N.C. in January.

Grannan said he sees a troubling trend with Americans and insurance coverage. It's a trend he'd like to see change, and believes that National Agents Alliance and Monumental are working to do just that.

"There's a disturbing number of middle income Americans who do not have an insurance policy," Grannan said. "People need to take personal responsibility and I think the Baby Boomers will set the tone by getting insurance themselves, and their children will follow their lead. That will change the perspective on life insurance in general and I think that will lead to National Agents Alliance being able to take advantage of the market potential based on their program. We have no idea how big it will be, but we see it growing in the future."

Grannan said National Agents Alliance's growth will be driven by Albright's leadership and clear approach to helping protect families.

"Andy is a fellow who has a gift of breaking things down into very manageable simple tasks for the individual to follow," Grannan said. "It's also easy for the person to control these tasks and repeat them often. In the insurance business, discipline around fundamentals is what drives success. Andy understands that and he's put in systemic approaches to take those, teach them to his leadership team, who then take them down the line and teach their people. Through Andy's discipline, National Agents Alliance has continued to grow. Normally, in this marketplace, people trying to grow have been unsuccessful because they lack the discipline it takes. Andy has done it. That's the thing about him that has made an impression on me."

ABOUT NATIONAL AGENTS ALLIANCE

National Agents Alliance is an innovative lead generation and marketing organization that sells life insurance, annuities, and other financial services products through more than 7,000 active independent sales representatives in 50 states. Focused on serving middle-income families, National Agents Alliance is the No. 1 United States provider of mortgage protection insurance and offers a broad array of other affordable products from highly regarded companies such as Mutual of Omaha, Foresters, ING and Monumental. Since its inception in 2002, National Agents Alliance has helped more than 670,000 families successfully apply for more than $78 billion in life insurance coverage.

For more information about National Agents Alliance, visit http://www.nationalagentsalliance.com/contact-us or call 1-866-752-1163.

ABOUT MONUMENTAL LIFE INSURANCE

Since 1858, Monumental Life has provided its customers and communities quality insurance coverage, reaching consumers nationwide. Monumental's mission is being committed to helping American families improve the quality of their lives, by meeting with families seeking protection for their lives, homes and dreams through personal analysis, recommending adequate life insurance coverage and delivering policy benefits and claims when families need them most.

For additional information on this topic, please call Mac Heffner at 336.227.3319 x1189 or email Mac at mheffner@naaleads.com.

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Grammy leader to meet with awards critic

Neil Portnow, chairman and CEO of the academy, and Steve Stoute, a former top music executive who now works in marketing, released a joint statement Thursday saying they planned discussions on how each side could better understand each other.

"This is a beginning, because Steve put his hand up and wanted to express his opinion, and I think the place to start is a few of us at the Academy," Portnow said in an interview Thursday night. "We'll see where that goes and that makes sense. I'm a collaborative person, the academy is always changing."

Stoute said in an interview that he wanted to see more diversity in the membership, culturally and artistically, and perhaps rule changes that would make certain genres eligible for more awards.

Stoute took out a full-page ad in The New York Times on Feb. 20 to take the Grammys to task. During the Feb. 13 broadcast, Eminem, who was nominated for a leading 10 awards, took home just two in the rap field and lost in the prestigious record, song and album of the year categories, despite having 2010's best-selling album with "Recovery" and one of the most popular songs with "I Love the Way You Lie" featuring Rihanna.

Another upset was the win of jazz singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding, who beat out more recognizable acts, including teen pop phenomenon Justin Bieber.

"I have come to the conclusion that the Grammy Awards have clearly lost touch with contemporary popular culture. My being a music fan has left me with an even greater and deeper sense of dismay, so much so that I feel compelled to write this letter," he said at the time.

On Thursday night, he said he was hopeful his conversations with Portnow and the Academy would provide real change.

"We're planning on working hard and really making a difference," he said.

Stoute, a former top music executive at Interscope who now runs his own branding and marketing firm, Translation, said he wrote the letter after years of artists' frustrations he had been hearing came to a head this year.

