The 36-year-old welterweight - considered the best defensive boxer of his generation - topped the magazine's Fortunate 50 list, issued on Wednesday. Mayweather also took the top spot last year, earning an estimated $85 million, again from just two fights, the magazine reported.

Miami Heat basketball star LeBron James, 28, a four-time National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player, came in this year in the number two slot, earning a total of $56.5 million.

The list is calculated by combining estimated salary, winnings and endorsements. Mayweather's total earnings are even more impressive considering he received no endorsement money either this year or last.

James' $56.5 million income combines a $17.5 million salary with an additional $39 million in endorsements.

Golfer Tiger Woods, the highest paid U.S. athlete from 2004, when the list was first published, through 2011, dropped to the No. 5 slot on this year's list, earning $40.8 million.

Chicago Cubs outfielder Alfonso Soriano came in as the 50th highest-paid U.S. athlete with an estimated $18.2 million.

Candidates for the list must be U.S. citizens and compete in a U.S.-based league.

Internationally, soccer great David Beckham is estimated to earn more than $48 million, landing him the top spot on the magazine's annual list of highest-paid athletes worldwide, The International 20.

(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Tim Dobbyn)

Specifically, Paulus, director of the crackling, high-energy revival of "Pippin," has a knack for reviving musicals, getting them to the Great White Way and then, whoosh to the awards podium.

Her last two revivals, "Hair" and "The Gershwins' Porgy and Bess," both won Tonys for best musical revival. And "Pippin" could well do the same this year, not to mention Paulus herself as best director. The show has a total of 10 nominations, including for cast members Patina Miller, Andrea Martin and Terrence Mann.

What's her secret? Colleagues note how Paulus, who is artistic director of the American Repertory Theater at Harvard (where both "Porgy" and "Pippin" began), finds a way to honor both the old and the new, staying faithful to the original while finding a new twist that makes it feel utterly fresh.

They also say she has a strong collaborative sense that allows ideas to flourish, not to mention a Herculean work ethic and a constantly open mind.

"There's no ego with Diane," says Audra McDonald, the Tony-winning star of "Porgy and Bess." ''And there's no let-me-put-my-mark-on-something. With Diane, it's always, 'Let's see' or 'Let's try this.'"

McDonald adds that Paulus "will take a good idea from anybody. If you're the janitor walking by and say, 'Put them on trapezes,' she will go, 'You think?'"

It may not have been the janitor who suggested trapezes in the case of "Pippin," but it's certainly trapezes and hoops and teeterboards and incredible stunts executed by sculpted bodies that give the show its new panache. Teaming up with the Montreal-based acrobatic troupe Les 7 Doigts de la Main (7 Fingers) was just one of several key decisions Paulus made on the way to achieving her vision of the Stephen Schwartz '70s hit, which she loved in her youth.

"When I saw them, I just had a gut reaction that this kind of movement had never been on Broadway before," Paulus says of the troupe, led by Gypsy Snider. "I thought, 'I want THAT.'" But how? Eventually the idea emerged that the entire show would be based on a circus troupe, and Snider's acrobats would be fully integrated into every part of it.

Paulus had a similar gut reaction when auditioning actors for the Leading Player, an emcee-type role that won the charismatic Ben Vereen a best-actor Tony in 1973. This year, the Leading Player won't be winning best actor because he's a she, Patina Miller, in a sexy, knockout performance. Score two home runs for Paulus.

"We saw so many people men, women, great host types," says Paulus. "They obviously had to sing and act. But what about dancing? That was crucial." Once she had whittled the list down to eight or so finalists, she says, they were tasked with learning the famous "Manson Trio" number, a piece of iconic Bob Fosse choreography that came to define the original show.

"I didn't know Patina could do that SHE didn't know," says Paulus, who'd worked with Miller in "Hair" before it came to Broadway. "But when I saw her do it, I thought, 'This is what I want!' And then we found out she could sing and hula-hoop. AND do the trapeze."

