He joined a group of injured New York Yankees starters Monday at the team's minor league complex. The 37-year-old third baseman ran, played catch and hit off a tee.

Rodriguez said it's "like being 8 years old again when I first grabbed a bat." He added it's "pretty exciting" and he's "really looking forward to getting back."

Rodriguez had surgery Jan. 16 and could return to the Yankees after the All-Star break. A surgeon repaired a torn labrum and impingement in the operation in New York.

"It feels good to be back out in uniform," Rodriguez said. "It's been a rough stretch with the rehab, obviously. It's small bites at a time."

Rodriguez is currently taking part in a 30-day rehab schedule setup by his doctors and team officials.

"We're taking it four weeks at a time," Rodriguez said. "Today is one of 30."

The upbeat A-Rod signed autographs and took photos with around 40 fans waiting for him outside the player's parking lot. Fans driving by stopped their car near the complex driveway and jumped out to have photos taken.

"I have a lot of unfinished business," said Rodriguez, who struggled offensively late last season. "I'm really looking forward to getting back on the field close to 100 percent and being who I am."

Outfielder Curtis Granderson (broken right forearm), first baseman Mark Teixeira (right wrist), corner infielder Kevin Youkilis (lumbar spine sprain), and catcher Francisco Cervelli (broken hand) are also rehabbing injuries in Florida.

"It's great seeing him," Teixeira said. "He's just happy to be back, doing some baseball activities. He's got a big smile on his face right now, which is great."

Shortstop Derek Jeter is also on the disabled list with a broken ankle, and is not expected back until after the All-Star break.

"We always talk about injuries are a part of the game, but this is crazy" Rodriguez said. "I've never seen anything like it. But I've got to tell you, the way those guys are playing up there, the job the front office has done putting these guys together at the last minute, hats off to everyone."

The Miami New Times reported this year that Rodriguez bought human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing substances in recent years from Biogenesis of America LLC, a now-closed clinic in Coral Cables, near the three-time AL MVP's offseason home.

Rodriguez has denied the allegations.

"I can only control what I can control," Rodriguez said. "I'm really focusing on all the great things that have happened in the game. I'm really focused on getting healthy, and just getting back and helping the Yankees win a championship."

A 14-time All-Star, Rodriguez had right hip surgery on March 9, 2009, and returned that May 8. He is due $114 million over the next five years as part of his $275 million, 10-year contract.

Jeter found out he fractured his left ankle for a second time in six months on April 18. At that time the Yankees said the team captain should be able to resume his rehabilitation when the new crack heals in about four to eight weeks.

Out since injuring his wrist with the U.S. on March 5 before the World Baseball Classic, Teixeira took batting practice in an indoor cage and hopes to start on-field BP in the next few days.

"I'm very, very happy with where I am right now," Teixeira said.

Granderson, who broke the arm Feb. 24 in his first at-bat of spring training when he was hit by a pitch from Toronto's J.A. Happ, is playing in extended spring training games and expected to rejoin the team this month.

Youkilis is eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list on May 13. Cervelli broken his hand April 26 and is expected to miss at least six weeks.

This case appears to be winding down. Prokopi is awaiting sentencing, and during a ceremony in New York City on Monday (May 6), Mongolia the country from which Prokopi admitted he took will take formal possession of the finds.

This is not the first time a fight over a prize dinosaur grabbed national attention and was followed by a criminal case.

More than 20 years ago, a team led by Peter Larson of the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research discovered and excavated what was at the time the largest and most completespecimen ever found. The dinosaur, named Sue after the woman who first spotted its fossils, became the focus of an ownership dispute, which caught the attention of federal prosecutors. []

Sue's story ended at an auction in 1997, where the dinosaur sold for a landmark $8.36 million.

While the two cases share some obvious similarities, Larson expresses no sympathy for Prokopi, the fossil hunter and dealer at the center of the current case, describing it as "something very different from the Sue case."

Tyrannosaurus Sue's saga

Sue and Larson's story began in South Dakota in August 1990, when fossil hunter Sue Hendricksonon a ranch on the Cheyenne River Sioux reservation.

An ownership dispute involving the institute, the rancher and the tribe arose. This caught the attention of the U.S. Attorney's office in South Dakota, which was already investigating allegations the institute had taken fossils from public lands. The National Guard carted Sue away from the Black Hills Institute in Hill City, S.D., prompting an outcry from residents of the town, where the institute planned to establish a museum displaying the dinosaur, according to an account in Steve Fiffer's "Tyrannosaurus Sue" (W.H. Freeman and Company, 2000).

