The Pentagon announced a new plan that will streamline U.S. forces, look at possible base closures and expand cyber warfare capability in order to meet tough budget constraints. NBC’s Chris Clackum reports.

By NBC News and news services

The Pentagon proposed budget cuts on Thursday that would slash the size of the U.S. military by eliminating thousands of jobs, mothballing ships and trimming air squadrons in an effort to shift strategic direction and reduce spending by $487 billion over a decade.

The funding request, which includes painful cuts for many states, sets the stage for a new struggle between President Barack Obama’s administration and Congress over how much the Pentagon should spend on national security as the country tries to curb trillion-dollar budget deficits.

US Army chief ‘comfortable’ with smaller force as Pentagon prepares cuts

---

“Make no mistake, the savings we are proposing will impact all 50 states and many districts across America,” Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told a news conference at the Pentagon. “This will be a test of whether reducing the deficit is about talk or action.”

Obama will also ask Congress to approve a new round of domestic base closures, although the timing of this was left vague and there is little chance that lawmakers would agree to this in a presidential election year.

Panetta, previewing plans that will be formally announced next month, said he would ask for a $525 billion base budget for the 2013 fiscal year, the first time since Sept. 11, 2001, that the Pentagon has asked for less than the previous year.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais / AP

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, left, accompanied by Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, outlines the main areas of proposed spending cuts during a news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday.

Panetta said he would seek $88.4 billion to support combat operations in Afghanistan, down from $115 billion in 2012 largely due to the end of the war in Iraq and the withdrawal of U.S. forces there at the end of last year.

Congress requires that the Pentagon cut $487 billion from the defense budget over the next 10 years — $259 billion will be cut in the first five years (2013 to 2018).

No, Obama isn’t actually proposing to cut defense spending

“We believe this is a balanced and complete package,” Panetta said, with Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at his side.

Some lawmakers were quick to dispute him.

“Taking us back to a pre-9/11 military force structure places our country in grave danger,” said Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee that will hold hearings on the Pentagon budget plan.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the Panetta plan “ignores the lessons of history.” He said it provides for a military that is “too small to respond effectively to events that may unfold over the next few years.”

Dempsey, however, said the military is united in its support for the new approach.

“This budget is a first step ? it’s a down payment ? as we transition from an emphasis on today’s wars to preparing for future challenges,” he said, adding, “This budget does not lead to a military in decline.”

While the timelines for each of these cuts vary, NBC News reports where the biggest cuts are coming from for now:

Benefits
Members of the military will receive full pay raises in 2013 and 2014, but their raises will be “limited” beginning in 2015. Health care fees for retirees will increase, including co-pays and deductibles.

Army
Active duty force will decrease by about 75,000 soldiers to 490,000. (For perspective, there are about 565,000 soldiers on active duty today and there were about 480,000 soldiers on active duty on 9/11/01.)

Marine Corps
Active duty force will decrease by about 20,000 Marines to 182,000 total. (For perspective, there are about 202,000 Marines on active duty today, and there were about 173,000 on 9/11/01.)

Air Force
Eliminate?six of the 60 Air Force tactical air squadrons, as well as one training squadron.

The Pentagon will eliminate: ?27 aging C-5As (leaving behind 52 C-5Ms and 222 C-17s); 65 oldest C-130s (leaving behind 318 C-130s) and they will divest 38 C-27s.

Navy
Retire?seven cruisers that have not been updated with ballistic missile defense capabilities or that are in need of significant maintenance. Some fleet support ships will also be retired, and the building of several ships (1 large deck, 1 sub, 2 littoral combat ships, and 8 joint high speed vessels) will all delayed by one year or more.

The defense spending plan is scheduled to be submitted to Congress as part of the administration’s full 2013 budget on Feb. 13.

Prominent in the Obama plan is a renewed focus on Asia, where China’s rapid military modernization has raised worry in Washington and rattled U.S. allies.

