OTTAWA (Reuters) - The new governor of the Bank of Canada said on Thursday that interest rates will rise one day, but he stopped short of repeating his predecessor's explicit guidance on the likely need for rate hikes, rather than cuts, in the future.

In his first public appearance since taking the reins at the central bank on Monday, Stephen Poloz said he sees no immediate risk from current rock-bottom interest rates, although he did not want loose monetary policy to last for too long.

Many analysts had expected Poloz to be more dovish than previous Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney, who stepped down last month after a year beaming out a clear message that the bank's next move would be a rate increase.

The message from Poloz could be interpreted either way, the analysts said.

"Low (rates) for hopefully not too long gives you the outcomes you need to get through this crisis and then as the world unfolds we get back to normal, and that's our outlook," Poloz told the House of Commons Finance Committee.

"We don't see evidence that those risks (of low interest rates) are manifesting themselves in a threatening way at this stage, but they'll be carefully monitored, and that trade-off continues to be made as we go along."

Not yet accustomed to Poloz' folksy speaking style, some economists concluded he was holding the line on monetary policy while others detected a slightly more dovish tone.

"Overall, I don't think we're going to see a big change in stance from the Bank of Canada come July," said Krishen Rangasamy, senior economist at National Bank Financial.

Poloz, who previously headed Canada's export credit agency, has a first speech as governor on June 19 and his first rate decision in mid-July, both events where he may be able to put a clearer stamp on any policy priorities.

He said on Thursday that the central bank needed to "nurture" the economy through a phase he likened to postwar reconstruction and emphasized that inflation below the bank's 2 percent target - it is currently at 0.4 percent - is just as much a concern as above-target inflation.

That provided fodder for those who think he'll back away from any rate-hike talk.

"A speech that is all about 'nurturing' and the BoC's role in building confidence throughout this process suggest a policy leaning toward at least a less hawkish BoC than under the last months of Carney's tenure," Scotiabank economists Derek Holt and Dov Zigler said in a note to clients.

CARNEY'S MOVES

Carney was the first central banker in the Group of Seven industrialized nations to raise rates after the global financial crisis, with three rate hikes in 2010. But the bank has held its main policy rate at 1 percent since then, the longest period of unchanged interest rates since the 1950s.

In April 2012, the bank again began signaling intentions to tighten monetary policy, and that bias remains in place, although some argue it has been so watered down in recent months that it has become almost meaningless.

Analysts in a Reuters poll published on May 23 predicted, on average, that the next interest rate increase will come in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Poloz sounded upbeat about the prospects for further growth in Canada and for the recovery in the U.S. housing market.

The Bank of Canada has long predicted that growth in Canada will be driven more by exports than by domestic demand, which fueled the quick recovery from recession.

Poloz said he first expected foreign demand to recover, followed by stronger export performance, improved confidence and then business expansion.

"This sequence may already be underway," he said.

"We are now seeing signs of recovery in some important external markets, notably the United States and Japan, and there is continued growth in emerging-market economies."

(Additional reporting by Randall Palmer and David Ljunggren in Ottawa, and Alastair Sharp, Andrea Hopkins, Cameron French and Peter N. Henderson in Toronto; Editing by Janet Guttsman and Chizu Nomiyama)

Al-Shabab, the rebels linked to al-Qaida, have discouraged many parents from getting their children inoculated against polio, a disease that is an incipient problem in this Horn of Africa nation long plagued by armed conflict and disease, according to health workers who spoke to The Associated Press.

The al-Shabab extremists have been pushed out of virtually all of Somalia's cities and face continued military pressure from African Union and government troops. Health workers are gaining access to more children to give the life-saving polio vaccine. But some mothers and fathers are refusing the inoculation, apparently heeding the advice of the Islamic militants who warn that the vaccination exercise is part of a foreign conspiracy to kill or weaken Somali children.

Vaccination workers who walked door to door in the capital, Mogadishu, were turned away by some parents who often didn't state why they objected to the vaccination. One man told the workers to leave immediately because they were carrying "toxic things."

Al-Shabab militants are spreading rumors against the polio vaccine in communities where they still have some influence, alleging the vaccine can make girls barren and that it is manufactured in Christian countries, said a senior United Nations health worker in Somalia, who insisted on anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak about the vaccination program.

