Sports reports that the Celtics have agreed to a deal with free agent center Jermaine O’Neal. Details are still emerging, but the Boston Herald reports that it’s a 2-year deal, and that O’Neal will be paid $5.765 million for the 2010-2011 season.

O’Neal earned more than $23 million last season but was willing to take the $5.7 million mid level exception for a chance to win a title. And it’s good news for Celtics fans hoping their team can compete with the Miami Heat if they manage to sign LeBron James. O’Neal struggled mightily in the playoff series against the Celtics last April, going 9-for-44 from the field and averaging 4.2 points, but when he is playing well, O’Neal is a solid perimeter player and rebounder.

The move would ease the pressure of finding a replacement for Kendrick Perkins, who is expected to miss a large portion of the upcoming season following an injury suffered during Game 6 of the NBA Finals. The Celtics had been increasingly rumored to have interest in signing 38-year-old Shaquille O’Neal, a move that seems less likely now.

This gives Boston some frontline help that they need with Kendrick Perkins out until a couple months into the season. He also gives the Celtics some depth so Kevin Garnett can have his minutes scaled back and keep his knees fresh for the playoffs.

The 6-foot-11 O’Neal is a15-year NBA veteran, mostly with Indiana but most recently in Miami. Last season he averaged 13.6 points and 6.9 rebounds in 28.4 minutes per game.

O’Neal had a good season last year in Miami, a career high shooting percentage of nearly 53 percent and giving the Heat 13.6 points per game. His all around offensive game was better, as evidenced by a PER of 17.9, the best number he has had since his peak years early in the last decade.

The addition of O’Neal does not affect Boston’s interest in Kwame Brown. However, Brown would likely have to sign for the veteran’s minimum now.

“It’s all about team, winning championships,” O’Neal said. “That’s why I’m coming.”

Amid jitters that high levels of unemployment may force a double dip recession, the IMF warned the slow US recovery would continue and that debt problems loomed.

The Obama administration is overestimating U.S. economic growth and needs to reduce its budget deficit far more aggressively, the International Monetary Fund said on Thursday in a report that targeted Social Security, the home mortgage interest deduction and other politically sensitive policies as ripe for cutting.

“The central challenge is to develop a credible fiscal strategy to ensure that public debt is put– and is seen to be put–on a sustainable path without putting the recovery in jeopardy,” an IMF report said.

And in its first-ever analysis of the U.S. financial sector, the agency warned that the recovery and seeming health of the banking industry may be illusory, threatened by an expected wave of defaults on commercial real estate loans and possibly in need of another large injection of capital. Small- and medium-size firms, clustered on the West Coast and in the South, are at particular risk from what may be a trillion dollars worth of bad loans for offices and other commercial buildings, IMF officials said in a briefing.

Though the economic recovery in the United States “has become increasingly well established . . . the risks are tilted to the downside,” said David Robinson, deputy director of the IMF’s Western Hemisphere department. Recent data “have increased those downside risks.”

The assessment is in line with growing concern among members of the U.S. Federal Reserve and elsewhere that the U.S. recovery is losing steam. The IMF said recent data–whether the slow advance of hiring, a laggard home market, or a weak stock market–are not enough in themselves to downgrade its forecasts for U.S. growth, which it predicts will be 3.3 percent this year and 2.9 percent next year.

But it also notes that those forecasts are lower than those used in the Obama administration’s plan to cut the U.S. budget deficit in half by 2013 and stabilize overall U.S. debt by 2015.

President Barack Obama has plowed nearly a trillion dollars into the economy to spur economic growth, exploding the US deficit to a level that many believe is unsustainable.

While the United States has already taken steps to freeze spending, the IMF said the Obama Administration may need to increase taxes to hit its deficit reduction targets.

The Emmy Awards, presented by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, honor the best in television programming.

The wait is over folks. Nominations for the 62nd Primetime Emmy Awards are here.

It’s television biggest night where the best in TV are showcased. The ceremony will air on August 29th, and will be hosted by none other than Jimmy Fallon.

And now without further ado, here are the nominations!

