Ferguson regrets not having a change of Hart

LONDON (Reuters) - Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has recognised he missed a trick in failing to sign England goalkeeper Joe Hart for a bargain 100,000 pounds earlier in his career.

Hart, now 24, joined wealthy rivals Manchester City in 2006 from League Two (fourth division) Shrewsbury Town after United passed up the opportunity to secure his services.

"I could have bought Joe Hart for 100,000 so we all make mistakes," Ferguson told BBC radio in an interview to be broadcast later on Monday.

"If you look at the England goalkeeper situation for the last 20 years, I would think he's easily the best," added the Scot who signed the now-retired Dutch keeper Edwin van der Sar in 2005.

United have struggled to find a replacement since Van der Sar retired last year while Hart has been a rock in goal for Premier League leaders City.

Ferguson, who turned 70 in December, has been in the hot seat at Old Trafford for 25 years during which he has won 12 top-flight titles, two European Cups and five FA Cups. He has spoken of staying on for another three years.

"I think you always want to go out on a winning note," he told the BBC.

"Hopefully we can do that. I don't know how long I can last now but if my health stays up I don't think another two or three years would harm me."

Depleted CSKA face Real might in snowbound Moscow

Spanish giants Real Madrid are coming to snow-covered Moscow primed to extend their winning streak in this year's Champions League in Tuesday's last 16, first leg match with CSKA.

The Red Army side will be battling an obvious lack of match practice as the Russian Premier League is currently on its winter break before it restarts on March 3 and have also endured a nightmare sequence of injuries.

Yet with evening temperatures touching minus 10 degrees Celsius or colder in snow-bound Moscow over the last few days, CSKA will also be hoping greater experience in coping with the mighty Russian winter gives them a welcome boost.

Nine-time European champions Real are clear favourites having won all six of their Group D encounters and are now hoping to continue their winning run into the knockout stages.

On Saturday Real confirmed their Spanish League domination with a morale-boosting 4-0 win over Racing to stay ahead of arch-rivals Barcelona.

Real boss Jose Mourinho said he was happy with his team's form ahead of the CSKA clash.

"Everyone is happy, being happy works miracles and we are a group which is in good spirits. We have a lot of motivation although we know that it will be a difficult game in Moscow," said the Real coach.

Real Madrid have won their two previous visits to Russia beating Lokomotiv Moscow and Zenit St Petersburg in Champions League group stage matches and will try to remain in the ascendancy in their first ever meeting with the Red Army side.

But CSKA manager Leonid Slutsky said he was priming his players for a lively start against Real, adding the initial exchanges may determine the course of the entire match.

"I'm confident that all of my players will come into the match with top concentration," Slutsky said. "We need to start at full confidence. We all understand that a good start may determine the entire match."

The Moscow side go into Tuesday's clash with serious personnel problems, weakened by the absence of a set of the first-line players.

During the winter break CSKA parted company with their star Brazilian marksman Vagner Love, who returned to his native country to play for Flamengo.

Defenders Kirill Nababkin and Pavel Mamaev will miss the match at Moscow's 80,000 capacity Luzhniki stadium after they both collected their third bookings in the last Group B match with Inter Milan.

Chilean winger Mark Gonzalez, who recently underwent hip surgery, has failed to recover completely and will not play.

Latvian Aleksandr Cauna, who suffered a stress fracture in his foot during the CSKA training camp in Spain, is also out while Czech forward Tomas Necid and Japanese playmaker Keisuke Honda are unlikely to get a starting place.

The Red Army side have signed Swedish international midfielder Pontus Wernbloom, Nigerian midfielder Ahmed Musa and Korean midfielder Kim In-Sung during the winter break but all three rookies lack experience of high-level matches.

CSKA prepared for the Real showdown in the balmy weather of Belek, Turkey, where they met Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk in a friendly match which ended 2-2.

Cesena sack Arrigoni and hire Beretta

Cesena have joined Palermo and Cagliari in hiring their third coach of the season after Daniele Arrigoni was fired and Mario Beretta hired in his place on Tuesday.

Cesena dropped to the foot of Serie A at the weekend following a 3-1 defeat at home to leaders AC Milan.

The coaching change was the 13th this season in Serie A.

Arrigoni was only hired in November to replace Marco Giampaolo, with whom Cesena began the campaign.

Beretta, 52, comes into the job with ample previous Serie A experience having coached Chievo, Parma and Siena.

Palermo were the first club to hire a third coach this season having fired Stefano Pioli before the league season began and then replaced Devis Mangia with Bortolo Mutti in December.

Cagliari sacked former Italy coach Roberto Donadoni in pre-season and then also dismissed his successor Massimo Ficcadenti, with Davide Ballardini currently in that role.

Donadoni re-emerged at Parma following Franco Colomba's demise and Pioli replaced Pierpaolo Bisoli at Bologna.

The highest profile sacking was at Inter Milan where Gian Piero Gasperini lasted only five official matches before Claudio Ranieri was brought in.

Genoa replaced Alberto Malesani with Pasquale Marino, Lecce swapped Eusebio Di Francesco for Serse Cosmi and Fiorentina waved goodbye to Sinisa Mihajlovic and welcomed Delio Rossi.

Perhaps the biggest surprise was at Novara where Attilio Tesser, who had guided the club to successive promotions, was sacked in favour of Emilio Mondonico.

The next step in Iran sanctions: cutting off the bank

The White House is welcoming a potentially critical step in the international effort to squeeze Iran over its suspect nuclear program: A statement by the Belgium-based SWIFT network that it is ready to implement sanctions against Tehran. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) handles most international transactions between banks.