Al-Shabab did not respond to questions about the allegations that they are spreading rumors against the vaccination campaign.

"Al-Shabab are paranoid about potential infiltration by spy agencies disguised as humanitarian workers. That's probably a principal reason for discouraging vaccination," said Abdi Aynte, the director of the Somali-based think-tank Heritage Institute for Policy Studies.

Somali government officials say the numbers of parents who reject the immunization campaign are far fewer than those embracing it, but health workers don't want to leave any unvaccinated. They warn that it is important for every child to get the polio vaccine in order to eradicate in Somalia the disease that causes limb paralysis and can be fatal.

"It's a big challenge," said Safiyo Mohamed, a vaccination worker in Mogadishu. She said in rejecting the vaccine some families had brought up the case in Libya where foreign health workers including five Bulgarian nurses faced charges of deliberately infecting Libyan children with HIV in 1990s.

The polio vaccine, which is administered orally, is recommended for children aged 10 and under, but some parents are questioning why a 10-year-old needs protection against polio, said Biyod Yasin, a vaccination worker at Mogadishu's Hamarweyne Mother Child Centre.

At a world vaccine summit in Abu Dhabi last month, global health leaders and philanthropists presented a six-year, $5.5 billion plan that they hope will eradicate all types of polio disease.

The World Health Organization says Somalia is experiencing an outbreak of polio. WHO reported earlier this month that a 4-year-old Somali girl near the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and two of her contacts tested positive for polio, the first confirmed cases in Kenya since July 2011. Four polio cases have been confirmed in Somalia so far this year, including two in Mogadishu. A vaccination campaign targeting 440,000 children began here on May 14, and a second round of the campaign that started Tuesday aim to vaccinate 644,000 children under the age of 10.

Health workers say they vaccinate hundreds each week despite the resistance. That the health workers can move around at all is a stunning turnaround in Somalia, which when al-Shabab radicals ran most of the country refused western medical care and food aid to desperate Somalis. The extremists imposed a strict form of Muslim Shariah law and carried out public whippings and beheadings.

With many regions of Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, under the rule of the moderate Muslim government and enjoying relative peace for the first time in 20 years, health care workers are expanding vaccination programs throughout the country. Health workers can now reach 40 percent of south-central Somalia, where the influence of the hardline Islamic insurgents is highest. Three years ago, health workers could access only 15 to 20 percent of that territory.

The years of conflict in Somalia has resulted in the country having child and maternal mortality rates that are among the highest in the world. One in every five Somali children dies before their fifth birthday, according to WHO, often for reasons including parental illiteracy and negligence.

"I don't want any of my children injected with that thing which I don't know what it is made of," said Nurto Hussein, a mother of seven who lives in Mogadishu. "They make the children sick instead of curing them. I put my trust in Allah."

[More from BGR: ]

Im worried about . According to claims from several well-sourced reporters, that is flatter and more minimal.earlier this week. If this is in fact the case, its fantastic news not because theres anything wrong with the current user interface per se, but because after six years its time for something fresh.Apple is apparently working so hard on this redesign that .

[More from BGR: ]

As great as the new face of Apples mobile platform sounds, I sincerely hope Apple is also putting significant time and effort into developing some impressive and useful new features that will debut in iOS 7, because if we stop to think about it, it has been quite some time since Apples mobile platform really got any smarter.

I have been an iPhone owner since Apples first smartphone launched in 2007. I always carry multiple smartphones with me an occupational hazard but for nearly six years now, one of the phones in my pocket has been an iPhone.

Apples first iPhone was a breath of fresh air. The hardware had a premium feel that made other popular smartphones seem like cheap toys, and the software was simple and refreshing. The iPhone was missing many features that had been staples on other smartphones for years, but it was easy to see that this was the start of something big.

The iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS took a step backwards in terms of hardware quality but they added faster data connectivity and, even more importantly, the iPhone 3G launched alongside the App Store. Smartphone apps were nothing new, of course, but buying them typically meant dealing with awful third-party mobile software vendors and clunky desktop synchronization programs. With the iOS App Store, however, users were able to extend the functionality of their devices quickly and easily from a central location on the device itself.