Outstanding Comedy Series

* Curb Your Enthusiasm • HBO
* Glee • FOX
* Modern Family• ABC
* Nurse Jackie • Showtime
* The Office • NBC
* 30 Rock • NBC

Outstanding Drama Series

* Breaking Bad • AMC
* Dexter • Showtime
* The Good Wife • CBS
* Lost • ABC
* Mad Men • AMC
* True Blood • HBO

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series

* Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory)
* Larry David (Curb Your Enthusiasm)
* Matthew Morrison (Glee)
* Tony Shalhoub (Monk)
* Steve Carell (The Office)
* Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Outstanding Lead Actor In A Drama Series

* Bryan Cranston (Breaking Bad)
* Michael C. Hall (Dexter)
* Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights)
* Hugh Laurie (House)
* Matthew Fox (Lost)
* Jon Hamm (Mad Men)

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Comedy Series

* Lea Michele (Glee)
* Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Old Christine)
* Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
* Amy Poehler (Parks and Recreation)
* Tina Fey (30 Rock)
* Toni Collette (United States of Tara)

Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series

* Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer)
* Glenn Close (Damages)
* Connie Britton (Friday Night Lights)
* Julianna Margulies (The Good Wife)
* Mariska Hargitay (Law & Order: SVU)
* January Jones (Mad Men)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Comedy Series

* Chris Colfer (Glee)
* Neil Patrick Harris (How I Met Your Mother)
* Jesse Tyler Ferguson (Modern Family)
* Eric Stonestreet (Modern Family)
* Ty Burrell (Modern Family)
* Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men)

Outstanding Supporting Actor In A Drama Series

* Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad)
* Martin Short (Damages)
* Terry O’Quinn (LOST)
* Michael Emerson (LOST)
* John Slattery (Mad Men)
* Andre Braugher (Men of a Certain Age)

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Comedy Series

* Jane Lynch (Glee)
* Julie Bowen (Modern Family)
* Sofia Vergara (Modern Family)
* Kristen Wiig (Saturday Night Live)
* Jane Krakowski (30 Rock)
* Holland Taylor (Two and a Half Men)

Outstanding Supporting Actress In A Drama Series

* Sharon Gless (Burn Notice)
* Rose Byrne (Damages)
* Archie Panjabi (The Good Wife)
* Christine Baranski (The Good Wife)
* Christina Hendricks (Mad Men)
* Elisabeth Moss (Mad Men)

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Series

* The Colbert Report • Comedy Central •
* The Daily Show With Jon Stewart • Comedy Central •
* Real Time With Bill Maher • HBO •
* Saturday Night Live • NBC •
* The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien • NBC

Outstanding Variety, Music Or Comedy Special

* Bill Maher “…But I’m Not Wrong” • HBO •
* Hope For Haiti Now • • Tenth Planet Productions and MTV
* The Kennedy Center Honors • CBS •
* Robin Williams: Weapons Of Self Destruction • HBO
* The 25th Anniversary Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame Concert • HBO
* Wanda Sykes: I’ma Be Me • HBO •

Outstanding Reality Program

* Antiques Roadshow • PBS •
* Dirty Jobs • Discovery Channel •
* Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution • ABC
* Kathy Griffin: My Life On The D-List • Bravo
* MythBusters • Discovery Channel •
* Undercover Boss • CBS •

Outstanding Reality – Competition Program

* The Amazing Race • CBS
* American Idol • FOX
* Dancing With The Stars • ABC
* Project Runway • Lifetime
* Top Chef • Bravo

A magnitude 5.4 earthquake shook the Southern California desert east of Los Angeles on Wednesday, rattling nerves across the region but causing no serious damage or injuries.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the moderate quake, which struck at 4:53 p.m. PDT, was centered 15 miles north-northwest of the desert resort community of Borrego Springs, about 133 miles east of Los Angeles.

California Institute of Technology Seismologist Kate Hutton said the 7.2-magnitude quake in April transferred stress to fault zones farther north, triggering the quake that was felt from San Diego to Los Angeles to Las Vegas on Wednesday afternoon.