NBC News’ Jim Miklaszewski and Courtney Kube?as well as?Reuters?and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta announced his plan for cutting $487 billion from the defense budget over the next 10 years. NBC’s Brian Williams reports.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/01/26/10244240-panetta-military-cuts-to-hit-all-50-states

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(Reuters) ? A pre-kindergarten boy who announced to his teacher at snack time that he wanted to share pulled nine bags of marijuana out of his jacket pocket, police said on Wednesday.

Police in Meriden, Connecticut, some 20 miles south of Hartford, were called to Hanover Elementary School Tuesday afternoon after the 4-year-old special needs student displayed the drugs, authorities said.

Meriden police said the nine individually wrapped bags of marijuana appeared prepared for sale.

Hanover Elementary School principal Miguel Cardona called it an “extremely unfortunate” and “isolated” incident that was not witnessed by any other students.

“What’s so disheartening is this is really an adult issue and problem and adult behavior put a student at risk,” Meriden schools superintendent Mark Benigni told Reuters.

“This student had no idea what he brought to school or what the substance was,” he added.

Authorities are not releasing the names of the student or parents and police said there is a possibility for arrests pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Department of Children and Families is also looking into the incident.

(Reporting By Lauren Keiper. Editing by Paul Thomasch)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/oddlyenough/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/od_nm/us_marijuana_snacktime

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(Reuters) ? As children go from elementary to junior high school, the desire to tan grows stronger while the habit of using sunscreen goes out the window, according to a survey — potentially raising the risk of getting deadly skin cancer later on.

The survey, carried out over three years, found that sunscreen use fell by half, said a study published in the journal Pediatrics, a worrying trend since there is evidence that sun damage at a young age is tied to a higher risk of developing melanoma.

The number of melanoma cases in the United States has been rising for the past three decades, and around 70,230 new cases will be diagnosed this year, according to the American Cancer Society.

“I think especially at this age, and in general, there are a lot of forces that promote tanning,” said Stephen Dusza, a researcher at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City and lead author of the study.

Though Dusza said he expected that children would want to tan more as they grew older, due partly to advertising and tanning among many celebrities, the results surprised him.

“I was struck by the magnitude of the reduction in the use of sunscreen — a 50 percent drop,” he said.

Dusza’s group surveyed 360 fifth graders in Massachusetts about their time in the sun, how often they used sun protection and their attitudes about tanning. Three years later, the children answered the same questions.

Only one in four of the eighth graders said they used sunscreen when they were outside for more than six hours, which was half as many who said they used sunscreen in fifth grade.

Four out of 10 of the children also went outside just to get a tan when they were in eighth grade, compared to two out of 10 when they were in fifth grade.

But despite the children spending more time outside trying to get a tan as they grew older, the number who got sunburned remained the same at about 50 percent.

Dusza said he wasn’t certain why sunburns didn’t increase, but thought that maybe children defined a sunburn differently as they got older, or perhaps their outdoor activities changed.

The study underlined the fact that many young people aren’t protecting their skin, said Sophie Balk, an attending pediatrician at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore and a Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, both in New York City.

“Kids think looking tan is consistent with looking healthy, but it’s the opposite. A tan is the body’s response to UV exposure” and shows there’s been damage to the skin, Balk told Reuters Health.

“We need more media messages, more role models, more public health campaigns. As a society we could be doing more to promote skin cancer prevention and skin protection,” she added. SOURCE: http://bit.ly/xrguxt

(Reporting from New York by Kerry Grens at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/health/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/hl_nm/us_tans

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Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, speaks with Luxembourg’s Prime Minister and head of the eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders’ summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, left, speaks with Luxembourg’s Prime Minister and head of the eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders’ summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Belgium’s Finance Minister Steven Vanackere, right, speaks with Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders’ summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Irish Finance Minister Michael Noonan, right, speaks with Luxembourg’s Finance Minister Luc Frieden during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders’ summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

