The UCDA source said Uganda exported 248,749 60-kg bags of coffee in April, a jump from 141,220 bags shipped in the same period last year.

"South and Southwestern regions experienced goods rains when the crop that is now in harvest was in its development stage and that really has been key in the big surge in exports," the UCDA source told Reuters.

"My mother passed away this morning just a short time ago, peaceful with my sister by her side, in her sleep," Bernsen said in a post on Facebook.

Bernsen had been updating the status of Cooper's health on Facebook and Twitter over the past few weeks. Neither the cause of Cooper's death nor what she had been suffering from has been disclosed.

Cooper joined the cast of CBS network's "The Young and the Restless," in its first season in 1973, and portrayed the boozy and wealthy Katherine Chancellor. She was still a cast member at the time of her death although her character recently underwent surgery for a brain tumor.

Known as the "The Duchess" and the "Grand Dame of Genoa City," the Chancellor character is credited with giving the series a dash of controversy during its beginnings and becoming an iconic figure in U.S. television soap opera genre.

Cooper's cast mates took to Twitter to remember an enduring star of U.S. daytime television.

"A very sad day for all of us," co-star Jessica Collins posted on Twitter.

"Heaven just gained one feisty angel," said Melissa Claire Egan, another actress on the series.

Cooper, a daytime Emmy winner, also brought her personal life onto the show in 1984 when footage of her real-life facelift was used to depict her character undergoing the same procedure.

Cooper was born in Taft, California, in 1928 and began her professional screen acting career in the 1953 film "The Redhead from Wyoming."

She also appeared on several television shows in the 1950s and 1960s, including "The Twilight Zone" and "Perry Mason," before joining "The Young and the Restless."

Cooper had three children, Caren, Collin and Corbin, who currently stars on the comedy-drama series "Psych" on the USA Network.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Jill Serjeant and Jackie Frank)

Now if he can just break par on the TPC at Sawgrass. Or at least make it to the weekend.

McIlroy keeps showing signs that his game his emerging from an early season slump. His next stop is Thursday in The Players Championship, a tournament that hasn't been kind to him in his three previous trips.

He has missed the cut every time, never posting a score better than 72.

So what's the problem?

"The first year I came here, I was in Vegas the week before. That didn't help," McIlroy said with a boyish smile. "The second year was my 21st birthday. That didn't help."

And last year?

"I don't have an excuse," he said.

Upon leaving last year, he said his career was young and he would have another 20 years, hopefully, playing this tournament. And if didn't get the hang of it by then, something would be wrong.

He's still learning, though a few holes in his practice round Wednesday also showed he was picking up some of the nuances.

McIlroy was perplexed while playing the sixth hole Wednesday. He hit two shots off the tee, one in the fairway and one in the rough, about the same distance. He hit an iron with the ball in the fairway, pin-high about 15 feet left of the flag. He used the same club from the rough and watched it sail over the green. That's the trouble with this rough. It's not very high, and the ball can jump out of there.

As he played the par-5 ninth, caddie J.P. Fitzgerald reminded him that it's best to lay up on the hole. McIlroy smashed his tee shot and his caddie told him, "You have 266 (yards) to the front. Perfect 5-iron." McIlroy followed his instructions, hit the shot and then threw down another ball and asked for the 3-wood.

He missed to the right of the green, shrugged and said, "Just wanted to get it out of my system."

In discussing the course, McIlroy is coming to the same conclusion. It's OK to be aggressive, as long as he picks the right spots.

"I think you've got to find a balance around here of being conservative, but also you have to take on things, as well," he said. "There is no point in not hitting the driver anywhere around here because you're not going to make enough birdies to contend, but you don't want to be hitting driver everywhere either because you're going to find trouble. So you have to find a balance.

"There are a few holes out here that you can take advantage of, and you have to because there are so many difficult holes out here that you sort of play for par and if you make birdie, it's a bonus."

NBC Sports analyst Johnny Miller said players have to "tippy-toe" their way around the golf course.

Masters champion Adam Scott, meanwhile, is still floating.

Scott has virtually disappeared since holing that 12-foot birdie putt on the second extra hole to become the first Australian to win the Masters. He was in New York for a couple of days and then headed to the Bahamas, where he has a home.

He usually takes a few weeks off after a major to decompress. This time, he waited an extra week before picking up a club. It felt that good.

"I've had a really nice break since the Masters, which I had planned anyway," Scott said Wednesday. "But it was even better because I was floating around on the clouds the last three weeks. It's been an overwhelming time for me."