The feds later slapped Larson, his colleagues and the institute with an array of charges related to collecting and selling fossils. None of the charges concerned Sue, and only a handful resulted in convictions. []

Larson pleaded not guilty, but was convicted of two felonies for customs' violations for failing to report cash and traveler's checks, as well as two misdemeanors, for which he received a two-year prison term. He has since returned to paleontology and the helm of the Black Hills Institute. Larson discusses the legal case and the discovery of Sue and other T. rex specimens in the book "Rex Appeal" (Invisible Cities Press, 2004), co-authored with Kristin Donnan.

In 1997, the auction house Sotheby's sold Sue at a public auction. The sale was unprecedented, and an article in The New York Times contained speculation the specimen would fetch "." In fact, the dinosaur sold for a total of $8.36 million to The Field Museum in Chicago.

A Mongolian dinosaur in America

Two decades later, Prokopi hoped to capitalize on the high prices that a prehistoric predator could attract. He imported rough, fossilized remains of a Tarbosaurus bataar from a dealer in England, prepared and mounted them. He placed the finished, 8-foot-tall and 24-foot-long (2.4 meters by 7.3 meters)for an auction scheduled to occur on May 20 last year. (Tarbosaurus was an Asian relative of the North American T. rex.)

News of the sale sparked protest from the Mongolian President, Elbegdorj Tsakhia,who said the specimen had likely beenfrom his country, whose laws designate all fossils as state property. Paleontologists supported this claim, saying that all nearly complete Tarbosaurus specimens have been recovered from a rock formation in Mongolia's share of the Gobi Desert. Federal prosecutors seized the Tarbosaurus, Prokopi fought to keep the dinosaur, and prosecutors charged him with crimes related to smuggling the Tarbosaurus and other fossils into the country.

"If you are exporting from a certain country, you should know the laws," Larson said. "It is just a standard thing everybody should do."

Although Mongolian regulations do not allow for the export of fossils excavated within the country's borders, fossils known to come from Mongolia began appearing on the market in the United States at least 10 years ago, Larson said.

In December,to charges related to fossil smuggling. The plea should help stop the plundering of Mongolian fossil sites, Larson said. "And that's a good thing."

Hurting science

These smuggled fossils arrive without crucial information about where they were found, creating problems if paleontologists want to study the remains. For example, researchers, including Larson, disagreesold to an American collector without a known origin.

If excavated in China, the dinosaur may be a miniature ancestor to T. rex and Tarbosaurus, one side argues. Meanwhile, Larson and others say these fossils are more likely to represent a young Tarbosaurus from Mongolia.

"The scientific conclusions are completely different depending on where it is from," Larson said.

Paleontology & capitalism

In , he described federal prosecutors' involvement as an effort "to please a foreign government out for a political trophy." Later, in an interview for The New Yorker magazine conducted after his plea, Prokopi emphasized how common Tarbosaurus fossils are and suggested that the finds were exported from Mongolia with the sanction of that country's officials, in spite of its law.

Regardless of Prokopi's defense, both this case and Sue's call attention to the divide between academic and commercial paleontology. Some academics believe the sale of fossils harms science, although museums often acquire specimens from commercial paleontologists.

Prokopi addresses the hostile response that he said news of the Tarbosaurus' sale provoked, writing in his statement: "Do people really think everything they see in a museum was found and prepared by the people that work there? The truth is many spectacular finds in paleontology have been privately funded."

Although he works in the fossil business, Larson straddles the divide to some degree, collaborating with academic paleontologists on research and authoring scientific publications.

"I am a capitalist, too," he said. "I think it's very important. People need to make a living. [But] they need to do it legally, whether they agree with the law or not. If not, it hurts everybody. It hurts the science, it hurts the public who are cheated from not being able to see the specimen.

"[The fossils] deserve respect. They are part of the , and they are not just something to tear apart because you can," he said.

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Google hasn't stoppedthat's for sure. But when it publishes its statistics about how many people use what kind of Android gadgets, on theit now pretends that people who haven't opened up the Google Play app (and digital content) market in the last two weeks don't exist.

Here's why, what happened, and what Google is saying about it.

