Fewer than half of the 53 mice and other rodents who blasted off on April 19 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome survived the flight, Russian news agencies reported, quoting Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and the lead researcher.

Sychov said this was to be expected and the surviving mice were sufficient to complete the study, which was designed to show the effects of weightlessness and other factors of space flight on cell structure. All 15 of the lizards survived, he said. The capsule also carried small crayfish and fish.

The capsule’s orbit reached 575 kilometres (345 miles) above Earth, according to the news agencies, which said this was far higher than the orbit of the International Space Station.

Russian state television showed the round Bion-M capsule and some of the surviving mice after it landed slightly off course but safely in a planted field near Orenburg, about 1,200 kilometres (750 miles) southeast of Moscow.

“This is the first time that animals have flown in space for so long on their own,” Sychov said in the television broadcast from the landing site. The last research craft to carry animals into space spent 12 days in orbit in 2007.

The mice and other animals were to be flown back to Moscow to undergo a series of tests at Sychov’s institute, which is part of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

It’s an amount too high for many to imagine. Compare it to the budget for the city of Zephyrhills: This year’s figure is just more than $49 million. The winning Powerball jackpot is 12 times that.

Whoever has the ticket hadn’t come forward as of Sunday morning.

“This would be the sixth Florida Powerball winner and right now, it’s the sole winner of the largest ever Powerball jackpot,” Florida Lottery executive Cindy O’Connell told The Associated Press. “We’re delighted right now that we have the sole winner.”

Publix spokeswoman Maria Brous said that there are a lot of rumours about who won, but the store doesn’t know.

“We’re excited for the winner or winners,” said Brous. “We don’t promote or endorse the lottery, we offer it as a convenience.”

O’Connell said Florida has had more Powerball winners than any other state but did not give any indication whether anyone had stepped forward with the winning ticket in Saturday’s drawing.

But plenty of people in Zephyrhills — population 13,337 — are wondering whether it’s someone they know.

Joan Albertson drove over to the Publix early Sunday morning with her camera in hand, just in case the winner emerged. She said she had bought a ticket at a store across the street, and the idea of winning that much money was still something of a shock.

“Oh, there’s so much good that you could do with that amount of money.” Albertson said. “I don’t even know where to begin.”

Zephyrhills is a small city in Pasco County, about 30 miles (50 kilometres) northeast of downtown Tampa. Once a rural farming town, it’s now known as a hotbed for skydiving activity, and the home to large retiree mobile home parks and Zephyrhills bottled water.

And now, one lucky lottery ticket.

Sara Jeltis said her parents in Michigan texted her with the news Sunday morning.

“Well, it didn’t click till I came here,” she said, gesturing to the half-dozen TV live trucks humming in the Publix parking lot. “And I’m like, wow I can’t believe it, it’s shocking! Out of the whole country, this Publix, in little Zephyrhills would be the winner.”

With four out of every five possible combinations of Powerball numbers in play, lottery executives said Saturday that someone was almost certain to win the game’s highest jackpot, a windfall of hundreds of millions of dollars — and that’s after taxes.

The winning numbers were 10, 13, 14, 22 and 52, with a Powerball of 11.

Estimates had earlier put the jackpot at around $600 million. But Powerball’s online site said Sunday that the jackpot had reached an estimated $590.5 million.

The world’s largest jackpot was a $656 million Mega Millions jackpot in March 2012.

Terry Rich, CEO of the Iowa Lottery, initially confirmed that one Florida winning ticket had been sold. He told AP that following the Florida winner, the Powerball grand prize was being reset at an estimated jackpot of $40 million, or about $25.1 million cash value.

The chances of winning the prize were astronomically low: 1 in 175.2 million. That’s how many different ways you can combine the numbers when you play. But lottery officials estimated that about 80 per cent of those possible combinations had been purchased recently.

While the odds are low for any one individual or individuals, O’Connell said, the chance that one hits paydirt is what makes Powerball exciting.

