CSKA Moscow opens Euro Final Four against Tau Ceramica looking for 2nd title in 3 years

Ettore Messina could find plenty of basketball players who'd say the CSKA Moscow coach has improved their game.

When it comes to former Cleveland Cavaliers shooting guard Trajan Langdon, Messina said the roles are reversed.

"He is one of the few players who made me become a better coach," Messina said.

CSKA will need both to be at their best when it aims to win back the Euroleague Final Four basketball title this weekend. The 2006 champion _ which lost to Panathinaikos of Greece in last year's final _ will make its record sixth straight appearance in European basketball's premiere event when it plays Spanish club Tau Ceramica at the …

Near North board member allegedly warned Businessman told by 3 execs of misconduct, new court filing says

Chicago businessman and Atlanta Braves chairman Bill Bartholomaywas a board member of Near North Insurance in 2000 when three seniorexecutives warned him and others of their concerns about unlawfulconduct and wild spending by the firm, court papers filed Fridayallege.

Michael Segal, then head of the firm, and Segal's wife were amongthose at Near North who responded to the warning by threatening todestroy the three executives, boasting the company would never beprosecuted because of its political ties and saying the firm couldhide its misconduct, the legal papers say.

The papers do not name Bartholomay as one of those making thealleged threats. It is the first time …

Iraq Inquiry Winds Down; Blair Suffers Political Blow

AS LORD HUTTON prepares to wrap up his investigation into the suicide of arms expert David Kelly, it seems that British Prime Minister Tony Blair will escape legal charges that his government had falsified and exaggerated prewar intelligence information on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Yet, Blair is hardly in the clear: the investigation's revelations about the Blair government's handling of intelligence and its treatment of Kelly have significantly damaged the Labor leader's political standing.

The Parliament Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) concluded in a Sept. 11 report that, during the preparation of a September 2002 dossier documenting British intelligence …

Dutch Football Results

Results from the seventh round of the Eredivisie, the Dutch first-division football league (home teams listed first):

Friday's Game

Heracles Almelo 3, ADO The Hague 1

Saturday's Games

AZ Alkmaar 3, FC Volendam 0

Willem II 1, De Graafschap 1

FC Groningen 3, Sparta Rotterdam 0

PSV Eindhoven 2, Roda JC 3

Sunday's Games

Feyenoord 2, SC Heerenveen 2

Vitesse Arnhem 0, FC Twente 2

Ajax 2, NEC Nijmegen 0

FC Utrecht 0, NAC Breda 0

Tuesday, Oct. 28

FC Volendam vs. Willem II

ADO The Hague vs. PSV Eindhoven

Roda JC …

Cats left dead, dying inside mobile home; Dozens found; man

A northwest suburban man faces multiple animal-cruelty charges after abandoning his mobile home with dozens of starving and dead cats and other pets inside.

David Heim, 56, formerly of the 7500 block of Elmhurst Road in Des Plaines, was charged Thursday with 53 misdemeanor counts of cruel treatment after Cook County sheriff's deputies found the cats, along with a rabbit, snake and turtles in the filthy mobile home, according to the sheriff's office.

On July 29, a sheriff's officer responded to an "animal problem" at the home, with a neighbor reporting the owners had left a couple of days earlier and there were still pets inside.

The officers noticed a …

Waller turns tragedy into a success story

On May 23, 1992, Will Waller was sitting in a car with members ofhis gang when some rivals drove up and fired off five shots, one ofwhich lodged in his spinal cord and put him in a wheelchair for therest of his life.

Best thing that ever happened to him, he says.

Waller was a kid looking for trouble in his neighborhood south ofBucktown and if it took a bullet in the back to straighten him out,so be it.

"I'm glad it happened to me," Waller, who is one of America's topwheelchair basketball players, said Wednesday. "Otherwise, I mightnot be in the situation I'm in. I compete at a high level in sports.I'm going to get my master's degree. I'm going to be …

Palminteri brings a taste of the Bronx to Maryland

BALTIMORE (AP) — Actor Chazz Palminteri is bringing a taste of the Bronx to Baltimore.

The actor known for roles in "The Usual Suspects" and "A Bronx Tale" says he decided to open a restaurant in Baltimore because that's where his search for the perfect Italian meal ended. Palminteri says he was so impressed with a meal he had at Aldo's Ristorante Italiano in 2009 that he went back 10 times and eventually decided to open a place with the …