What information does Google show on the dashboard?

The dashboard is designed to help Android app developers know how many people are using what kind of smartphones. The most important thing on it is its "Platform Versions" chart, which shows how many people are using the latest version of Android and how many are stuck on an earlier one.

What changed about how Google collects it?

According to Google, the charts on its dashboard "are now built using data collected from each device when the user visits the Google Play Store," as opposed to "when the device simply checked-in to Google servers." Google postedbut even that is not fully clear about what this means. Does it count if you visit Google Play on the Internet from your computer, and remotely install an app on your phone or tablet?

Your Android smartphone or tablet checks for app updates on its own, at any rate, which is why icons appear in your notification area telling you there are updates. This is probably what Google meant by "when the device simply checked-in," or at least part of it.

How did the statistics change after Google did this?

"The numbers indicate a pretty dramatic increase for [the] Jelly Bean [version of Android] month over month and now show it as being on 25% of all Android devices." So the stats now show a lot more people using the most modern Android devices, like the Nexus 7 tablet, which came with Jelly Bean preinstalled, and pushed everyone who got it to go shopping on Google Play immediately, which is the behavior Google is tracking.

Why did Google make this change?

"We believe the new data more accurately reflects those users who are most engaged in the Android and Google Play ecosystem," Google said on the dashboard. And as Kellex explained, "these numbers are supposed to be used by developers ... to help [them] target audiences for their apps." Knowing who's actually visiting the store where they'd buy a developer's app is more useful, to that developer, than just knowing who has an Android device which can run it.

Those numbers are also used by many tech media outlets, however (or "silly websites" as Kellex put it), for reporting on how many people are using a given version of Android. So far, those statistics have tended to make Google look bad, partly because the carriers and manufacturers don't usually update their devices in a timely matter and partly because Apple (by contrast) updates its iPhone and iPad devices frequently. Thanks to this change, it has now become harder to tell how many people are still stuck with older versions of Android.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

It's the second-known trip to a healthcare facility for the British actress since 2011, when news first broke that she suffers from bipolar II disorder - a milder form of the illness that is marked by sharp mood swings and erratic behavior.

"Catherine has pro-actively checked into a healthcare facility," publicist Cece Yorke said on Monday. "Previously Catherine has said that she is committed to periodic care in order to manage her health in an optimum manner."

Zeta-Jones, 43, who won an Oscar for her role in the 2002 musical "Chicago," underwent treatment in 2011 for what aides said was the stress of coping with the advanced throat cancer diagnosis and treatment of her husband, actor Michael Douglas.

No specific reason was given this time for her decision to seek help.

Bipolar II is a milder form of the disorder and is marked by less manic "up" moods but more depressive episodes, according to medical experts. It can be treated with medication or therapy.

Zeta-Jones was last seen on screen in February in the crime thriller "Side Effects," which received warm critical acclaim.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Philip Barbara)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar surged against the yen and global equity markets rallied on Friday after the U.S. government reported surprisingly strong jobs growth for April that drove optimism on the economy, driving Wall Street stocks to record highs.

U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 165,000 last month and the jobless rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent, the Labour Department said. Hiring was also much stronger than previously thought in the prior two months, all signs of a resilient jobs market.

Economists expected payrolls to rise by 145,000 and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 7.6 percent.

Leading U.S. and European equity indexes advanced about 1 percent in a rally that has boosted the S&P 500 index more than 5 percentage points from April lows in just 11 sessions. The U.S. benchmark is up more than 13 percent so far this year.

Both the S&P 500 and the Dow industrials topped key milestones for the first time, with the S&P 500 breaking through the 1,600 mark and the Dow briefly surpassing 15,000.

In a sign of the rally's breadth, the Russell 2000 index of mid- and small-cap stocks hit an all-time high, and the Russell 1000 and Russell 3000 also set new highs.

Prices of crude oil, copper and other commodities also rallied as the jobs data raised investor confidence that demand is growing. Copper, a key industrial metal, surged more than 6 percent. Prices of government debt, a traditional safe haven, slumped on the data.

"The employment number was definitely the trigger for today's rally," said Michael Korn, president at Skokie Energy in Princeton, New Jersey.

The U.S. labour market has continued to be a source of concern, even as some sectors of the economy, such as the housing market, have shown clear signs of recovery.