“There is just the chance that you will have the opportunity, and Florida is a huge Powerball state,” O’Connell said. “We have had more winners than any other state that participates in Powerball.”

The longshot odds didn’t deter people across Powerball-playing states — 43 plus Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands — from lining up at gas stations and convenience stores Saturday.

Clyde Barrow, a public policy professor at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, specializes in the gaming industry. He said one of the key factors behind the ticket-buying frenzy is the size of the jackpot — people are interested in the easy investment.

“Even though the odds are very low, the investment is very small,” he said. “Two dollars gets you a chance.”

___

Rodriguez reported from Des Moines, Iowa.

___

Follow Barbara Rodriguez at http://twitter.com/bcrodriguez.

The town of Qusair has been besieged for weeks by regime troops and pro-government gunmen backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. The siege is part of a regime offensive that aims to regain control of the towns and villages along the frontier with Lebanon.

The border region’s strategic value is twofold: it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam; and rebels smuggle weapons and supplies from Lebanon across the porous frontier to opposition fighters inside Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 people, including 16 rebel fighters and one woman, were killed in Qusair in fighting Sunday morning, but that the death toll was expected to rise as government troops continue to try to push into the town.

A government official in the nearby provincial capital of Homs said that regime troops have encircled the town and that “the offensive to liberate Qusair has begun.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the army has built up its forces on three fronts around Qusair while leaving one clear for “safe passage for fleeing civilians and the armed terrorists who want to surrender.”

The official said government forces have advanced into the town, taking over the municipality building and other vital government institutions.

But Hadi Abdullah, an activist in Qusair reached on Skype, denied the regime made any advances on the ground. He said the municipality was destroyed in fighting six months ago, and that there’s no government building left to take over.

He said heavy shelling began late Saturday and continued through Sunday, and that civilians have sought shelter in basements

“It’s the heaviest since the beginning of the revolution,” he said, adding that at least 17 houses have been destroyed.

The discrepancy in the accounts could not be immediately verified.

Separately, an official at the Homs governor’s office said two suicide bombings in the town of Deir Balbaa just outside of Homs killed at least three people and wounded 15 others. The official declined to be identified because he is not allowed to make public comments.

Another pair of bombings struck near a factory on a different Homs highway, killing four people and wounding 13, the state news agency reported.

The regime’ offensive on Qusair comes as the United States and Russia push a joint effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war. Previous attempts to solve the conflict peacefully have failed.

The U.S.-Russian plan, similar to one set out last year in Geneva, calls for talks on a transition government and an open-ended cease-fire.

More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. The fighting has also spilled over into neighbouring states, including Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, all of which are anxious about the ripple effect of Syria’s conflict on their own nations.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at a weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday that the Jewish state was prepared to act if there were more shipments to Hezbollah from Syria.

“We are following the developments and changes there closely and we are prepared for every scenario,” he said.

Israeli warplanes carried out two rounds of airstrikes on Damascus early this month on what officials have said were sophisticated missiles bound for Hezbollah.

On Saturday, Assad said in a newspaper interview that he won’t step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country’s politics.

Assad’s comments to the Argentine newspaper Clarin were the first about his political future since Washington and Moscow agreed earlier this month to try to bring the regime and the opposition to an international conference for talks about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The U.S. and Russia have backed opposite sides in the conflict, but appear to have found common ground in the diplomatic push.

The White House and the Kremlin envision holding the meeting next month, but no date has been set. Neither Assad nor the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition coalition group, has made a firm commitment to attend.

In the interview, Assad seemed to play down the importance of such a conference, saying a decision on Syria’s future is up to the Syrian people, not the U.S. He also said a decision on his political future must be made in elections, and not during such a conference.

As the regime and opposition decides whether to even take part in the conference, the planning for the potential talks looked set to move forward.

Jordan is to host Western and Arab foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, for a meeting Wednesday that brings together the Syrian opposition’s foreign supporters to plan for the peace talks.

