Legendary, China Film teaming to make blockbusters

HONG KONG (AP) Legendary Entertainment, the Hollywood studio behind "The Hangover" franchise, is teaming with state-owned China Film Group to make more global blockbusters as it advances a delayed expansion in the rapidly growing Chinese movie market.

Their deal is the latest example of growing collaboration between entertainment companies in the world's two biggest movie markets.

Legendary, which also made "Inception" and "The Dark Knight," said its Chinese venture, Legendary East, signed an agreement with the Chinese company's unit, China Film Co., on Thursday in Beijing. The deal calls for the companies to fund development and production of multiple films over three years.

Their first collaborations will be announced in the coming months. Legendary said each is planned as a US-China co-production. That means they can get around China's import restrictions that limit the number of foreign movies shown on the country's 12,000 screens to 34 each year.

The companies said they plan to produce movies for global audiences that will be "tentpole-scale" in other words, the big-budget, highly promoted productions that earn enough box-office revenue to support the whole studio, in the same way that a tentpole holds up a tent.

No specific details were released.

In a statement, China Film Co. Chairman Han Sanping said the partnership will allow the companies to "make films that are more appealing to filmgoers, creating new genres that, through the magic of film, bring greater variety to audiences around the world."

Faced with stagnant box-office growth at home, Hollywood studios are keen to break into China, now the world's second-biggest film market. Box-office receipts in China totaled $2.7 billion last year and pushed the country's movie market past previous second-biggest, Japan, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.

Legendary East was set up in 2011 with the aim of making one or two "major, event-style films" starting in 2013. But the company had remained quiet since then and a plan to raise $220.5 through a deal with a Hong Kong construction company was scuppered by rocky financial markets.

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Online:

Legendary Entertainment: http://www.legendary.com

Eurozone unemployment hits record 12.2 percent

LONDON (AP) Unemployment across the 17 EU countries that use the euro hit another record high in April, official figures showed Friday, the latest in a series of ignominious landmarks for the ailing single currency zone.

Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, said Friday that unemployment rose to 12.2 percent in April from the previous record of 12.1 percent the month before. Another 95,000 people joined the ranks of the unemployed, taking the total to 19.38 million. At this pace, unemployment in the eurozone could breach the 20 million mark this year.

The figures, once again, mask big disparities among countries. While over one in four people are unemployed in Greece and Spain, Germany's rate is stable at a low 5.4 percent.

The differences are particularly stark when looking at the rates of youth unemployment. While Germany's youth unemployment stands at a relatively benign 7.5 percent, well over half of people aged 16 to 25 in Greece and Spain are jobless. Italy's rate has ticked up to over 40 percent.

"Youth joblessness at these levels risks permanently entrenched unemployment, lowering the rate of sustainable growth in the future," said Tom Rogers, senior economic adviser at Ernst & Young.

The differences reflect the varying performance of the euro economies Greece, for example, is in its sixth year of a savage recession. Germany's economy has until recently been growing at a healthy pace.

As a whole, the eurozone is in its longest recession since the euro was launched in 1999. The six quarters of economic decline is longer even than the recession that followed the financial crisis of 2008, though it's not as deep.

Part of the cause has been European governments' focus on cutting debt by raising taxes and slashing spending programs. With many governments still pulling back on spending and business and consumer confidence still low, economists do not expect any dramatic recovery to emerge over the coming months.

The sharpest change in unemployment rates among the 17 euro countries was in Cyprus, which saw its jobless rate rise to 15.6 percent from 14.5 percent.

The small Mediterranean island nation this year became the fifth euro country to seek financial assistance. The difference with the other bailouts was that the country was asked to raise a big chunk of its rescue money from bank depositors a shock decision that led to a near two-week shutdown of the banks and battered economic confidence.

The European Central Bank has sought to make life easier for Europe's hard-pressed businesses and consumers by cutting its main interest rate to the record low 0.5 percent earlier this month.

Another cut is possible, but most economists say it's unlikely, even though the inflation rate is still under the ECB's target of just below 2 percent.

Eurostat said Friday that inflation in the eurozone rose to 1.4 percent in the year to May from the 38-month low of 1.2 percent recorded in April. It blamed rising food, alcohol and tobacco prices for the uptick.

Analysts said the ECB is more likely to take measures to shore up lending to small and medium-sized businesses, one of the main job creators in Europe. Such companies are currently not taking out many loans for fear the economy might worsen and because banks are charging high rates.

"So far the ECB's actions have not translated into lower lending rates for businesses and households, failing to boost activity," said Anna Zabrodzka, economist at Moody's Analytics.

China's Tiananmen Mothers criticize Xi for lack of reforms

By Sui-Lee Wee and Maxim Duncan

BEIJING (Reuters) - A group of families demanding justice for the victims of China's 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown has denounced new President Xi Jinping for failing to launch political reforms, saying he was taking China "backwards towards Maoist orthodoxy".

The Tiananmen Mothers activist group has long urged the leadership to open a dialogue and provide a reassessment of the 1989 pro-democracy movement, bloodily suppressed on June 4 that year by the government which labeled it "counter-revolutionary".

In an open letter released on Friday through New York-based Human Rights in China, the group said Xi "has mixed together the things that were most unpopular and most in need of repudiation" during the time of former paramount leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping, the latter who oversaw the suppression of the protests.

"This has caused those individuals who originally harbored hopes in him in carrying out political reform to fall into sudden disappointment and despair," the group said.

Xi became Communist Party chief in November and president in March at a time of growing public pressure to launch long-stalled political reforms.

Some intellectuals had predicted that Xi would follow in the footsteps of his father, Xi Zhongxun, a reformist former vice premier and parliament vice chairman. Xi has tried to project a softer and more open image than his predecessor, Hu Jintao.

But Xi's government has clamped down on free expression on the Internet and detained anti-corruption activists, giving no sign the party will ever brook dissent to its rule.

The Tiananmen Mothers said they had not seen Xi "reflect upon or show remorse in the slightest for the sins committed during the three decades of Maoist communism".

"What we see, precisely, are giant steps backwards towards Maoist orthodoxy," the group said.

The leader of the Tiananmen Mothers group, Ding Zilin, called on Xi to "be courageous enough to take up the responsibility of history and pay the debts left by his predecessors".

"Everyone knows that a just resolution to the June 4 issue, a re-evaluation of June 4, will not happen by itself. It needs to be tied to progress in China's political reform and democratization," Ding, 77, told Reuters this week.

"SENSITIVE TIME"

Asked about the letter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China had long ago "reached a clear conclusion" about June 4. The successes of the past two decades "shows that the path we have chosen serves the interest of the Chinese people", he added.

The government has already moved to limit the activities of dissidents ahead of the anniversary.

Wu Lihong, an environmental activist from central China and one of the letter's signatories, said he had been banned from travelling to the United States to receive an award.

"They don't want me bad-mouthing China to the Americans at this sensitive time of year," he said by telephone.

After initially tolerating the student-led demonstrations in the spring of 1989, the Communist Party sent troops to crush the protests on the night of June 3-4, killing hundreds.

The topic remains taboo in China and the leadership has rejected all calls to overturn its verdict.

A handful of people remain in prison, 24 years on, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a U.S. group that works for the release of Chinese political prisoners.

While China grapples with thousands of protests a year, over everything from pollution to corruption and illegal land grabs, none of these demonstrations has even come close to becoming a national movement that could threaten the party's rule.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Robert Birsel)

US Marshals auction scammer's diamond, other loot

LAS VEGAS (AP) Want to own a 5-carat diamond from a Texas scammer?

The jumbo jewel and other treasures confiscated by the U.S. Marshals Service are up for auction in Las Vegas this weekend.

Buyers can preview the gold and silver bullion, coins, jewelry and watches from federal crime cases between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. Friday at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

The auction itself starts at 10 a.m. Saturday and will be simulcast on the Internet.

Among the other items are 6.6 pounds of gold pellets from a Southern California resident caught up in a $100 million Medicare fraud scheme. The starting bid for that collection is $120,000.

The Marshals Service auctions items from cases a few times a year. Proceeds benefit victims of crimes and supplement law enforcement programs.

Hunters for Amelia Earhart plane wreckage excited by sonar image

By Malia Mattoch McManus

HONOLULU (Reuters) - A team of researchers seeking to solve the mystery of aviator Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance say a sonar image taken from just beyond the shore of a remote Pacific island could be a piece of wreckage from her plane.

A forensic imaging specialist for a research team that conducted a $2.2 million expedition to the island of Nikumaroro searching for Earhart's plane last year said the image could represent a wing or part of the fuselage from Earhart's aircraft.

Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, departed Papua New Guinea on July 2, 1937, during her quest to circumnavigate the globe along an equatorial route. But they disappeared that day and emergency searches did not locate them.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) said it needs to send an expedition back to Nikumaroro, in the Republic of Kiribati, to verify that the image of something apparently lodged below an undersea cliff represents a piece of Earhart's plane.

TIGHAR released images last year from the July expedition to Nikumaroro, 800 miles southwest of Honolulu, that it said could be a field of man-made debris with remnants of Earhart's plane.