Once he finally put a club back in his hands, the swing felt as pure as that final round at Augusta. He was eager to compete again, and The Players Championship is enough to get any pro's attention.

It features the strongest and deepest field in golf all year, on a Stadium Course that had can be challenging, frustrating, punishing and rarely dull. Scott won The Players in 2004 after hitting 5-iron into the water on the 18th and making a 10-foot bogey putt to win by a shot.

"It's a nice week for me to come back to Sawgrass and The Players, because I've had such a great run here over the years," Scott said. "I'm excited about playing this week. I hopefully can take my head out of the clouds and come back down to earth and play some good golf."

That would be the only way to make it around this golf course.

Woods and Phil Mickelson, the best two players of their generation, each have one win at the home of the PGA Tour. The list of winners ranges from power players such as Greg Norman and Davis Love III to pea shooters in the mold of Fred Funk and Tim Clark.

McIlroy and Graeme McDowell last won in America on courses designed by Pete Dye: McIlroy at the PGA Championship (Kiawah Island) and BMW Championship (Crooked Stick); McDowell at Hilton Head a couple of weeks ago.

"I think Pete Dye designed a certain type of golf course," McDowell said. "He likes to penalize the player in his own kind of unique way, and this golf course certainly has its dangers. But it's certainly scorable at the same time."

McIlroy is still trying to discover that secret.

Ritter made the announcement on Facebook hours after playing a Friday night concert at Messiah College in Pennsylvania., southwest of Harrisburg.

Messiah students and staff must sign a "community covenant" promising to avoid homosexual behaviour and premarital sex.

Ritter calls the policy bigoted. He says he's donating his fee to an organization that provides crisis intervention and suicide prevention services.

Messiah spokeswoman Beth Lorow says the administration is disappointed that Ritter favours tolerance, except when it comes to religious freedoms.

Ritter talked about the policy during the show. Lorow says his comments on stage weren't as harsh as his Facebook posting.

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Online

Facebook post: https://www.facebook.com/joshrittermusic/posts/10151431221117709

DOWN, DOWN UNDER: Australia's central bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter percentage point to a record low 2.75 percent Tuesday in an effort to boost economic growth.

AUSSIE OPTION: The country's Treasurer said inflation is under control, so the central bank is in a position to deploy monetary policy, particularly when faced with a high Australian dollar.

BILLABONG BONDS: the Australian dollar remains high because of demand for government bonds, viewed by investors as a safe haven with higher returns than U.S. and Japanese government bonds.

For decades, Harryhausen was Hollywoods premiere stop motion effects artist, building models that would seemingly interact with actors on screen in films ranging from The 7th Voyage of Sinbad through his final film, 1981s .

In recent years, most of Harryhausens animation techniques have been supplanted by computer-generated imagery (CGI). But even animators who create their effects entirely on computers today use techniques pioneered by Harryhausen and his tiny physical models.

Film blogger , What Ray Harryhausen did was simply magic. He brought inanimate objects to life on screen, and he gave them character and personality that often dwarfed the so-so actors who were up against them. It is no hyperbole to say that the mind (and hands) of Harryhausen shaped the geek revolution that has swept pop culture in the last few decades.

Beginning his career during the golden age of science fiction, Harryhausen counted many of the genre's towering figures among his contemporaries. For example, Harryhausen joined the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Societyin the 1930s. Bradbury would go on to write some of science fiction and fantasys seminal novels, including "Fahrenheit 451" and "The Martian Chronicles."

Along the way, Harryhausen created the effects for some of the most beloved genre films in history, including titles such as Jason and the Argonauts.

And with a backlash to what many consider an over-reliance on digital effects, its likely that Harryhausen may appeal to new generations of fans.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The U.S. Forest Service is in the business of preventing fires, not starting them.

Yet the agency set off alarms in Congress and state capitols across the West by citing the automatic spending cuts as the basis for demanding that dozens of states return $17.9 million in federal subsidies. And it's all come down to a bureaucratic squabble over whether the money is subject to so-called sequestration because of the year it was paid 2013 as the Obama administration contends, or exempt from the cuts because of the year it was generated 2012 as the states insist.

Right now, it's a standoff heightened by history and hard fiscal realities. But with taxpayer cash scarce, both sides are digging in: The Forest Service has to slash 5 percent of its budget under sequestration. The states, meanwhile, have depended for decades on a share of revenue from timber cut on federal land. Perhaps least willing to compromise are members of Congress who are up for re-election next year and are loath to let go of money that benefits potential voters back home.