French Finance Minister Francois Baroin, right, speaks with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders’ summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, right, speaks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti during a meeting of EU finance ministers in Brussels on Monday, Jan. 23, 2012. European finance ministers will try on Monday to give new momentum to talks on a Greek debt relief deal that is crucial to avoid a default, but a European diplomat warned that a final agreement may have to wait until a leaders’ summit next week. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

BRUSSELS (AP) ? European finance ministers piled the pressure on Greece’s private creditors Monday to reach an agreement with Athens to cut the country’s massive debt load, with the Dutch representative warning bondholders that they may be forced to take losses.

Time is running out for Greece to reduce its debt by some euro100 billion ($129 billion) and avoid missing a vital bond repayment deadline. Talks between the country and representatives of banks and other investment firms to secure a deal hit an impasse over the weekend.

The deal would involve private creditors swapping their old Greek bonds for ones with a 50 percent lower face value. The new, lower priced bonds, would also have much longer maturities ? pushing repayments decades into the future ? and will pay a much lower interest rate than Greece would currently have to pay on the market.

It’s clear that Greece needs some form of deal soon ? it faces a euro14.5 billion ($19 billion) bond repayment on March 20, which it will be unable to afford if the bond swap doesn’t go through.

The Greek government and representatives for the private creditors said they are moving closer to a final deal. But any agreement also has to be signed off by the other 16 countries that also use the euro as their currency and the International Monetary Fund, who have made the deal a key condition of the country winning any further bailout loans.

Greece has been surviving on a first euro110 billion ($142 billion) batch of rescue loans since May 2010, which were conditioned on deep spending cuts and sweeping public sector reforms.

At the center of the debate is the interest rate that Greece will have to pay on the new, lower-valued bonds. The interest rate is key not only to determining the overall losses for the bondholders but also to whether the deal will work.

If the interest rate is too high, a second, euro130 billion ($168 billion) bailout for Greece may not be enough to put the country back on its feet. The other eurozone states and the IMF would have to provide more loans, but they are unwilling to do so.

But if they are too low, the losses for bondholders will become so high that it will be difficult to get them to agree voluntarily to a deal.

Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees de Jager indicated that the eurozone may be moving away from its previous insistence that investors will not be forced to take losses.

“We’ve never pushed for a default, but we’ve never said it (a restructuring) must be voluntary,” de Jager said as he arrived for a meeting with his eurozone counterparts in Brussels. “Our goal is a sustainable debt. It has our preference if it’s voluntary, but it’s not a precondition for us.”

Greece needs to secure a deal quickly if it wants to avoid a disorderly default on March 20.

“Given that any debt swap deal will involve a lot of lawyers, it is estimated that around 5 weeks are needed between agreement and the bond maturing to prevent default,” said Louise Cooper, markets analyst at BGC Partners. “This does not leave much wriggle room, although such pressure must focus the minds of all at the negotiating table.”

A forced restructuring would likely trigger payouts on so-called credit default swaps ? a contract traded between banks and other investment firms that want to insure against potential defaults. Because the market in CDS is obscure ? with no clear data on who would owe whom how much ? the eurozone fears that a payout could lead to turmoil on financial markets similar to what happened after the collapse of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers in 2008.

Although officials, including the French and Greek finance ministers, insisted that a deal was in the making, few expected a final agreement ahead of a key summit of EU leaders next Monday. De Jager suggested that negotiations may even drag on beyond that.

A Greek official said the government now hopes to make a formal offer on the bond swap to investors by Feb. 13. He declined to be named because talks are ongoing.

Greece’s economic problems kicked off Europe’s debt crisis more than two years ago and the continent’s inability to resolve its troubles have raised concerns about other highly indebted countries. But positive bond auctions in Spain, Italy and France last week have eased some concerns about the region’s bigger economies and have lifted stock markets and the value of the euro.

