LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Oprah Winfrey has donated a small chunk of her estimated $2.8 billion net worth to help build The Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture.

The OWN chairman and CEO has just donated $12 million to the museum's capital fund. Combined with a previous donation of $1 million, Winfrey's $13 million is the museum's largest donation to date.

"I am so proud of African American history and its contributions to our nation as a whole," Winfrey said in a statement.

"I am deeply appreciative of those who paved the path for me and all who follow in their footsteps. By investing in this museum, I want to help ensure that we both honor and preserve our culture and history, so that the stories of who we are will live on for generations to come."

Slated to open in late-2015, the museum's theater will be dedicated to the media mogul. The Oprah Winfrey Theater, one of the largest spaces in the museum at 350 seats, will serve as a center for performers, artists, scholars, educators and other opinion leaders. The museum will be the nation's largest destination totally devoted to Black history and culture.

"We are inspired and profoundly grateful for Ms. Winfrey's generosity at this important time," said Lonnie G. Bunch III, founding director of the museum.

"Her gifts will forever be associated with harnessing the power of art and creative expression to build bridges between cultures and enrich people's lives. Programming at the Oprah Winfrey Theater will mirror the museum's commitment to use African American history and culture as a lens to see what it means to be an American and to help all Americans remember."

Congressional funding provides half of the museum's $500 million construction costs. Winfrey's $13 million gift goes toward the other $250,000, which the organization must raise itself.

Additionally, Winfrey has served on the museum's advisory council since 2004.

ENNISKILLEN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama sparred with Russia's Vladimir Putin over how to end the war in Syria on Monday during an icy encounter at a G8 summit where divisions over the conflict eclipsed the rest of the agenda.

Speaking after talks with Obama, Putin said Moscow and Washington had differing views over Syria but agreed the bloodshed must stop and that the warring parties should be brought to the negotiating table.

Both leaders looked tense and uncomfortable as they addressed reporters after about two hours of talks, with Putin staring mostly at the floor as he spoke about Syria and Obama only glancing occasionally at the Russian leader.

"Our positions do not fully coincide, but we are united by the common intention to end the violence, to stop the number of victims increasing in Syria, to resolve the problems by peaceful means, including the Geneva talks," Putin said.

"We agreed to push the process of peace talks and encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiation table, organize the talks in Geneva."

Obama tried to lighten the mood at the end of their talks by discussing judo but Putin, a black belt in the martial art, replied that the then-smiling U.S. president was simply trying to get him to relax.

Divisions over Syria dominated the atmosphere as global leaders met in the remote golf resort in Northern Ireland, a place once rocked by decades of violence but which Britain now wants to showcase as a model of conflict resolution.

Western leaders have rebuked Putin's staunch support for Syria's Bashar al-Assad and his attempt to crush a two-year-old uprising in which at least 93,000 people have been killed.

Speaking alongside Putin after their first face-to-face meeting in a year, Obama said the two men had different views on Syria but shared an interest in stopping violence and ensuring chemical weapons were not used.

"With respect to Syria, we do have differing perspectives on the problem but we share an interest in reducing the violence and securing chemical weapons and ensuring that they're neither used nor are they subject to proliferation," Obama said.

He said the two leaders had instructed their teams to work on a peace conference about Syria in Geneva.

On Iran, Obama added that he and Putin expressed cautious optimism about the ability to move forward on a dialogue with Iran after a moderate cleric was elected president there.

Stung by recent victories for Assad's forces and their support from Hezbollah guerrillas, the United States said last week it would step up military aid to the rebels including automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.

Earlier British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is chairing the G8 summit in a remote golf resort in Northern Ireland, also conceded there was "a big difference" between the positions of Russia and the West on how to resolve the war.

In some of his most colorful remarks on Syria, Putin described anti-Assad rebels as cannibals who ate human flesh on the eve of the summit and warned of the dangers of giving guns to such people.

For their part, Western leaders have criticized Russia, Syria's most powerful ally, for sending weapons to Assad forces and considering deliveries of a sophisticated missile system.