Then came the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, which did away with plastic in favor of glass and metal. The 4 also introduced Apples new Retina display and the 4S brought the companys intelligent virtual assistant Siri to market. The former sent rivals scrambling to compete in the new mobile display resolution race, while the latter ushered in a new era of smart, voice-friendly mobile services such as Google Now.

Finally, Apples iPhone 5 launched last year with a bigger display, an all-new aluminum design and other enhancements. It is widely regarded as the most impressive iPhone to date and is also Apples fastest-selling smartphone ever.

The iPhone has gotten better with each iteration, there is no question. Hardware has improved, software has improved, components have improved, the user experience has improved and performance has improved.But as impressive as Apples smartphones have been and continue to be,one thing the iPhone hasnt done in recent history is get any smarter.

Lets take a step back for a moment.

No company in the world has played a bigger role than Apple in shaping the smartphone industry over the past decade. The iPhone turned the industry on its head and is directly responsible for the deaths of Windows Mobile and Symbian, and it sent BlackBerry scrambling to build a new platform. IOS simplified smartphones and made them accessible to everyone; it also made the team behind Android completely rethink the awful BlackBerry-like platform they were building, forcing a metamorphosis that birthed the fantastic mobile operating system we now enjoy today. The App Store revolutionized mobile software distribution and turned a small niche market into a multibillion dollar industry practically overnight. The iPhone 4 rose the bar for smartphone hardware and prompted rivals like HTC, LG and Nokia to explore better designs and sturdier materials.

In the past couple of years however, an interesting trend has developed. While the iPhone has indeed regularly gotten more capable, sleeker, stronger, slimmer, sturdier and speedier, it hasnt really gotten much smarter.

Here are the key new features Apple has brought to the iPhone over the past few years:

In iOS 6, Apple introduced a number of new functions but none of them really stood out as game-changers. Highlights included deeper Facebook integration; Passbook, which rolled the best features of several third-party digital wallet solutions into one Apple-branded offering; the addition of a panorama mode in the Camera app; ; a new sharing menu; a redesigned Music app as well as reskinned iTunes and App Store apps; a new reject-with-SMS option for call screening; and various other tweaks.

Back in 2011, Apples iOS 5 update was mostly a game of catch-up. Key additions included the introduction of Notification Center and a revamped on-screen notification system; iMessage, which was Apples response to BlackBerry Messenger, WhatsApp and similar offerings; deep Twitter integration;Newsstand for newspapers and magazines; a feature-starved Reminders app for time and location-based reminders; PC-free device setup and wireless iTunes sync; iCloud, Apples cloud-based backup and sync service; over-the-air (OTA) software updates; and of course, Siri.

Perhaps the introduction of multitasking features for third-party apps in iOS 4 was the last time Apples iPhone truly got significantly smarter. Smartphone multitasking was hardly a new concept in 2010, of course multitasking is among the core features that have always made smartphones appealing but Apples implementation was different. Rather than allow third-party developerscarte blanche access to any and all battery-draining functions they could dream up, Apple gave them access to several APIs that would allow apps to perform only a handful of Apple-managed processes in the background. Remember when you couldnt stream Pandora while browsing the Web or reading emails? Well those days were over thanks to Apples new APIs. They opened several new doors for developers, but they also ensured that the impact on battery life would be minimal.

This feature really did make the iPhone smarter.

Since then, there has been plenty of great functionality added to iOS that has improved the user experience. Siri is great when it works, though I personally believe . Do Not Disturb was a much-needed feature, though Apples implementation lacks even the most basic common-sense functionality why arent there separate schedules for weekdays and weekend days, for example? Apples iMessage is also a nice addition to iOS but beyond syncing between devices (which is anything but consistent), this service barely matches basic SMS functionality, which was developed in the 1980s. Why cant I leave group chats? Why cant I block phone numbers and email addresses?

Meanwhile, rival software and platforms have really started to turn up the heat.