In Egypt, the Arab League said its ministerial committee on Syria will meet Thursday to discuss ways to convene the international conference on Syria. The Syrian opposition said they will meet in Turkey that same day to discuss whether to take part in an international conference on the conflict.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Egypt, and Yasmine Saker in Beirut contributed to this report.

North Korea routinely test-launches short-range missiles. But the latest launches came during a period of tentative diplomacy aimed at easing recent tension, including near-daily threats by North Korea to attack South Korea and the U.S. earlier this year. North Korea protested annual joint military drills by Seoul and Washington and U.N. sanctions imposed over its February nuclear test.

The fourth launch occurred Sunday afternoon, according to officials at Seoul’s Defence Ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing department rules, refused to say whether it was a missile or artillery round.

On Saturday, North Korea fired two short-range missiles in the morning and another in the afternoon. The U.S. responded by saying threats or provocations would only further deepen North Korea’s international isolation, while South Korea called the launches a provocation and urged the North to take responsible actions.

The North has a variety of missiles but Seoul and Washington don’t believe the country has mastered the technology needed to manufacture nuclear warheads that are small and light enough to be placed on a missile capable of reaching the U.S.

U.S. officials said the North has recently withdrawn two mid-range “Musudan” missiles believed to be capable of reaching Guam after moving them to its east coast during the recent tensions.

The Korean Peninsula officially remains in a state of war because the 1950-53 Korean War ended with an armistice, not a peace treaty. South Korea’s Defence Ministry said Sunday it has deployed dozens of Israeli-made precision guided missiles on front-line islands near the disputed western sea boundary as part of an arms buildup begun after a North Korean artillery strike on one of the islands in 2010 killed four South Koreans.

___

Associated Press writer Sam Kim contributed to this report.

A DIFFERENT TUNE FOR TIMBERLAKE

In the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis,” Justin Timberlake sings music set to a very different beat than “Suit and Tie.”

Timberlake plays a bearded pop folkie in the film, which was to premiere Sunday night at the Cannes Film Festival, about the music scene of early 1960s Greenwich Village. Oscar Isaac stars as a more serious but less successful folk musician than Timberlake’s smiley Jim Berkey.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Timberlake called Berkey “part of the transition that is sort of the underbelly of the time.” The film summons the period of New York folk just before Bob Dylan arrived in the early ’60s.

“Obviously, it’s on the surface, a different style from the music that I make in real life,” said Timberlake. “But listen, man. I grew up in Tennessee, the home of the blues, the birthplace of rock ‘n’ roll — Memphis — and a lot of country music. So my first musical lessons were given to me by my grandfather an old Gibson guitar. He taught me how to fingerpick.”

Timberlake helped write the music to the film’s most comical song, “Please, Mr. Kennedy,” which he sings with Isaac and Adam Driver of “Girls.” The oft-repeated chorus goes: “Please, Mr. Kennedy, don’t shoot me into outer space.”

Timberlake got reflective about the curious mix of talent, luck and timing that goes into a music act breaking out. In contrast to the success Timberlake has had in music and acting, the characters of “Llewyn Davis” are those for whom things never click.

“I’ve been in the right place and met the wrong people, and I’ve been in the wrong place and met the right people,” the former boy band singer said. “Usually, the second one ends up being the thing that can catapult someone’s career.”

Timberlake suggested disregarding how one’s work is received.

“There’s a lot of analysis now, a lot of analytics on what might be success and what might be failure,” he said. “I don’t know that I would measure the success or failure of it by how it’s perceived because once it’s done, it’s sort of out there. You have to let it live in the ether.”

— Jake Coyle, http://twitter.com/jake_coyle

Young British actor George MacKay is making a splash at Cannes — literally, amid the weekend’s torrential downpours — with his compelling central performance in mythic maritime drama “For Those In Peril.”

