BARCELONA (Reuters) - Ferrari's Fernando Alonso rewrote the Formula One form book and turned up the heat in the championship battle by winning his home Spanish Grand Prix for the second time on Sunday.

The double world champion's second victory of the season, and 32nd of his career, made him the first driver in 23 years of racing at Barcelona's Circuit de Catalunya to win from outside the top three grid positions.

Alonso, who won in Barcelona with Renault in 2006 and also in Valencia last year at the European Grand Prix, took the chequered flag 9.3 seconds ahead of 2007 world champion Kimi Raikkonen in a Lotus.

The Spaniard, who started in fifth place with the Mercedes duo of Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton locking out the front row, seized third place through the third corner and had the crowd roaring him on as he led after 13 of the 66 laps.

"It was fantastically emotional and the fans really helped because you feel the support from everyone," said Alonso after doing his slowing down lap with a Spanish flag handed to him by a marshal.

"We have only had five races and there have been some ups and downs but we know we have the car to fight with the top cars and if we do well we can compete for the championship."

Raikkonen, in the points for a 22nd successive race and now just two short of Michael Schumacher's all-time record, denied Ferrari a one-two finish with Brazilian Felipe Massa taking a distant third.

Red Bull's triple world champion Sebastian Vettel was fourth, 38.2 seconds behind Alonso, and saw his overall lead over Raikkonen cut to four points. After five of the 19 races, the German has 89 points to Raikkonen's 85 and Alonso's 72.

HAMILTON STRUGGLES

Hamilton slipped to fourth overall with 50 points after spending the afternoon falling through the field as Mercedes - as expected - again failed to live up to their electrifying qualifying pace.

The 2008 world champion ended up out of the points in 12th and was even heard exclaiming that he had been overtaken by a Williams - driven by last year's winner Pastor Maldonado - as a measure of how much he was struggling.

"It was way too tough," he told the BBC. "We have got a lot of work to do. We both went backwards, but I went back a long, long way and I don't know why. We will keep going back to the drawing board and see what we can do."

Former champions Williams have failed to score a point in five races with a car lacking aerodynamic performance and Venezuelan Maldonado, who finished 14th after a drive-through penalty, had started way back in 17th place.

In a race dictated by the quick-wearing tyres, Alonso pitted four times - the same as Vettel and Massa - while Raikkonen made only three trips to the pitlane.

Rosberg, who had also been on pole at the previous race in Bahrain where he finished ninth, led for the first 10 laps before facing up to the inevitable.

The German, sixth at the finish behind Red Bull's Mark Webber, was not to lead again as Mexican rookie Esteban Gutierrez took over at the front for two laps in a Sauber amid the pitstops before Alonso asserted himself.

Britain's Paul Di Resta was seventh for Force India with McLaren's Jenson Button eighth after starting 14th. Mexican team mate Sergio Perez was ninth and Australian Daniel Ricciardo 10th for Toro Rosso. Alison Wildey)

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But for the most part, there was little public reaction to Vijay Singh's lawsuit filed against the PGA Tour during the opening round of The Players Championship on Thursday.

Hecklers were few and far between at TPC Sawgrass possibly because it was a well-behaved golf crowd, possibly because it was Singh's home course and possibly because few care enough to make a public outcry.

"He doesn't deserve that," playing partner Robert Garrigus said. "I don't know how many majors he's won. I don't know how many tournaments he's won. He's won a lot of money out here. He deserves our respect as players even if he's suing the PGA Tour or not. It's a delicate situation right now. Unfortunately, it had to happen. But it is what it is. ...

"I only heard a couple of idiots out there today. They were getting a little saucy. There were a couple of guys being stupid, but other than that, it was fine."

Singh sued the PGA Tour on Wednesday for exposing him to "public humiliation and ridicule" during a 12-week investigation into his use of deer antler spray. The tour dropped its case last week.

The lawsuit and its timing raised eyebrows. The Players Championship is the tour's flagship event and is played on the course Singh has honed his game on for the past decade.

But there was little reaction from the Stadium Course gallery. The most noticeable response came at the first tee, where Jacksonville resident Jim Kavanagh wore those felt antlers.

"He won't talk to the press, so I thought maybe I could get a reaction out of him," Kavanagh told reporters. "He shouldn't be suing the PGA Tour. He should be suing WADA."

Garrigus noticed the antlers and sarcastically called them "pretty special." Nonetheless, he couldn't avoid joking about the lawsuit.