Since 2010, Apples rivals have added a number of features that made their smartphones smarter. Googles intelligent personal assistant Google Now is a recent addition to Android that could be one of the smartest mobile products introduced in the past decade, but there are plenty of other examples. Here are two quick ones:

In 2011, Motorola debuted its Smart Actions application and it has continued to refine it ever since. This is easily . Smart Actions builds upon the concepts laid out in dozens of third-party profile manager apps from the days of Symbian and Windows Mobile, but it is far more comprehensive and much better designed than any of those old solutions.

In a nutshell, the Smart Actions app allows users to configure their phones so that features are triggered automatically by location, time or a number of other factors. So, for example, the phone might automatically turn up its display brightness and switch from vibrate-only mode to ring mode when I connect my charger. When I go to sleep at night, Smart Actions might silence all alerts, disable background data and auto-respond to all SMS messages to let senders know that Im not available. There is also a motion-sensing feature, however, so if I have sleep mode set to activate at 11:30 p.m. but Im still out and about, Smart Actionswill detect that the phone is being used and it will wait to enable sleep mode.

Another fantastically smart addition to an Apple rivals smartphone is . This app has seriously changed the way I watch television.

Gone are the days of flipping through guides and channel surfing. Instead, HTC and Peel have jointly created an app that shows you whats on TV using thumbnail images and the interface automatically prioritizes shows and movies you like. Then, since the One has a built-in infrared blaster, simply tap the show you want and the One will change the channel on your TV, cable box, satellite box or TiVo and it will work in every room on your house without having to flip through different remote profiles, since the app will send out the appropriate channel codes for each different room in your house with one tap.

There are plenty of other examples but the point has been made. Several companies out there are really pushing the envelope with their smartphone features. In recent years, however, Apple hasnt been one of them.

Running through , its easy to see that there are many key areas where Apple has the potential to make the iPhone smarter. Developing a new power-sipping solution in lieu of full-blown widgets that might let the iPhone display zero-touch information is one example. Adding new ways to enhance communication and data-sharing between apps is another one, and it could have the same type of huge impact on Apples user experience that opening up background APIs to third-party developers did back in 2010. Apples notification system is still seriously lacking, as I have noted in the past, and there are dozens of other opportunities for Apple to improve and innovate. There are also obviously plenty of great new areas Apple could explore that users havent even thought of yet.

The term smartphone has been around for quite some time, but there always seems to be one company with products that are more deserving of that descriptor than the rest. One company that rises above the crowd and drives innovation. One company that puts the smart in smartphone. Motorola has been there, Nokia has been there, BlackBerry has been there, and starting in 2007, Apple was there.

Apple is still a leader in the smartphone space, of course. No company makes more money selling smartphones than Apple. For the past few years though, Apple has not been the clear leaderthat it once wasin terms of smartphone innovation.

I cant wait to see the new flatter design Apple debuts in iOS 7. Design is probably still Apples strongest suit after all these years. But more than a fresh new look,I want to see some big improvements in the iPhones problem areas.I want to see some exciting new features. I want to see some real innovation.

I want to see Apples smartphone start getting smarter again.

This article was

This marks the first companion diagnostic that detects epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) gene mutations to be approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the agency said. The diagnostic is called the Cobas EGFR Mutation Test.

"Companion diagnostics play an important role in determining which therapies are the safest and most effective for a particular patient," Alberto Gutierrez, of the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health, said in a statement.

The approval will also move Tarceva up the treatment chain for those patients who test positive for the EGFR mutation. The drug was originally approved in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer only after they were not helped by at least one previous chemotherapy regimen.

"People with this type of lung cancer now have the option to use a personalized medicine as their initial treatment to help them live longer without their disease worsening," Hal Barron, chief medical officer of Roche Holding Ag's Genentech unit, said in a statement.

(Reporting by Bill Berkrot; Editing by Carol Bishopric)

* Woods 10 off the pace after a 74

* Forty-two players yet to finish second round (Updates at end of day)

By Mark Lamport-Stokes

DUBLIN, Ohio, May 31 (Reuters) - Rejuvenated by the recent birth of his first child, American Bill Haas rebounded from successive missed cuts on the PGA Tour to grab a three-shot lead in Friday's weather-hit second round at the Memorial Tournament.

While five-times champion and last year's winner Tiger Woods battled to a two-over-par 74 in gusting winds at Muirfield Village Golf Club to sit 10 strokes off the pace, Haas putted superbly on lightning-fast greens to fire a five-under-par 67.