It's not clear who gets to decide or whether the question ends up in court.But lines have been drawn.

"We regret having to take this action, but we have no alternative under sequestration," Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell wrote in March to governors in 41 states, explaining that since the payments were issued in the 2013 budget year, the money would be subject to sequestration.

Infuriated, Republicans and Democrats from Capitol Hill to the governor's offices banded together to fight back, arguing the money was paid to the states well before the spending reductions went into effect. The governors of Alaska and Wyoming have flat out refused to send the money back.

"The frustration level is off the charts on this," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., whose timber-rich state is the top recipient of the Forest Service payments and stands to lose nearly $3.6 million.

Wyden, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the panel's top Republican, are working together to "turn this around" so their states and others are not forced to return any money to the federal government.

"This is slap-your-forehead-in-disbelief kind of stuff," Wyden said.

At issue are so-called county payments, a revenue sharing plan that's existed since President Teddy Roosevelt created the national forests to protect timber reserves from the cut-and-run logging going on at the time. For nearly a century, hundreds of counties received a quarter of the revenue from the timber sold on federal land. The money is being used for roads, schools and emergency services and is a welcome addition to cash-strapped county coffers, especially in the Northwest. In recent years, the law has acted as a subsidy for states and counties hard hit by logging declines triggered by measures to protect threatened species.

Idaho's Valley County, for example, would have to return more than $128,000 from its budget of $2.5 million for roads and schools. That leaves Gordon Cruickshank, chairman of the Valley County commission, in a no-win position. Should he forgo the repaving of even a single mile of the county's 300 miles of paved roads, defer maintenance on a bridge or lay off two county employees?

"We are struggling really hard now to figure out what to do," Cruickshank said. "It's a tough pill to swallow that they sent these payments out just a few months before sequestration, and now they want them back."

The Forest Service has paid billions of dollars to counties over the decades, but the receipts dwindled as logging on national forests dropped precipitously in the 1990s first in the Northwest to protect the northern spotted owl and salmon, and then later across the country as concerns grew over the impact of clear-cut logging on wildlife and clean water.

In 2000, Wyden led the charge for a new law, called the Secure Rural Schools Act, a way for the government to pay counties that no longer could depend on revenue from logging in federal forests. But the law has expired, and the last payments went out in January. Wyden and other lawmakers are pushing to renew the subsidy.

The Forest Service issue provides one look at the real-world fallout of sequestration, which began March 1 after Congress and President Barack Obama failed to agree on a deficit-cutting plan. Forced to find the required savings in the wobbly aftermath of recession, federal officials are getting creative reducing hours at courthouses, furloughing employees and cutting back services. The full impact of sequestration remains unclear because most of the reductions have yet to take effect.

Ryan Yates of the National Association of Counties said state and local officials understand that sequestration is the law of the land and that future cuts to scores of federal programs are inevitable. But there is widespread concern that the Forest Service's action means that the sequestration's reach is far greater than they anticipated.

"This retroactive move by the administration to squeeze more money from rural forest communities is not only legally questionable, but insults the longstanding relationship between counties and the federal government," Yates said.

Tidwell's March letters to the governors incited lawmakers and state officials, who said the payments came from revenues generated in the 2012 budget year and were therefore not subject to sequestration.

The National Governors' Association advised governors to consult closely with their legal staffs before making a decision.

"No one has ever heard of an agency demanding money back that they have already spent," said NGA Deputy Director Barry Anderson.

In a letter sent to senior Obama administration officials in late March, four House Democrats joined 27 House Republicans in assailing the Forest Service's demand, calling it an "obvious attempt by President Obama's administration to make the sequester cuts as painful as possible." The Forest Service was aware for months that sequestration was a possibility, they said. Yet even after it went into effect, the agency waited for several weeks before informing states that payments would have to be returned.

"We request that this action be halted," the House members wrote.

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Associated Press writers Matthew Daly in Washington and Jeff Barnard in Grants Pass, Ore., contributed to this report.

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Follow Richard Lardner on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rplardner

Francis made no mention of the church scandals in many countries in which clergy abused children and hierarchy covered up for them. At a Mass he celebrated Sunday in crowded St. Peter's Square, Francis said abuse victims are in his prayers.

He stressed that all must work with courage so that children, who are among the most vulnerable people, be always defended and protected.

Ignoring sometimes heavy rain, Francis toured the square in a popemobile, but left the vehicle to embrace disabled adults and children along his route.