The strong jobs data overshadowed an industry report that showed the pace of growth in the vast U.S. services sector slowed in April to its weakest pace in nine months.

The Dow Jones industrial average close up 142.38 points, or 0.96 percent, at 14,973.96. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index rose 16.83 points, or 1.05 percent, at 1,614.42. The Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 38.01 points, or 1.14 percent, at 3,378.63.

For the week, the Dow rose 1.8 percent, the S&P gained 2 percent, and the Nasdaq rose 3 percent in its biggest weekly climb since the first week of the year.

In Europe, the FTSEurofirst 300 of leading shares rose 1 percent to 1,218.60, the highest close since June 2008.

MSCI's all-country world equity index rose 0.81 percent to 370.90.

The dollar rose 1.1 percent against the yen, to 99.03 yen, on pace for its biggest one-day rise in two weeks, while the euro rebounded a day after the European Central Bank's president, Mario Draghi, said the ECB was technically ready for negative deposit rates.

The euro was up 0.4 percent to $1.3115.

German Bund futures settled down 101 ticks at 146.15, while the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was down 1 3/32 in price to yield 1.7434 percent.

Brent crude settled $1.34 higher at $104.19 a barrel, while U.S. crude gained $1.62 to settle at $95.61 a barrel.

Benchmark copper on the London Metal Exchange closed at $7,265 per tonne, up from a close of $6,848 on Thursday. It rose more than 6 percent, its biggest daily rise since late October 2011, to hit an intraday high of $7,289 per tonne.

Gold traded near break-even, erasing early gains after the data on U.S. job growth, which reduced the need for the Federal Reserve to immediately boost monetary stimulus.

Spot gold rose $2.57 to $1,468.80 an ounce.

U.S. Comex gold futures for June delivery settled down $3.40 at $1,464.20 an ounce.

"The idea that employment is holding as well as it is in the face of the fiscal headwinds the economy is currently enduring is a very positive sign of the economy's underlying fundamental improvements," said Russell Price, a senior economist at Ameriprise Financial Services.

The better jobs data comes just a month after the Bank of Japan promised to inject about $1.4 trillion into the Japanese economy to spur growth and end decades of deflation.

By increasing liquidity, three of the world's major central banks have fuelled a rally in share and bond markets that has driven many benchmark indexes back up to levels last seen before the financial crisis began.

(Reporting by Herbert Lash; Editing by Leslie Adler and Dan Grebler)

Vice President Joe Biden, a Democrat, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, a tea party favorite with national aspirations, descended on South Carolina on Friday to whip up the partisan faithful and offer a presidential campaign tease for the state. Both parties are preparing for next week's special congressional election featuring former GOP Gov. Mark Sanford and Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, the sister of comedian Stephen Colbert.

"As soon as I show up in South Carolina, the Washington press corps comes out and says, 'Is Biden getting ready?'" the vice president said at an annual party dinner, insisting that he came at the request of another Democrat, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn. "I've got to make clear: I would go anywhere Jim asked me to go."

At the Democratic confab, more than 1,000 packed a convention center ballroom for the $125-per-person dinner, where Biden laid in to House Republicans for "fighting like the devil" for a budget plan that he said slashes education, undercuts law enforcement and gets rid of Medicare.

"Where are they from? What don't they understand about this country?" Biden said, his voice rising to a roar. "What don't they understand about those decent Americans, who paid their whole lives, who built this country, who fought in wars?"

Cruz reminded Republicans at an annual state GOP dinner that less than a decade ago the party controlled the White House and Congress. He said Republicans could begin to turn the tide by regaining control of the Senate in the 2014 elections. "Things can change quickly," Cruz said.

In this conservative state that reliably votes Republican in national and statewide general elections, partisans already are getting a hefty amount of attention. Typically, South Carolina finds itself at the center of American politics for a brief time every four years during the presidential primary season, when it usually is the third state to weigh in on who should become the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees.

South Carolina's primaries have played an important role in the nominating process for both parties; the state gave Barack Obama a commanding victory in 2008 and until last year, every Republican nominee had won the state's primary since Ronald Reagan in 1980.

Years ahead of the 2016 contests, Republican and Democratic hopefuls alike already are starting to survey the landscape, court support and weigh in on local matters, with wide-open fields shaping up in both parties.

"The activists in this state are unhappy about the results of the presidential election," said Jay W. Ragley, a former executive director of the state Republican Party. "They're looking for someone who has a message which national Republicans can rally behind."