The latest sonar image was spotted in March by a member of TIGHAR's online community, said a post on the group's website.

"It looks unlike anything else in the sonar data, it's the right size, it's the right shape and it's in the right place," a statement on the TIGHAR website said this week.

"The resolution on the sonar does not suffice to conclusively determine what this is," Jeff Glickman, the forensic imaging specialist for TIGHAR, said in a phone interview.

"It is unique, and suggestive of being man made. It is in the right place, but whether it's a fuselage or a wing is difficult to say," Glickman said.

He added that "there is always the possibility" the image is of part of a boat that had nothing to do with Earhart.

Richard Gillespie, executive director of TIGHAR, has theorized that Earhart's plane was washed off the reef by surf after Earhart and her navigator landed on Nikumaroro.

Gillespie has said circumstantial evidence collected on previous trips to Nikumaroro makes a strong case for his theory that Earhart ended her days as a castaway, ultimately perishing in the island's harsh conditions.

Items that have been discovered include what appears to be a jar of a once-popular brand of anti-freckle cream from the 1930s, a clothing zipper from the same decade, a bone-handled pocket knife of the type Earhart carried, and piles of fish and bird bones indicative of a Westerner trying to survive.

TIGHAR did not say on its website when the group expects to be able to return to the island.

(Reporting by Malia Mattoch McManus; Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Beech)

Billy Joel surprises New York high school

NEW YORK (AP) Billy Joel was back in high school.

The singer surprised an assembly full of students at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in the borough of Queens on Thursday, appearing with Tony Bennett, who opened the school in 2001 through his Exploring the Arts program.

Joel performed songs on two different pianos onstage he sang "New York State of Mind" on one and "She's Got a Way" on the other. In between his performances, he answered questions from students.

The first: "What do you think is one of your biggest mistakes?"

"My biggest mistake was signing a lot of contracts that I didn't know what they were about," said Joel, who released his first album in 1971. "I signed away a lot of my rights record royalties, publishing rights, copyrights and it took me years to get that stuff back."

One male student asked for a hug as the audience cheered on, another had the 64-year-old sign his yearbook and a young girl got an autograph for her mother.

The crowd of 400 students brought a playful side out of Joel, who was lively with the students.

When asked who his favorite collaborator was, the Grammy winner answered: "Probably Elle Macpherson. That was a good collaboration," he said of the Australian model he dated in the 1980s.

One girl asked Joel if he would play "Uptown Girl."

"It's my favorite song," she gushed.

"It sounds like crap without harmonies and drums," Joel replied.

"I can be your harmony," she added to laughs.

Joel did not graduate with his high school class and instead was given a diploma 25 years later. He has made a number of visits to colleges in recent years including a recent trip to Vanderbilt that went viral.

He said in an interview that his favorite moment in school was cutting class to go play the piano in the auditorium. He also said he was greatly affected by one of his teachers.

"I had a good chorus teacher and he encouraged me to become a musician. That's my greatest memory of school an adult said, 'You should consider becoming a professional musician,'" he recalled. "I'd never heard (that) before in my life and that kind of changed my life."

Bennett's Exploring the Arts program supports 14 schools in New York and will launch three schools in Los Angeles this year. He and his wife, former teacher Susan Crow, kept Joel's appearance a secret since March.

"I had teachers texting me last night, 'Susan, who's coming?' My lips are sealed," Crow said.

Joel's interaction with the students was a memorable moment for Bennett, a Queens native.

"It's something that will stay with them forever and ever," he said.

Joel, who was born in the Bronx, said he was teased when he would get piano lessons since that teacher also taught ballet.

"I would walk by the guys on my block (and they'd say), 'Where's your tutu?' They'd knock the books out of my hand," Joel recalled, which earned a stream of "awws" from the students.

"But then I took up boxing," he said.

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Online:

http://www.billyjoel.com/

https://tonybennett.com/

http://franksinatraschoolofthearts.org/

http://www.exploringthearts.org/

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Follow Mesfin Fekadu at http://www.twitter.com/MusicMesfin

Winfrey to Harvard grads: Learn from your failures

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) The invitation from Harvard University caught Oprah Winfrey at a low point. Her new TV network was struggling, branded a flop in the media, when Harvard President Drew Gilpin Faust called last year to ask Winfrey to address 2013 graduates.

The request came "in the very moment when I had stopped succeeding," Winfrey recalled.

She headed for a long shower to think ("It was either that or a bag of Oreos," she joked) and emerged resolved to change her story by the time her speech rolled around.

A year later, Winfrey said, her Oprah Winfrey Network has found its footing and her approach to facing setbacks had been validated. Stumbles are inevitable but not permanent, Winfrey told graduates Thursday.

"I want you to remember this: There is no such thing as failure," she said. "Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction."

Winfrey spoke during the afternoon session of Harvard's 362nd commencement before a packed Harvard Yard. The media mogul and former talk-show host urged graduates to find their own story, which she described as their true calling or purpose.

"When you inevitably struggle and find yourself stuck in a hole, that is the story that will get you out," she said.

Her own calling, she said, was to use television to show people "that what unites us is ultimately far more redeeming and compelling than anything that separates (us)."

Winfrey's speech dipped into politics, as she referred to entrenched partisanship that's stymied legislation she said most Americans favor, including stronger background checks for gun purchases and a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.

Winfrey urged graduates to break through divisions and spoke of a lesson she learned from doing thousands of interviews. Every person from George W. Bush to Barack Obama to Beyonce, "in all her Beyonce-ness" asks the same thing when the interview is over: "Was that OK?"

People want to be validated and know that they're being understood, Winfrey said. She challenged graduates to do that by personally connecting with people as a way to bridge divides.

"Even though this is the college where Facebook was born, my hope is that you will have the courage to go out and have conversations with people you disagree with," she said.

Ultimately, graduates need to be true to themselves and open to sharing who they are, she said.

"What you learn, teach; what you get, give," Winfrey said. "That, my friends, is what gives your life purpose and meaning."

Ex-Microsoft manager plans to create first U.S. marijuana brand

By Jonathan Kaminsky

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A former Microsoft executive plans to create the first U.S. national marijuana brand, with cannabis he hopes to eventually import legally from Mexico, and said he was kicking off his business by acquiring medical pot dispensaries in three U.S. states.

Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis - much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said.

Shively, 45, whose six years at Microsoft ended in 2009, said he was soliciting investors for $10 million in start-up money.

The use, sale and possession of marijuana remains illegal in the United States under federal law. Two U.S. states have, however, legalized recreational marijuana use and are among 18 states that allow it for medical use.

"It's a giant market in search of a brand," Shively said of the marijuana industry. "We would be happy if we get 40 percent of it worldwide."

A 2005 United Nations report estimated the global marijuana trade to be valued at $142 billion. http://www.unodc.org/pdf/WDR_2005/volume_1_web.pdf

Washington state and Colorado became the first two U.S. states to legalize recreational marijuana when voters approved legalization in November.

Shively laid out his plans, along with his vision for a future in which marijuana will be imported from Mexico, at a Thursday news conference in downtown Seattle.

Joining him was former Mexican President Vicente Fox, a longtime Shively acquaintance who has been an advocate of decriminalizing marijuana. Fox said he was there to show his support for Shively's company but has no financial stake in it.

"What a difference it makes to have Jamen here sitting at my side instead of Chapo Guzman," said Fox, referring to the fact he would rather see Shively selling marijuana legally than the Mexican drug kingpin selling it illegally. "This is the story that has begun to be written here."

Shively told Reuters he hoped Fox would serve an advisory role in his enterprise, dubbed Diego Pellicer after Shively's hemp-producing great grandfather.

The sale of cannabis or marijuana remains illegal in much of the world although countries mainly in Europe and the Americas have decriminalized the possession of small quantities of it. A larger number of countries have decriminalized or legalized cannabis for medical use.

SKEPTICISM

Shively acknowledges that his business plans conflict with U.S. federal law and are complicated by regulations in both Washington state and Colorado. He said he is interested in buying dispensaries that comply with local and state rules and are less likely to attract the scrutiny of authorities.

"If they want to come talk to me, I'll be delighted to meet with them," he said of federal officials. "I'll tell them everything that we're doing and show them all our books."

Washington state's marijuana consultant, Mark Kleiman, said he was skeptical of Shively's plans, and feared that the businessman is seeking to profit off others' addiction.

"It's very hard for me to understand why anybody seriously interested in being in the marijuana business, which after all is against the federal law, would so publicly announce his conspiracy to break that law," said Kleiman, a professor of public policy at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Emily Langlie, spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, referred questions to the Department of Justice headquarters. Department officials did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Washington state Representative Reuven Carlyle, a Seattle Democrat, sees promise in Shively's initiative. Any industry emerging from the shadows will inevitably undergo consolidation - and thereby simplify the task of regulators, he said.

"The fact that an entrepreneur is publicly pushing the envelope around a branding and value-based pricing opportunity, I would say that's in the water in Seattle," said Carlyle, chairman of the House Finance Committee. "That's in our DNA ... We could have predicted that as much as the rain."