On Monday, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, called on Europe’s stronger economies to do more to boost growth and beef up the defenses against the continent’s debt crisis.

After meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Christine Lagarde urged the leaders of the 17 countries that use the euro to deal with the crisis that is threatening another recession in the eurozone.

“There are three imperatives ? one is stronger growth, two is larger firewalls; three, deeper integration,” she said in a speech to the German Council on Foreign Relations. “Resorting to across-the-board, across-the continent, without differentiation, budgetary cuts will only add to recessionary pressures.”

Merkel insisted Monday that the debt crisis has shown that the bloc’s leaders must now press for a genuine political union.

“In my opinion it is the great task of the coming years to move forward on the path of a political union,” Merkel said in Berlin.

Ministers in Brussels will also seek to put the finishing touches on their permanent bailout fund ? the euro500 billion European Stability Mechanism ? which is scheduled to come into force this year. They will also discuss a new intergovernmental treaty designed to keep eurozone countries from overspending.

___

Greg Keller in Paris and Nicolas Paphitis in Athens contributed to this story.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-23-EU-Europe-Financial-Crisis/id-6b804bc3c9824ab594735234f3f0751a

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Source: http://completecompostingstore.com/2012/01/23/really-like-your-own-pets-whilst-all-of-them-wholesome/

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MADRID ? The Spanish judge who became an international human rights hero went on trial Tuesday for daring to probe right-wing atrocities around the Spanish civil war that may be linked to the deaths or disappearances of more than 100,000 civilians.

It is the second trial in as many weeks for the 56-year-old Baltasar Garzon, although the charges at the Supreme Court are essentially the same: that he knowingly exceeded the bounds of his authority.

Last week he stood trial for ordering jailhouse wiretaps in a corruption investigation. In this case he has been indicted for investigating more than 100,000 civilians deaths and disappearances at the hands of supporters of the late dictator Gen. Francisco Franco.

The crimes took place during and after Spain’s 1936-39 civil war, which brought Franco to power.

Such crimes were covered by an amnesty passed in 1977 as Spain moved to restore democracy after Franco’s death in 1975, but Garzon investigated anyway. He argued that crimes involving missing persons cannot be covered by amnesty and that the killings and disappearances amounted to a crime against humanity by the Franco regime and such atrocities have no statute of limitations.

Spaniards are highly divided over Garzon ? he has rock star status among rights groups but conservatives deride him as being more interested in fame than in justice.

Human rights group say it is appalling that Garzon ? who has pioneered universal jurisdiction, or the idea that some crimes are so heinous they can be prosecuted anywhere ? is being put on trial at home for daring to probe what is arguably Spain’s biggest unresolved human rights case. They say he is being targeted by Spanish right-wingers and it would be a tremendous embarrassment and setback for the Spanish justice system if he is convicted.

About 100 pro-Garzon demonstrators rallied outside the Supreme Court before the trial started, chanting “Garzon, our friend, the people are with you!”

Tuesday’s session was taken up by procedural motions filed by Garzon’s lawyer. The trial then recessed until Jan. 31 when Garzon is scheduled to testify.

The case has been brought because of a complaint filed by two right-wing groups, even though government prosecutors themselves say Garzon did nothing wrong and should be acquitted. This is a quirk of Spanish penal law ? private citizens can seek to bring criminal charges against someone even if prosecutors disagree.

One key motion filed Tuesday by Garzon’s attorney Gonzalo Martinez-Fresneda sought to have the whole case thrown out on the grounds that the magistrate who indicted Garzon in 2010 was biased against him.

Magistrate Luciano Varela helped one of the right-wing groups with court papers it had to file as it sought the charges against Garzon, to the point where the group ended up cutting and pasting entire paragraphs from previous documents filed by Varela himself, the attorney said.

“They didn’t even bother to correct the spelling mistakes,” Martinez-Fresneda said.

The Supreme Court will take a few days to rule on the motions.

Asked how the day’s proceedings went, Garzon told reporters “Just fine.”