With Obama barred from seeking a third term, Democrats here also may be starting to seek their own consensus candidate.

This week, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, a potential 2016 candidate, endorsed Sanford, and the party announced that Paul would hold fundraisers for Republicans in the state on June 28. Last month, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, talked up his record and heaped criticism on South Carolina Republican Gov. Nikki Haley during a Democratic event in Charleston, while former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, said to be eyeing another run after losing the GOP nomination last year, campaigned for Curtis Bostic, who lost to Sanford in a Republican run-off for the open congressional seat.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 candidate, was here months ahead of the pack, headlining the state's Silver Elephant dinner last year.

Absent thus far, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has longstanding ties to South Carolina going back to the time of her husband's presidency. The former first lady and New York senator has said she has not made any decisions about her future, but many Democrats are eager for her to step forward and campaigns urging her to run are underway.

In a sign of the hunger for Clinton, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi gushed over Clinton's experience during an event Thursday at the Clinton School of Public Service in Little Rock, Ark., telling an audience, "I pray that Hillary Clinton decides to run for president."

Biden and Cruz were in the spotlight Friday evening speaking at party events about two miles from each other.

"I'll bet they're talking about the middle class ooph," Biden said mockingly of Cruz's Republican event.

Cruz told the GOP gathering that Biden was in Columbia. "You know, the great thing you don't even need a punch line. You just say that and people laugh," he said.

The vice president headlined the state party's Jefferson-Jackson dinner and then dropped by an annual fish fry held by Clyburn. Biden, who twice unsuccessfully ran for president, hasn't ruled out running a third time in 2016. But Biden's decision about whether to run seems unavoidably overshadowed by Clinton, who many Democrats say would eclipse the vice president should she choose to run.

At the fish fry celebrating Clyburn's 20 years in Congress, it was Biden who worked a rope line five people deep, greeting supporters and working the room the way he did four years ago during his second presidential campaign, and then again later as Obama's running mate.

While careful not to upstage the president with flagrant displays of ambition, Biden has kept at least a toe planted firmly in the political world since the start of his and Obama's second term.

He schmoozed with prominent Democrats from Iowa and New Hampshire the first two states to hold presidential primary contests last year during the inaugural weekend. He's making calls for the House Democrats' campaign arm, working to recruit candidates to help his party win the House next year. And last month, he traveled to Michigan to give the keynote at a state party dinner.

Biden became the figurehead for Obama's push on gun control, appearing countless times with gun violence victims and advocates to urge his former colleagues in the Senate to act. It was unsuccessful. Yet, Biden says he's not giving up the fight; he met with law enforcement officials about the issue Thursday. The same day, while in Mexico, Obama announced that Biden would play an active role in a new partnership with Mexico to strengthen the two countries' economic ties.

Cruz, meanwhile, joined a chorus of people paying tribute to former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who was an early supporter of the freshman senator.

The Texan is new to national politics, having been in Washington just a few months after becoming the lone tea party candidate to win a Senate seat last year.

In just a few weeks on the job, the insurgent Republican ran afoul of GOP mainstays, prompted Democrats to compare his style to McCarthyism and voted against nearly everything of significance that came before him. Through it all, he made clear he intends to be a conservative standard-bearer.

All that endeared him to a segment of the party and sparked talk of presidential ambitions.

On Wednesday amid presidential buzz, Cruz issued a statement on his Facebook page: "In my short tenure, my focus has been and will remain on two things: fighting for conservative principles in the Senate and working to help elect strong conservatives to win a majority in the Senate in 2014." He added: "It is a continued source of amazement that the simple fact that I am working hard with like-minded senators to keep my promise is seen as newsworthy and cause for wild speculation."

His appearance here was only fueling the talk, though he did not address the issue head-on. DeMint, a mentor who recently stepped down to become president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, tried to tamp down the speculation. "I can assure you he's thinking about Senate business and that's about it right now," DeMint said of Cruz.

___

Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

British International Development Secretary Justine Greening told an African business conference this week that UK aid would end by 2015 in favour of a "new relationship based on sharing skills and knowledge, not development funding".

However, the announcement triggered a heated reaction from Pretoria, which said it was kept in the dark about the decision.

"This unilateral announcement no doubt will affect how our bilateral relations going forward will be conducted," foreign ministry spokesman Clayson Monyela said in a statement.