Set in a fishing town on the stark Scottish coast, Paul Wright’s debut feature stars 21-year-old MacKay as sole survivor of a boat accident that killed five others, including his elder brother. MacKay carries the intense and poetic film as a young man struggling to cope with loss, even as his survival alienates him from his bereaved neighbours.

“You got our film and our weather, too,” MacKay joked, sitting in a wind-whipped beachside cafe during interviews for the film in Cannes.

Playing in Cannes’ Critics’ Week competition, the movie has garnered strong reviews for its exploration of guilt, masculinity and mythology.

It’s a mature and meaty role for MacKay, who got his movie start aged 10 as one of the Lost Boys in P.J. Hogan’s 2003 adaptation of “Peter Pan,” shot at Warner Bros’ studios on Australia’s Gold Coast.

“It was mad. They built a pirate ship — it was extraordinary. I think, the fact that we were 10, I don’t think we realized how ridiculous the scale (was),” said MacKay, who also appeared alongside Clive Owen in 2009 family drama “The Boys Are Back.”

“For Those in Peril” was a much smaller-scale operation, shot over six weeks in a small town in northeast Scotland — and, for several key sequences, in the cold North Sea.

The boundlessly enthusiastic MacKay says even the frigid water scenes were made bearable by “lots of cups of tea … lots of towels, lots of food.”

“We were kept safe,” he said. “We were out in the middle of the ocean doing it and we had the water safety guys come — very dramatic — shooting across in their little (boat), whack you out and wrap you in towels. It was all good.”

And the town had a bonus: “Best fish and chips you’ve ever had.”

—Jill Lawless, http://Twitter.com/JillLawless

Born: May 30, 1977

Age: 35

Education: Honours degree in political science from the University of Western Ontario, master’s degree in political science from the University of Calgary.

Private career: Worked as a researcher for the right-leaning National Citizens Coalition when it was led by Harper.

Political career: Active in student politics at the University of Western Ontario. Interned in former Reform leader Preston Manning’s office and later for then-Reform MP Rob Anders. Finalist in Magna’s “If I Were Prime Minister” essay contest in 2000. Became Harper’s executive assistant when he returned to federal politics in 2001 to lead the Canadian Alliance party. Named principal secretary in 2008. The longest-serving member of Harper’s inner circle.

Personal: Known as a monarchist. Once lived in a one-bedroom apartment over the garage at Stornoway when Harper was Opposition leader.

For the record: “Ray is really good, and trusted. He’s quiet and handles lots of tough issues. And yes, he stays out of the limelight.” — Jason Lietaer, former head of the Conservative Resource Group

Eight years have passed since Microsoft unveiled the Xbox 360, double the amount of time between the original Xbox debut in 2001 and its high-definition successor’s launch in 2005. With the next-generation Xbox expected to be revealed Tuesday, anticipation for the entertainment console’s latest evolution is higher than Master Chief’s spaceship.

“People get excited about new consoles because consoles represent the future,” said Stephen Totilo, editor of gaming site Kotaku.com. “When you buy a new console, you’re essentially investing in five years of your future in the hopes that this box won’t just be cool the day you buy it, but in five years from now, it will be even cooler.”

The platform has been the exclusive home to such popular gaming franchises as sci-fi shoot-’em-up “Gears of War,” racing simulator “Forza” and first-person shooter “Halo,” starring super-soldier Master Chief. In recent years, Microsoft expanded the console’s scope beyond just games, adding streaming media apps and the family-friendly Kinect system.

The next generation of gaming already got off to a rocky start last November when Nintendo launched the Wii U, the successor to the popular Wii system featuring an innovative tablet-like controller yet graphics on par with the Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. Nintendo said it sold just 3.45 million units by the end of March, well below expectations.

Microsoft will likely take aim at Sony during Tuesday’s next-generation Xbox unveiling at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash. Sony was first to showcase plans for its upcoming PlayStation 4 — but not the actual box — at an event in New York last February. The reaction to that console, which featured richer graphics and more social features, was mixed.

