Sprinters Marvin Bracy and Tianna Bartoletta successfully defended their crowns by winning the 60 meter events on the final day of the USA Track and Field Indoor Championships. Bracy took advantage of an early stumble by Ryan Bailey to win in a time of 6.55 seconds on Sunday. Joe Morris (6.57) finished second and Clayton Vaughn placed third in 6.60. "To come here with a great field and win, especially to repeat my national title, it's a great accomplishment," Bracy said.

By Nadia Damouni and Suzanne Barlyn NEW YORK (Reuters) - Chip maker NXP Semiconductors NV has agreed to buy smaller peer Freescale Semiconductor Ltd and merge operations in a deal valuing the combined company at over $40 billion. The transaction is the clearest sign yet that semiconductor companies are regaining the confidence required to pursue big mergers and acquisitions at a time when their major clients, such as mobile phone manufacturers, seek to consolidate suppliers. Freescale also has its chips in consumer products such as Amazon's Kindle e-reader. Last month, Avago Technologies said it would buy wireless networking company Emulex Corp for more than $600 million, while MaxLinear said it would buy Entropic Communications Inc for $287 million.

By Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The murder of Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov has dampened any hope for a peaceful political transition in Russia away from President Vladimir Putin's government, Garry Kasparov, a prominent opposition voice, said in an interview on Sunday. Kasparov, a former world chess champion who lives in self-imposed exile in the United States, offered a gloomy outlook for Russia's political opposition after Nemtsov was shot dead meters from the Kremlin late on Friday.