Shively said he has already acquired the rights to the Northwest Patient Resource Center, a medical marijuana operation that includes two Seattle store fronts. He added that he was close to acquiring another dispensary in Colorado, as well as two more each in Washington state and California, with the owners given the option to retain a stake in their businesses.

"We've created the first risk-mitigated vehicles for investing directly in this business opportunity," he said.

Shively said he ultimately plans to create separate medical and recreational-use marijuana brands. Shively said he also plans to launch a study of the effectiveness of concentrated cannabis oil in the treatment of cancer and other illnesses.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Andrew Hay)

Barbara weakens to tropical storm, kills 2 people

OAXACA, Mexico (AP) Hurricane Barbara drenched a sparsely populated stretch of Mexico's southern Pacific coast with rain Wednesday after making the second-earliest landfall since reliable record-keeping began in 1966. It quickly lost strength over land but not before killing at least two people, including a man identified by local officials as a U.S. surfer.

By evening, Barbara had weakened to a tropical storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The director of civil defense for Oaxaca state, Manuel Maza Sanchez, said a 61-year-old man from Colorado died while surfing at Playa Azul, a beach near the resort town of Puerto Escondido, when Barbara made landfall at midafternoon as a Category 1 hurricane about 120 miles (200 kilometers) to the east. He said the man was dragged out by waves kicked up by Barbara and then battered against the shore.

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City was not immediately able to confirm the man's name, nationality or hometown.

Maza Sanchez also said a 26-year-old Mexican man drowned in the nearby city of Pinotepa Nacional while trying to cross a rain-swollen creek.

Farther to the east, near the landfall area, 14 fishermen who set out to sea Wednesday morning from the town of Tapanatepec had been reported missing, Maza said.

Barbara came ashore with winds of about 75 mph (120 kph) and lost power as it moved inland. By Wednesday night, maximum sustained winds had dropped to 50 mph (85 kph) as the storm slogged northward, but flooding was reported in some areas and remained a threat.

On May 23, the National Hurricane Center had said odds favor a below-normal hurricane season in the eastern Pacific for 2013. It said 11 to 16 named storms were likely, below the 15-storm annual average for 1981-2010.

But Barbara appeared to start the Pacific season unusually early, and it also made landfall farther east than any other Pacific hurricane since 1966. Such storms often form closer to the resort of Acapulco, to the west.

Officials in Oaxaca had rushed to prepare emergency shelters and suspended school for children in coastal communities as rain began lashing the coast when the storm formed close to shore.

The area first hit by the storm is a largely undeveloped stretch of coastal lagoons, punctuated by small fishing villages.

The major Gulf oil port of Coatzacoalcos is located on the other side of the narrow waist of Mexico known as the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. But the hurricane center predicted Barbara would dissipate into a rain system well before reaching Coatzacoalcos.

Maza Sanchez said classes would be suspended at schools along the coast for the rest of the week. Storm shelters were set up in 20 towns and hamlets, and such shelters are often installed at schools.

Danny Glover joins protest in South Africa

JOHANNESBURG (AP) Hollywood actor Danny Glover has made an appearance at a union protest in downtown Johannesburg.

Glover, also a labor rights activist, is in South Africa as part of a trade union delegation from the United States that seeks international support for auto workers in Canton, Mississippi. The workers want to form a union at an auto manufacturing plant operated by Japanese company Nissan in Canton.

On Thursday, Glover attended protests by South Africa's Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union that drew hundreds of protesters. They want police officials to improve administrative staff pay and work conditions

Glover was joined on his trip by Bob King, president of the United Auto Workers union. The two were invited by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa.

Costa Rica probes Liberty Reserve founder marriage

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP) The man who allegedly founded currency transfer firm Liberty Reserve may have paid a Costa Rican woman to marry him so he could get citizenship in this country, which lacks an extradition treaty with the United States, authorities said Wednesday.

Deputy director of judicial investigations Gustavo Vega said officials were still investigating the 2010 marriage between millionaire Arthur Budovsky and a woman who local media identified only by her last names of Valerio Vargas.

The Costa Rican newspaper La Nacion said the woman has a food stand outside the government's immigration offices in the capital of San Jose.

The woman was quoted by the paper as saying Budovsky paid her $800 to marry him and promised they would get a divorce after two years. She said they are still married.

Budovsky renounced his U.S. citizenship after deciding to set up in Costa Rica. He and another man, identified as Azzeddine el Amine, were arrested Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return to Costa Rica. They were ordered jailed while they await a hearing on extradition to the U.S.

U.S. federal prosecutors charged seven people Tuesday, including Budvosky and el Amine, with running what amounted to an online, underworld bank that handled $6 billion for drug dealers, child pornographers, identity thieves and other criminals around the globe in what they called perhaps the biggest money laundering scheme in U.S. history.

U.S. authorities say Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica, allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked.

They said the enterprise was staggering in scope: Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the United States. The network charged a 1 percent fee on transactions through "exchangers" middlemen who converted actual currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.

Costa Rica's director of judicial investigations, Francisco Segura, acknowledged that Costa Rica is an attractive country for U.S. criminals because they can obtain Costa Rican citizenship easily and inexpensively and are protected from being extradited to the United States.

Public Security Minister Mario Zamora said after a Wednesday meeting with U.S. Ambassador Anne Andrew that the two countries will start working on consolidating an extradition treaty for suspects in organized crime cases.

Supreme Court president Zarella Villanueva, however, said such a treaty would take a long time to materialize because it would require constitutional changes that have to be approved by Congress.

"French kiss" finally enters French dictionary

PARIS (AP) For centuries, there's been no official French word for the sloppy Gallic export "to French kiss" though that certainly hasn't stopped any citizen from doing so.

Now the oversight has been rectified.

The one-word verb "galocher" to kiss with tongues is among new entries added to the "Petit Robert" 2014 French dictionary, which hit the shops Thursday.

It may surprise many that France a country famed for its amorous exploits and which gave the world sex-symbol Brigitte Bardot, romantic photographer Robert Doiseau and even scandal-hit former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is only just linguistically embracing the popular pastime.

Yet Laurence Laporte of the Robert publishing house says that it's just the way language evolves.

"We always had many expressions to describe 'French-kissing,' like 'kissing at length in the mouth,' but it's true, we've never had one single word," she said.

The term "French kiss" once also called a "Florentine kiss" is popularly considered to have been brought back to the English-speaking world by soldiers returning from Europe after World War I. At the time, the French had a reputation for more adventurous sexual practices.

Laporte said "galocher" was a slang term that's been around for a while "but only now is it being officially recognized in a French dictionary."

"La galoche" is an ice-skating boot, so the new term riffs evocatively on the idea of sliding around the ice.

The word expert added a caveat about the power of language. The lack of a specific term "never stopped us from doing it," Laporte noted.

Courteney Cox and David Arquette finalize divorce

LOS ANGELES (AP) Court records show Courteney Cox and David Arquette have finalized their divorce.

A Los Angeles judge approved the couple's breakup Tuesday after nearly 14 years of marriage. Details of their divorce settlement are confidential.

Cox and Arquette legally separated on Dec. 31, 2011, about six months before the pair filed for divorce. The couple met while filming "Scream" and announced their split in October 2010.

At the time, they said they were committed to raising their daughter together and remained best friends.

Cox gained widespread fame for her role on the TV comedy "Friends." Arquette was an executive producer of her recent series, "Cougar Town," and has appeared in numerous films, including "Never Been Kissed."

The website for People magazine was first to report Wednesday that the divorce is final.

Charities see influx of aid after Okla. tornado

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) Donations are pouring into Oklahoma as people around the country look to help residents affected by last week's violent tornado outbreak, but charities also are receiving plenty of items they don't need tons of used clothes, shoes and stuffed animals that take up valuable warehouse space and clog distribution networks.

Charity organizers say monetary donations are far more flexible and useful, and many organizations are expected to see an infusion of cash donations after a benefit concert Wednesday night in Oklahoma City that featured country music stars with Oklahoma ties, including Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Vince Gill and Reba McEntire.

At the Abundant Life Church in Moore, just a few blocks from the Plaza Towers Elementary School where seven children died in the May 20 tornado, Sunday school classrooms are overflowing with donated clothes and other used items.

"I don't want to come across at all like we don't appreciate people's generosity, because we do," said Norma Clanton, a longtime church member who is helping coordinate volunteer efforts at the church. "To be honest, we've had very few people that have even come and looked at clothes.

"The people who have lost their homes, many of them aren't even in a permanent dwelling. They don't have room for a closet full of clothes or anything like that."

The American Red Cross says it's not equipped to handle a large influx of donations like household items which take time and money to sort, process and transport. Officials with major relief organizations encourage people to send money instead.

"We spend that money locally to help energize the local economy ... and it allows us to spend it on items we need," said Salvation Army spokeswoman Jennifer Dodd.

Organizations helping displaced residents are expected to see an influx of cash from the "Healing in the Heartland: Relief Benefit Concert" at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in downtown Oklahoma City that was held Wednesday. The money goes directly to the United Way of Central Oklahoma, which will distribute funding agencies helping in relief and recovery efforts for those affected by the May 20 tornado, said Karla Bradshaw, a spokeswoman for the United Way of Central Oklahoma.