"I kind of made fun of it today on the first tee just to loosen things up a little bit, which I do very well," Garrigus said. "I was like, 'Well, you're in the spotlight right now, aren't you big guy?' He's like, 'Yeah, for the wrong reasons.' It was fun."

They laughed, and Garrigus let it go for the rest of the round.

"I didn't get into it," he said. "I don't know the details; I don't know what he's suing for and all that stuff. He's obviously earned the respect until everything goes through. That's what I'm saying about that."

On the par-3 third, a woman shouted, "We don't care what the PGA Tour says. We support Vijay" as the golfer passed.

Singh even played the famed and often raucous island-green at No. 17 without much fanfare. There was a "you (stink)" comment on the 18th, followed a few minutes later by someone shouting, "We got your back, Vijay."

"He was fine out there," said J.J. Henry, who also played in the group with Singh. "I don't know much about it. I'm out here trying to tackle a tough golf course. I've played a lot of golf with him and he's always been good to me. That stuff is none of my business. I'm trying to figure out how to stay out of some of these hazards."

Singh bogeyed two of the first three holes and fell 12 shots off the lead with a double at No. 8. He rallied on the back nine, making birdies at 16 and 17, but pulled his next tee shot into the water and finished with a bogey and a 2-over 74. He is tied for 99th, 11 shots behind Roberto Castro.

Singh said in a Sports Illustrated article in January that he used deer antler spray and he was "looking forward to some change in my body." The spray was said to include an insulin-like growth factor that was on the tour's list of banned substances. The tour sent a sample from Singh to be tested, and it returned small amounts of IGF-1.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem announced April 30 that the tour was dropping its case because of new information from the World Anti-Doping Agency, which said deer antler spray was no longer considered prohibited because it contained just minimal amounts of the growth factor.

The lawsuit claims the PGA Tour relied on WADA's list of banned substances and methods without doing any of its own research, including whether such substances even provide any performance-enhancing benefits. Singh's lawyers said the tour "rushed to judgment and accused one of the world's hardest working and most dedicated golfers of violating the rules of the game."

The 50-year-old Fijian, inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2006, hasn't spoken to reporters about any subject since releasing a statement in February confirming that he took the deer antler spray.

He declined comment after his opening round.

Singh had about a dozen or so spectators following him Thursday, maybe the most telling sign of his career.

Singh has the Masters and the PGA Championship among his 34 tour victories. He holds the PGA Tour record with 22 wins since turning 40. His best year was in 2004, when he won nine times. Singh has not won since the Deutsche Bank Championship in September 2008, two months after the tour's anti-doping program was launched.

After watching a replay, umpires ruled the ball hit by Oakland's Adam Rosales with two outs was a double and not a game-tying homer. TV replays showed the ball cleared the 19-foot-high wall and struck a railing. Melvin does not know if the call will be overturned, but expects baseball officials to comment.

The Indians won 4-3 and Melvin was ejected by second-base umpire Angel Hernandez.

The manager said before Thursday's game he has not changed his mind, still certain Rosales' hit was a homer. He says the call "came down to somebody's decision and that was probably against the grain for what the majority thought."

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Here's how it works: The researchers took an existing kidney out of a rat and stripped it of all its old cells, leaving behind a "scaffold," that is just strands of cellulose and protein making up the frame of a kidney. (This framework also includes the kidney's blood vessels and connecting structures.) Doctors then pumped a compound, including stem cells from young rats, back into the structure and over the course of a couple of weeks, the cells attached themselves to the scaffold,into the various components of the organ, and re-grew to form the rest of the kidney. Once transplanted back into a rat, it functioned like a regular kidney, creating urine and filtering waste—though not as efficiently as a healthy one can. The process still needs some refinement to improve the quality of the new organ.

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Tom Cruise has signed on to star in and produce the fifth installment of the "Mission: Impossible" franchise, Paramount Pictures and Skydance Pictures announced on Tuesday.

The last sequel, "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," grossed nearly $700 million around the world in 2011, and was Cruise's biggest box office hit to date.

While Cruise will once again portray agent Ethan Hunt, a role he began in 1996's "Mission: Impossible," the studio did not announce any other casting, or even a writer and director, for the project, but expects to announce more names soon.

J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot, the production company that produced "Ghost Protocol" flicks, will join Cruise, Paramount and Skydance in the development process.

The "Mission: Impossible" franchise has earned over $2 billion at the global box office to date.