After Garzon testifies, the defense is expected to summon as witnesses people who lost relatives to pro-Franco militia. Human rights groups say this will be unprecedented in a Spanish court.

If he is found guilty, Garzon ? who was already suspended from his job at the National Court in 2010 ? can be removed from the bench for up to 20 years. That would effectively end his career.

The verdict in the first trial could come during this one. In that case, Garzon faces up to 17 years off the bench.

For many in Spain, the trials ? and a third case in which Garzon is being probed for his dealings with a big Spanish bank ? amount to a witch hunt aimed at punishing Garzon for his status as judicial celebrity who indicted former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in 1998 and al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden in 2003.

Emilio Silva, head of a group that spearheads efforts to help people find the remains of relatives who went missing during the Spanish civil war, is amazed at the Garzon trial.

“It is a paradox that someone who tried to help families who have the biggest problem you can have ? a forced disappearance ? has to go before a court to answer for it,” Silva said. “It is sad and especially sad for the families.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/europe/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120124/ap_on_re_eu/eu_spain_judge_on_trial

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updated 10:18 a.m. ET Jan. 21, 2012

MADRID – Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho will not punish Pepe for stomping on the hand of Barcelona’s Lionel Messi, saying that the defender’s apology was sufficient.

The Portuguese manager said Saturday “the player has spoken and that is enough” after including Pepe in his squad for Sunday’s home game against Athletic Bilbao.

Real Madrid lost 2-1 Wednesday to Barcelona in the first leg of their Copa del Rey quarterfinal. Mourinho said after the game if Pepe had stepped on Messi’s hand intentionally it would be “punishable.”

The following day Pepe issued a statement on Madrid’s website saying the stomp was “unintentional.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Manchester City scored a dramatic 3-2 victory over Tottenham on Sunday, leaving Manchester United its only likely rival for the Premier League title.

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Hat trick

Clint Dempsey became the first American to score a hat trick in England’s Premier League, helping Fulham rally from a halftime deficit to rout Newcastle 5-2 Saturday.

Source: http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/46081974/ns/sports-soccer/

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SAN FRANCISCO ? The New York Giants have their own Super Bowl formula: in overtime and on the road.

And with Lawrence Tynes’ foot.

Five plays after the 49ers’ Kyle Williams fumbled a punt, Tynes kicked a game-winning 31-yard field goal in overtime, sending the Giants to the Super Bowl with a 20-17 victory over San Francisco in the NFC championship game on Sunday.

In another tight one in this decades-old postseason rivalry, both defenses made key stops before New York capitalized on a rare mistake in San Francisco’s resurgent season. Williams’ blunder put the Giants in perfect position for another sensational finish in a season full of them.

“That was a tough game. We had to fight for every yard that we got,” Giants quarterback Eli Manning said. “Defense was outstanding, special teams getting us two turnovers was huge. That led to 10 points.”

The first three overtime series ended in punts before Williams fumbled. The Giants won it moments later and silenced ? for good this time ? the towel-waving, poncho-wearing sellout crowd at cold, rainy Candlestick Park.

“It was one of those situations where I tried to turn it upfield and it just didn’t work out,” Williams said.

Manning and the Giants (12-7) will face the New England Patriots in the Super Bowl on Feb. 5 in Indianapolis as 3 1/2-point underdogs. The last time the teams met for the NFL title, 2008, the Giants ended the Patriots’ bid for a perfect season.

Tynes had a hand, er, foot in getting the Giants to that one, too, kicking the game-winning field goal in overtime at Green Bay.

Devin Thomas put the Giants in position by recovering his second fumble of the game after Jacquian Williams stripped the ball from fill-in return man Kyle Williams, who also fumbled earlier to set up a New York touchdown.