"Those are the ones that are dealing right now with the immediate needs," Bradshaw said.

People who lined up outside the arena in heavy rain before the telethon said they were happy to have an opportunity to help their neighbors and enjoy a night of country music.

"I told my husband I wanted to help, and what better way than to do something fun too," said 29-year-old Kara McCarthy of Oklahoma City, who attended the concert with a friend.

Shelton, a native of Ada, kicked off the concert with a version of his song "God Gave Me You."

The televised event also included recorded video pleas from Oklahoma native Garth Brooks and his wife, Trisha Yearwood, Moore native Toby Keith, Ellen Degeneres and Jay Leno.

"I'm here tonight with some of my closest friends from Oklahoma and beyond," Shelton told the sold-out crowd before the concert began. "It's going to be awesome. We're doing a TV show so we can raise as much money as humanly possible."

Donations have poured in to Oklahoma since two major tornadoes ripped through the state last week, killing 26 people and affecting nearly 4,000 homes, businesses and other buildings in five counties. Twenty-four people, including 10 children, were killed in the May 20 tornado that hit the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore.

In just the first three days after the tornado hit Moore, the Red Cross reported raising about $15 million in donations and pledges for its response to the Oklahoma tornados, including about $3.8 million in pledges from text donations.

The Salvation Army reported Tuesday afternoon it already has raised more than $5 million in monetary donations, as well as in-kind food donations from numerous corporations.

Before Wednesday night's concert, the United Way of Central Oklahoma reported raising $3 million for tornado relief, and the governor also asked the charity to administer an additional $2 million from a separate Oklahoma Strong disaster fund, said Debby Hampton, president and CEO of United Way of Central Oklahoma.

Dodd, with the Salvation Army, said many people are holding clothing drives to help benefit local residents, but that can pose problems for charities and other groups that might not have the room to store the items.

"Just the logistics of shipping a hundred pounds of clothing from across the country, it's terribly expensive and then you have to worry if you have space on the ground," Dodd said.

Ken Sterns, who spent years researching the best and most effective charities for his book, "With Charity for All," said donating to reputable, well-established charities also helps victims of the next disaster.

"I think most charity experts recommend giving cash donations, but I also tell people that in fact the most valuable contributions are not the contributions made after the fact, but contributions that allow charities, especially disaster relief organizations, to prepare for helping the victims of the next disaster," Sterns said. "We don't know who they are. We don't have a face on them. But we know they are coming."

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Sean Murphy can be reached at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy

HBO's VICE crew surprised by North Korean leader

NEW YORK (AP) The documentary crew that accompanied Dennis Rodman to North Korea over the winter says it had no idea it would meet the reclusive country's young leader, Kim Jong Un, until he showed up at a basketball game it was filming.

The media company VICE arranged the trip and invited Rodman after its first choice, Michael Jordan, expressed no interest. A 30-minute documentary on the unexpected piece of basketball diplomacy will air on June 14 on HBO as the final episode of VICE's first season, and was previewed for some reporters on Wednesday.

The North Korean leader loves basketball so much that he overlooked the government's antipathy for VICE founder Shane Smith, who had made two critical documentaries on North Korea, and invited the crew in. Smith wasn't allowed back but VICE's Ryan Duffy accompanied Rodman and three members of the Harlem Globetrotters traveling basketball troupe.

"We just wanted to make a good documentary," Smith said in an interview. "We didn't do it as a stunt."

Duffy quickly learned his place: One of the first things one of his "tour guides" told him was, "I know who you are. I don't like you and I don't like your company," he said Wednesday. The crew was told when it could turn on its cameras and when they had to be off, and feared landing in a North Korean prison if it didn't comply, he said.

The North Koreans did not go through the footage shot by the crew, however. Some 36 hours of film was cut down into the half-hour HBO show, and some may surface later as online extras.

The crew went through an elaborate week-long organized tour of North Korea's capital of Pyongyang, visiting a well-stocked mall with no other customers and the country's version of Sea World. At one point, it was shown a classroom with students sitting behind computers, but only one person either knew how or was allowed to use one of the machines. One student sat before Google's home page and never searched for anything, just moving the cursor back and forth randomly.

The tour was taken in the hopes of catching one or two glimpses of the real North Korean people, which the group finally achieved toward the end when its minders let the bus stop at a park and the Globetrotters played around with some of the kids, helping them learn to spin a basketball on their finger.

Duffy said the group was surprised when Kim arrived to watch what was essentially a pickup basketball game with the Globetrotters and some members of a North Korean youth team. Rodman didn't play; he sat in the stands watching with Kim. After the game, the VICE crew and players were rushed across Pyongyang unexpectedly for a dinner with Kim and other members of the North Korean government.

Although Rodman was key to securing the visit and played the most prominent role of any of the visiting Americans, he's only a bit player in VICE's documentary. Smith said Rodman declined to be interviewed about the trip by VICE afterward.

The American group brought in some basketballs and basketball equipment to distribute to young North Koreans, but wasn't asked for anything else by its hosts, Smith said. VICE hasn't spoken to anyone in the Obama administration about the trip, he said. During the trip, the administration had refrained from commenting about it.

HBO and VICE have not agreed to continue its series of news documentaries beyond this season, but the arrangement is likely. HBO said the show gets solid ratings, while VICE said the network gives VICE valuable exposure beyond the young audience that traditionally follows its product.

Smith said he's open to heading back to North Korea at some point in the future.

Next time, VICE may take Scottie Pippen.

Chinese wonder why their tourists behave so badly

By Li Hui and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) - From faking marriage certificates to get honeymoon discounts in the Maldives to letting children defecate on the floor of a Taiwan airport, Chinese tourists have recently found themselves at the center of controversy and anger.

Thanks to microblogging sites in China, accounts of tourists behaving badly spread like wildfire across the country, provoking disgust, ire and soul-searching.

While in the past such reports might have been dismissed as attacks on the good nature of Chinese travelers, people in the world's second-largest economy are starting to ask why their countrymen and women are so badly behaved.

"Objectively speaking, our tourists have relatively low-civilized characters," said Liu Simin, researcher with the Tourism Research Centre of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

"Overseas travel is a new luxury, Chinese who can afford it compare with each other and want to show off," Liu said. "Many Chinese tourists are just going abroad, and are often inexperienced and unfamiliar with overseas rules and norms."

When a story broke recently that a 15-year-old Chinese boy had scratched his name into a 3,500-year-old temple in Egypt's Luxor, the furor was such that questions were even asked about it at a Foreign Ministry news briefing.

"There are more and more Chinese tourists travelling to other countries in recent years," ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Monday.

"We hope that this tourism will improve friendship with foreign countries and we also hope that Chinese tourists will abide by local laws and regulations and behave themselves."

Other incidents have attracted similar anger, including that of a mother who let her children defecate on the floor of Kaohsiung airport in Taiwan, just meters (feet) from a toilet. She did put newspaper down first.

Embarrassment over the behavior of some Chinese tourists has reached the highest levels of government, which has tried to project an image of a benign and cultured emerging power whose growing wealth can only benefit the world.

"TERRIBLE RACKET"

This month, Vice Premier Wang Yang admonished the "uncivilized behavior" of certain Chinese tourists, in remarks widely reported by state media and reflecting concern about how the increasingly image-conscious country is seen overseas.

"They make a terrible racket in public places, scrawl their names on tourist sites, ignore red lights when crossing the road and spit everywhere. This damages our national image and has a terrible effect," Wang said.

The central government has reissued guidelines on its main website on what it considers acceptable behavior for tourists, including dressing properly, queuing up and not shouting.

To be sure, the influx of newly wealthy Chinese travelling around world has bought economic benefits widely welcomed in many countries, and many tourists are well-behaved and respectful.

More than 83 million Chinese tourists travelled overseas last year, and Chinese expenditure on travel abroad reached $102 billion in 2012, the highest in the world according to the U.N. World Tourism Organization.

By 2020, about 200 million Chinese are expected to take an overseas holiday every year.

Criticism of bad behavior has in the past been leveled at American, Japanese and Taiwanese tourists, when they were also enjoying new wealth and going abroad for the first time.

Eventually, experts say, the criticism will fade.

"Travelling is a learning experience for tourists," said Wang Wanfei, a tourism professor at Zhejiang University. "They learn how to absorb local culture in the process, and get rid of their bad tourist behavior."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

Strike shuts Lisbon subway in austerity protest

LISBON, Portugal (AP) A 24-hour strike by Lisbon subway staff snarled rush-hour traffic in the Portuguese capital Thursday, heralding a new spate of planned strikes against the bailed-out country's austerity policies.

The Metropolitano de Lisboa carries on average a half-million passengers a day. Long queues formed for packed buses which got stuck in heavier traffic than usual as commuters resorted to their cars.

Unions representing subway workers called the walkout over labor reforms and cuts in wage entitlements. The government plans to merge the subway company with the Lisbon bus company, Carris, which is also state-owned, to save money by streamlining services provided by the loss-making companies.

The government is enacting those measures, including making it easier for employers to hire and fire staff, in return for a 78 billion euros ($101 billion) financial rescue two years ago.