It was followed by a series of aftershocks and was the latest in a flurry of small to moderate temblors to hit Southern California in the months since a magnitude 7.2 shock erupted along the U.S.- Mexico border on Easter Sunday.

Preliminary information indicates the quake was on the San Jacinto fault, the most seismically active fault in California and one of two that exhibited signs of increased pressure following the Mexico quake, according to a recent airborne analysis by the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

The upshot is that the Easter quake appeared to have decreased the stress on the southernmost San Andreas Fault—slightly lowering the chance of a quake on the mother of California faults.

Geologists have been studying whether the Easter quake made seismic activity along more dangerous fault lines–such as the Whittier and San Andreas faults–more or less likely.

“You can’t predict earthquakes, but our statistics said there would be an increased chance of this happening,” said California Instituted of Technology seismic analyst Anthony Guarino.

Borrego Springs Fire Protection District Captain Miguel Manzano said “it was a pretty strong quake, lasted about 10 to 15 seconds.”

He said his department was unaware of any damage in the community but would be checking the area.

“We did feel it pretty strong,” said John Yzaguirre, manager of the Borrego Springs Resort hotel. “There’s nothing broken but it was really strong, probably one of the strongest ones we’ve felt.”

Jealissia Williams at the Palm Springs Riviera Resort said all the front desk employees evacuated the building, but they were unable to reach guests on their way out.

“We had a guest checking in while it was going and we all had to run out,” Williams said.

A new champion will be crowned at the World Cup on Sunday, when Spain meets the Netherlands in a final which has the potential to be a classic.

Spain had been a regular World Cup participant and they missed many times to advance this far. This year at the World Cup 2010, Spain had assembled the best team ever comprising of players from Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Well-organized and experienced but blessed with finesse and flair, Spain has the players to outplay any team in the world.

The Dutch have forwards, wingers and midfielders capable of slicing through any defense.

Robben is the play maker for Netherlands while Sneijder had been the goal hitting hitman. He had 5 goals so far and Robben also had 2 goals. Netherlands
has accumulated a total of 12 goals and a combined score of 12-5.

Spain has David Villa who ties Sneijder in the number of goals. He had made crucial goals in Spain’s game against Portugal and Paraguay. Then there is Iker Casillas, their dependable goalie. Spain has a total of 7 goals and a combined score of 7-2.

The highest point allowed by Netherlands to their opponents is 2 while they average 1 goal against them.

For Spain their highest goal given to their opponents is 1 and they have limited their opponents to nil in five of their six games.

The first World Cup final to be staged in Africa should be a memorable one if both teams bring their best game to Soccer City.

Although some of its stars looked short of fitness and form in the early stages, Spain produced its best performance in Wednesday’s 1-0 semifinal victory over Germany. It looked more like the side that brushed teams aside to win the European Championship two years ago.

“We’ve shown that in the big moments we can grow even more,” said striker David Villa, who is level with Dutchman Wesley Sneijder as leading scorer with five goals. “We should have scored more goals, but one from (Carles) Puyol has put us in the final.

“This is one of the greatest moments for Spain, for us to be in the final of the World Cup, it’s history. And we want to make more history in the final.”

The European champion faces a Dutch side which at times oozes class but has a habit of falling short when it really matters.

Although the Netherlands too has won a European title, that was back in 1988 and this is its first World Cup final since ‘78 when it lost to Argentina in Buenos Aires.

“It’s quite something to have achieved this after 32 years,” coach Bert van Marwijk said. “That only really sank in right at the end of the match when I was sitting there on the bench. But we can’t stop here. We have one more match to go.”

Van Marwijk is striving to brush aside the tendency to choke in the late stages. The team lost finals in 1974 and ‘78 when it had probably its best ever team and has since wilted in semifinals of both the World Cup and European Championship.

“We lost that (1974) final (against West Germany) when we should have won it,” Van Marwijk said. “We had a unique generation at the time, and Johan Cruyff was the best footballer I ever saw. What we’ve done in the last two years, though, is to try and eradicate that complacency and overconfidence.”