Totilo said to wow gamers with the next Xbox, Microsoft must show off great games for it that players will crave, as well as technology that feels futuristic. He said there’s concern from Xbox fans that Microsoft has lost interest in hardcore gamers with their recent efforts to attract casual gamers with the Kinect, its camera-based system that detects motion.

There will be at least one hardcore game showcased at the Microsoft’s event: “Call of Duty: Ghosts,” the next chapter in the popular military shooter franchise from “Modern Warfare” developer Infinity Ward. Activison-Blizzard Inc. previously announced that “Ghosts” would be on display Tuesday and will be available for both current and next-generation consoles.

“They wanted ‘Call of Duty’ on their stage to show off what next gen is capable of,” said Eric Hirshberg, CEO of Activision Publishing. “We’re excited about the approach that both Microsoft and Sony are taking to the next generation. Our business, of course, depends on them launching this new hardware, so we want to do everything we can to help.”

For the past five years, questions and rumours about a new Xbox have circulated more than the chainsaw on the end of a “Gears of War” rifle. What will the new Xbox be called? How much will it cost? Will it play used video games? Blu-ray discs? Will it be backwards compatible? Must the Kinect always be on? Will it require a connection to the Internet?

It’s that rumour about an always-on Xbox which has ignited the most negative comments on social networks, according to research firm Fizziology. Overall, Fizziology said gamers seem to be more jazzed about a potential new Xbox, with 32 per cent of the chatter positive compared to 10 per cent of the sentiment negative in online conversation.

“I think because people have been waiting a long time, expectations are higher,” said Laurent Detoc, North America president of Ubisoft Entertainment. “As a result, they may not be seeing what they anticipated. In the end, from the research we’ve done, there’s a strong appetite for new machines. I have no doubt they’re going to sell extremely well.”

___

Online:

http://www.xbox.com/

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang.

Slim recently bought part of two of Mexico’s first division soccer teams, setting up another showdown with television giants Televisa and TV Azteca, major players in the soccer field that are in turn trying to push their way into Slim’s telecommunications and Internet markets.

The owners of the 18 Mexican first division clubs are scheduled to meet Monday to decide whether one person or one company can own more than one first-division soccer team, and many see Slim as the target.

Each team has one vote in decisions by the Mexican Football Federation, so purchasing more teams would give Slim more power in the federation. Recently, there have been rumours in sporting circles and on social networks that Slim also plans to buy or acquire the broadcast rights for Chivas, one of Mexico’s two most popular teams, along with Televisa’s America. The billionaire’s spokesmen have denied that.

“What is evident in their business decisions is that Televisa is interested in entering Slim’s mobile and broadband fields and Slim is interested in entering the soccer field, which has been under the monopoly of the two television networks,” said telecommunications analyst Gabriel Sosa Plata, referring to the fact that the networks long had exclusive broadcast rights to the games of all 18 teams.

Slim ventured into soccer in September, when he bought 30 per cent of the shares in the Leon and Pachuca teams through his telecommunications company America Movil. In December, he bought all the shares of the second division team Estudiantes Tecos.

Following the acquisitions, team owners in February decided to discuss the issue of multi-ownership.

The decision raised some eyebrows since TV Azteca currently owns two teams, the Jaguares and Morelia, and Televisa once owned three first division teams, America, Necaxa and San Luis, without notable complaints within the federation about the issue of multi-team ownership. The world football authority, FIFA, however, has expressed concern about conflict of interest questions raised by the issue.

Pachuca’s owner, Jesus Martinez, said he was shocked that the subject of multi-ownership has come up since Slim ventured into soccer.

“It’s laughable because that (multi-ownership) has been going on for more than 25 years,” Martinez said.