Strikes have petered out in recent months as workers have become more reluctant to give up a day's pay incomes are down due to the steep recession and the unemployment rate has climbed to 17.7 percent. Subway workers staged three 24-hour strikes last year.

Government workers and employees of public companies plan more walkouts in coming weeks, including a strike by teachers during the period of high-school summer exams in June.

The country's two trade union confederations, representing more than 1 million mostly blue-collar workers, are also considering rare joint protests.

Weak demand and wet weather hammers Kingfisher profits

LONDON (Reuters) - Kingfisher, Europe's largest DIY retailer, posted a near-30 percent drop in first quarter profit as weak demand and poor weather continued to hit trade in its key markets.

The group, which runs B&Q and Screwfix in the UK and Castorama and Brico Depot in France, on Thursday said retail profit was 114 million pounds ($172 million) in the 13 weeks to May 4, down 29.2 percent on a year ago and well below a company compiled consensus forecast of 137 million pounds.

Revenue was 2.6 billion pounds, down 4.2 percent on a like for like basis, and deteriorating from a 3.4 percent fall in the final quarter of last year.

Like-for-like sales fell 5.6 percent in France and 4.7 percent in UK and Ireland, but rose 0.7 percent in its smaller 'other international' arm, led by growth in China and Russia.

Kingfisher is suffering along with other European retailers from cash-strapped customers holding off buying "big ticket" items like kitchens and bathrooms.

Continued poor weather across Europe added to its woes, particularly in March, accounting for much of its first-quarter profit fall. However the firm said more normal weather at the end of the period had heralded an improved performance.

Chief Executive Ian Cheshire said it would focus hard on margin and cost initiatives to help ease tough conditions, such as through buying more goods centrally from cheaper manufacturing centres like China.

Its operating margin was 4.3 percent, down from 6 percent a year earlier.

The group struggled in its two biggest markets. B&Q's like-for-like sales fell 5.6 percent in the first quarter, worse than analysts' consensus forecast of down between 2 and 3 percent.

In France like-for-like sales fell 4.1 percent at Castorama and 7.3 percent at Brico Depot, broadly in range with respective consensus forecasts of 4-5 percent and 5-7 percent declines.

Shares in the firm closed at 327.8 pence on Wednesday, valuing the firm at around 7.7 billion pounds.

(Reporting by Neil Maidment; Editing by Kate Holton)

Emails reflect AEG's fears about Jackson's health

LOS ANGELES (AP) Jurors hearing a lawsuit against concert giant AEG Live LLC have been shown emails in which top company executives expressed fears about Michael Jackson's health and the amount of time they had to get the singer prepared for his ill-fated series of comeback tours.

The messages were displayed Wednesday during testimony from AEG Live co-CEO Paul Gongaware, who at one point sent his boss' assistant a message stating the show was giving him nightmares and causing him to break out in cold sweats at night.

Gongaware testified that he was joking, but it was just one of several messages expressing concerns about Jackson's health. Another message from Randy Phillips, the top-ranking executive at AEG Live, wrote after one of Jackson's missed rehearsals that, "we are running out of time.

"That is my biggest fear," Phillips wrote to Gongaware and the CEO of AEG Live's parent company, Anschutz Entertainment Group, on June 20, 2009, five days before Jackson's death.

Gongaware said he didn't agree with Phillips' assessment. "He may have said that, but I didn't agree with that," Gongaware testified.

His testimony came under questioning by an attorney for Jackson's mother, who is suing AEG Live and claims it failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of causing her son's death. Gongaware and Phillips are also named as defendants in the case.

AEG denies that it hired former cardiologist Conrad Murray, or could have foreseen the singer's death. The company's defense attorneys have not yet questioned Gongaware on the stand.

The company's defense attorney, Marvin S. Putnam, said outside court that the emails reflect the company was concerned about Jackson's health, and expressed those concerns to Jackson's lawyer and manager before his death.

Jurors have seen numerous emails throughout the trial, including several sent by people working on Jackson's "This Is It" comeback shows in which they expressed concerns about Jackson's health. Production manager John "Bugzee" Hougdahl, wrote Phillips in the last week of the singer's life that Jackson was on a downward slide.

"I have watched him deteriorate in front of my eyes over the last 8 weeks" Hougdahl wrote.

Katherine Jackson's attorney questioned Gongaware about whether the company put too much emphasis on the showbiz maxim, "The show must go on."

Gongaware denied that was the case.

He told the jury that he was concerned about Jackson's health, but that he thought "This Is It" tour director Kenny Ortega may have been overstating concerns about the singer's wellbeing.

Phillips also expressed concerns about Ortega, writing to Gongaware's private email address, "This guy is really starting to concern me."

Gongaware testified Wednesday that he wasn't sure who Phillips was referring to, and his boss may have been expressing concerns about Jackson or Murray.

Six weeks before Jackson's death, Gongaware sent an email to an assistant for the CEO of AEG in which he urged her to, "Pray for me. "This is a nightmare. Not coincidentally, I have them now every night. Cold sweats, too. Life used to be so much fun..."

Gongaware said he was joking in the message. "I don't have cold sweats," he said. "I don't have nightmares. I sleep great."

___

Anthony McCartney can be reached at http://twitter.com/mccartneyAP

Some states push back against new school standards

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) Some states are pushing back against a set of uniform benchmarks for reading, writing and math that have been fully adopted in most states and are being widely put in place this school year.

The new Common Core standards replace a hodgepodge of educational goals that had varied greatly from state to state. The federal government was not involved in the state-led effort to develop them but has encouraged the project.

While proponents say the new standards will better prepare students, critics worry they'll set a national curriculum for public schools rather than letting states decide what is best for their students.

There was little dissent when the standards were widely adopted in 2010, but that begun changing last year and debate picked up steam this year. The standards have divided Republicans, with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush championing them and conservatives such as Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, opposing them.

Lawmakers and governors are reviewing the standards in Kansas, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, South Carolina and Utah. Grassley, meanwhile, persuaded eight other senators to sign onto a letter in April asking the Senate Appropriations Committee to stop the Education Department from linking adoption of the standards to eligibility for other federal dollars. That same month, the Republican National Committee passed a resolution calling the standards an "inappropriate overreach."

Kristy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the Bush-backed Foundation for Excellence in Education, said conservatives historically have supported higher standards and greater accountability.

"The fact that they are opposed to Common Core now is a little surprising and disappointing given the fact that states came together to solve a need," Campbell said, adding that the new standards will allow for state-by-state comparisons that haven't been possible before. "We are going to have more rigorous assessments that are going to test kids against those higher standards and hopefully achieve what we all want, which is a dramatically greater quality of education in America."

The American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative, Washington-based think tank that espouses conservative policies in state legislatures, debated in November whether to oppose the Common Core standards. The group ultimately decided to remain neutral, but its discussion, along with concerns raised by conservative groups such as the Goldwater and Pioneer institutes, caught the attention of lawmakers.

States that adopt the standards are supposed to use them as a base on which to build their curricula and testing, but they can make their benchmarks tougher than Common Core. While the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, found the new standards to be more rigorous than those that had been used by three-quarters of all states, critics question what will happen in states whose previous standards were tougher.

"So in that regard we really viewed Common Core as the race to the middle, not to the top," said Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute.

Questions about testing also have arisen. In New York, among the first states to test students based on the standards, some students complained this spring that the Common Core-aligned English exams were too difficult to complete in the allotted time, and there were reports of students crying from stress.

Jonathan Butcher, education director for the Goldwater Institute, based in Phoenix, said opposition also is gaining traction because states and districts are at the point where money has to be appropriated to pay for the standards.

"As soon as states had to start spending money on the Common Core, as soon as it became a line item in the budget, people sit up and take notice," Butcher said. "And that wasn't going to happen until now, until states started to implement it. So it's unfortunate that there is so much attention to it so late in the game but that's kind of where we are. As soon as it starts to become a money issue people will pay attention."

Calculations on the cost of implementing the standards vary, with the Pioneer Institute and two other anti-Common Core conservative think tanks estimating it will cost $16 billion over seven years. Meanwhile, the Fordham Institute, which is pro-Common Core, said the cost over a one-to-three-year transition period could range from $8.3 billion to breaking even or even saving money, depending on things like whether the states purchase hard-copy textbooks or use open-source learning material written by experts, vetted by their peers and posted for free downloading.

One issue is that new tests tied to the standards will be computerized, requiring some states and districts to make technology upgrades. The Pioneer analysis included those technology costs; the Fordham one didn't.

In backing ultimately unsuccessful anti-Common Core legislation in Missouri, Rep. Kurt Bahr, a Republican from the St. Louis suburb of O'Fallon, said he was concerned that many communities lacked the bandwidth and hardware to administer the tests.

"We don't have that connectivity," Bahr said. "It's about to become a massive pocketbook issue."

The standards are the result of an initiative sponsored by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers. Carrie Heath Phillips, who oversees implementation of the standards for the council, played down the concerns about cost, noting that states periodically update their standards and that spending money to implement new ones is nothing new. She also acknowledged that technology upgrades can be a real issue for states that haven't invested in it, but asked, "If you're not moving into the 21st century now in 2013, when are you going to?"