Snider remembers endless casting sessions. "She'd bring in more and more and more people, and I would ask: 'Is this normal?'" Snider says. "But that's Diane. She just keeps going. You get another coffee, and you keep at it. We worked incredible hours. "

It's generally agreed that an especially inspired casting decision was Andrea Martin, the veteran comic actress, in the role of Berthe, Pippin's grandmother. Martin, like Miller, learned she was capable of more than she thought. Not to give too much away, but the 66-year-old actress stops the show nightly, with stunts that would frighten a 21-year-old.

"At the first preview," Paulus recalls, "there was a full standing ovation after her song. I ran into her backstage, and she said, 'What do we do now?'"

Another key decision, Paulus says, was to retain the original Fosse choreography something not all "Pippin" productions have done. For that, she turned to Chet Walker, a choreographer who also performed in the original show.

"We just clicked," says Walker, nominated for the best-choreography Tony. "She was open to all possibilities. Diane is an amazing storyteller."

Paulus, 46, grew up in New York City, where she lived just blocks from Lincoln Center. She studied piano and danced ballet. "I almost became a musician," she says. "But I think I realized that I think best as part of a group, in a collaboration."

Paulus went to Harvard and then to Columbia for graduate school, and trained as an actress. But directing appealed to her entrepreneurial side. "I was interested in all these bigger ideas of theater," she says.

One of her earliest successes was a collaboration with her husband, Randy Weiner, called "The Donkey Show," a disco version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" that ran off-Broadway for six years, and various places around the world.

In 2008, Paulus took up her role at A.R.T., where she's made a name for herself partly because of the uncanny frequency with which her productions end up on Broadway.

But, she insists: "That's never the intention! It's about breaking boundaries. It's about creating a show that fits the mission." To that end, her next project is a new musical, "Witness Uganda," to open in February 2014 the story of a black American volunteer who travels to Uganda to help build a village school. "It's sort of the anti-'Book of Mormon,'" she quips.

Will that show, too, ends up finding its way to New York? With her track record, no one would be shocked.

"She dreams big," says McDonald. "Her mind is just about as wide as any mind can possibly be. That's where the genius comes in."

___

AP Drama Writer Mark Kennedy contributed to this report.

In one of the most electric moments since the IRS controversy erupted nearly two weeks ago, Lois Lerner unwaveringly but briefly defended herself before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. But she would say no more, citing legal advice in the face of a federal investigation.

Members of Congress have angrily complained that Lerner and other high-ranking IRS officials did not inform them that conservative groups were singled out, even though lawmakers repeatedly asked the IRS about it after hearing complaints from local tea party groups.

The Justice Department has launched a criminal probe of the murky events over the 2010 and 2012 election campaigns, saying it is looking into potential civil rights violations. Top IRS officials say Lerner didn't tell them for nearly a year after she learned that agents working under her had improperly singled out conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Under unrelenting criticism most forcefully from Republicans but also from Democrats and people outside politics administration officials from President Barack Obama on down have denounced the targeting as inappropriate and inexcusable.

Lerner, who heads the IRS division that handles applications for tax-exempt status and first disclosed the targeting at a legal conference, has said the same. But she also spoke up for herself Wednesday, sitting stern-faced at the committee witness table.

"I have not done anything wrong," she said. "I have not broken any laws, I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee."

By one lawmaker's count, Lerner was asked 14 times by members of Congress or their staffs without revealing that the groups had been targeted. On Wednesday, lawmakers didn't get a chance to ask Lerner again.

Nine minutes after she began speaking, Lerner was excused, though committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said he might recall her. He and other Republicans say they believe she forfeited her Fifth Amendment privilege not to testify by giving an opening statement in which she proclaimed her innocence, but several law professors were skeptical they could make that stick.

Issa later said he would consult with others including her lawyer and House attorneys before determining whether to summon her again, hopefully deciding by the time Congress returns from an upcoming recess early next month.