Though Haas bogeyed his final hole, the par-four 18th, after hitting his approach over the back of the green, he was delighted to take control of the popular PGA Tour event hosted by Jack Nicklaus with a nine-under total of 135.

"I've been very fortunate," Haas told reporters after a round which included five birdies, an eagle at the par-five fifth and two bogeys to finish three ahead of compatriot Matt Kuchar (70).

"I hit a couple of loose shots. On number 11, the wind was right-to-left and I hit a provisional, I thought it was out of bounds there.

"We got out there and it (his first tee shot) must have hit a tree and it was fine. I ended up making birdie. That was probably a three-shot swing there. A huge hole for me there."

Swede Robert Karlsson was at four under after shooting a 71, with Americans Pat Perez (69), Hunter Mahan (68) and Australian Matt Jones (72) a further stroke back.

Play was suspended for the day at 7:07 p.m. EDT (2307 GMT) due to the threat of lightning, after two previous weather delays which totalled just under two hours.

Forty-two players were still out on the course and will have to complete the second round on Saturday morning, resuming at 7:30 a.m.

Among those were overnight leader Charl Schwartzel of South Africa, after 15 holes, and 2012 Masters champion Bubba Watson, after 14, who were both at six under for the tournament.

Haas, who had missed the cut on his previous two starts before spending time with his wife at home following the May 13 birth of their son William, had bitter-sweet feelings over his bogey at the last.

"Obviously disappointing but it was probably my best iron shot of the day," the four-times PGA Tour winner said of his approach on 18. "It carried a little farther than I wanted and stayed up over the green, which is really no good. I hit two nice quality shots on 18."

WEATHER CONDITIONS

Asked how the weather conditions on Friday morning had matched up to the strengthening winds he had to negotiate during his opening 68, Haas replied: "It was pretty similar, actually.

"Maybe even a hair more difficult today, but those greens are lightning fast, I think that's the biggest deal.

"With that kind of wind and that fast of greens, it's very difficult to make putts, and I've just been fortunate to see a few go in," added Haas.

Woods, widely regarded as one of the best putters of all time, did not watch as many putts drop on Friday as he laboured to a one-over total of 145, two shots inside the projected cutline.

"Tough conditions out there and I didn't exactly play my best either," said the American world number one who three-putted from just five feet to double-bogey the par-five 15th.

"It's not that hard to make bogeys and doubles on this golf course. You miss it in the wrong spot, get the wrong gust, it's tough."

Woods, who has triumphed four times in just seven starts on the 2013 PGA Tour, ended up with two birdies, two bogeys and a double on his card, but it was the putting he found most frustrating.

"They (putts) were moving all over the place," the 37-year-old said after have to cope on the slick greens as winds gusted up to 25mph (40.23 kph).

"It's tough. You try and stay below the hole as best you can, but sometimes you have to get the ball on the green."

The cut was projected to fall at three-over 147 with U.S. Open champion Webb Simpson, three-times major winner Vijay Singh and 14-year-old Chinese Guan Tianlang among those likely to miss out. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)

"When we broke the ice beneath her stomach, the blood flowed out from there. It was very dark," said Semyon Grigoryev, a Russian scientist who led the expedition that found the mammoth, in an interview with Agence France-Presse.

And Grigoryev says the well-preserved state of the mammoth offers new potential for cloning the creature, either directly through its DNA or .

"This find gives us a really good chance of finding live cells, which can help us implement this project to clone a mammoth," he said.

In 2012, North-Eastern Federal University, where Grigoryev works as a professor, enlisted the aid of controversial Sooam Biotech Research Foundation researcher . In 2005, Woo-Suk made history by creating the worlds first cloned dog, but much of his work was later called into question or discredited.

The website phys.org reports . Its body is said to have been preserved for about 10,000 to 15,000 years, roughly the time the mammoth is believed to have gone extinct.

Interestingly, the scientists discovered only the lower half of the mammoths body. They believe it was submerged in water at the time of its death. After the water eventually froze, they believe that predators consumed the top half of the mammoth carcass.

In a gruesome but scientifically promising detail, Grigoryev claims that blood seeped from the carcass when his team made an incision in its body.