The standards have a long list of supporters, including the National Parent Teacher Association, several education associations and businesses such as the Boeing Co. and Microsoft Corp.

Literacy teacher Jessica Cuthbertson said she attempted to fully implement the new standards in her sixth-grade Aurora, Colo., classroom for the first time this year and found her students' writing was "substantially better."

"I feel that often the debate isn't about the learning," said Cuthbertson, who also trains teachers to use the new standards as part of her job with a virtual teacher leadership initiative called the Center for Teaching Quality. "We're not talking about what the kids are producing and doing with these cool standards. We're talking about the big brother federal government controlling curriculum. I don't think it's really grounded in student learning, and yet in the hands of teachers focused on student learning, I just think there is nothing but hope."

While the federal government wasn't involved in developing the standards, it has provided $350 million to two consortiums developing Common Core tests. The federal Education Department also encouraged states to adopt the standards to compete for "Race to the Top" grants and seek waivers around some of the unpopular proficiency requirements of the No Child Left Behind federal education act.

"They have done some things that have kind of muddied the waters at the very least," said Butcher of the Goldwater Institute. "It's hard for me to say, 'Well, clearly the federal government has no interest in this.'"

But in Michigan, where the Republican-led Legislature is taking steps aimed at halting the standards, Republican Gov. Rick Snyder is defending them as a "really important opportunity" for the state.

"Unfortunately, it's been too much about politics," he said. "It's being viewed as the federal government putting another federal mandate on us. ... It was the governors of the states getting together ... to say we want a partner at the national level and all levels to say, 'Let's raise the bar.'"

___

Associated Press writers Chris Blank in Jefferson City, Mo., John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., Alanna Durkin in Lansing, Mich., Christina A. Cassidy in Atlanta, Tom LoBianco in Indianapolis, Phillip Rawls in Montgomery, Ala., Seanna Adcox in Columbia, S.C., Michelle Price in Salt Lake City, Marc Levy in Harrisburg, Pa., and Karen Matthews in New York contributed to this report.

Man due in London court over killing of British soldier

LONDON (Reuters) - A man will appear in a London court on Thursday charged with the murder of a British soldier on a London street in broad daylight last week, police said.

Police charged 22-year-old Michael Adebowale late on Wednesday evening with the murder of Drummer Lee Rigby, a 25-year-old serving soldier.

Adebowale was charged shortly after leaving hospital, where he had spent the last week after being shot by police.

Rigby, a 25-year-old veteran of the Afghan war, was killed in broad daylight by two men.

Adebowale was arrested at the scene of the attack after being shot and detained by police. He was also charged with possession of a firearm.

He has been held in custody and will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on Thursday morning.

A second man, Michael Adebolajo, remains under arrest and in a stable condition in hospital.

(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by John Stonestreet)

Panasonic to cut 5,000 workers from automotive and industrial division

TOKYO (Reuters) - Panasonic Corp said it will cut around 5,000 workers from its automotive and industrial division in a bid to bolster its operating profit margin over the next three years to a 5 percent minimum set by the company's president, Kazuhiko Tsuga.

The division, which covers automotive components, semiconductors, production machinery and other devices, employs 110,000 people, around a third of Panasonic's workforce. The business is at the forefront of Tsuga's strategy to shift Panasonic away from consumer electronics to building gadgets and machinery it sells to other companies.

"A reduction in labor costs will be a big part of our plan to improve profitability," Yoshihiko Yamada, the head of the automotive and industrial division said during a presentation to analysts and investors in Tokyo.

($1 = 102.3500 Japanese yen)

(Reporting by Tim Kelly; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

Ringo Starr unveils unseen Beatles photos in e-book

(Reuters) - Former Beatle Ringo Starr is lifting the lid on a collection of previously unseen photographs of the Fab Four in their heyday from his personal collection, in a new photography book due out next month.

"Photograph," which will be released as an e-book on Apple's iBookstore on June 12, will coincide with a Grammy Museum exhibit on Starr, entitled "Ringo: Peace & Love," the book's publishers said on Wednesday.

A limited-edition hand-bound book signed by Starr will be available for purchase in December.

The book will include photographs from the musician's childhood in Liverpool, England, to his road to fame as part of the Fab Four, with Paul McCartney, John Lennon and George Harrison.

"These are shots that no one else could have," Starr, 72, said in a statement.

Highlights from the collection include behind-the-scenes candids of the Beatles in their daily lives and Starr's travel photography as the band toured the world.

Starr has also recorded videos featuring commentary to accompany the e-book.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

AP Exclusive: Soldier to admit Afghan massacre

SEATTLE (AP) Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was "crazed" and "broken" when he slipped away from his remote southern Afghanistan outpost and attacked mud-walled compounds in two slumbering villages nearby.

Next week, Bales will recount what happened next the slaughter of 16 villagers in one of the worst atrocities of the Afghanistan war. He'll give specific details in open court as he pleads guilty to the massacre to avoid being put to death.

His attorney, John Henry Browne, told The Associated Press that although his client's state of mind should be considered in sentencing, it didn't rise to the level of a legal insanity defense.

Browne said Bales as "crazed" and "broken" the night of the attack.

He said his client, who was on his fourth combat deployment, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain injury. He continued to blame the Army for sending him back to war in the first place.

"He's broken, and we broke him," Browne said.

The outcome of the case carries high stakes. The Army had been trying to have Bales executed, and Afghan villagers have demanded it. In interviews with the AP in Kandahar last month, relatives of the victims became outraged at the notion Bales might escape the death penalty.

"For this one thing, we would kill 100 American soldiers," vowed Mohammed Wazir, who had 11 family members killed that night, including his mother and 2-year-old daughter.

"A prison sentence doesn't mean anything," said Said Jan, whose wife and three other relatives died. "I know we have no power now. But I will become stronger, and if he does not hang, I will have my revenge."

Any plea deal must be approved by the judge as well as the commanding general at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, where Bales is being held. A plea hearing is set for June 5, said Lt. Col. Gary Dangerfield, an Army spokesman. He said he could not immediately provide other details.

"The judge will be asking questions of Sgt. Bales about what he did, what he remembers and his state of mind," said Browne, who told the AP the commanding general has already approved the deal. "The deal that has been worked out ... is they take the death penalty off the table, and he pleads as charged, pretty much."

A sentencing-phase trial set for September will determine whether Bales is sentenced to life in prison with or without the possibility of parole.

Browne previously indicated Bales remembered little from the night of the massacre, and he said that was true in the early days after the attack. But as further details and records emerged, Bales began to remember what he did, the lawyer said, and he will admit to "very specific facts" about the shootings.

Browne would not elaborate on what his client will tell the judge.

Bales, an Ohio native and father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., had been drinking contraband alcohol, snorting Valium that was provided to him by another soldier, and had been taking steroids before the attack. He slipped away from his remote southern Afghanistan outpost at Camp Belambay early on March 11, 2012, and attacked compounds.

Testimony at a hearing last fall established that Bales returned to his base between attacking the villages, woke up a fellow soldier and confessed. The soldier didn't believe him and went back to sleep, and Bales left again to continue the slaughter.

Most of the victims were women and children, and some of the bodies were piled and burned. The slayings drew such angry protests that the U.S. temporarily halted combat operations in Afghanistan. It was three weeks before American investigators could reach the crime scenes.

The massacre raised questions about the toll multiple deployments were taking on American troops. For that reason, many legal experts believed it that it was unlikely that he would receive the death penalty, as Army prosecutors were seeking. The military justice system hasn't executed anyone since 1961.

The defense team, including military lawyers assigned to Bales as well as Browne's co-counsel, Emma Scanlan, eventually determined after having Bales examined by psychiatrists that he would not be able to prove any claim of insanity or diminished capacity at the time of the attack, Browne said.

"His mental state does not rise to the level of a legal insanity defense," Browne said. "But his state of mind will be very important at the trial in September. We'll talk about his mental capacities or lack thereof, and other factors that were important to his state of mind."

Browne acknowledged the plea deal could inflame tensions in Afghanistan and said he was disappointed the case has not done more to focus public opinion on the war.

"It's a very delicate situation. I am concerned there could be a backlash," he said. "My personal goal is to save Bob from the death penalty. Getting the public to pay more attention to the war is secondary to what I have to do."

___

Johnson can be reached at https://twitter.com/GeneAPseattle

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AP's special regional correspondent for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Kathy Gannon, contributed from Kandahar.

Much of South Dakota sees ease in drought

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) -- Recent thunderstorms have eased the drought in much of South Dakota, but some western areas of the state remain dry, state Climatologist Dennis Todey said Tuesday.

"While we get this perception it's wet everywhere, it's not. But we're moving in the right direction," Todey told members of the Governor's Drought Task Force.

He said Sioux Falls and parts of southeastern South Dakota received 7 inches of rain or more in the past week, and a long stretch of the central part of the state got 2 to 3 inches. Western South Dakota is improving, but the northwestern and southwestern parts of the state in particular are still dry, Todey said.