Greening was quoted on the UK government website as saying she had agreed with her South African counterparts on the need for a shift in development policy.

Despite pressure on public finances, Britain's Conservative government has pledged to increase aid spending to 0.7 percent of GDP, although it has made clear it will cut assistance to wealthier emerging states to boost it for poorer ones.

Last year, it said it would stop financial aid to India by 2015 amid domestic anger at annual handouts of 280 million pounds to Asia's third-largest economy while UK citizens were facing aggressive budget cuts.

Britain, South Africa's former colonial master, remains far and away its biggest investor, accounting for half of the country's 1 trillion rand ($110 billion) of foreign direct investment stock, according to central bank figures.

However, London's annual aid package, which focuses on public health and improving regional customs systems, is a drop in the ocean for Pretoria, whose budget forecasts spending of nearly $120 billion this year.

(Reporting by Ed Cropley; Editing by Jon Herskovitz)

Bayern, which routed Barcelona 4-0, edged Dortmund and was voted the world's top team for the fifth straight week by a panel of 15 journalists.

Dortmund had the player of the week in Robert Lewandowski. He had four goals in a 4-1 victory over Real Madrid. Three more players from Juergen Klopp's team also made the top 10.

"The Polish striker managed the performance of his life against Real Madrid," said Cedric Rouquette, of Eurosport in France. "One that the press will talk about when he retires, one that he'll tell his grandchildren about and one that will feature in his obituary."

The best of the rest came from Manchester United. The newly crowned Premier League champion was third in the team poll and Robin van Persie who had four goals in the past week, including a title-clinching hat trick against Aston Villa was fifth in the player vote. He trailed Dortmund's Lewandowski and Marco Reus and Bayern's Thomas Mueller and Arjen Robben. Mueller and Robben were second and third, with Reus fourth.

Germany signaled a shift in European soccer's balance of power by beating Spain by a combined total of 8-1 in the first legs of the Champions League semifinals, but it's been that way in the AP poll for a while.

"Never has choosing my top two teams been easier," said Tom Timmermann of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "The two German clubs showed themselves to be so much better than the Spanish clubs, and if they're not playing in the Champions League final, I'll be amazed."

Mike McGrath, of Wardles news agency and The Sun newspaper in England, chose Bayern over Dortmund because the German champions produced a "team performance" against Barcelona while Dortmund's success was largely the work of Lewandowski.

Only Mueller, who scored twice for Bayern at the Allianz Arena, came close to challenging Lewandowski in the player vote.

"That's outstanding, that's magnificent, that's Robert Lewandowski!" said Soeren-Mikael Hansen of Politiken in Denmark.

Gareth Bale dropped to sixth place despite a goal and a late assist in Tottenham's 2-2 draw at Wigan, which kept his team in contention for a finish in the Champions League positions in the Premier League.

Stifled by Bayern, Lionel Messi crept into the top 10 in seventh place by virtue of his goal in Barca's 2-2 draw at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday. That left the club on the brink of wrapping up the Spanish league title. Barca still managed to place 10th in the team vote.

___

AP Global soccer rankings for the week ending April 29.

Based on 15 voters: 10 points for first, nine for second, etc. Previous rankings in parentheses.

Teams:

1. Bayern Munich (1), 147 points.

2. Borussia Dortmund (7), 136.

3. Manchester United (5), 80.

4. Juventus(2), 71.

5. Chelsea, 58.

6. Liverpool, 50

7. Real Madrid (4), 36.

8. Paris Saint-Germain (6), 30.

9. Real Sociedad, 27

10. Barcelona(5), 24

___

Players:

1. Robert Lewandowski, (3), 139 points.

2. Thomas Mueller, 116.

3. Arjen Robber, 63.

4. Marco Reus, 57.

5. Robin van Persie (6), 53.

6. Gareth Bale (2), 41.

7. Lionel Messi, 36.

7. (tie) Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, 36

9.Pablo Daniel Osvaldo, 31

9. (tie) Ilkay Gundogan, 31

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Over a quarter of babies brought to one Wisconsin hospital after severe physical abuse had a history of minor injuries, according to a new study whose authors suggest early detection may prevent later harm.