Cruise's latest starring vehicle, "Oblivion," has scored over $222 million worldwide, while 2012's "Jack Reacher" grossed $216.5 million.

"We are thrilled to be partnering with Tom on 'Mission: Impossible' once again," Paramount Pictures president and CEO Brad Grey said in a statement. "The last installment of the Mission series was the biggest in the life of this franchise. Tom has been at the heart of its success and we look forward to his great talent, and the continued global appeal for another Mission, to drive fans around the world to the next chapter of this series."

A posting on the Lilly Pulitzer Facebook page said she "passed away peacefully in Palm Beach, [Fla.] surrounded by family and loved ones."

"Lilly has been a true inspiration to us and we will miss her," the post said. "In the days and weeks ahead we will celebrate all that Lilly meant to us. Lilly was a true original who has brought together generations through her bright and happy mark on the world."

Born Lillian McKim, she attended the tony Miss Porter's school in Farmington, Conn., where the future first lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, was among her classmates.

Lilly married Peter Pulitzer, grandson of newspaper mogul Joseph Pulitzer.

The couple moved to Palm Beach, Fla., where they had three children: Peter, Minnie and Liza.

Despite having money and being well-known on the society circuit, Pulitzer toldshe was so miserable that she landed in a Westchester, N.Y., mental hospital for six months.

"I went crazy," Pulitzer told the magazine in 1982. "I was a namby-pamby; people always made decisions for me. The doctor said I should find something to do."

Pulitzer began juicing citrus grown at her family's groves, but was always covered in juice at the end of the work day.

She designed herself a shift dress to match the juice stains. It received so many compliments that she launched her first fashion line in 1959 -- just a few dresses -- at her juice stand.

The dresses were a hit, and Pulitzer entered the fashion business full-time.

"It was a total change of life for me," she toldin 2008. "I entered it with no business sense. ... It was just something that I all of a sudden took over."

The brand reached new heights when Pulizter's former classmate, Jackie Kennedy, was photographed wearing one of her dresses while on vacation, according to the Lily Pulitzer website.

"Jackie wore one of my dresses -- it was made from kitchen curtain material -- and people went crazy. They took off like zingo. Everybody loved them, and I went into the dress business," Pulitzer said.

She divorced Peter Pulitzer in 1969 and that year married Cuban lawyer Enrique Rousseau, who died in 1993.

Through the years, Pulitzer's brand expanded to include country club attire, swimsuits, children's clothing, home goods and a limited selection of menswear.

Despite grossing millions of dollars each year, Pulitzer shut down her closing line in 1984 when sales began to slump.

The Lilly Pulitzer revival came a decade later when she sold the license in 1993, stepping away from the daily business grind but remaining as a consultant.

The free-spirited socialite known for going barefoot whenever possible, continued to host parties at her Florida home and published two guides to entertaining, reveling in her belief that "it's always summer somewhere."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Congress sifts through a growing number of requests for targeted relief from automatic spending cuts in coming weeks, advocates seeking funding shifts likely will need to tell a compelling story with potential life-or-death consequences.

Requests without such a strong selling point may find it impossible to gain enough bipartisan support as lawmakers vow not to repeat a swift and controversial action last week to save airline travelers from flight delays caused by automatic "sequestration" spending cuts.

Congress was worried about a toxic public backlash when it moved quickly to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to use some airport improvement funds to pay salaries of air traffic controllers, ending furloughs that had delayed thousands of flights across the country.

When members of Congress return from a recess on Monday, there will be no shortage of other requests to shift funds from other budget accounts awaiting them.

The National Park Service faces closures and cutbacks that will cost jobs in communities that depend on the parks as the summer travel season begins. Some 70,000 children may be shut out of the Head Start preschool program for low-income families while funding for Meals on Wheels, cancer research and some treatments for Medicare patients will be cut.

The Pentagon is expected to ask for more authority to move up to $7.5 billion within its budget to cover costs for training and military operations in Afghanistan. With troops still in harm's way, that request likely will face few objections.

More needs will pile up As the across-the-board spending cuts - $85 billion through September 30 - take hold. But most will fall on deaf ears as lawmakers insist that a comprehensive budget deal is needed to resolve sequester cuts, not individual fixes.

"With the possible exception of life-threatening issues, there will be plenty of pleas from people who represent worthy causes that get ignored," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research, an investment consulting firm.

"It's extremely unlikely that House Republicans will be willing to grant exceptions for national parks, Meals on Wheels or teachers," he said.