Conditions have improved substantially from last year's drought that hurt crop yields and forced some farmers and ranchers in South Dakota and other states to sell cattle.

"We're not calling for a repeat of last year by any stretch, but we still could stay a little bit on the dry side in western parts of the state," Todey said.

The task force, a group of state officials and others appointed by Gov. Dennis Daugaard, meets periodically to get an update on conditions and consider ways to respond to dry conditions.

Last week, the U.S. Drought Monitor report indicated that 39 percent of the state was rated in severe or extreme drought, with no part of South Dakota in the highest category of exceptional drought. That's a big change since February, when nearly two-thirds of the state was rated in extreme or exceptional drought.

Todey said he expects more improvement when the next drought report is issued later this week.

The driest parts of South Dakota were in extreme southeastern counties and a broad area west of the Missouri River.

Kent Juhnke, who farms near Vivian in central South Dakota west of the Missouri River, said the 525 acres of winter wheat he planted last fall failed to grow. But he said the recent rains will give him a chance to raise milo, sorghum and other replacement crops he is planting in those failed wheat fields.

Grass is growing in Juhnke's cattle pastures, but he said the lingering effects of a dry winter and a cool spring will likely reduce the yield in hay fields.

When he looks at the landscape and sees green, he's encouraged, though.

"You've got to be an optimist to hang in there in our profession," Juhnke said.

Because the grass is turning green and rain has fallen across much of the Black Hills, the danger of wildfires should remain low for the next month, said Daren Clabo, a fire meteorologist for the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. However, dry areas in the southern Black Hills and southwestern South Dakota prairies remain at risk of fire, he said.

Todey noted that parts of southeastern South Dakota have received so much rain that water standing in fields could kill newly sprouted corn plants. While the top layers of soil have been replenished, deeper layers remain dry in many areas, he said.

Phil Hofer, who farms near Bridgewater in the eastern part of the state, said his fields received periodic half-inch rains through early May and then got 2 inches of rain Saturday night. Last year's drought cut Hofer's corn yield, but he said this spring's rain gives him a better chance of raising a good crop this year.

Hofer said he has planted nearly all his crops, and the wet soil should help the corn survive if the weather follows a typical pattern and turns hot and dry in July.

"It doesn't make a crop by any stretch, but it sure does improve your odds, improve your situation," he said.

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Follow Chet Brokaw on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/chetbrokaw

Canada freezes trade with Iran over nuclear program, human rights

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada will freeze all remaining trade with Iran to protest the Tehran's nuclear ambitions and its human rights record, Foreign Minister John Baird said on Wednesday.

Canada, which has had increasingly poor relations with Iran for more than a decade, had already imposed a series of trade sanctions. In 2012, bilateral trade was worth around C$135 million ($130 million).

Baird said Canada was particularly concerned by the failure of the United Nations' nuclear agency this month to persuade Iran to let it resume an investigation into suspected atomic bomb research.

"The absence of progress ... leads Canada to ban effectively immediately all imports and exports from Iran," Baird told reporters.

Last September, Canada suspended diplomatic ties with Tehran, calling Iran the biggest threat to global security.

"Canada continues to have grave and sincere concerns over Iran's nuclear program, and their abhorrent human rights record and their continued support for international terrorism around the world," Baird said.

Statistics Canada data for 2012 shows exports to Iran were worth around C$95 million, mostly in the form of cereals, oil seeds and fruit as well as chemical products and some machinery. Iranian exports totaled C$40 million with fruits, nuts and textiles dominating.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Sandra Maler)

Velvet Underground, Warhol settle after banana split

By Nate Raymond

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Velvet Underground, the 1960s avant-garde rock band, has settled a fight with the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts over the rights to an iconic pop art image of a banana that graced the band's best-known album.

Velvet Underground sued the Warhol Foundation in January 2012 after reports that the foundation was planning to license the banana design for cases, sleeves and bags for Apple Inc's iPhone and iPad.

The settlement, disclosed in a filing in federal court in New York on Wednesday, averts a trial that was set to begin July 29. The court filing did not give the terms of the settlement.

Velvet Underground, founded by John Cale and Lou Reed, collaborated with Warhol beginning in the 1960s. Warhol designed the banana image and the band featured it on its first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico," in 1967.

While the band broke up in 1972, the album lived on and is ranked by Rolling Stone magazine as 13th on its list of greatest albums of all time.

In the lawsuit, the Velvet Underground claimed exclusive use of the banana design for licensed merchandising. The lawsuit sought damages and an injunction to prevent the foundation from licensing the image.

The foundation, which was set up under Warhol's will to advance the visual arts, took ownership of his copyrights in 1987. It has in the past licensed material to companies including Levi Strauss & Co and Campbell's Soup Co, according to the foundation's website.

In the lawsuit, it countered that the Velvet Underground had no enforceable trademark rights to the image.

The Velvet Underground also asked the court to rule that the Warhol Foundation had no copyright to the banana image. But in September the judge, Alison Nathan, found that an agreement by the Warhol Foundation not to sue Velvet Underground for copyright infringement nixed any copyright questions.

Joshua Paul, a lawyer for the foundation at the law firm Collen IP, declined to comment on the settlement. Clifford James, a lawyer for Velvet Underground, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

Neil Patrick Harris returning to host Emmycast

NEW YORK (AP) CBS says Neil Patrick Harris is hosting the Emmys again.

It's the second go-around for the TV, film and stage star. He last did the honors at the "Prime Time Emmy Awards" in 2009.

CBS will air the Emmycast live from Los Angeles on Sept. 22.

But for viewers who just can't wait to see Harris in emcee mode, he'll preside over "The 67th Annual Tony Awards" on CBS on June 9. It's Harris' fourth time hosting that show, which salutes the best of Broadway.

Harris currently stars on the hit CBS sitcom "How I Met Your Mother."

CNN veteran Larry King to host Kremlin-funded TV show

MOSCOW (Reuters) - CNN veteran Larry King will host a new show on Kremlin-funded TV station Russia Today next month, RT said on Wednesday.

The English-language station, beamed to 630 million viewers worldwide, said it would launch "Politics with Larry King" in June.

The show will be produced by Ora TV, an online broadcaster founded by King and Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim last year, and recorded in RT America's Washington, DC, studio and Ora TV's Los Angeles studio.

RT said it also signed a deal to air the online talk show "Larry King Now", which has been hosted by web broadcasters Hulu.com and Ora.tv since last July. The U.S. branch will be the exclusive broadcaster for both programmes, it said.

"Whether a president or an activist or a rock star was sitting across from him, Larry King never shied away from asking the tough questions, which makes him a terrific fit for our network," said RT's editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan.

RT and Ora TV declined to comment on King's salary in the deal.

Russia Today - considered a Kremlin exercise in image enhancement by critics - received 11 billion roubles ($349 million) from the state this year. It signed Wikileaks founder Julian Assange last year to host his own talk show.

King, 79, ended a 25-year run as the host of "Larry King Live" on CNN in 2010. He had interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin several times over his 13-year rule.

RT also made headlines in 2011 when U.S. airports refused to put up one of its controversial advertisements.

The billboards comparing U.S. President Barack Obama and Iranian leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with a tagline asking, "Who poses the greater nuclear threat?" did appear at airports across Europe.

(Reporting by Alissa de Carbonnel; editing by Mike Collett-White)

Liberace movie is HBO's biggest since 2004

NEW YORK (AP) A healthy number of HBO subscribers were curious about Michael Douglas' performance as Liberace in the TV movie "Behind the Candelabra."

The Nielsen company said the 2.4 million people who tuned in to the movie's premiere over the Memorial Day weekend represented the network's biggest audience for one of its original movies since "Something the Lord Made" in 2004. Another 1.1 million people saw a repeat of the Liberace movie that began right after the first airing.

Dancing ruled over singing last week on the broadcast networks, depending on which audience you followed. ABC's two "Dancing With the Stars" airings last week had around 15 million viewers, the most-watched program on television. Among the younger demographic that are attractive to advertisers, however, NBC's "The Voice" was more popular.

Monday's version of the Univision telenovela "Amores Verdaderos" landed in the Top 10 among younger viewers last week. In an indication of how young the Spanish-language show's audience is, it ranked No. 39 among all viewers.

ABC won the week in prime time, averaging 6.5 million viewers, benefitting from "Dancing" and the finales of "Modern Family" and "The Middle." CBS was second with a 6.3 million viewer average, NBC had 5 million, Fox had 4.3 million, Univision had 3.5 million, Telemundo had 1.6 million, ION Television had 1.2 million and the CW had 760,000.

TNT was the week's most popular cable network, averaging 3.4 million viewers in prime time. USA had 2.7 million, the Disney Channel had 2.2 million, Fox News Channel had 1.9 million and TBS had 1.6 million.

NBC's "Nightly News" topped the evening newscasts with an average of 8 million viewers. ABC's "World News" was second with 7.4 million and the "CBS Evening News" had 6 million viewers.