"She's a fact witness with a tremendous amount that she could tell us," Issa said.

By leaving early, Lerner missed out on a six-hour grilling that three other witnesses endured.

The hearing was Congress' third on the IRS controversy in the past week. Taken together, testimony by current and former officials indicates that Lerner's actions were consistent with theirs: Once officials learned that conservative groups were being targeted, they say they made sure the practice was stopped, but they were slow to tell superiors, if they did so at all.

They also didn't tell Congress, until Lerner herself made it public at a May 10 legal conference.

"Think about it. For more than a year, the IRS knew that it had inappropriately targeted groups of Americans based on their political beliefs without mentioning it," Issa said. "There seemed to be a culture of insulation that puts higher priority on deniability than addressing blatant wrongdoing."

The hearings have been notable for what they have not shown as well as what they have. No evidence has emerged that anyone outside the IRS, including the White House, directed agents to go after conservative groups. And there has been no evidence that anyone outside the IRS was made aware that the groups were being targeted until a few weeks before the inspector general released his report on the situation last week.

Still, Obama's top spokesman said Wednesday the White House is facing "legitimate criticisms" for its shifting accounts about who knew what, and when they knew it.

Press secretary Jay Carney first said only Obama's top lawyer knew the IRS was being investigated in the weeks before the inspector general's report was released. Later, he said the chief of staff and other top officials also knew.

"There have been some legitimate criticisms about how we're handling this," Carney said. "And I say 'legitimate' because I mean it."

The report said IRS agents in a Cincinnati office started targeting tea party and other conservative groups for additional scrutiny in March or April of 2010. By August 2010, "tea party" became part of a "be on the lookout," or "BOLO" list of terms to flag for additional screening.

Lerner learned in June 2011 that agents in her division were singling out groups with "Tea Party" and "Patriots" in their applications for tax-exempt status, the report said. She ordered agents to scrap the criteria immediately, but later it evolved to include groups that promoted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

"After that date, Ms. Lerner had 14 opportunities in direct and distinct interactions with the Ways & Means Committee and with this committee 14 different occasions where she could have set the record straight, and she chose not to do it," said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.

Lerner, 62, is an attorney who joined the IRS in 2001. She expressed pride in her 34-year career in federal government, which has included work at the Justice Department and Federal Election Commission, and she said she currently oversees 900 workers and a budget approaching $100 million.

She has faced no discipline for her actions, IRS officials said. A new acting commissioner is conducting a 30-day review of the division.

J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration, has blamed ineffective management for allowing agents to improperly target conservative groups for more than 18 months.

On Wednesday, he hinted that there may be more revelations to come. He told the oversight committee that his office has since uncovered other questionable criteria used by agents to screen applications for tax-exempt status. But he refused to elaborate.

"As we continue our review of this matter, we have recently identified some other BOLOs that raised concerns about political factors," George said. "I can't get into more detail at this time as to the information that is there because it's still incomplete.

Lerner's supervisors said they, too, were kept in the dark for nearly a year. One of those supervisors was Deputy IRS Commissioner Steven Miller, who later became acting head of the agency. He was forced last week to resign.

Miller said he first learned in May 2012 that conservative groups had been singled out. He promptly told his boss, IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman.

But for the second straight day, Shulman testified that he didn't tell anyone in the Treasury Department or the White House because he was awaiting the results of an audit by the agency's inspector general. The IRS is part of the Treasury Department.

Shulman stood by that Wednesday, and was pressed once again by lawmakers about why he didn't say anything.

"At the time I learned about this list, I felt I was taking the appropriate actions and that my course was the proper one, and I still feel that way today," Shulman said.

Shulman, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, left in November when his five-year term expired. Miller became acting commissioner when Shulman left.

In the spring of 2012, George told a top Treasury official that the inspector general's office was investigating complaints by conservative groups. George, however, did not reveal any details about what he had uncovered, said Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin, who also testified Wednesday.