The Dutch have won six World Cup games in a row after eight in qualifying. Van Marwijk is confident he has a team who fight for each other, with attacking players chasing back to help out defenders whenever they lose the ball.

Arjen Robben is a match-winning winger with a fast dribble and powerful left-foot shot. Although Robin van Persie has failed to produce his best form so far, an appearance in a World Cup final may bring out the best in the striker.

Sneijder is there to unlock defenses with accurate and well-timed passes. But the Inter Milan midfielder has also contributed goals and could add the World Cup title to club triumphs in this season’s Champions League, Serie A and Italian Cup.

“This is unforgettable,” Sneijder said after scoring in the Netherlands’ 3-2 semifinal victory over Uruguay. “I played in big finals last season for my club, but nothing is better than this tournament. We’ve got to savor this, enjoy it, and then give everything we have to claim the trophy on Sunday.”

Who will be the World Cup 2010 champion? Let us watch the Netherlands vs Spain World Cup Finals 2010 on July 11, Sunday at Soccer City, Johannesburg.

Carles Puyol has just scored his most important goal for Spain.

He launched himself at an Andres Iniesta corner kick and powered a header into the back of the German net in the 72nd minute for a 1-0 lead.

Puyol charged into the box and climbed above the defence to head home Xavi’s corner from the left. The winner will meet Netherlands in Sunday’s final. Germany and Spain are locked at 0-0 after 60 minutes of their World Cup semifinal match on Wednesday, with the Spaniards having the best chances and dominating possession.

The World Cup is guaranteed a first-time champion if the score holds.

Spain striker David Villa’s close-range shot from a pass by Pedro Rodriguez was blocked by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer in the sixth minute.

Neuer stopped Pedro’s shot in the 58th, and Andres Iniesta missed from a tough angle moments later.

Piotr Trowchowski had Germany’s best opportunity, with a long-distance shot in the 32nd that was saved by Iker Casillas.

The match was interrupted in the fourth minute when a spectator ran onto the pitch and was escorted off by security guards.

The winner will play the Netherlands in Sunday’s World Cup final.

Germany haven’t won a World Cup in 20 years, and haven’t won the thing since reunification. This tournament looks like Germany’s chance to not only reclaim the World Cup, but to do so in a style that could redefine perceptions of German football. But they need to beat Spain before thinking about that.

Spain swept every one before them in the 2008 European Championship with a modern and controlled form of football based around a few midfield maestros. The German team defeated in Vienna that day had no such player, or rather they had no such tactical genius.

Judge Marsha Revel sentenced Lindsay Lohan to 90 days in county jail and 90 days in a substance abuse program for violating probation after learning that she missed seven court-ordered weekly alcohol counseling
sessions during the 27 week period between December 2009 and July 2.

“Are you serious?” she sobbed to her attorney as she furiously plucked Kleenex out of a tissue box and covered her face as she grappled with the prospect of jail.

Lohan had appealed to the judge directly for leniency, admitting that she was scared and told the court, “I did everything I was told to do,” she said. “I thought I was being compliant. I did the best that I could.

“I wasn’t asking for special treatment…I was just trying to balance my jobs. I don’t want you to think I don’t respect you or your terms.”

Lohan’s 90-day jail sentence caps a long history of legal issues reaching back at least to her 2007 DUI arrest and comes at a time when the 24-year-old actress is trying to piece her career back together. The jail time, which is to be followed by a 90-day in-house stay at a substance abuse clinic, will prevent Lohan from publicizing an upcoming movie and delay production on another one. What’s more, Lohan will be unable to continue promoting her new fashion line, 6126, which is expected to begin shipping to stores this month.

So just how much will Lohan’s professional life suffer now that her ability to jumpstart new projects and promote existing ones has been compromised? Will the actress—once a rising star with box-office hits like “Freaky Friday” and “Mean Girls”—survive her current woes and make a Hollywood comeback?

“The simple stroke is that she already destroyed her movie career,” said David Poland of MovieCityNews.com. “Is she insurable on a film right now? Probably not. What was a bad reputation has turned into a legally defined problem.”