"We note SWIFT's intention to stop transactions involving EU-designated Iranian banks when new EU sanctions regulations are in place," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor told Yahoo News in an email.  "We welcome this step and will be in contact with our European partners."

SWIFT processes the bulk of cross-border inter-bank transmissions—more than 15 million of them in more than 200 countries. Curbing Iran's access to the system would deepen the Islamic Republic's isolation from world finance and notably make it harder for Tehran to import or export goods.

"Sanctions on financial services have been particularly useful in interfering with illicit Iranian conduct," said Vietor.  "We are in conversations with allies and partners about additional ways to increase the cost of their behavior, including by targeting services such as that provided by SWIFT and similar entities."

Western powers led by the United States have charged that Iran hopes to use its nuclear program to develop the ability to make an atomic arsenal. Tehran has denied the allegation.

As Yahoo News reported Thursday, SWIFT's general counsel is due in Washington next week, and will meet Democratic Senator Robert Menendez, key author of a legislative proposal to drive Iranian banks, including its central bank, out of SWIFT.

Ron Paul wins (in North Dakota fundraising effort)

Ron Paul may have narrowly lost Maine's Republican presidential caucuses to Mitt Romney, but he might have another decent chance at finally winning a state, if campaign contributions are any indication.

As USA Today first noted, Paul has outraised all of his 2012 rivals, including President Obama, in North Dakota, which is set to hold its GOP caucuses on Mar. 6, along with nine other "Super Tuesday" states.

The Texas congressman has raised roughly $40,000 in the state—about $13,000 more than Obama and more than three times as much as Newt Gingrich, who has raised just over $11,500, according to Federal Election Commission records. Romney has taken in just over $7,000 from North Dakota donors, while Rick Santorum has raised only $765.

According to FEC records, Paul's average contribution in the state was less than $400—though many of his contributors were repeat donors. They listed occupations including "farmer," "doctor," and—in the case of Bismarck resident Matt Philsburg, who contributed $500 to Paul in December, "male model."

Much of Paul's money appears to have been raised through the campaign's hugely successful, one-day  "money bomb" fundraising efforts—which have brought millions of dollars in to his campaign this cycle.

North Dakota is set to award 28 delegates on Mar. 6—though, like Maine, its delegates are non-binding. While Santorum made a campaign swing through the state this week, the Paul campaign is believed to have a larger grassroots organization in the state, reflecting his campaign's effort to focus on smaller caucus states where he has the best chance of winning and racking up convention delegates.

Ancient meteorite standing between one Iowa town and its water supply

The remains of a 1.5 mile-wide, 10 billion-ton meteorite are causing problems for a small Iowa town, 74 million years after it crashed onto the Earth's surface at 45,000 miles per hour.
The Des Moines Register reports that the 1,600 residents of Manson, Iowa are struggling to locate a site for the town's well due to the geological impact of the meteorite. The crash created the underground Manson Crater—which has a diameter of 24 miles and reaches into four neighboring counties.
"It's hard to predict exactly what you are going to hit," state geologist Robert Libra told the Register. "It's a jumbled mess."
For a little context, the asteroid blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs and most life on Earth 65 million years ago is estimated to have been about 9 miles in diameter. According to a 2010 article in the journal Science, that impact was the equivalent of 1,000,000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs, creating tsunamis and earthquakes measuring more than 10 on the Richter scale.
An explainer on the Iowa Geological & Water Survey site explains that while the Manson Crater meteorite wasn't enough to wipe out the dinosaurs (it hit Earth nearly 10 million years prior), it nonetheless had a comparable effect on prehistoric Iowa. The impact is said to equal 10 trillion tons of TNT, resulting in an electromagnetic blast that incinerated anything within 130 miles and wiped out all life within 650 miles of the blast.
In fact, the Manson Crater meteorite was long-thought to have been the cause of the dinosaurs extinction, until scientists determined that it was too old. Still, it remains one of the largest outer space collision sites in North America.

And now, after years of struggling to find a sustainable water source, engineers at Iowa's Department of Natural Resources say they may have come up with a solution: Drilling for water near the crater's center. They speculate that the crater's center is home to Iowa's softest water source.
"Water that comes out of the central part is naturally soft," Anderson said. "It's the only naturally soft groundwater in the state of Iowa," Anderson said.
Of course, fans of Stephen King's "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" will tell you that getting too close to any meteorite should raise a red flag.

Which U.S. counties rely most on government benefits?

It's not news that reliance on government benefits is on the rise -- not just since the economic downturn of recent years, but over the last few decades. In 1969, 8 percent of Americans' income came from benefits programs. By 2009, that figure had more than doubled to 18 percent.

But which parts of the country count on those benefits the most? Using Labor Department data, the New York Times assembled a fascinating interactive county-by-county map that looks at the totality of government benefits -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, jobless benefits, food stamps, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and more.
Some of the key findings:
• In some of the country's poorest areas -- eastern Kentucky, northern Michigan, south Texas on the Mexican border, and parts of Arizona and New Mexico -- benefits account for over 40 percent of all income.
• Social Security is by far the largest single government benefit program, accounting for nearly 6 cents out of every dollar taken in by Americans in 2009. Not surprisingly, it makes up an especially large share of income in retirement havens like Sarasota, Fla., the Carolina coast, and parts of Arizona.
• Unemployment benefits play a relatively small role in the overall government safety net. They accounted for just 1.1 percent of all income, or about 6 percent of all benefits income. They're most relied upon, of course, in areas hit hard by the jobs crisis -- southern Oregon, northern Michigan, central Pennsylvania, and Nevada.
One additional point: As an accompanying story noted, many of the counties that are most dependent on these benefits are rural, and lean politically conservative. It wasn't hard for the paper to find residents who decry the growth of the government safety net -- while relying on it themselves.