But Televisa currently owns just one team, America, and TV Azteca is reportedly thinking of selling the Jaguares to a business group that would relocate it from Chiapas state to Queretaro. A Jaguares’ spokesman wouldn’t comment on the report but if the purchase takes place, Slim would be the only businessman with multiple teams in the first division.

Neither Televisa, the world’s largest producer of Spanish-language TV programs, nor TV Azteca immediately responded to interview requests by The Associated Press.

Decio de Maria, president of the Mexican Soccer League, said that if there is a vote against a single person or company owning several teams, Slim wouldn’t be obligated to sell one of his teams but he would be prevented from buying more first division teams.

“In the next owners assembly, they will discuss whether there are differences between multi-ownership now and what has been happening in the past and if there are then we will take the necessary measures,” said Slim’s spokesman Arturo Elias Ayub.

So the upcoming vote on the subject seems geared to preventing Slim from buying more teams, not forcing him to shed one he already has.

Slim’s foray into the world of soccer is also threatening the two TV networks in an area they hold dear: broadcast rights to games.

Slim’s America Movil is a leading provider of cable and satellite television in Latin America but he has not been able to launch a network of his own in Mexico, something that could change after a recent approval of a reform that allows for more competition in the telecommunications sector.

Lacking his own station, after acquiring part of Leon, Slim began marketing the rights to broadcast its games, ending the duopoly held by Televisa and TV Azteca.

“Soccer is important for non-paid television because it is part of Mexico’s most watched programming and for Televisa and TV Azteca it was an area they completely dominated,” Sosa Plata said. “Slim’s entry into soccer is reorganizing the field and giving a new perspective to a business that seemed stagnant.”

The billionaire sold the broadcast rights for the Leon games to Telemundo in the United States, and the cable channel Fox Sports in Mexico and the rest of Latin America and to the website mediotiempo.com, which belongs to CNN/Expansion. The games are also sown on the Internet through UNO TV owned by Slim’s business group.

Pachuca’s broadcast rights belong to TV Azteca but that contract expires in December and Martinez has said he will negotiate with the highest bidder, which suggests that his partner Slim won’t be excluded from the possibility of buying the rights.

Slim “is a very important partner in our group, he’s helping soccer to grow, which is what really matters,” Martinez said.

Slim is also moving into broadcasting sports outside Mexico.

In March, America Movil trumped its rivals by announcing it had acquired the broadcast rights across all media platforms for the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi 2014 and Brazil 2016 for Latin America, except Brazil.

The group — which includes author Margaret Atwood, Green Party leader Elizabeth May, and actor Gordon Pinsent — has signed an online petition to rename this Monday’s public holiday “Victoria and First Peoples Day.”

Peter Keleghan, an actor and spokesman for the group, says the name would provide a chance to honour both the Crown and the indigenous peoples of Canada.

He says it would help create a better understanding of the various peoples who helped shape Canada.

National Aboriginal Day is celebrated every year on June 21 but it’s not recognized as a national holiday.

Victoria Day marks the birthday of Queen Victoria and is celebrated every year on the last Monday before May 25.

Quebec celebrates National Patriots’ Day on the same day, to honour the rebellion against the British in 1837.

It’s been non-stop recognition in 2013 for Henderson and his heroics for Canada in the 1972 Summit Series against the Soviet Union.

Henderson joined Sundin in a class of IIHF player inductees on Sunday, which also included Sweden’s Peter Forsberg, Finland’s Teppo Numminen and Canada’s Danielle Goyette.

Henderson, 70, received the Order of Canada earlier this month and the Order of Hockey in Canada last month.

“It has been a good year, 2013,” Henderson declared. “”I always wore 19 but I’m seriously thinking of changing to 13.

“Thirteen is great number big boy,” he told Sundin. “I’m going to take it up from here.”

Children watched on televisions in their school classrooms almost 41 years ago as Canada and the Soviet Union met in the eighth and final game of the series in Moscow.

Henderson, from Kincardine, Ont., scored the winning goals in Game 6 and Game 7 to help Canada pull even in the series.