"He told me only of the fact that he had undertaken such an audit, and he did not provide any findings," Wolin testified. "I told him that he should follow the facts wherever they lead. I told him that our job is to stay out of the way and let him do his work."

Wolin said he didn't tell any of his superiors at Treasury or the White House about the investigation.

___

AP White House Correspondent Julie Pace contributed to this report.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

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BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Electronic publishing is allowing authors to be more creative and the best ones are successfully blending video and online content with traditional text, says cult writer Irvine Welsh.

The author of "Trainspotting" and "The Acid House", who has also written short stories and plays, said e-publishing meant writers had to work harder to grab readers' attention in an age when wireless devices are rapidly replacing paperback books.

Welsh, 54, said he struggled to combine marketing of his books with writing, but that a combination of the two was needed if writers were going to break into the e-book world while also writing for TV, movies and traditional readers.

"You can't just be into one thing, you have to be into TV adaptations, movie adaptations," Welsh, whose "Trainspotting" was turned into a hit movie by director Danny Boyle, told Reuters at a conference in Brussels on digital media trends.

"It will come out in book format, it will be shot and come out in film format, and at the same time it will come out in series format. And that will happen instantaneously."

The Scotsman, who burst onto the literary scene when "Trainspotting" was published in his mid-30s, heaped praise on fellow Scot Ewan Morrison, who has wooed the book world by including web links to short films as part of his novel "Tales from the Mall", which examines the seedy allure of capitalism.

Morrison had established an innovative niche between a book and a game, said Welsh, predicting that such a multimedia style would become common practice for tomorrow's e-book producers.

E-book sales have grown rapidly in recent years with the popularity of tablets and e-readers. Industry group BookStats reported that sales were up 44 percent in the United States during 2012, rising to a little over $3 billion.

Sales of regular books remain far larger and have also climbed, although far more slowly, gaining around 7 percent to $15 billion, thanks in large part to blockbusters such as "Fifty Shades of Grey", a book first published online.

CREATIVITY FIRST

In his latest novel, which is not yet named, Welsh explores the relationship between two women living in Miami, a personal trainer and an artist, who are obsessed with each other. The book is due out in April next year and a screenplay, currently under discussion, may follow in November.

"It's a very self-centered narcissistic process. That is why it runs the risk of being crap," said Welsh, acknowledging that a focus on female characters was a departure from his favored gritty, drug-addicted male protagonists.

"You can't really put strong women characters into that world because any strong woman would go nowhere near these guys," he said by way of explanation.

While Welsh is an advocate of digital publishing, his own works are more difficult to translate into e-book form as he frequently plays with font sizes and other techniques which digital readers cannot easily capture.

Whether traditional publishing or e-publishing is the way forward, one thing authors should rigidly adhere to is creative license, Welsh said. Some books start online, others are published traditionally. The only winning ingredient is originality and creativity.

"The success of self-publishing shows that publishers and agents and editors don't always know (what works)," he said.

(Reporting By Claire Davenport; editing by Luke Baker)

Still, counter-terrorism officials said they are reviewing what if any lessons can be gleaned from the information they had leading up to the slaying Wednesday.

Authorities in the U.S. have similarly pledged to review their procedures in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, with the Boston police commissioner saying that cities should consider deploying more undercover officers and installing more surveillance cameras.

The British review comes amid an outpouring of grief over Wednesday's slaughter of 25-year-old Lee Rigby of the 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. Rigby, who had a two-year-old son, had served in Afghanistan. Detectives say they do not believe the attackers knew him or that he was specifically targeted, but they are still investigating.

"We are looking at decisions that were made and reviewing whether anything different could have been done," said a British counter-terrorism official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the investigation. "But you can't put everyone under surveillance who comes on to the radar."

Prime Minister David Cameron said Thursday that the Intelligence and Security Committee would review the work of agencies such as Britain's domestic spy agency, MI5, in the wake of the attack "as is the normal practice in these sorts of cases."