"How can we allow that Russia continues to deliver arms to the Bashar al-Assad regime when the opposition receives very few and is being massacred?" French President Francois Hollande said.

In an apparent response to the U.S. plan, Assad said Europe would "pay the price" if it delivered arms to rebel forces, saying that would result in the export of terrorism to Europe.

"Terrorists will gain experience in combat and return with extremist ideologies," he said in an advance extract of an interview due to be published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Tuesday.

(Additional reporting by Kate Holton, Jeff Mason in Enniskillen and Gabriela Baczynska in Moscow; Writing by Maria Golovnina; editing by Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After authorizing U.S. weapons for rebels in Syria, President Barack Obama faces difficult talks on ending the civil war there when he meets next week with the Syrian government's most powerful ally: Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The pair will hold their first private, face-to-face meeting in a year on Monday at the G8 conference in Northern Ireland, the White House said on Friday.

Obama will focus on finding common ground with Putin on talks toward a political settlement in Syria, said Ben Rhodes, the White House deputy national security adviser. "There are no illusions that that's going to be easy," he said.

Obama will discuss U.S. evidence that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces have used chemical weapons - crossing what the American president has called a "red line" in the 2-year-old civil war, the White House said.

Syria is Russia's only ally in the Middle East and Moscow has frustrated the United States by its diplomatic support for Assad and its threats to send S-300 anti-aircraft missiles that could prevent the establishment of a Western no-fly zone in Syria.

Working to overcome mistrust between them, Moscow and Washington are trying to set up a Syrian peace conference in Geneva next month.

But the chances of it taking place have begun to fade as Syria's conflict descends into a messy proxy war pitching Assad backed by Russia, Iran and Lebanese Hezbollah militants against the mostly Sunni rebels supported by the United States, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Britain and France.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has told Secretary of State John Kerry that U.S. accusations of chemical weapons use by Assad's forces "are not backed up by verified facts," the Russian foreign ministry said on Friday.

Lavrov also warned that U.S. military support for Syrian rebels could escalate violence, it said. ID:nL5N0EQ1EX]

PUTIN COMPLAINTS

Obama's authorization of U.S. weapons to Syrian rebels is likely to upset Putin, whose rhetoric has become more anti-American since he returned to Russia's presidency last year.

In a series of comments on Tuesday that ranged from criticism of America's dropping of the atomic bomb in 1945 to its treatment of Native and African Americans, Putin accused Washington of supporting pro-democracy protests that have seen thousands take to Moscow's streets.

Russia has been particularly exasperated with U.S. Ambassador Michael McFaul, who has built deeply close links with dissident groups. It has complained repeatedly about foreign and particularly U.S. funding of activist groups and kicked out the U.S. Agency for International Development.

"Our diplomatic service does not cooperate actively with Occupy Wall Street but their diplomatic service interact actively with (Russian opposition figures) and directly supports them," Putin told English-language state channel RT.

In an apparent move to irritate Washington further, Putin said Russia might be willing to consider a plea for asylum from Edward Snowden, who leaked surveillance secrets from the U.S. National Security Agency.

Russia under Putin has become more militarily assertive than at any time since the end of the Cold War, sometimes with direct implications for U.S. Syria policy.

Last year, Moscow sent a flagship aircraft carrier to loiter off the Syrian coast to deter any foreign action. It said it will restore its permanent naval presence in the Mediterranean.

The Obama administration is reluctant to become more involved in Syria, set up no-fly zones or put its own troops in. Russia's intransigence is seen by some as providing justification for limited action.

"What we're seeing here is another sign of a move to a much more multipolar world," said Nikolas Gvosdev, professor of national security studies at the United States Naval War College. "It's about countries like Russia putting certain states such as Syria off-limits for U.S. intervention. If you're going to get things done in the modern world, you're going to have to get great powers to work together."

(Additional reporting by Jeff Mason and Laura MacInnis in Washington and Alexi Anishchuk in Moscow; Editing by Alistair Bell and Doina Chiacu)

PARIS, June 7 (Reuters) - An unassuming Swede and his hammerhead forehand is starting to gain mythical status at Roland Garros because in nine years Robin Soderling remains the only man to have beaten Rafa Nadal at the French Open.

Over the seasons grand slam champions in the calibre of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martin del Potro and Carlos Moya have all tried - and failed - to conquer the claycourt phenomenon.

Many have scrutinised the Soderling blueprint that first came to light in 2009 and tried to glean clues from it in order to crack the riddle of beating Nadal at the French Open.

If there is a solution lurking somewhere, Nadal has so far managed to keep it well hidden, as he illustrated on Friday when he delivered a soul-destroying five-set, four hour 37-minute, semi-final defeat to Djokovic.

The Serb had so wanted to win the Paris title to complete his collection of grand slam silverware and became only the third player to take at least two sets off the Spaniard in the French capital.

But two sets in a best-of-five match does not win matches.

The Parisian contest had more twists and turns than a Dan Brown thriller - including point penalties, a near tumble over the net, trick-shot mishaps, warnings for time wasting, angry outbursts and a fifth-set comeback from 4-2 down.

It is a match-up that had all the makings of a final but in the end, all an exhausted Djokovic could do was applaud Nadal's gutsy never-say-die attitude.

"It's been an unbelievable match to be part of but all I can feel now is disappointment. That's it," Djokovic, runner-up to the Spaniard 12 months ago, said following the 6-4 3-6 6-1 6-7(3) 9-7 defeat.

"I congratulate my opponent because he showed courage in the right moments and went for his shots. When he was break down in the fifth (set), he made some incredible shots from the baseline.

"That's why he's a champion. That's why he's been ruling Roland Garros for many years."

Nadal's fellow Spaniard David Ferrer is the only man left this year still with a chance of overthrowing the claycourt king.

ENJOY SUFFERING

But as the fourth seed has come off second best in their last 16 matches on red dirt, even Ferrer's nearest and dearest are unlikely bet against a man whose Roland Garros record now stands at 58-1, with a 7-0 record in the finals.

If there was anyone who could have stalled Nadal's relentless pursuit of capturing a record eighth Musketeers' Cup, it was Djokovic.

He is the only man to have won at least three grand slam matches against Nadal and he also knew how to beat the Spaniard in five sets having won an epic five-hour 53 minute battle in last year's Australian Open final.

But when it comes to sliding around for hour after hour on red clay, Nadal is an indefatigable force.

"I learned during all my career to enjoy suffering and these kind of matches are very special. You don't have the chance to play these kind of matches every day," said Nadal, who incredibly only came back to the tour in February after seven months out with a dodgy knee.

"So when these kind of matches happen, you suffer, but I really enjoy these moments, no? I really enjoy suffering."

Unfortunately for Djokovic, Nadal also thrived on making his opponents suffer.

Djokovic tried to rattle Nadal with forehand winners, the Spaniard held firm.

Djokovic tried to throw Nadal off balance by throwing in some dropshots, the Spaniard chased them down.

Djokovic tried to engage Nadal at the net, the Spaniard hit back acute angled volleys.

"I lost the match after five hours. I wanted this title so much, so I am disappointed. That's it," said the 26-year-old Djokovic, who ultimately paid the price for producing 75 unforced errors.

"Nothing comes easy to you, you've got to earn it.

"I will come back to Paris, to this grand slam, and I will keep on trying to win it."

But with Nadal having celebrated his 27th birthday earlier this week, Djokovic could be in for a very long wait. (Editing by Alison Wildey)

Graves says he was only in it to get rid of Bachmann, who is aof Democrats nationwide. Once she was out, there was no reason for him to stay in. Here's how he :

Basically, after all that's gone on, and with Michele Bachmann now stepping down, I've been talking to my friends and family and frankly, the feeling is, "Mission Accomplished." She wasn't representing the people of the 6th District appropriately, and now she won't be representing them. There's no way anyone could run and win who would be worse than Michele Bachmann. So we accomplished that task...

I'm not a politician; I'm a business guy. Now there are zero things on my agenda that I feel a need to do in public life. []

Absent Ms. Bachmann from the campaign environment the chances of Jim Graves of getting significant outside support for his doomed candidacy would have been somewhere between zip and nil... Brutal truth of it is, a R+8 district is not within reach of the average Democrat this cycle. []

One thing is clear: The seat will most likely not be switching hands. Graves was "arguably the strongest and most well-financed candidate Minnesota Democrats had," says , meaning Democrats' chances of winning just got a lot lower.

View this article onGetIssues of The Week

Other stories from this section:

June 7 (Reuters) - South American 2014 World Cup qualifying results and standings after Friday's matches: Paraguay 1 Chile 2 Peru 1 Ecuador 0 Argentina 0 Colombia 0 Bolivia 1 Venezuela 1 Uruguay bye

Standings: P W D L F A Pts

Argentina 12 7 4 1 24 8 25

Colombia 11 6 2 3 19 7 20

Ecuador 11 6 2 3 16 11 20

Chile 12 6 0 6 18 20 18

* - - - - - - -

Venezuela 12 4 4 4 10 13 16

* - - - - - - -

Peru 11 4 2 5 12 15 14

Uruguay 11 3 4 4 17 21 13

Bolivia 12 2 4 6 14 21 10

Paraguay 12 2 2 8 9 23 8

- - - -

Note: The top four teams will advance to the 2014 finals in Brazil while the fifth-placed side will face Asia's fifth-ranked qualifier in a two-legged playoff for a spot in the tournament.

Previous results:

Oct. 7, 2011

Argentina 4 Chile 1 Buenos Aires

Uruguay 4 Bolivia 2 Montevideo

Ecuador 2 Venezuela 0 Quito

Peru 2 Paraguay 0 Lima

Colombia bye

- -

Oct. 11, 2011

Venezuela 1 Argentina 0 Puerto La Cruz

Paraguay 1 Uruguay 1 Asuncion

Chile 4 Peru 2 Santiago

Bolivia 1 Colombia 2 La Paz

Ecuador bye

- -

Nov. 11, 2011

Argentina 1 Bolivia 1 Buenos Aires

Uruguay 4 Chile 0 Montevideo

Colombia 1 Venezuela 1 Barranquilla

Paraguay 2 Ecuador 1 Asuncion

Peru bye

- -

Nov 15, 2011

Colombia 1 Argentina 2 Barranquilla

Chile 2 Paraguay 0 Santiago

Ecuador 2 Peru 0 Quito

Venezuela 1 Bolivia 0 San Cristobal

Uruguay bye

- -

June 2, 2012

Argentina 4 Ecuador 0 Buenos Aires

Uruguay 1 Venezuela 1 Montevideo

Bolivia 0 Chile 2 La Paz

June 3, 2012

Peru 0 Colombia 1 Lima

Paraguay bye

- -

June 9, 2012

Bolivia 3 Paraguay 1 La Paz

Venezuela 0 Chile 2 Puerto La Cruz

June 10, 2012

Uruguay 4 Peru 2 Montevideo

Ecuador 1 Colombia 0 Quito

Argentina bye

- -

Sept. 7 2012

Argentina 3 Paraguay 1 Cordoba

Colombia 4 Uruguay 0 Barranquilla

Ecuador 1 Bolivia 0 Quito

Peru 2 Venezuela 1 Lima

Chile bye

- -

Sept. 11 2012

Paraguay 0 Venezuela 2 Asuncion

Uruguay 1 Ecuador 1 Montevideo

Chile 1 Colombia 3 Santiago

Peru 1 Argentina 1 Lima

Bolivia bye - -

Oct. 12 2012

Colombia 2 Paraguay 0 Barranquilla

Argentina 3 Uruguay 0 Mendoza

Ecuador 3 Chile 1 Quito

Bolivia 1 Peru 1 La Paz

Venezuela bye

- - - -

Oct. 16 2012

Venezuela 1 Ecuador 1 Puerto La Cruz

Bolivia 4 Uruguay 1 La Paz

Paraguay 1 Peru 0 Asuncion

Chile 1 Argentina 2 Santiago

Colombia bye

- - - -

March 22 2013

Argentina 3 Venezuela 0 Buenos Aires

Uruguay 1 Paraguay 1 Montevideo

Peru 1 Chile 0 Lima

Colombia 5 Bolivia 0 Barranquilla

Ecuador bye

- - - -

March 26 2013

Bolivia 1 Argentina 1 La Paz

Ecuador 4 Paraguay 1 Quito

Venezuela 1 Colombia 0 Puerto Ordaz

Chile 2 Uruguay 0 Santiago

Peru bye

Next matches:

June 11 2013

Colombia v Peru Barranquilla

Venezuela v Uruguay Puerto Ordaz

Ecuador v Argentina Quito

Chile v Bolivia Santiago

Paraguay bye (Compiled by Rex Gowar)

The revelations that the National Security Agency is perusing millions of U.S. customer phone records at Verizon Communications and snooping on the digital communications stored by nine major Internet services illustrate how aggressively personal data is being collected and analyzed.

Verizon is handing over so-called metadata, excerpts from millions of U.S. customer records, to the NSA under an order issued by the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, according to a report in the British newspaper The Guardian. The report was confirmed Thursday by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Former NSA employee William Binney told The Associated Press that he estimates the agency collects records on 3 billion phone calls each day.

The NSA and FBI appear to be looking even wider under a clandestine program code-named "PRISM" that was revealed in stories posted late Thursday by The Washington Post and The Guardian.

PRISM gives the U.S. government access to email, documents, audio, video, photographs and other data belonging to foreigners on foreign soil who are under investigation, according to The Washington Post. The newspaper said it reviewed a confidential roster of companies and services participating in PRISM. The companies included AOL Inc., Apple Inc., Facebook Inc., Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc., Skype, YouTube and Paltalk.

In statements, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL and Paltalk all said they only provide the government with user data required under the law. (Google runs YouTube and Microsoft owns Skype.)

The NSA isn't getting customer names or the content of phone conversations under the Verizon court order, but that doesn't mean the information can't be tied to other data coming in through the PRISM program to look into people's lives, according to experts.

Like pieces of a puzzle, the bits and bytes left behind from people's electronic interactions can be cobbled together to draw conclusions about their habits, friendships and preferences using data-mining formulas and increasingly powerful computers.

It's all part of a phenomenon known as "Big Data," a catchphrase increasingly used to describe the science of analyzing the vast amount of information collected through mobile devices, Web browsers and check-out stands. Analysts use powerful computers to detect trends and create digital dossiers about people.

The Obama administration and lawmakers privy to the NSA's surveillance say the data being collected is only dissected when there is credible evidence of a terrorist plot or other reasons to believe that national security is being threatened. The sweeping court order covers the Verizon records of every mobile and landline phone call from April 25 through July 19, according to The Guardian.

It's likely the Verizon phone records are being matched with an even broader set of data, said Forrester Research analyst Fatemeh Khatibloo.

"My sense is they are looking for network patterns," she said. "They are looking for who is connected to whom and whether they can put any timelines together. They are also probably trying to identify locations where people are calling from."

The Verizon data includes the duration of every call. Although the court order doesn't require it, experts suspect the NSA may also be getting some kind of data that helps determine the vicinity of the calls.

The location information is particularly valuable for cloak-and-dagger operations like the one the NSA is running, said Cindy Cohn, a legal director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group that has been fighting the government's collection of personal phone records since 2006. The foundation is currently suing over the government's collection of U.S. citizens' communications in a case that dates back to the administration of President George W. Bush.

"It's incredibly invasive," Cohn said. "This is a consequence of the fact that we have so many third parties that have accumulated significant information about our everyday lives."

It's such a rich vein of information that U.S. companies and other organizations now spend more than $2 billion each year to obtain third-party data about individuals, according to Forrester Research. The data helps businesses target potential customers. Much of this information is sold by so-called data brokers such as Acxiom Corp., a Little Rock, Ark., company that maintains extensive files about the online and offline activities of more than 500 million consumers worldwide.

The digital floodgates have opened during the past decade as the convenience and allure of the Internet and sleek smartphones have made it easier and more enjoyable for people to stay connected wherever they go.

"I don't think there has been a sea change in analytical methods as much as there has been a change in the volume, velocity and variety of information and the computing power to process it all," said Gartner analyst Douglas Laney.

In a sign of the NSA's determination to vacuum up as much data as possible, the agency has built a data center in Bluffdale, Utah that is five times larger than the U.S. Capitol all to sift through Big Data. The massive center has fed perceptions that some factions of the U.S. government are determined to build a database of all phone calls, Internet searches and emails under the guise of national security. The Washington Post's disclosure that both the NSA and FBI have the ability to burrow into computers of major Internet services will likely heighten fears that U.S. government's Big Data is creating something akin to the ever-watchful Big Brother in George Orwell's "1984" novel.

"The fact that the government can tell all the phone carriers and Internet service providers to hand over all this data sort of gives them carte blanche to build profiles of people they are targeting in a very different way than any company can," Khatibloo said.

In most instances, Internet companies such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo are taking what they learn from search requests, clicks on "like" buttons, Web surfing activity and location tracking on mobile devices to figure out what their users like and divine where they are. It's all in aid of showing users ads about products likely to pique their interest at the right time. The companies defend this kind of data mining as a consumer benefit.

Google is trying to take things a step further. It is honing its data analysis and search formulas in an attempt to anticipate what an individual might be wondering about or wanting.

Other Internet companies also use Big Data to improve their services. Video subscription service Netflix takes what it learns from each viewer's preferences to recommend movies and TV shows. Amazon.com Inc. does something similar when it highlights specific products to different shoppers visiting its site.

The federal government has the potential to know even more about people because it controls the world's biggest data bank about U.S. citizens through its collection of Social Security numbers, tax returns and health records through Medicare, said David Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor who recently stepped down as the Federal Trade Commission's consumer protection director.

Before leaving the FTC last year, Vladeck opened an inquiry into the practices of Acxiom and other data brokers because he feared that information was being misinterpreted in ways that unfairly stereotyped people. For instance, someone might be classified as a potential health risk just because he or she bought products linked to increased chance of heart attack. The FTC inquiry into data brokers is still open.

"We had real concerns about the reliability of the data and unfair treatment by algorithm," Vladeck said.

Vladeck stressed he had no reason to believe that the NSA is misinterpreting the data it collects about people. He finds some comfort in The Guardian report that said the Verizon order had been signed by Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Judge Roger Vinson.

The NSA "differs from a commercial enterprise in the sense that there are checks in the judicial system and in Congress," Vladeck said. "If you believe in the way our government is supposed to work, then you should have some faith that those checks are meaningful. If you are skeptical about government, then you probably don't think that kind of oversight means anything."

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)

The fire in Jilin province's Mishazi township appeared to have been sparked by three early-morning explosions in the farm's electrical system, the official Xinhua News Agency said. State broadcaster CCTV quoted unidentified workers as saying the fire broke out during a change of shifts and may have originated in a locker room at a time when about 350 workers were at the site.

The provincial fire department said on its microblog that the fire was caused by a leak of ammonia.

The fire killed 61 people, according to a posting on the Jilin provincial government's official microblog. Calls to fire and rescue services rang unanswered and hospital administrators said they had no information about injuries among the dozens of people reportedly sent for treatment.

Rescue workers found the bodies in the charred buildings, and rescue efforts were continuing. CCTV footage showed dark smoke billowing up from the cement structures.

Xinhua quoted survivors as saying that the plant's "complicated" interior, narrow exits and a locked front gate made escape difficult.

The fire highlighted the lax safety standards at many Chinese workplaces. It could also focus renewed scrutiny on China's biggest pork producer, Shuanghui International unrelated to the poultry plant as it aims to buy U.S. food giant Smithfield in what would be China's biggest takeover of an American company.

The poultry plant's owner, Jilin Baoyuanfeng Poultry Co., is a major producer of processed chicken and employs about 1,200 people. The plant is located outside the city of Dehui, about 800 kilometers (250 miles) northeast of China's capital, Beijing.

After four years of development, Microsoft unveiled the Xbox One entertainment console and touted it as an all-in-one solution for playing games, watching TV and doing everything in between. Microsoft wants the Xbox One to be central to your living room, so it packed the new Xbox with such features as the ability to change TV channels through voice commands.

Although the device won't go on sale until later this year, at a price that hasn't been disclosed yet, Microsoft invited attendees of Tuesday's announcement event to take a closer look at the system.

Based on limited time with the device, the Xbox One feels like an improvement over its predecessor. But it fails to include features some fans have demanded, including the ability to play games bought for the existing Xbox 360 system.

Of course, many particulars about the Xbox One could change between now and when it's released. The specific date hasn't been revealed. More details are expected in three weeks at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the gaming industry's annual convention in Los Angeles.

For now, the system looks to be a thoughtful piece of technology, but there's still a lot that isn't known.

DESIGN: With contrasting matte and gloss finishes, the Xbox One is the slickest video game console so far, although we don't yet know what Sony's upcoming PlayStation 4 will look like. (Nintendo's Wii U is already out, although sales have fallen short of the company's forecasts.) The Xbox's outer shell, which Microsoft calls "liquid black," features vented flourishes and all the inputs and outputs one might need, including multiple USB ports and HDMI pass-through.

KINECT: The new version of the Xbox's camera-based Kinect system comes with better motion and voice detection, including the ability to recognize faces, tell if you're smiling or talking and gauge your heart rate. It appears as sexy as the Xbox console and has been overhauled under the hood. It's three times more sensitive and has a larger, 60-degree field of view. In a demo, the doodad's high-definition camera easily displayed crystal-clear 1080p video and could detect up to seven people, though it lagged as more folks stood in front of it. The basic motion detection appears vastly improved, but the voice detection feature wasn't made available to try out, adding to the list of unknowns.

PERFORMANCE: The system seems to work harmoniously together. For example, by combining the Kinect's face detection ability with the machine's wireless controllers, it recognized almost magically when users swapped controllers.

CONTROLLER: The new controller's layout is mostly unchanged, but the bulky battery bump is gone from the back. The smoother Xbox One controller boasts a new directional pad and vibrating trigger buttons. The triggers pulsated in tandem with such imagery as a character's heart beating and a car revving up during a demo with a prototype controller.

REQUIREMENTS: Luckily, the Xbox One won't require a constant connection to the Internet, but there's a possibility that some of the key features wouldn't work as well or at all. The Kinect system is required and will come with the machine, rather than sold separately as has been the case with the Xbox 360. The Xbox One also will feature privacy settings so it doesn't feel like the Kinect's camera is always watching you.

LIMITATIONS: Xbox 360 games won't work on the Xbox One because the underlying technology is different, according to Microsoft. Microsoft was vague about how the Xbox One will handle previously played games bought from other gamers, though it confirmed used games will work somehow. There had been talk that Microsoft might restrict used games on the new machine.

GAMES: What games? Despite the fact that such titles as "Call of Duty: Ghosts," ''FIFA 14" and "Forza Motorsport 5" were teased during Tuesday's flashy presentation, actual games weren't available to try out afterward. Microsoft said it plans to focus on Xbox One titles at the E3 conference, which starts June 11.

The Xbox One shows promise with a sleek shell and a new Kinect detector that seems to perform fine at least if you don't try to confuse it with too many people at once. But the lack of games is notable, as are lingering questions about what it can do without an Internet connection. There are too many questions about the Xbox One, even after experiencing not just hearing what Microsoft has planned. At this point, it's too early to say whether Microsoft or Sony is leading in the latest round of the console wars. They'll have to duke it out at E3.

___

Online:

http://www.xbox.com

___

Follow AP Entertainment Writer Derrik J. Lang on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/derrikjlang