It was his electrifying goal with 34 seconds remaining in Game 8, however, that prompts people of a certain generation to stop him on the street and tell him where they were, what they were doing and how they felt at that moment.

Henderson never played in an Olympics and world championship during his professional career, but Canadians associate him with one of Canada’s greatest international hockey triumphs.

The recent rush to fete Henderson is due to his health. Diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia in November, 2009, Henderson lost weight and had a tumour “the size of a grapefruit” last year. He credits his wife of 50 years, Eleanor, for getting him into a clinical trial that reversed his condition.

“If I can just stay alive, this is working out well,” Henderson said. “I’m actually doing quite well.

“I got into a clinical study in the States back in September, I’ve put on 20 pounds since then. A growth the size of a grapefruit is now the size of the end of my finger.”

The goaltender Henderson scored those goals on, Vladislav Tretiak, introduced his friend and former nemesis at the induction ceremony.

“I remember 1972 all my life because it was the best time,” Tretiak said. “Paul Henderson scored three games the winning goals and last game, number eight, an amazing goal. I think God gave him the chances for his talent and hard work.”

The recognition Henderson has received from these institutions could increase the lobby to get Henderson into the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. Tretiak is a member, but Henderson is not.

Former IIHF general secretary Jan-Ake Edvinsson of Sweden was inducted as a builder and the Soviet Union’s 1954 world championship team earned the IIHF’s milestone award. TSN’s Gord Miller of Edmonton received the Paul Loicq Award given annually for outstanding service to international hockey.

Goyette, from St-Nazaire, Que., is the sixth female player the IIHF has inducted. She joins Canadians Angela James and Geraldine Heaney, who entered in 2008.

Goyette was 41 years old when she played her final game for Canada at the 2007 world championship. She won Olympic gold in 2002 and 2006 as well as eight world championships.

“Danielle Goyette developed every year,” former Swedish women’s coach Peter Elander said. “She was a better player as a 41-year-old than a 26-year-old.”

Her 114 goals and 105 assists in 172 career game ranks her fourth all-time in national team points.

“I didn’t have role models as a female hockey player,” Goyette said. “My role models were the guys I got inducted with. That’s pretty amazing, Peter Forsberg, Mats Sundin.

“Paul Henderson, you hear about that goal all the time and I can’t tell you where I was that day, but I can tell you I heard about that goal year after year and that’s what made it special today.”

Now 47, Goyette is currently the head coach of the University of Calgary women’s hockey team and will be an assistant coach to Dan Church on the Olympic women’s team.

“When you think about what you want to leave behind, it’s a chance for girls to be able to play hockey and it to be normal to play hockey,” she said.

“When the girls start to play hockey at five years old and on a girls’ team, I think we did a pretty good job and not just talking about me, but all my teammates who have been through it.”

Forsberg is the only player to win hockey’s three most coveted trophies — an Olympic gold, a world championship and a Stanley Cup — twice.

Sundin was the first European to be the No. 1 selection in an NHL draft when the Quebec Nordiques called his name in 1989. The former Toronto Maple Leafs captain was also Sweden’s captain when the country won Olympic gold in 2006. Sundin also earned three world titles during his international career.

Numminen, a former Winnipeg Jets and Phoenix Coyotes defenceman, won three medals in four Olympics Games for Finland and represented his country in another eight international events.

Henderson is enjoying more than ever his role in an event that transcended sport and became part of Canadian history.

“To a certain degree, I think hockey in Canada is in our DNA and I think that moment brought us together probably as much as any other event in probably the history of Canada because we’re so passionate about the game of hockey,” he said.

“The way it turned out, we got down badly and we had to come back. The people got behind us. I suggest to you we would never have won that series without the 3,000 crazy Canadians that went to Moscow and cheered us on. It was win for Canada, a win for the NHL and certainly a win for hockey fans and certainly the Paul Henderson family.”