“It’s my second NFC championship game, my second game-winner,” Tynes said of his kick 7:54 into overtime. “It’s amazing. I had dreams about this last night. It was from 42, not 31, but I was so nervous today before the game just anticipating this kind of game. I’m usually pretty cool, but there was something about tonight where I knew I was going to have to make a kick. Hats off to Eli, offense, defense. Great win.”

Manning went 32 of 58 for 316 yards and two touchdowns and overcame six sacks in his record fifth road playoff win, New York’s fifth in a row overall.

Manning threw a go-ahead 17-yard touchdown pass to Mario Manningham with 8:34 remaining after Kyle Williams fumbled for the first time.

The Giants challenged that the ball touched Williams’ right knee and Thomas recovered with 11:06 left and coach Tom Coughlin won, giving the Giants the ball back at the 29.

“That was a tremendous football game for those that really enjoy football at it’s very basic element,” said Coughlin, who matched former Cowboys coach Tom Landry for most road playoff wins with seven. “Just a classic football game that just seemed like no one was going to put themselves into position to win it. Fortunately we were able to do that.”

A 12-point underdog in the 2008 title game, the Giants battered Brady and got a last-minute TD pass from Manning to Plaxico Burress to win their third Super Bowl. Five months ago, Manning declared he was in the same class as Tom Brady. Now, he’ll get another chance to outdo him on the NFL’s biggest stage.

During this playoff run, he’s already outplayed Aaron Rodgers and the defending champion Packers, and fellow former No. 1 pick Alex Smith.

Victor Cruz set the tone Sunday with eight of his 10 receptions in the first half and finished with 142 yards.

“It’s just been a tremendous effort by all of us, man,” Cruz said. “We understand that any one of us can get hot at any moment. As long as we’re all on the same page and just playing together, man, we’ve got a great group of guys.”

Vernon Davis caught touchdown passes of 73 and 28 yards and wound up with three catches for 112 yards for the NFC West champions (14-4), who went from 6-10 a year ago to a contender and ended an eight-year playoff drought.

“It will be a tough one. It will take a while to get over,” Harbaugh said.

The only other time these two franchises faced off in the conference championship the game finished in memorable fashion. On Jan. 20, 1991, Roger Craig fumbled with the 49ers leading 13-12 late in the fourth quarter and the Giants went on to win 15-13 to deny San Francisco a chance at a third straight Super Bowl title. New York then beat the Bills to capture its second Super Bowl.

These teams met six times in the playoffs between the 1981 and `94 seasons with the winner going on to win the Super Bowl four times.

Smith went 12 for 26 for 196 yards and two touchdowns and was sacked three times. San Francisco converted only one third down, coming on the final play of regulation as the offense was unable to overcome Williams’ blunders.

“We all know him. We know how committed he is to winning,” Smith said. “It’s not on him. I look at the 1-for-13 on third downs. I know he’s going to feel bad, but he’s still part of our team. We didn’t lose the game there. We lost it across the board offensively. We just couldn’t get it done.”

The Giants appeared on the verge of collapsing and Coughlin’s job status in jeopardy just a month ago, when they fell to 7-7 with an embarrassing loss to the Washington Redskins on Dec. 18.

They were facing elimination the following week against the Jets and Rex Ryan, but the Giants won 29-14. They followed with a 31-14 win over Dallas in the regular-season finale to win the NFC East and get to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.

New York dominated Atlanta at home in the opening round, and then came another stunner: a 37-20 victory at Green Bay.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120123/ap_on_sp_fo_ga_su/fbn_nfc_championship

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LEXINGTON, Ky. ? Alabama’s plan to beat Kentucky involved swarming freshman Anthony Davis.

The only place he and the rest of the Wildcats found some elbow room was at the free-throw line.

Terrence Jones scored 15 points and No. 2 Kentucky hit all eight of its free throws in the final minute to hold on to beat Alabama 77-71 on Saturday for the Wildcats’ 47th straight home victory.