The sequester cuts that took effect March 1 were conceived in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically. Policymakers failed to reach such an agreement and now must deal with the fallout from the cuts, which total will total $1.2 trillion over 10 years unless replaced.

Last month's flight delays created a mix of pressure from the airline industry and constituents facing a universally loathed problem that both parties could rally around.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, is not inclined to pursue additional one-off measures to deal with sequester, a Democratic leadership aide said. Reid would prefer to press forward with his proposal to simply delay the cuts through September 30 in order to buy more time for a broader budget deal.

"I just don't see another one-off bill that's going to rise to the same level as flight delays," a senior House Republican aide said.

Many House Republicans also are concerned about giving the Obama administration more authority to move money between budget accounts at federal agencies, which circumvents Congress' constitutional powers to direct spending.

In the case of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Republican aide said there is concern that such budget shifts could inadvertently give the agency power to help fund implementation of Obama's healthcare reform law, which many Republicans deeply despise and want to repeal.

SAY NO TO CANCER PATIENTS?

But funding cutbacks for some Medicare cancer treatments and cancer research studies also could be difficult for many lawmakers to resist.

The most concerted effort in this area is a Republican House bill that would exempt Medicare reimbursements on expensive cancer drugs administered at doctors' offices and clinics - one of the few portions of the healthcare program for the elderly that is subject to the sequester. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would have to shift cuts in these reimbursement rates elsewhere under the measure.

The bill's author, Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, a Tea Party favorite, argues that because of the sequester, oncology clinics have been sending patients to hospitals to get their drugs.

But hospital treatment costs, which are not subject to sequester, are far higher - an average increase of $6,500 per patient per year, according to one study. Ellmers argues that this circumvents the whole point of sequester spending cuts.

"We don't want to see treatments delayed, and some patients on fixed incomes might skip treatment altogether if they are forced to go across town to a hospital," said Ellmers, who spent two decades as a surgical nurse before winning a seat in Congress in 2010.

The measure has substantial bipartisan support, with 51 cosponsors including 11 Democrats. Separately, 124 House members from both parties signed a letter to the CMS director asking that "any available flexibility be used to direct the cuts away from patients."

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner declined to comment on the bill's prospects for passage, referring questions about it to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

THREAT TO CANCER TRIALS

Cancer research doctors also say further sequester funding cutbacks could ultimately cost lives.

Dr. Scott Lippman, director of the University of California-San Diego Moores Cancer Center, said the sequester will mean fewer clinical trials for promising therapies, and some patients ultimately will be turned away from these trials. Research on new treatments also could be slowed.

"This going to harm patients," Lippman said. "This is going to prevent patients from getting treatments that could save their lives."

At a time when advancements in cancer research are moving very quickly with new gene-based discoveries, he said now is "not the time to be slamming on the brakes."

While no trials have been canceled yet due to sequester alone, research centers are working hard to try to cut everything else that they can, said Dr. Edward Partridge, director of the University of Alabama-Birmingham's Comprehensive Cancer Center. But the choices will be difficult.

"We will do everything we can to maintain our current clinical trial volume," he said. "Even if it's at the expense of new discovery. I hope (sequester) doesn't last too long so that we have to withdraw the possibility of clinical trials for patients. That would be a disaster."

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Fred Barbash and Bill Trott)

Earnings per share topped Wall Street expectations but the gains largely came after a big stock buyback that reduced the number of outstanding shares by 5 percent.

"Their reliance on share buybacks mutes the earnings per share beat," said Brian Youngberg, energy company analyst at Edward Jones in St Louis. "I'd rather see them give the cash to shareholders in the form of a dividend increase."

First-quarter profit for the world's largest publicly traded oil company totaled $9.5 billion, or $2.12 per share, compared with $9.45 billion, or $2 per share, a year earlier.

Analysts, on average, expected the Irving, Texas, company to report a profit of $2.05 per share.

Total oil and natural gas production declined 3.5 percent to 4.395 million barrels oil equivalent per day from the same quarter a year ago.

Profit in Exxon's exploration and production unit fell about 10 percent to $7 billion, but low natural gas prices in North American led to an 62 percent increase in profit in its chemicals business.

Shares of Exxon fell 0.6 percent to $88.91 in premarket trade.

(Reporting by Anna Driver; Editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Jeffrey Benkoe)

In the Costa Rican capital Friday, Obama defended his administration's efforts to stem U.S. demand for drugs that many regional leaders see as a driving factor in their security issues. He said the U.S. and Latin America share "common effects and common responsibilities" for the troubles and argued that his country has suffered from the drug epidemic as well.

