Grammy-winner Underwood will take the reins from fellow country singer Faith Hill, who had sung the theme "Waiting All Day for Sunday Night" before each telecast since 2007. Underwood's performance will be prerecorded.

"I'm very excited," Underwood, 30, said in a conference call. "I think it's a perfect fit and I am such a sports fan and football fan, and we love Sunday nights around my household, so for me to be a part of it is something really special."

Underwood, who shot to recognition by winning the TV singing competition "American Idol" in 2005, is married to Canadian ice hockey player Mike Fisher and sang the national anthem at the 2010 Super Bowl.

A prominent musical introduction is a staple of U.S. prime time football broadcasts after Hank Williams Jr. reworked his song "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming over Tonight" as the theme for the "Monday Night Football" program in 1989.

"Sunday Night Football" begins its weekly run on September 8 with a game between the Dallas Cowboys and New York Giants.

NBC is part of Comcast Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

LONDON, May 4 (Reuters) - Tennis great Chris Evert has hit out at her former fiance Jimmy Connors for hinting that their relationship ended in the 1970s after she had an abortion against his wishes.

"In his book, Jimmy Connors has written about a time in our relationship that was very personal and emotionally painful," Evert said in a statement released to Reuters on Saturday through her agent Lawrence Frankopan at StarWing Sports.

"I am extremely disappointed that he used the book to misrepresent a private matter that took place 40 years ago and made it public, without my knowledge. I hope everyone can understand that I have no further comment."

Evert, who won 18 grand slam titles, and eight-times major champion Connors were the golden couple of tennis when they dated during the 1970s. Both won the Wimbledon singles titles in 1974 and were due to get married later that year.

When they called off their wedding, little was known about the reasons behind it.

However, Connors shed light on the issues that led to the breakdown of their relationship in his memoir "The Outsider", extracts of which were quoted in the American media this week.

"An issue had arisen as a result of youthful passion, and a decision had to be made as a couple. Chrissie called to say she was coming out to LA to take care of the 'issue'," Connors wrote in his book.

"I was perfectly happy to let nature take its course and accept responsibility for what was to come."

Evert, raised a Catholic, was 19 at the time.

Connors added in his book: "Chrissie, however, had already made up her mind that the timing was bad and too much was riding on her future. She asked me to handle the details.

He wrote that his response was: "'Well, thanks for letting me know. Since I don't have any say in the matter, then I guess I am just here to help.'

"It was a horrible feeling, but I knew it was over. Getting married wasn't going to be good for either of us."

With Connors deciding they were too young to get married, he wrote that her reply was: "OK if that's what you think. I've got a match tomorrow. Not a problem." (Rerporting by Pritha Sarkar; Editing by Sonia Oxley)

- - - -

Islanders 4 Penguins 3

Kyle Okposo scored to snap a tie with 7:37 remaining in the third period as visiting New York overcame two goals by the returning Sidney Crosby to even its Eastern Conference first-round series with top-seeded Pittsburgh at one game apiece.

After being pulled in Wednesday's 5-0 loss in Game One, Evgeni Nabokov rebounded from a shaky start to turn aside 30 shots.

Matt Moulson scored a power-play goal in the first period and former Penguin Colin McDonald and Matt Martin tallied nearly 5 1/2 minutes apart in the second for eighth-seeded New York, which hosts Game Three on Sunday afternoon.

Reigning Hart Trophy winner Evgeni Malkin recorded his 33rd career playoff goal just 43 seconds into the game while Jarome Iginla notched a pair of assists for the second straight contest for the Penguins.

Marc-Andre Fleury finished with 38 saves, but was victimized by a pair of goals following lively caroms off the end boards. Okposo ignited New York's rally in the second period with a spirited fight against Pittsburgh defenseman Matt Niskanen.

Two goals promptly followed before Okposo capped the comeback after his shot from the slot deflected off the end boards before banking off Fleury and into the net.

- - - -

Canadiens 3 Senators 1

Ryan White and rookie Brendan Gallagher scored 53 seconds apart in the second period as host Montreal evened its Eastern Conference series against Ottawa at one game apiece.

Carey Price bounced back from a subpar opening game to turn aside 29 shots and Michael Ryder also scored for the second-seeded Canadiens, who rebounded from a 4-2 loss in Game One on Thursday.

Milan Michalek scored the lone goal and Craig Anderson made 31 saves for the seventh-seeded Senators, who were stymied on four power-play chances.

There was no retribution from Montreal for the jarring hit that knocked Lars Eller unconscious in Game One and led to a two-game suspension for Ottawa defenseman Eric Gryba.

Instead, the Canadiens jumped on the Senators when White snared a giveaway by reigning Norris Trophy winner Erik Karlsson and poked the puck past Anderson at 3:20 of the second period.