“That’s one of the more physical games I’ve played. It’s going to get worse. I’ve just got to fight through it,” said Davis, who finished 2 of 10 from the field and 7 of 9 from the free-throw line for 11 points. “There’s going to be other teams just like that. There’s not going to be any games off ? Vanderbilt, Florida, Georgia. They’re all going to be games where we have to come out and be physical.”

Kentucky (19-1, 5-0 Southeastern Conference) took the lead for good early in the first half, but Alabama’s Trevor Releford scored all 17 of his points in the second half to keep the Crimson Tide (13-6, 2-3) close until the end.

“We came into the game and we knew we had to be physical and hit them because they’re athletic and long in the front court,” Alabama’s JaMychal Green said. “Our focus mainly was hitting them, being physical and rebounding.”

All of Alabama’s hitting turned into foul shots and the teams combined for 45 fouls called.

Jones made Kentucky’s final field goal with 6:57 left, but the Wildcats hit 23 of 29 second-half free-throw attempts and scored their final 15 points from the free-throw line.

Green had 22 points and 12 rebounds and Trevor Lacey added 10 points for Alabama, which lost its third in a row, but may have provided a blueprint for how to slow the Wildcats.

“I always kept a body on Davis if he rolled to the goal because we watched him play,” Green said. “We saw a lot of lobs and dunks, so we knew that’s how he scored. We just kept him off the boards.”

But not out of the box score.

Leading 75-71 in the closing seconds, Davis blocked his fourth shot of the game and grabbed his ninth rebound when Charles Hankerson drove into the lane. Davis was fouled with 4.5 seconds left and made both his free throws for the final margin.

“Somebody’s hip was on him 24-7 until the game ended,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said. “As a matter of fact, they put a hip on him in the postgame handshake, too.”

That provided the Wildcats’ other opportunities to score.

Doron Lamb had 14 points, freshman Michael Kidd-Gilchrist 13, Darius Miller 11 and freshman Marquis Teague 10 for the Wildcats.

With 1:06 left, Kidd-Gilchrist fouled out trying to stop Andrew Steele, who hit two free throws that cut Kentucky’s lead to 69-67.

The teams traded free throws with Miller making two foul shots and Green added two more with 37 seconds to play. Teague hit two and Steele answered with two more when Lamb fouled him on the inbounds pass with 24 seconds to go that cut it to 73-71.

But Miller hit two more free throws with 14 seconds to play before Davis’ block. He set the school’s single-season block record in Kentucky’s previous win against Arkansas and added to his nation’s leading blocks total.

“It was a rough game,” said Davis, who has 93 blocks this year. “We had to fight through it, grind it out and that’s what we did.”

Releford rallied the Crimson Tide and Alabama trailed 49-48 with 12:37 left, but never took the lead despite Releford’s scooping layup just beyond Davis’ attempted block off the glass and then his floater that rattled around the rim and fell that cut Kentucky’s lead to 55-52.

Jones’ jumper made it 62-57 with 6:57 left, but Kentucky wouldn’t score again from the field. The Wildcats fouled out Alabama’s leading scorer and rebounder Tony Mitchell with 5:32 left.

Mitchell scored six points on 2-of-9 shooting for his second straight subpar performance after failing to score in 31 minutes in a loss to Vanderbilt.

Kentucky lost to Alabama last year on the road, but avenged it with a victory in the SEC tournament and got off to a fast start against the Crimson Tide in this one, too.

After Alabama took an early 5-1 lead, Kidd-Gilchrist sparked Kentucky on a 15-3 run that they never relinquish.

Davis missed his first seven shots before he followed up a miss by Teague with a dunk that gave Kentucky a five-point lead. The Wildcats maintained that advantage, taking a 37-32 lead into the break that they managed to hold onto throughout the foul-filled second half.

“Especially at the start, we weren’t able to play through the physical play,” Calipari said. “Until we learn to do that, every team’s going to play us that way.”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/sports/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120121/ap_on_sp_co_ne/bkc_t25_alabama_kentucky

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