For the week of May 20-26, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: "Dancing With the Stars Results," ABC, 15.2 million; "Dancing With the Stars," ABC, 14.97 million; "Criminal Minds," CBS, 11.01 million; "The Voice" (Monday), NBC, 10.81 million; "The Voice" (Tuesday), NBC, 10.18 million; "Modern Family," ABC, 10.01 million; "The Big Bang Theory," CBS, 9.06 million; "Hawaii Five-0," CBS, 9 million; NBA Playoffs: Indiana vs. Miami (Wednesday), TNT, 8.31 million; NBC News: Oklahoma Tornado Coverage (Tuesday, 8 p.m.), NBC, 8.16 million.

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ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co. CBS is owned by CBS Corp. CW is a joint venture of Warner Bros. Entertainment and CBS Corp. Fox is a unit of News Corp. NBC and Telemundo are owned by Comcast Corp. ION Television is owned by ION Media Networks. TNT is owned by Time Warner Inc.

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Online:

http://www.nielsen.com

US vs. European hurricane model: Which is better?

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- When forecasters from the National Weather Service track a hurricane, they use models from several different supercomputers located around the world to create their predictions.

Some of those models are more accurate than others. During Hurricane Sandy last October, for instance, the model from the European Center for Medium-range Weather Forecasting in the United Kingdom predicted eight days before landfall that the large storm would hit the East Coast, while the American supercomputer model showed Sandy drifting out to sea.

The American model eventually predicted Sandy's landfall four days before the storm hit plenty of time for preparation but revealed a potential weakness in the American computer compared to the European system. It left some meteorologists fuming.

"Let me be blunt: the state of operational U.S. numerical weather prediction is an embarrassment to the nation and it does not have to be this way," wrote Cliff Maas, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Washington on his weather blog.

Meteorologists agree that the two American supercomputers that provide storm models are underpowered which is why the National Weather Service plans on upgrading those computers in the next two years. The two main forecasting computers one in Orlando, Fla. and the other in Reston, Va., will receive $25 million in upgrades as part of the Hurricane Sandy supplemental bill that was recently approved by Congress.

"This will improve weather forecasting across the board," said Christopher Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "Certainly one area of concern that has received some attention were these larger high-impact extreme weather events. The European model is able to pick up on those storms earlier than our model."

Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the online forecasting service Weather Underground, said that other than Hurricane Sandy, the American model outperformed the European model during the 2012 hurricane season but if you look at a three-year period, the European model still comes out on top.

"If the U.S. did invest more money and people into making the model better, then the forecast would be better," Masters said. "The money we spend on weather forecasts and improving them pays for itself."

Still, with hurricane season starting Saturday, forecasters say the average person living in a coastal area shouldn't worry about the capability gap between the computers.

"I really could care less which is the better model because we have access to them both," said James Franklin, branch chief of the hurricane specialist unit. "It's immaterial to us."

And forecasters say that hurricane modeling and forecasting has become more accurate overall in the last 10 years.

Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami use both American and European models and other models then average them together for a storm's projected path. The computers take data from weather satellites, observations and weather balloons, then plug the data into complex algorithms.

The fact that the American supercomputer is lacking in processing power does need to be addressed. In the long run, improving its computing power will increase the overall quality of data for scientists drawing from multiple sources.

"You want to have the best information possible when you're trying to decide what to do," Masters said. "Having better forecast models is going to improve your chances."

Experts also say the quality of a nation's computer capability is emblematic of its underlying commitment to research, science and innovation.

"If you just bought a bigger computer, it will help but it will not solve the problem. There are many other aspects that need to be addressed," said Richard Rood, a professor at the University of Michigan's department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Science.

Rood said that the meteorologists who run the European computer have invested time, effort and money into developing algorithms.

Another issue, he said, is the long-term maintenance of the satellites run by NASA and NOAA.

"If they fail to continue to deliver the observations, then our forecast is going to be less good," he said "We all use the same set of raw data. For the most part, we all start from the same observations. If there is a threat to safety and property and people, it is far more related to the state of the observing system than it is to any deficiencies or any gap we might have with the Europeans on the predictive model."

There are other reasons why the European model has outperformed the American model, many of them having to do with the structure of the two agencies that run each computer, according to NOAA:

The European model focuses on medium-range weather prediction, while the American model does a lot more it looks at short-, medium- and long-range global weather, along with atmospheric, ocean, coastal, hurricane and space weather.

The European center has one budget that focuses only on research and development relating to medium-range weather, while NOAA has a fragmented budget and multiple research and development projects "loosely" managed under multiple organizations.

The European center doesn't build observational systems while NOAA does.

"There's some differences in the basic goals and purposes of these different centers," said Chris Davis, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. "That often has to be kept in mind when trying to understand differences in the performance models used."

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Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush

All aboard the new Routemaster - it's big, red and made in Britain

 

ukiegeneric.cm - The iconic double-decker hop-on, hop off Routemaster bus hit the capital's streets - six years after they were withdrawn.

By Nathalie Thomas | Telegraph

They were a triumph of post-war British engineering. But when the final Routemaster bus, with its familiar hop-on, hop-off platform, was withdrawn from regular service in December 2005, London lost one of its most famous symbols. 

Now, a new take on the old classic is about to be re-introduced to London’s streets on a permanent basis. A new, more environmentally friendly Routemaster bus will become a familiar sight on the capital’s roads from June 22, when 27 vehicles take over route 24, which carries 28,000 Londoners and tourists each day to destinations between Pimlico and Hampstead Heath.

A prototype of the new vehicle, commissioned by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been in operation on the number 38 route between Victoria and Hackney since February last year. However, next month will mark the first time a route will be served entirely by the diesel hybrid bus.

 

London Mayor Boris Johnson waves from a Routemaster prototype (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

But as well as marking the return of a great British institution, the new Routemaster also showcases the best design and manufacturing from the UK. It was designed by Thomas Heatherwick, founder of the Heathwerwick Studio and the man who brought us the stunning Olympic cauldron in contrast to London’s unmourned “bendy buses”, which were designed in Germany.

The Routemaster buses 600 of which will be rolled out by 2016 are manufactured by Wrightbus, a family-owned company based in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. Transport for London is spending around £212m on the new fleet and claims the modern Routemaster will sustain 220 jobs at Wrightbus’s factory in County Antrim over the next three years.

But, in addition, most of the components, from the seat covering to the wheelchair ramps, are also sourced from UK companies a boost for British manufacturing and engineering.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph last week, Mr Johnson said: “It is the embodiment of the point I often make, that investment in London boosts the rest of the UK economy, directly and indirectly. We have stimulated the very best of British technology, creating jobs in this country, and yes, we are now looking to potential export markets”. 

The interior of the new Routemaster (Photo by Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images)

Chassis: WrightBus, County Antrim, Northern Ireland 

WrightBus was named the winner of a competitive tendering process to manufacture a new fleet of London buses in January 2010. The company, part of a family-owned transport group which employs more than 1,400, has set up a new manufacturing facility to build the chassis for the Routemaster. The chassis plant currently employs 40, but its workforce will rise to 90 when it reaches full production. WrightBus will build 600 Routemaster buses by 2016. The average price of a new bus over the life of the contract will be £354,500.

Seat covering: Camira Fabrics, Huddersfield 

Camira Fabrics, a textile manufacturer in West Yorkshire which employs around 600 people, has provided a durable red fabric referred to as “moquette” in the industry (French for carpet) for the Routemaster’s seats. Each bus requires about 40 metres of fabric, which has been based on the design of the original Routemaster’s seats and modernised. The long-term contract has safeguarded 220 jobs at the firm’s Meltham Mills engineering site. Ian Burn, marketing manager at Camira, said: “The new bus is a contemporary interpretation of the much-loved Routemaster buses, and the fabric is a twist on the design Camira has previously provided for those buses”.

Engine: Cummins, Darlington 

Cummins Ltd is part of US company Cummins Inc and has been in Britain since the mid-1950s. It employs around 5,000 in the UK. Manufacturing products include diesel engines, turbos and power generation units. It is a past winner of the Queen’s award for export and worked on re-powering a number of the original Routemaster buses to improve fuel efficiency and reliability.

Destination signs: McKenna Brothers, Middleton, Greater Manchester 

McKenna Brothers, a small family business with 27 employees, provides the destination signs or blinds for all of London’s buses. London is one of the few remaining cities to maintain the traditional black and white blinds rather than moving to LED destination signs. The signs for the new Routemaster are made using traditional screen-printing techniques that were used to create the blinds for the original version of the bus.

Seats: Rowan Telmac, Telford 

Rowan Telmac, a UK company set up in 1981, manufactures the seats at a plant in Telford, Shropshire. Originally set up to produce parts for use in the manufacture of electric wheelchairs and scooters, it has since expanded to manufacture tubular steel frames for bus seats. It has made more than 100,000 bus seats, used all over the country.

Wheelchair ramps: PSV Transport Systems, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire 

Each Routemaster will be fitted with a wheelchair ramp manufactured by PSV Transport Systems, which has 75 staff. The ramp is made using components sourced from the UK.

Flooring: Tiflex, Liskeard, Cornwall 

Tiflex, which employs about 150 in Cornwall, is a manufacturer of rubber and cork products and has supplied the non-slip Treadmaster flooring for the new buses. The company has supplied around 2,500 floor panels for the fleet.