"This is the most astonishing case in my entire life. How was it possible for it to remain in liquid form? And the muscle tissue is also red, the color of fresh meat," Grigoryev said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Glu Mobile Inc will allow U.S. players to win cash in one of its mobile games starting next month, betting that cash-based contests will be a winning formula to expand revenue in the fledgling but potentially high-growth mobile gaming sector.

The fast-growing mobile game developer, which has struggled to report a profit since it went public in 2007, said it entered into a partnership with San Francisco startup Skillz that provides technology enabling real-money earnings from skill-based mobile games through cash tournaments.

With smartphones and tablets going mainstream and delivering gaming to a new, broader set of consumers, the mobile gaming sector is growing rapidly and attracting gamers away from console games made by publishers such as Electronic Arts Inc.

Glu will use the Skillz platform, currently only available for games running on Google Inc's Android operating system, to introduce cash tournaments in its hunting simulation "Deer Hunter Reloaded", the company told Reuters. It will expand to other Android titles in the second half of 2013.

Gamers will pay a fee to compete for cash prizes and Glu, which derives about half its revenue from the United States, hopes this paves the way for a new revenue stream in mobile gaming, CEO Niccolo de Masi said in an interview.

Real-money gaming competitions have been popular for several years through online websites such as WorldWinner and King.com but are only now moving to the mobile realm. Those games focus on skill-based contests such as "Scrabble" and "Wheel of Fortune," as opposed to casino-style games of pure chance.

CHALLENGING MARKET

While online chance-based or gambling games such as slots, in which players can wager money, are only allowed in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware, real-money competitions in skill-based games are legal in the District of Columbia and 37 states in the United States.

"We're probably years away from seeing the same level of geographic legalization of chance gaming, if ever in some cases, to try and reach the same level of market coverage and penetration we've got on the skill side," de Masi said.

In mobile gaming - a tough market where it is difficult to get users to spend money, play for long sessions and keep returning to game apps - players such as Zynga Inc and Glu are scrambling to find sustainable business models and are experimenting with casino-style gambling as a promising revenue source.

The U.S. government banned online gambling in 2006, but the Department of Justice clarified its stance in late 2011, paving the way for states to unilaterally legalize some forms of online wagering. Industry analysts say widespread legalization by states of online gambling could take years.

Online gambling meanwhile is growing in popularity in Britain, where it is legal and profitable. Zynga and Glu have launched real-money gambling games such as poker and casino-style titles in Britain this year through partnerships with European mobile betting operators.

Glu has 40 million monthly active users and makes money through advertisements and the sale of virtual goods such as weapons that enhance game play. It has tied up with Activision Blizzard Inc to make mobile games for the blockbuster "Call of Duty" shooter franchise.

Founded in 2012, Skillz opened up its platform to Android game developers in April and has partnered with 15 other developers, including Canadian studio Fluik Entertainment.

Its partner Gnarly Games has so far seen greater user retention and ad revenue through tournaments, Skillz CEO and founder Andrew Paradise told Reuters in an interview.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

The move by the sports shoe and clothing company ends a nine-year relationship that helped the foundation raise more than $100 million and made the charity's bracelet an international symbol for cancer survivors.

But the relationship soured with revelations of performance-enhancing drug use by Armstrong and members of his U.S. Postal Service team.

Nike dropped its personal sponsorship of Armstrong last October after U.S. Anti-Doping Agency exposed the team doping program and portrayed Armstrong as its ringleader. And after years of denials, Armstrong admitted earlier this year he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France seven times.

Officials at Livestrong, which announced the split on Tuesday, said the foundation remains strong and committed to helping cancer patients worldwide through its survivorship programs.

Armstrong, who started the charity in 1997 as the Lance Armstrong Foundation, was pushed off the board of directors in October and the organization later changed its formal name to Livestrong.

In a statement, Livestrong officials said the foundation is "deeply grateful" to Nike.

"Together, we created new, revolutionary ways of thinking about how non-profits fuel their mission and we're proud of that," the foundation said.

A Nike spokesman did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.

Armstrong declined comment, noting he no longer has a relationship with Livestrong or Nike.

Livestrong officials say the charity remains on solid financial ground.