In Britain, security officials operate under the "principle of proportionality," which means there needs to a compelling reason before any type of surveillance is undertaken.

Surveillance can range from watching a person's movements to intercepting phone calls and electronic communication. The greater the level of intrusion into a person's privacy, the higher the level of government approval needed.

Although British police have not named either suspect both are recovering from their injuries after being shot by police after the killing they had been known to law enforcement officers for as long as six years, the counter-terrorism official said.

One of the suspects had been photographed at multiple raucous demonstrations by the banned extremist group al-Muhajiroun.

The extremist group, whose name means "The Emigrants" in Arabic, captured attention shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when it organized an event celebrating the airline hijackers who slaughtered thousands in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

But attending such demonstrations, investigators say, is generally not enough to put someone under surveillance or to lead authorities to believe men or women will turn violent. Trolling the Internet for extremist sites is also no proof a person will turn to violence.

In last month's Boston Marathon bombings, which killed three people and injured more than 250, at least one of the suspects had been known to authorities.

Alleged Boston bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev, killed in a shootout with police, first came to the attention of U.S. officials in early 2011, when Russia told the FBI that he and his mother were religious extremists.

The FBI investigated them, and their names were added to a Homeland Security Department database used to help screen people entering and leaving the U.S.

But the FBI found nothing linking them to religious extremists or terrorists, and asked the Russians twice for more information. The FBI never heard back and closed its investigation in June 2011.

In the fall of that year, the Russians reached out to the CIA with the same concerns.

The CIA shared this with the FBI, and also asked that the names of Tamerlan and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, be entered into a massive government database of people with suspected terrorist ties.

The FBI again reached out to Russia for more information, and never heard back. Officials in Boston have said the FBI did not initially share the warnings with them, though they acknowledge they might not have uncovered or disrupted the plot based on those warnings.

Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis announced last week that the Boston Police Department and mayor's office will conduct reviews of the response to the bombings. Davis told Congress that cities should look at deploying more undercover officers and installing more surveillance cameras but not at the expense of civil liberties.

"I do not endorse actions that move Boston and our nation into a police state mentality, with surveillance cameras attached to every light pole in the city," Davis said.

Britain is already one of the most heavily watched countries in the world with more than 4.3 million CCTV cameras around the country.

Europol Director Rob Wainwright cautioned against changes that could disturb the balance struck by the "principle of proportionality."

"Investigators have to prioritize their work," Wainwright told The Associated Press. "There are limited resources, but it's not just a question of resources."

Technological advances, for instance, help investigators but also have led to a deluge of data for them to sift through, he said, noting, "The more data you have, the more potential you have for suspects."

Britain, meanwhile, was bracing for potential clashes with right-wing activists, who have promised demonstrations, as well as possible copycat terror attacks in the wake of Wednesday's killing.

Some 1,200 extra police have been put on alert in London.

Wednesday's attack was captured on video by passersby and made for gruesome viewing one man is seen with his hands stained red with blood and holding two butcher's knives as he angrily complained about the British government and troops in foreign lands.

Analysts say the attackers wanted the publicity to inspire copycats. Already, there has been increased chatter on militant sites, they said.

"We can see the tempo being raised," said Maajid Nawaz, a former jihadist who is now with the London-based anti-extremist Quilliam Foundation. "One of the reasons why these guys acted in this theatrical way was because of the propaganda effect so others would be inspired to do the same thing."

A British government official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak about the ongoing investigation, confirmed the increase in chatter since Wednesday's attack but said no specific or credible plots had been detected.

Britain's terror threat level has remained unchanged at "substantial" the middle of five possible rankings since the slaying of Rigby.

His anguished widow, Rebecca Rigby, spoke of her loss Friday at a news conference at his unit's headquarters. "I love Lee and always will," she said, sobbing.

His stepfather, Ian Rigby, read a statement on the family's behalf, including the final text the soldier had sent to his mother, who was too upset to speak.