"In that group of definitely abused infants, 27.5 percent of them had that history of relatively minor injuries," said Dr. Lynn K. Sheets, the study's lead author from Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

"That should have and could have raised concerns about abuse, but for whatever reason did not," added Sheets, who is the hospital's medical director of child advocacy and protection services.

Previous studies had already found a link between minor injuries in babies too young to get around on their own and more serious abuse later on, according to the researchers. But no study looked at the number of abused babies who had a history of bruises.

For the new study, Sheets and her colleagues combined data on four groups of babies younger than 12 months old, who were evaluated for signs of abuse between March 2001 and October 2011 at the Children's Hospital of Wisconsin.

Two groups were watched over seven years, and definitely suffered abuse, according to the researchers. Those injuries included head trauma that's typically the result of shaking a baby.

Those groups were then compared to two other groups. One - followed for five years - was a group of babies that may or may not have suffered abuse. The other - followed for four years - was found to have not been abused.

Overall, 55 of the 200 babies who definitely suffered abuse had previous injuries observed by at least one parent. That compared to 8 of the 100 babies who may or may not have been abused, and none of the 101 babies who weren't abused.

The majority of bruises were on the babies' heads, followed by their arms and legs, stomachs and backs.

"If we recognize these, not only can we protect kids form serious injuries, but sometimes we can help families get the help they need to parent effectively without turning to abuse," said Dr. Andrea Asnes, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

"It's doesn't mean it's definitely abuse, but it warrants some serious looking," said Asnes, who was not involved with the new research. For example, doctors could use X-rays or CT scans to look for previous injuries, and refer to Child Protective Services if they suspect abuse.

'EVERYBODY NEEDS TO KNOW'

Sheets told Reuters Health everybody who is involved with a baby should know that bruises are not usually caused by normal handling, and questions and concerns should be raised if they're noticed.

"Not saying they're all abused, but everybody needs to know this if you're ever around a baby," she said.

According to the researchers, who published their findings in Pediatrics on Monday, 23 of the 55 babies with a history of bruises were reportedly seen by medical providers. But only some of those providers suspected abuse.

Asnes told Reuters Health some states already have laws that require doctors to call Child Protective Services if they suspect abuse.

"We have a lot of education to do with medical providers. Many medical providers will just see it as a bruise," said Sheets, who added that it may be the first sign of abuse.

Evaluating bruises and preventing severe child abuse later on could also lead to cost savings, write the researchers. Each case of child abuse, they write, is estimated to cost over $200,000 over a child's lifetime.

"This is really a hopeful message. This is an opportunity to prevent over a quarter or more serious abuse in infants. It's a huge opportunity. If we pay attention to these early sentinel injuries," said Sheets.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/YS7Fj1 Pediatrics, online March 18, 2013.

Lu Lingzi chose the English name Dorothy for herself, a fitting moniker for an adventurous young woman who was transported from rust-beltto the U.S., where she was pursuing a masters degree in mathematics and statistics atUniversity. On April 15, Lu hovered at the finish line of the Boston Marathon to cheer on classmates who were competing. She was one of three people killed by the twin blasts that turned the Patriots Day race into a scene of devastation. A fellow Chinese graduate student at Boston University, who was with Lu at the finish line, sustained serious injuries.

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Reared in the grimy northeastern city of Shenyang where she attended a special school for talented youth, Lu made her way south to Beijing for college, where she studied international economics and trade at the prestigious Beijing Institute of Technology, ranking eighth in her major, according to her online CV. While in her final year of college, she interned at Deloitte in Beijing. After graduation, Lu joined the roughly 200,000 Chinese students who study in the U.S. She was very lovely and full of positive energy, says Gong Zheng, a friend who met Lu when they used the same Beijing agency to help them with their study-abroad applications. Gong, who is now studying in Atlanta, says Lu belied the common image of Chinese students in America as being spoiled, rich brats who buy their way into academic institutions. She and I are kids from ordinary Chinese families, Gong says. We just wanted to get a better future through our own hard work. He added that Lu liked to use mathematics to solve problems.

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Starting at Boston University last fall, Lu posted pictures onthat described her New Beginning in BU. According to her Facebook profile, her likes ranged from Disneyland and Sephora beauty products to Lindt chocolate and the Economist magazine. Shortly after arriving in Boston, Lu posted a picture of traditional northern Chinese comfort food, porridge of mixed beans and grains. Was it a measure of homesickness or simply delight at being able to recreate this traditional dish in a faraway land?