"This news will prompt some to jump to negative conclusions about the foundation's future. We see things quite differently. We expected and planned for changes like this and are therefore in a good position to adjust swiftly and move forward with our patient-focused work," the foundation said.

The foundation said it reduced its budget nearly 11 percent in 2013 to $38.4 million, but said Tuesday that revenue is already 2.5 percent ahead of projections. The foundation also noted that last month, it received a four-star rating from Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities based on financial health, accountability and transparency.

President Barack Obama underlined Tuesday that investigators do not know if the twin bombing the day before that killed three people and wounded more than 170 was carried out by an international organization, a domestic group or a "malevolent individual." There has been no claim of responsibility.

A person briefed on the investigation told The Associated Press that the explosives were fashioned out of pressure cookers and packed with shards of metal, nails and ball bearings to inflict maximum carnage.

The relative ease of constructing such bombs and the powerful punch they deliver has made them attractive to insurgents and Islamic extremists, particularly in South Asia. They have turned up in past bombing plots by Islamic extremists in the West, including a plan by a U.S. soldier to blow up a restaurant frequented by fellow soldiers outside Fort Hood, in Texas. One of the three devices used in the May 2010 Times Square attempted bombing was a pressure cooker, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security intelligence report issued in July 2010.

Al-Qaida's branch in Yemen gave a detailed description on how to make a pressure cooker bomb in the 2010 first issue of "Inspire," its magazine that only appears online, in a chapter titled "Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom."

"The pressurized cooker is the most effective method" for making a simple bomb, the article said, describing how to fill the cooker with shrapnel and gunpowder and to create a detonator using the filament of a light bulb and a clock timer.

"Inspire" magazine has a running series of such training articles called "Open Source Jihad," which the group calls a resource manual for individual extremists to carry out attacks against the enemies of jihad, including the U.S. and its allies.The magazine is targeted heavily at encouraging "lone wolf" jihadis.

An issue last year reprinted an older article by a veteran Syrian jihadi Abu Musab al-Souri addressing would-be jihadis proposing a long list of possible targets for attacks, among them "crowded sports arenas" and "annual social events."

Notably, Army Pfc. Naser Jason Abdo, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison last year for the Fort Hood restaurant bombing plot, was discovered to have a copy of the "How to build a bomb in the kitchen of your mom" article, according to the FBI. Investigators found bombmaking materials in his hotel that included a pressure cooker and gunpowder, according to testimony at his trial.

The SITE Monitoring Service, a U.S. independent group tracking militant messaging online, noted that Islamic extremists are not the only ones paying attention to the al-Qaida magazine: White supremacists have also circulated copies on their web forums. They found "Inspire" and "other al-Qaida manuals beneficial for their strategies," it said.

Over the course of 10 issues the past three years, "Inspire" has given detailed instructions with diagrams and photos on how to use automatic weapons, produce remote control detonators, set fire to a building or create forest fires. In the most recent issue, put out in March, it described how to set fire to a parked vehicle and how to cause road accidents with oil slicks on a road or tire-bursting spikes.

The chapters, including the one on pressure cooker bombs, were compiled into a booklet titled "The Lone Mujahed Pocketbook," released on Islamic militant web sites in March, according to SITE.

Al-Qaida's Yemeni branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, has repeatedly tried to carry out direct attacks on U.S. soil, once by dispatching the would-be 2009 Christmas bomber of a U.S. jet whose attack failed when the explosives hidden in his underwear failed to go off and then the following year by trying to mail explosives to the U.S. in packages that were intercepted.

The pressure cooker bomb's most frequent use seems to be in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal and India in attacks against police or the public. This year, local press reports in Pakistan have reported several such bombs found planted on streets, including in the city of Karachi, where multiple militant groups operate.

In 2010, suspected militants attacked the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision in northwestern Pakistan, killing six Pakistani employees with a remotely detonated pressure cooker bomb.

That same year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security put out a warning about such explosives, noting their frequent use in South Asia.

"The presence of a pressure cooker in an unusual location such as a building lobby or busy street corner should be treated as suspicious," it said.

__

AP correspondents Cassandra Vinograd and Paisley Dodds in London and Eileen Sullivan in Washington contributed to this report.