In a surprise, he ventured beyond the Vatican's confines, riding the popemobile down a Rome boulevard to greet thousands of cheering faithful who couldn't fit in the square.

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of National Rifle Association members gather in Houston this weekend for the first time since the Senate rejected a plan last month to expand background checks for gun buyers, but officials say attendees will not sit back to celebrate victory.

"We view it as an opening battle in what will be a multi-year war," said Andrew Arulanandam, a spokesman for the NRA, which lobbied against the proposal. "We're definitely not resting on our laurels."

Polls show more than 80 percent of Americans support expanded background checks, but the proposal to extend background checks for sales made online and at gun shows fell six votes shy on April 17 of the 60 votes needed to clear a procedural hurdle in the Senate.

The proposal, which supporters have vowed to revive, is a key part of President Barack Obama's gun-control effort sparked by the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut.

The vote was a sign of the influence of the gun lobby, particularly the NRA, which spent $18.6 million in the 2012 campaign cycle, according to the Sunlight Foundation. The NRA has more than 4 million members.

The NRA gathering in the nation's fourth-largest city, which starts Friday and continues through Sunday, is billed as a celebration of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution setting out the right to bear arms.

The event is expected to draw some 70,000 attendees who can stroll 400,000 square feet of displays to see the latest products from firearm manufacturers and hunting outfitters, check out wildlife art and shooting accessories, or sign up for hunting trips around the world. It will also draw protesters who plan to demonstrate for more gun-control measures such as background checks.

There will also be a Stand and Fight Rally with political commentator Glenn Beck, a country music jam featuring the Eli Young Band, and remarks from leading gun rights advocates including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, Texas Governor Rick Perry and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal.

Since last year's NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits in St. Louis, Missouri, a national debate about gun laws sprang up after the December shooting at Newtown's Sandy Hook Elementary School, where 20 children and six adults were killed. In the months that followed, states including Connecticut, Colorado, Maryland and New York have passed gun-control laws, while states such as Arkansas, Wyoming and South Dakota have loosened gun restrictions.

"Almost from the moment of the tragedy in Newtown, it became apparent that the ensuing push for a wide variety of new anti-gun laws had a lot less to do with school safety than it did with a decades-long crusade to destroy the Second Amendment," NRA chief executive officer Wayne LaPierre wrote in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle published in advance of the national gathering.

NRA members proposed solutions such as fixing the mental health system, putting armed guards into schools and enforcing existing federal laws against drug dealers and gang members with guns, LaPierre wrote.

"NRA members exemplify everything that's good and right about America," he wrote.

Those members will be warmly welcomed by leaders in Texas, including Perry and U.S. Senator Ted Cruz, both Republicans.

On Wednesday, Perry celebrated the recent move from California to Texas of a company called Shield Tactical, which sells firearm-related gear and training services. Perry's office said the governor has reached out to more than 30 firearms manufacturers in states that are considering curbing guns sales or manufacturing, urging them to move to Texas.

The NRA's opponents are also gearing up for the Houston event. The local chapter of a group called Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America plans to demonstrate in support of background-check legislation. Military veterans who disagree with NRA positions on guns plan an "Occupy the NRA" event.

"The NRA leadership actively worked to block background checks for gun sales, spreading lies about the Senate bill," Lauren Weiner, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Americans United for Change, told reporters on Thursday. "The reality is that the majority of gun owners do, in fact, support these common-sense reforms."

An online Reuters/Ipsos poll released in January showed that 86 percent of Americans surveyed favored expanded background checks of all gun buyers. A CBS News/New York Times poll released on Wednesday showed that 88 percent of Americans support background checks for all gun buyers and that 59 percent are disappointed or angry about the recent Senate vote on gun legislation.

State Representative Garnet Coleman, a Houston Democrat whose district includes the convention center hosting the NRA meeting, will not be among the Texas politicians at the event.

"Clearly, the sales and promotion of firearms is big business," Coleman said. "This is business with politics as the cloak."

(Reporting By Corrie MacLaggan; Editing by David Gregorio)

The "Little House on the Prairie" star married the former "Thirtysomething" star on Wednesday in Santa Barbara,reported.

According to Melissa's rep, the "Dancing with the Stars" alum, 48, and Timothy, 55, wed "in a private ceremony at San Ysidro Ranch."

This marks the third marriage for both actors.

Melissa is a mom of two and Timothy, who now also directs, has three kids.

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