"They were concerned about the process in voting and how they were coming up with the nominations and the winners, and they wanted some clarity and some level of understanding," he said. "Their reaction was, 'Thank you for doing that for us, Steve,'" said Stoute. "I know the pain that they were going through."

Portnow said he hoped their dialogue would create better awareness and understanding.

"The place to start is that everybody understands what we do, how we do it, why we do it," he said.

Portnow defended this year's results, which included indie-rockers Arcade Fire's win for best album. He said their victory reflected how the Grammys have evolved over the years.

"Frankly, I'm not so sure 10 years ago where an Arcade Fire could have received a best album (award)," he said.

"This is not about popularity or about sales or even about notoriety, it's about excellence in music," he said. "That's why a Grammy means so much to an artist when they get one, because it's a peer recognition."

But Stoute said the voting Academy, which he said numbered 12,000, needed to be younger and more culturally diverse. He said he hoped that he and the Academy could push to get those demographics involved in the process.

He said some of those segments aren't an active part of the Academy because of years of frustrations.

"There's a segment of artists who have gotten so frustrated with what's going on that they felt like voting and being a part of trying to promote change wasn't going to make a difference," he said.

Stoute also said the Grammys need to reflect the changing way music is made. For example, he said songs with samples aren't permitted to be contenders for song of the year, which leaves out a lot of rap.

He stressed that he wasn't saying the wins of Arcade Fire or Spalding weren't worthy. However, he noted that Spalding had already released two other albums and technically, wasn't a new artist; the Grammys allow for people to be nominated although they have had albums released previously if their latest album represents a breakthrough year and they haven't released more than three.

He also mentioned that Arcade Fire, up for best alternative album, lost in that category yet won overall album of the year.

"They're not even the best in their genre, so how does that work?" he asked.

But Portnow said the Academy routinely looks at its own rules and adapts to the times; for example, this year, the Grammys changed the best new artist criteria so an artist who had been previously nominated for a Grammy but had never won could qualify; it was instituted after Lady Gaga was ineligible for the 2009 award because she was nominated for her first dance song the year prior.

Stoute said, despite the frustrations with the Grammys, they are still the pinnacle of achievement for a musician.

"It's not like people don't respect what the Grammys mean. The Grammy is artistic excellence, you just want to make sure that everybody in the music business gets a chance."

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Zimbabwe president makes medical trip

Presidential spokesman George Charamba said Friday that President Robert Mugabe, 87, left Thursday for a final examination after undergoing routine cataract surgery in Singapore in January. He is expected home on Sunday, state media reported Friday.

"There is nothing to cause any alarm" over Mugabe's health, Charamba said.

At celebrations marking his birthday on Feb. 21, an increasingly frail Mugabe said even if his body "may get spent," his mind remained young and alert.

But seven weeks away in Asia since December — three of them his official annual vacation — have fueled doubts on the health of Zimbabwe's authoritarian ruler since independence in 1980. Officials have dismissed reports he received treatment for prostate cancer.

Eldred Masunungure, director of Zimbabwe's Mass Public Opinion Institute, said recent questions about Mugabe's health add a measure of uncertainty, but that even if the elderly president were to die, his military-political machine would remain strong.

"The system is not going away if an individual dies," added Susan Booysen, a South African pollster who analyzed survey results released Friday that show Zimbabweans have grown more fearful of saying whom they would vote for, a sign Mugabe is rebounding politically after being forced to share power with his longtime rival two years ago.

Mugabe's party lost the 2008 parliamentary elections, and he later entered into a unity government with longtime opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai. Zimbabweans still see Mugabe as firmly in control though, in large part because of his security forces, according to the survey results.

The survey conducted late last year by Freedom House and the Mass Public Opinion Institute shows 75 percent of Zimbabweans believe Mugabe is solely or mainly in control, and 45 percent believe his ZANU-PF party has not ceded power.

As a measure of growing fear, the researchers found more Zimbabweans in 2010 compared to 2009 were unwilling to say for whom they would vote if elections were held tomorrow — 42 percent, compared to 31 percent.

A representative sample of 1,200 people were surveyed face-to-face in November and December, and the margin of error was 2.8 points.

Masunungure attributed Mugabe's resurgence to missteps by Tsvangirai and to the money that has flowed to Mugabe's supporters since the discovery of diamonds.