MIAMI, May 21 (Reuters) - For a brief but dazzling spell in the 1970s, New Yorkers fell in love with soccer as Pele and the Cosmos showcased the world's most popular game in a city long dominated by baseball and American football.

Now Major League Soccer hopes that a new team, called the New York City Football Club and formed by an alliance of English Premier League club Manchester City and baseball's grandest club the New York Yankees, can not only recapture that excitement but this time, sustain it.

"This is a transformational development that will elevate the league to new heights in this country," said an upbeat MLS commissioner Don Garber on Tuesday.

Making it work, though, will require not only smart marketing and good players but, in today's sporting landscape, also the right stadium in the right place and an ability to convince the city's sports fans that MLS truly is major league.

Across in New Jersey, the New York Red Bulls, while no flop, have found it hard to attract New Yorkers to take the trip across the Hudson river in big numbers to watch MLS and the new club hopes being inside the five boroughs of the city itself will produce better attendance and interest.

While the Cosmos, with the likes of German Franz Beckenbauer and Italian Giorgio Chinaglia, grabbed plenty of attention, they did so in the now defunct North American Soccer League, which quickly collapsed in debt as clubs spent beyond their means on wages for foreign stars.

MLS has been at pains to ensure that history does not repeat itself. Their 'single entity' structure with a tight salary cap, just $2.95 million per team, not only creates a parity so that smaller clubs can compete but also acts as a brake on salary inflation.

That has brought stability and allowed clubs to invest in new soccer-specific stadiums and academies but it has had the drawback of limiting the ability of clubs to compete in the global labour market for talent - something that might hamper the new club.

UNPRECEDENTED MILLIONS

While MLS clubs are allowed to sign three 'designated players' largely from outside the salary cap, allowing the likes of David Beckham and Thierry Henry to move to the league, the average annual salary in the league is close to a modest $150,000 according to the MLS Players Union.

Sheikh Mansour, the billionaire from Abu Dhabi who owns Manchester City, has spent unprecedented millions on players since taking over the club in 2008 but his staff will find a very different 'transfer market' operates in MLS.

"Regarding the salary cap, we know very well the rules of the MLS and we think we can build a winning team within these rules," said Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano.

"We're going to make extensive use of our expertise, our knowledge, our people. We have very high-calibre people in Manchester City that have been very successful building winning teams".

While the link with City will undoubtedly allow access to a network of scouts and coaches to help the new club, the close association with one particular Premier League club could create some marketing problems.

Premier League clubs, including City's rivals Manchester United, have developed significant fan bases in the United States, including New York, and while they would appear to be a natural core support for the new club, it will be a key task to persuade them they are not supporting an inferior replica of the English team.

Former U.S. international Alexi Lalas, who was general manager of the Red Bulls' predecessors the New York-New Jersey MetroStars, believes the new team will be a success but is concerned about the link with the English club being too pronounced.

"I do question limiting your market and your customers and having to live up to the 'mothership' within a league with a salary cap," Lalas told Reuters.

"When the compare and contrast with Manchester City occurs, as it inevitably will, they are going to have to say that they are just as good. That is a difficult proposition but that is potentially what they are creating," he added.

TOUGH CHALLENGE

Finding a location to build a modern stadium will also be a tough challenge - MLS has been working on a possible site in Flushing Meadows but the new franchise owners now say they want to evaluate all their options.

While Americans generally may be more convinced of soccer's charms now than ever before, it will still be a battle for the new club to find space in a crowded sports and entertainment market.

The New York metropolitan area has two NFL teams, two Major League Baseball teams, two NBA teams and two NHL teams and while the involvement of the most famous of all those franchises - the Yankees - can only help, the new club faces a crowded market.

"It is not just completion with sports teams, it is competition for the entertainment dollar, there is so much stuff to do in New York," said Lalas, who also says the team will have to live up to the growing sophistication of a soccer public that is familiar with watching European and South American soccer.

"It is a sport that is constantly comparing and contrasting with what happens overseas, it is smart, educated type of soccer audience in New York, they are discerning and they are going to smell if it is authentic right away. Creating that relevancy is the biggest challenge". (Editing by John Mehaffey)