To wit, Lohan has already lost at least one job because of her public notoriety, having been fired from “The Other Side” in April. Writer/director David Michaels explained it this way at the time: “The producers of the movie have reported that financiers have been resistant to finance the movie with Lindsay in the lead role,” adding that Lohan was simply “not bankable.”

Still, the director of “Inferno,” a biopic in which Lohan is set to star as 1970s porn star Linda Lovelace, has came out in support of the embattled actress. “I am 100 percent behind Lindsay and can say the same for everyone involved in the production of ‘Inferno: A Linda Lovelace Story,’ ” Matthew Wilder told MTV News in a statement after her jail sentence was announced on Tuesday. “Indeed, we are proud to have this remarkable artist work on our film.”

Other producers shared the sentiment. The Associated Press reported that Lohan is in negotiations for a part in the upcoming Willie Nelson movie “The Dry Gulch Kid,” and that production would be postponed if she wanted the role. “We’re behind her,” producer Kerry Wallum said. “We’ll wait until all of this blows over.”

How long will that take? And will Lohan be able to step back into the limelight? That depends on how she handles herself, both in private and in public, in the weeks and months ahead, according to one Hollywood PR vet.

“She can take this and she can learn from it and it becomes a cathartic event in her life,” said Howard Bragman, founder of publicity firm Fifteen Minutes. “The one thing we haven’t heard from Lindsay is, ‘I’m sorry, I have a problem, I’m going to resolve it.’ She doesn’t have PR problems, she has life problems. You can’t fix your problems until you admit you have them. I think she needs a lot of therapy. She needs to let her career be second and her life be first.”

Before she can get her life back, though, Lohan is headed to prison, and Bragman maintained that if she deals with it appropriately, she has a shot at resurrecting her career.

Mozilla on Wednesday released the Firefox 4 public beta, the latest iteration of the free, open-source Web browser.

With Firefox 4 Beta, Mozilla introduces a brand new interface. It takes cues from Google Chrome and other browsers by placing the tabs on top by default (in Windows only; it’ll come to Mac OS and Linux later on), and hiding the menubar (instead, a new Firefox button provides access to commonly used commands).

While the bookmarks layout has changed, the functionality is the same; to access your bookmarks just click on the star and select from the drop down menu.

If you like to keep numerous tabs open at a time, Firefox now lets you search for the tab you want right from the Awesome Bar. This is a great alternative to cycling through all your tabs with keyboard shortcuts or your mouse.

To access the switch tabs function, just place your cursor in the Awesome Bar (that’s the URL entry field for you Firefox newbies), and start typing name of the site or page you want to access. The Awesome Bar will start showing you a few options for past and current sites. One of the top options should be the tab you’re looking for, and will be marked as “Switch to tab”. Just select that option, hit enter, and Firefox will switch to the tab for you.

The new release comes several days after Mozilla released the first pre-release code for Firefox 4, and the updated version brings a number of changes designed to enhance the browser’s usability and security.

Like other new browsers, Firefox 4 Beta provides some crash protection features: If a browser plugin crashes, it’ll just bring down the plugin instead of causing the entire browser to crash.

The obvious change is the browser’s look. Like Chrome and Opera, tabs are now located at the top of the browser (Windows only), and a new add-on manager is included to make it easier to find plugins.

Under the hood, Firefox 4 beta 1 heightens security, offers crash protection, supports technologies that are vying to become new Web standards (HTML5 and WebM), and contains other bells and whistles.

The man who would be known the world over as Ringo Starr, the man who kept the beat for the Beatles, turns 70 on Wednesday.

With a lot of help from his friends, Ringo Starr will blow out no fewer than 70 candles on his birthday cake Wednesday night.

Of the four Beatles, Ringo was the oldest (he was a few months older than Lennon) and has had one of the most fascinating solo careers since the legendary band disbanded 40 years ago.

Wednesday night, Ringo will receive a well-deserved birthday sing-along at Radio City Music Hall during a sold-out concert in which he’ll perform songs he sang with the Beatles more than four decades ago.