"The last text he sent to his mum read, 'Goodnight mum, I hope you had a fantastic day today because you are the most fantastic and one in a million mum that anyone could ever wish for. Thank you for supporting me all these years, you're not just my mum, you're my best friend. So goodnight, love you loads," Ian Rigby said.

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Associated Press writers Cassandra Vinograd and Gregory Katz in London, and Denise Lavoie and Cara Rubinsky in Boston contributed to this report.

SYDNEY, May 22 (Reuters) - Australia batsman David Warner has been fined A$5,750 ($5,600) for his Twitter outburst against two journalists, the maximum financial penalty for a first offence, Cricket Australia (CA) said on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old, who was playing in the Indian Premier League (IPL) when he tweeted the insults, faced a disciplinary hearing on his arrival back in Sydney on Wednesday, charged with "unbecoming behaviour".

Warner was angered that a newspaper had used a picture of him next to an article on corruption in the IPL written by Robert Craddock. Another journalist, Malcolm Conn, was attacked when he entered the conversation in support of his colleague.

"In hindsight, clearly I let my frustrations get the better of me and posted some inappropriate tweets last weekend," Warner said in a CA statement.

"While I disagreed with the story and my image being used alongside the story, I could have chosen my words better and I apologise for any offence that my language may have caused.

"I'll continue to have honest conversations with all my followers and I will be mindful of the language I use in future."

The flamboyant left-hander looks likely to open the batting for Australia in back-to-back Ashes series against England starting in July.

Earlier on Wednesday, he received backing from Australia captain Michael Clarke, who suggested the incident may not harm his chances of one day captaining his country.

"He's apologised and made it very clear it was unacceptable," Clarke told reporters at Sydney airport.

"I think Davey has great potential to be a leader of the Australian cricket team. He's a wonderful guy and wonderful player.

"He's learned from this ... and if he continues to grow as he has over the last few years, there's no reason why he hasn't got the potential to captain Australia one day."

Clarke, who once apologised for not "walking" via Twitter, also said there were no plans to restrict the use of social media by players, although they needed to recognise there was "a line that cannot be crossed".

($1 = 1.0233 Australian dollars) (Editing by Ed Osmond)

Willy Moon will soon be gyrating his way into your music collection. Fact.

His distinct features, tall frame, fancy footwork, dapper suits and infectious 1960s pop grooves make this New Zealander hard to miss. The 23-year-old's self-produced debut album, "Here's Willy Moon," is sharp and slick, much like Moon himself.

His album packs a punch, from his unique tone and string section on "Get Up" to surf guitars on "I Wanna Be Your Man." This is high energy rock 'n' roll with a modern twist.

The real star here is the pop friendly "Yeah Yeah," which was used in ads for the iPod last year. If you're still sitting down after hearing this one, you need to see a doctor.

There's also the hip-hop-inspired "She Loves Me," and the David Lynch-esque "Murder Ballad" closes the show. At just under 30 minutes long, you'll want to savor each beat on this energetic debut.

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Follow Reetu Rupal on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/R2Today

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - EBay Inc pulled a listing on Wednesday for a Nike Inc t-shirt displaying the phrase "Boston Massacre," citing the online marketplace's policy against "offensive materials."

The t-shirt was listed for sale earlier this week on eBay and received bids of more than $150,000, according to bid history on the company's website.

The t-shirt refers to the rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox baseball teams and has images of red blood spattered on the word Boston.

In the wake of the Boston Marathon attack, Nike pulled all the shirts from stores, but a used one turned up on eBay.

An eBay spokeswoman said the shirt was removed because it violated a company policy that bans listings of items that promote or glorify hatred, violence, racial, sexual, or religious intolerance, or promote organizations with such views.

EBay will also remove listings that graphically portray graphic violence or victims of violence, unless they have substantial social, artistic, or political value, according to the policy.

A check on Wednesday afternoon by Reuters confirmed that the listing was taken down.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Nick Zieminski)