He said that members of Tsvangirai's party who joined the government "did not seem to realize the inclusive government is not a permanent arrangement."

Mugabe has called for elections this year to bring an end his coalition with Tsvangirai.

Mugabe left for Singapore soon after he launched a campaign for a "two-million signature" petition against Western economic sanctions targeting him and his supporters over a decade of alleged human rights abuses in the southern African nation.

His rally drew 20,000 to Zimbabwe's capital earlier this week, which Masunungure said was a mark of the growing confidence of Mugabe and ZANU-PF. Witnesses said Mugabe militants went house-to-house and patrolled bus stops demanding support for the rally.

In a rambling 80-minute address, a defiant Mugabe threatened to seize foreign businesses in retaliation for the Western measures.

U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe Charles Ray on Friday described the petition as a one-sided political campaign by Mugabe's party "while others seeking the right to assemble, petition and demonstrate are arrested and tortured."

He said about 120 Zimbabweans facing U.S. visa, travel and financial bans were almost all ZANU-PF leaders who had a hand in political violence against fellow citizens. He said violence, corruption and mismanagement — not the Western measures — led to the economic crisis.

Alec Muchadehama, a lawyer representing 45 people facing treason charges for allegedly plotting an Egyptian-style uprising in Zimbabwe, said the case showed how determined Mugabe's supporters are to crush any dissent. The group was arrested while watching videos of the Egyptian revolt during what organizers said was nothing more than a public discussion of current events.

Muchadehama and other Zimbabweans who gathered in neighboring South Africa on Friday to discuss the survey results said they are worried that after decades of facing violence and seeing little progress, dissidents are growing tired and discouraged. Dumisani Nkomo, a democracy activist in the southwestern city of Bulawayo, said a sense of helplessness was behind the survey results that show that Zimbabweans believe Mugabe is firmly in power, and predict the military will take over if he were to die in office.

Nkomo said activists should emulate Mugabe's party and formulate a plan should Mugabe die, beyond just "rejoicing for about a week."

Nkomo said activists should reach out to soldiers and others within Mugabe's structure who may be secret democrats. He also said opposition parties should form a coalition.

"We need to take charge, take the initiative," Nkomo said.

___

Associated Press writer Donna Bryson contributed to this report from Johannesburg.

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Yemeni opposition suggests way out of crisis

Mohammed al-Sabri said the opposition sent Saleh the five-point plan, which presents an outline for a peaceful transition of power, through religious scholars on Wednesday. He said the opposition is waiting for a response.

Yemen has been rocked for weeks by daily protests — inspired by the uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia — against Saleh's government. Tens of thousands protested in several cities Thursday, including the capital Sanaa, Aden and the central city of Bayda. Security officials said four protesters were wounded in Bayda when government supporters opened fire at their opponents.

Saleh, a key ally in the U.S. campaign against the al-Qaida terror network, has promised to step down after national elections in 2013, an offer rejected by protesters.

The opposition plan does not detail how Saleh, who has been in power 32 years, would hand over power, but al-Sabri said the opposition expects the president to come forward with his own proposal.

"The opposition's vision is that Saleh moves according to a roadmap that begins with a key solution or a program for his departure," al-Sabri said. He added that the program should "be clear and frank and should not extend beyond the end of the current year."

Al-Sabri said the opposition's plan also calls for an investigation into the deaths of demonstrators and for guarantees of Yemenis' right to protest peacefully.

The opposition's overture came three days after Saleh offered to form a unity government with his opponents — a move swiftly rejected by the opposition.

Saleh told religious leaders Monday that leaving office can't be just his decision, but needs to also be that of the people.

Also Thursday, a Yemeni human rights group said authorities have detained several police officers in the southern city of Aden because they refused to open fire on protesters. The Yemeni Organization for the Defense of Rights and Democratic Freedoms quoted the families of the police officers as saying they were told they have been transferred to Sanaa.

Students who have been gathering for days at Sanaa University said in a statement Thursday that their protest will "not stop until the regime, and its corrupt symbols, fall."

They urged the army and security forces not to join any attempts to put down the "revolution."

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