Of course, he’ll perform his most famous solo works as well. But the Fab Four pieces always highlight the show, from his signature vocal on “With a Little Help From My Friends” to the cartoonish “Yellow Submarine,” to the rockabilly anthem “Boys,” to the Buck Owens song that best describes Ringo’s beloved demeanor: “Act Naturally.”

Starr always had one of the most dynamic personalities of any of the Beatles, helping to craft some of the group’s most off-beat tunes (including “Octopus’s Garden” and “Don’t Pass Me By”) and providing the most electrifying on-screen presence (his is the one performance in “A Hard Day’s Night” that stands out, and he had a relatively fruitful acting career once the Beatles broke up). His work with the Beatles secured his place in history, but since then he has scored with a number of successful solo albums and drumming projects. His real impact, though, has been in the film industry, which saw him direct a documentary about friend Marc Bolan’s band T. Rex, star in films like Ken Russell’s “Lisztomania” and the McCartney-penned “Give My Regards to Broad Street” and put in regular time as the narrator of the kids’ show “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends.

Today, Starr is perhaps best known as the frontman and mastermind behind the All-Starr Band, a rotating cast of rock and roll greats who record and tour with Starr. Past members include Dr. John, E Street Band guitarist Nils Lofgren, the Band drummer Levon Helm, Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh, the Who bassist John Entwistle, Peter Frampton, Todd Rundgren, Edgar Winter and Men at Work frontman Colin Hay. Check out a vintage clip of an early All-Starr Band performing Starr’s biggest solo hit “It Don’t Come Easy.”

Let’s all wish a hearty “Happy birthday!” to Ringo Starr, who was born Richard Starkey exactly 70 years ago today. This milestone will no doubt make many people other than the legendary drummer feel old. Easy solution: Throw on a Beatles album, or better yet, find A Hard Day’s Night on DVD. The world has yet to discover a superior source of renewable youthful energy than the twenty-something Starr’s steady drumbeats and silly faces.

An experimental solar-powered plane took off from western Switzerland on Wednesday for a 24-hour test flight–a key step in a historic effort to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun.

The plane has 12,000 solar cells on its 80-metre wingspan and looks like something out of a science-fiction movie.

Clear blue skies on Wednesday allowed the prototype aircraft to soak up plenty of solar energy as it flew over the Jura mountains west of the Swiss Alps. The big question, however, was whether the plane’s 12,000 solar cells could fill up its batteries with enough energy so the plane could fly through the night.

The flight is going “extremely well,” said team co-founder Bertrand Piccard, a record-breaking balloonist whose father and grandfather also accomplished pioneering airborne and submarine feats.

“The goal of the project is to have a solar-powered plane flying day and night without fuel,” Piccard said. “This flight is crucial for the credibility of the project.”

It took off at 7am from the Payerne airfield in Switzerland, with pilot Andre Borschberg planning to take it up to an altitude of 8,500 metres throughout the evening.

If all goes well he will continue to fly the plane through the pitch of night with just the power stored in the rechargeable solar-powered batteries.

By early afternoon, pilot Andre Borschberg had his oxygen mask on and was cruising at 19,680 feet (6,000 meters), after trying to dodge the low-level turbulence and thermal winds that are frequent in the mountains.

“Andre now reached 6000m in a cloudless sky … this situation will last the entire afternoon,” the control panel tweeted, adding later “batteries are nearly fully loaded. Sun rays now for climbing only.”

Piccard told The Associated Press he was confident the plane will collect enough solar energy to theoretically fly through the night but was not exactly sure how energy efficient the plane was.

“We will most probably take the decision to go through the night,” he said. “We’ll have to be very careful, because then we have to see if the energy that we have in the batteries will be enough.”

The plane is flying in loops in Swiss airspace and within gliding range of Payerne airport so it could land if it runs out of energy, he said. The solar plane needs a wide, concrete runway because of its wingspan.

Every aspect of the aircraft is monitored by engineers on the ground, with much of it fed onto the team’s website and Twitter page.

The 57-year old Swiss, a former fighter jet pilot, is wearing a parachute.