[ID:nL8480759] In March however the decline in Aeroflot's passengernumbers accelerated falling 16

[ID:nL8480759] In March, however, the decline in Aeroflot's passengernumbers accelerated, falling 16.5 percent year-on-year comparedto 15.8 percent in February, the airline said in a statement. Russian officials forecast that air travel could fall byaround 20 percent this year due to the financial crisis. Analysts look at air travel as a sign of whether consumersare confident enough in the future to spend their income nowrather than squirrel it away. With the global financial crisis weighing on Russia'seconomy, the public has been hit with rising unemployment andswelling wage arrears, forcing many to reign in spending even onbasic needs. Only 60.7 percent of Aeroflot's seats were filled lastmonth, 8.1 percent less than in March of the previous year, itsaid. For the whole first quarter, Aeroflot flew 1.78 millionpassengers and filled 61.3 percent of its seats. (Reporting by Simon Shuster;Editing by Rupert Winchester ) Russia.

On June 20, 2004, Ken Griffey, Jr. became the 20th player in Major League Baseball history to hit 500 career home-runs. Fans in Cincinnati and around the league were jubilant for the slugger's greatest offensive achievement at the time.Now, in the 2008 season, Griffey will become the sixth player in major league history to hit 600 career homeruns. The former Griffey teammate will undoubtedly be showered by cheers from the Bronx faithful and given a nice exclusive half hour slot in a full hour of Baseball Tonight.That of course will be in a few years, when the game should be getting over its currently steroid hang-over.For now the damage from such an atrocious era continues.Griffey's 600 will come and go.Fans will mark the event, but unfortunately, the celebration won't be as widespread as it truly should be.. The Lakers 89-85 victory over the Spurs in Game One of the Western Conference Finals one in which the L.A. recovered from a 20-point third quarter deficit revealed many things about the Lakers. Most of all, it revealed the confidence that the Los Angeles could win despite staring down a daunting deficit to the defending champs, and the courage to actually make it happen.Let’s look at the specifics.Los AngelesWhat Worked:Despite being unusually passive in the opening half, and not having much success against Bruce Bowen’s disciplined defense, Kobe Bryant was able to decimate Ime Udoka’s, Manu Ginobili’s, and Tony Parker’s individual attempts at defending him.And when the game was on the line, Kobe was able to drive perpendicular to the cup, shoulder Bruce Bowen for space, and knock down a midrange jumper that proved to be the difference.The Lakers had success running Kobe off of weak-to-strong side horizontal cuts off of Pau Gasol.

When Tim Duncan would show on the far side of the screen, Pau Gasol would be wide open under the basket to tap in lobs.Three times the Lakers ran Kobe off of down screens and three times Kobe knocked down jumpers.And passive or not, Kobe made the perfect pass when the situation called for one 9 AST, 1 TO.Whereas Pau Gasol was largely ineffective in creating his own shot, he danced and cut his way into a number of easy scoring positions off of his teammates’ creativity. Credit Gasol with 19 useful points on 9-16 shooting.Sasha Vujacic unexpectedly neutralized Ginobili’s offense. In fact, when the Lakers needed boosts of speed and energy in the first and third quarters, Vujacic was able to supply the speed boost that San Antonio couldn’t match. Indeed, if Vujacic can replicate his defensive efforts, the Lakers will be able to prepare for their NBA Finals matchup sooner rather than later.With the Lakers struggling, Phil Jackson called on a unit that would get-up and go.