"There's a cost obviously in the United States as well," Obama said during a joint news conference with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla. "It's not as if we don't have tragic drug problems in the United States."

The president singled out the violence that has raged in his hometown of Chicago, where the murder rate has soared, saying there are young people killed there "every day as part of the drug trade."

Obama's visit is his first to Latin America since winning a second term, in part due to the overwhelming support he received from Hispanic American voters. His trip is being followed with great interest by Hispanics in the U.S. as well as in Mexico, Central America and further to the south.

In both Mexico and Costa Rica, Obama cast economic growth as the best way to combat violence and keep drugs and organized crime from taking hold of another generation.

"We have to make sure that everybody feels opportunity," the president declared in Costa Rica. "Even in countries that are doing well, the scourge of drugs and drug trafficking will still be there. And there still needs to be a strong law enforcement component. But we can do better than we are currently doing. "

The president had sounded a similar message earlier Friday in Mexico, which he touted as a nation ready to take "its rightful place in the world." During a speech to students, he urged Mexico's young people to help the region move beyond "old stereotypes" and highlighted developments in technology and manufacturing.

While many people in Central America are also weary of the focus on the drug-fueled violence, it remains an undeniable part of daily life in many parts of the region. Costa Rica has fared better than many of its neighbors, but it worries about spillover from nearby countries. Honduras, for example, now has the highest homicide rate in the world, with about 7,200 people murdered last year in the tiny nation of 8 million people, most in drug-related crime.

Obama acknowledged the role of U.S. demand for drugs and said his administration has spent $30 billion to reduce demand in recent years. But he acknowledged that the U.S. is a "big market" and that "progress is sometimes slower than we'd like it to be."

The president arrived in the capital of San Jose on a rainy afternoon but received a warm welcome from thousands of Costa Ricans who lined the road near the airport. Some waved American flags. Others held homemade signs, including one that said "Fired Up!" a reference to his campaign slogan in a much more demonstrative welcome than he had received in Mexico.

After Obama met one-on-one Chinchilla, the first woman to head the Central American nation, the two leaders were serenaded by local schoolchildren waving U.S. and Costa Rican flags.

Later Friday, Obama met with leaders of the regional Central American Integration system, chaired by Chinchilla. The network also includes Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. He'll speak to business leaders in Costa Rica on Saturday before returning to Washington in the evening.

Obama has also been pressed throughout his trip about the immigration debate raging on Capitol Hill. The president is largely supportive of the bipartisan bill, which would strengthen borders and provide a pathway to citizenship for many of the 11 million people already in the U.S. illegally.

However, the draft legislation leaves out measures Obama has promoted on his own, including the recognition of gay and lesbian couples. Many Republicans are unlikely to support a bill that includes recognition of same-sex couples, raising the question of whether the president would fight for the provision if it meant losing out on a comprehensive bill.

Obama tried to sidestep the issue Friday, saying that while he believes the provision is "the right thing to do," it was premature for him to talk about what he'll do before he sees a bill on his desk.

However, Obama said earlier Friday in an interview with Spanish-language television network Univision that he would not sign a bill that does not include the pathway to citizenship.

Before traveling to Costa Rica, Obama wrapped up his two-day trip to Mexico, his fourth visit to the country since becoming president. He eagerly promoted Mexico's improving economy and its democracy, saying "a new Mexico is emerging."

"Mexico is also taking its rightful place in the world, on the world stage. Mexico is standing up for democracy not just here in Mexico but throughout the hemisphere," Obama told a crowd of young people during a speech at Mexico City's grand National Museum of Anthropology. "Mexico's sharing expertise with neighbors across the Americas. When they face earthquakes or threats to their citizens or go to the polls to cast their votes, Mexico is there helping its neighbors."

Despite Obama's rosy portrayal, Mexico's high poverty rates have barely budged in recent years. Its economy grew by only about a 1 percent rate in the first three months of 2013 and is not creating anywhere near the 1 million jobs annually it needs to employ young Mexicans entering the workforce.

The president has a domestic political incentive for trying to change America's perception of Mexico. As Washington debates the immigration overhaul, Obama is seeking to convince the public and lawmakers that Mexico no longer poses the illegal immigration threat it once did.

___

Associated Press writers Jim Kuhnhenn and Alberto Arce in San Jose, Costa Rica, and Mark Stevenson in Mexico City contributed to this report.

___

Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC