The creature called Archaeopteryx (ahr-kee-AHP'-teh-rihx) was widely considered the earliest known bird. That status was called into question two years ago by Chinese scientists, who proposed yanking it off the "bird" branch of the evolutionary family tree and moving it onto a closely related lineage of birdlike dinosaurs.

Now an international team led by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences believes Archaeopteryx should indeed be considered a bird.

The famed fossil was discovered in 1861 in Germany and quickly became an evolutionary icon. Archaeopteryx possessed part-bird, part-reptile traits. It sported broad wings and feathers like a bird, but it also had three-fingered claws, sharp teeth and a long bony tail similar to a dinosaur.

Fossil discoveries of feathered dinosaurs in northeastern China over the past two decades have challenged Archaeopteryx's place in bird evolution.

The latest evidence suggesting Archaeopteryx had more in common with birds than dinosaurs comes from the discovery of an intact, well-preserved skeleton of a previously unknown dinosaur dubbed Aurornis xui. It lived during the middle to late Jurassic era in China's Liaoning province where many early birds and feathered dinosaurs roamed.

Belgian researcher Pascal Godefroit and his team compared the anatomy of the newly discovered dinosaur fossil to a variety of birds and dinosaurs to determine their relationship. The analysis, published in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature, classifies Archaeopteryx back into the bird category.

Lawrence Witmer, a bird evolution expert at Ohio University, called the analysis compelling. But he said it's still tough to tease apart that segment of the family tree.

"All of these little feathered species running and flapping around ... were all very similar," Witmer, who had no role in the research, said in an email.

___

Online:

Nature: http://www.nature.com/nature

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 26 points at 15,280 as of 10:10 a.m., a slight rise of 0.1 percent.

Real estate data provider CoreLogic reported that home prices jumped 12 percent in April from a year earlier, the biggest gain since February 2006.

The government reported that the country's trade deficit in April was narrower than economists had expected.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index was up three points at 1,644, or 0.2 percent. The Nasdaq composite rose nine points to 3,474, or 0.3 percent. Telecommunication companies led the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500, climbing 1 percent.

General Motors rose 2 percent on news that the company will be added to the S&P 500 index on Thursday, replacing H.J. Heinz Co. The ketchup maker's acquisition is getting bought by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and the private equity firm 3G Capital. GM was up 58 cents to an even $35.

Dollar General slumped 8 percent, the biggest drop in the S&P 500. The discount-store chain cut its earnings and revenue forecast for the year ahead because it expects sales to slow. Dollar General's stock dropped $4.06 to $49.48.

SAIC dropped 3 percent, or 46 cents, to $14.39. The security and communications technology company posted a 31 percent drop in quarterly earnings late Monday, as government spending cuts crimped SAIC's revenue.

In the market for U.S. government bonds, the yield on the 10-year note was 2.15 percent, up from 2.12 percent late Monday.

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc invests in dozens of businesses, and a new book tries to explain it all to young readers, from A to Z.

Two Omaha residents, author Nancy Rips and illustrator Tom Kerr, have teamed up on "My First Berkshire ABC" to teach children about one of the world's best-known companies, and a little about the local billionaire behind it.

More than 1,000 copies were sold at Berkshire's annual meeting on Saturday, which draws thousands of people to Omaha, and where Buffett has a say on what gets sold.

"You need something to bring home to your kids and grandkids to explain Berkshire," Rips, who has also written three books about Jewish holidays, said in a joint interview with Kerr.

Most pages show companies that Berkshire owns or invests in.

G, for example, is for "Geico," and features the car insurer's talking gecko. And W is for "Wells Fargo", and features the bank's familiar stagecoach.

The book's theme changed at Buffett's suggestion.

"Our first effort was things like, S is for sharing. Mr. Buffett believes in sharing. K is for being kind,'" Rips said.

"I got an email back from Warren saying, it's too laudatory, they will lampoon him in the news," she continued. "And I wrote a whole new proposal: A is for Acme (Brick), B is for Borsheim's (jewelry), C is for Clayton Homes, D is for Dairy Queen. I got an email back: You're in the show.'"

Kerr has worked at many newspapers and drew McGruff, the Crime Dog for the National Crime Prevention Council.

"Part of what Warren talks about is investing in things that you know," he said. "Virtually everything in here is something that somebody can relate to and touch and understand."

Berkshire Vice Chairman Charlie Munger is shown under "Q," stamping boxes of "quality" merchandise.

Rips and Kerr have not heard from Buffett on whether he likes the book. Buffett's assistant Carrie Sova had no comment on that question.

Kerr depicted Buffett just four times, including on the cover holding his usual Cherry Coke.

"This book is not all about Warren Buffett," Kerr said. "I picked my spots. He's so synonymous with Dairy Queen that I wanted him there, and obviously on the cover with Coca-Cola."

"Cherry Coke," Rips interjected.

"Yep," Kerr said. "She had me change that."

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Vicki Allen)

Moore's fate may transform into a grim awakening in the world of extreme sports, where the X Games have proved a catalyst for the evolution of dangerous, Evil Knievel-style activity invented almost on the fly, with new terrains and new expectations leaving us with this — potentially the first death in the 20-year history of ESPN's competition, all because of a kid on a giant machine who knew exactly what he was getting into.

On Thursday night, Moore didn't have enough speed when he attempted his flip, so his snowmobile under-rotated and instead of bailing on the trick he stayed committed. The skis on the front of the vehicle dug into the snow, throwing Moore forward onto the snow. The snowmobile flipped and came down directly on top of him:

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate on Wednesday confirmed Marilyn Tavenner, a former nurse and hospital company executive, as the first full-fledged administrator for the Medicare and Medicaid healthcare programs since 2006.

In a rare show of bipartisanship on a healthcare issue, senators voted 91-7 to back President Barack Obama's nominee for administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), an $820 billion agency that oversees the bulk of federal healthcare spending and healthcare reform.

Tavenner has served as acting CMS administrator since late 2010. Her formal elevation comes at a time of mounting pressure on CMS as it acts to implement Obama's Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act by January 1. Medicare and Medicaid are also on the firing line for potential deficit reduction.

"Marilyn Tavenner has a reputation to be a pragmatist and a person who doesn't give up ... we need that type of leader at CMS," said Senator Max Baucus, Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the oversight panel that approved her nomination two weeks ago.

Her confirmation is the first for a CMS administrator since Dr. Mark McClellan, who served under Republican President George W. Bush, left the job in 2006 after overseeing implementation of the Medicare prescription drug benefit.

Politics has since proved to be a barrier for candidates, including Tavenner herself, who was nominated but not confirmed during Obama's first term.

This time, she won accolades from Republicans for her practical approach to policy and her pledge to run CMS like a business.

Senator Orrin Hatch, the finance panel's top Republican, described CMS as "the world's largest insurer," noting the agency processes 1 billion claims a year on behalf of nearly 1-in-3 Americans - about 100 million elderly and disabled Medicare beneficiaires and low-income Medicaid recipients.

"This is a critical agency that needs a strong leader at the helm and, from what I've seen, Ms. Tavenner has the qualifications to be that kind of a leader," he said.

The vote was applauded by industry groups representing hospitals, physicians and health insurers.

Tavenner worked as a nurse in her native Virginia and became a hospital executive with Hospital Corporation of America. She later became Virginia's secretary of health and human resources before joining CMS, an agency within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Some lawmakers voted against her confirmation as a show of continuing opposition to the Obama healthcare law, which will face a new repeal vote in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Thursday.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who voted 'no,' said CMS' central role in implementing the reforms has changed the focus of the administrator's job.

"Ms. Tavenner is a smart, capable public servant. But protecting and strengthening Medicare and Medicaid deserve the full-time attention of a CMS administrator," he said in a statement.

Hatch said Tavenner's job could be complicated by a new controversy over efforts by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to encourage private donations to support Obama's reform law. Senate Republicans claim the actions could be illegal, a charge the administration denies. Republicans in the House of Representatives have launched an investigation.

Tavenner's nomination had also run afoul briefly on the Democratic side of the aisle before Wednesday's vote. Senator Tom Harkin, Democratic chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, delayed the process for two weeks to protest the administration's transfer of $460 million from a public health fund to finance the reform law's implementation.

(Reporting by David Morgan.; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Leslie Gevirtz and Andre Grenon)