Gallagher made it 2-0 at 4:13, shovelling a pass from fellow rookie Alex Galchenyuk into an open net.

Michalek cut the deficit in half four minutes later, but Ryder swept a puck past Anderson with 63 seconds left in the period - moments after Price turned aside three shots on Ottawa's power play.

The series shifts to Ottawa for Game Three on Sunday.

- - - -

Sharks 3, Canucks 2 (OT)

Patrick Marleau scored the tying goal with 56 seconds remaining in the third period and Raffi Torres tallied at 5:31 of overtime as visiting San Jose took a 2-0 lead in its Western Conference first-round series with Northwest Division champion Vancouver.

Captain Joe Thornton also scored, Brent Burns notched two assists and Antti Niemi turned aside 29 shots for the sixth-seeded Sharks, who host Game Three on Sunday.

Burns grabbed a loose puck in his own zone and carried it down the right wing on a two-on-one rush before sending it across the slot to former Canuck Torres, who shoveled it past Roberto Luongo to hand Vancouver its sixth consecutive home playoff loss.

- - - -

Blackhawks 5, Wild 2

Michael Frolik posted his first career two-goal playoff performance and Patrick Sharp also scored twice as host Chicago overpowered eighth-seeded Minnesota to take a 2-0 lead in its Western Conference first-round series.

Bryan Bickell added an empty-net goal and Corey Crawford made 26 saves for the top-seeded Blackhawks, who followed through on their plan to attack early and often with 17 first-period shots and another 17 in the third.

Patrick Kane and Andrew Shaw each recorded two assists. (Editing by John O'Brien)

The fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) will be released in May. Yahoo is featuring first-person stories from Americans who are diagnosed with some of the most common mental health disorders in the United States. Here's one story.

FIRST PERSON | My mom handed me the phone, "It's for you."

"Mr. Jepson, this is the Henrico County Police Department. Come outside."

What was this? I thought. I felt like a criminal.

I went outside, and saw the police with shields.

"Put down the telephone," one of them asked over the telephone.

I did so after he told me to come outside. It was raining. I walked on the driveway.

"Get on your knees!" another one yelled.

"Put your hands in the air!" another officer yelled.

About four police officers rushed toward me.

"Lay on your stomach," the same officer said in a monotone voice.

There was a river of water running down the driveway at my parents' house in Virginia back in 2005. My whole front got wet as they put me in handcuffs. The police were there because I refused to take my medication, and it was showing. I was 24. This wasn't the first time I had gone to the mental hospital.

I thought it was the end, but really it was a new beginning.

My first stay in a mental hospital was during my time in the Army. It was voluntary. I was a diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2004 while I was stationed at Fort Irwin, Calif., in the Mojave Desert. I was hearing voices in my head, and II thought I had special powers that allowed me to use my telepathy to talk back. Looking back, my illness really broke out after I experience hazing. I was duct-taped. Sometimes people didn't believe that I experience hazing, because I have schizophrenia, but I assure you I did. I was 23 years old, and I was later honorably discharged.

When I was home, I didn't take my medication, and my life was spiraling out of control. Without risperidone, I would probably be homeless or in jail. Now I get injections of my medication, and I take a pill every day.

I perceive myself as optimistic, yet hesitant or cautious. I sometimes worry whether I can do everyday things like leave my apartment. With this disorder, I've experienced mood fluctuations. It is in fact known as a mood disorder. I go to the veteran's hospital for therapy on Mondays and Fridays. I do my own laundry and grocery shopping and cleaning.

Schizophrenia can be treated, and just because you have a mental illness doesn't mean you can't be productive. It is not the patent's fault he has schizophrenia or any mental illness, for that matter. We were just dealt a bad hand.

Everyone has issues. Schizophrenia, however, is a full-time job and a marriage at the same time. It dominates your time and can be very stressful. And dealing with this stigma is hard. I have to really know someone before I tell someone I have schizophrenia. I wait until we are good friends and perhaps have already shared other secrets. I think most people see those living with schizophrenia as dangerous (like, for instance, a serial killer) or deranged. But chances are, I can write better than they can.

If anything, you just have to conclude some people will never understand your condition.

Haye, who lost his WBA belt in July 2011 to Ukrainian Vladimir Klitschko before beating Dereck Chisora 12 months later, faces Charr who has won all but one of his 24 professional bouts.

His only defeat came against Klitschko's older brother Vitaly last September when the Ukrainian retained his WBC title when the referee stopped the contest in the fourth round after Charr sustained a deep cut above his right eye.

Haye, who wants one of the Klitschko brothers to give him a world title shot, has a professional record of 26 wins and two defeats.

"(Haye) is determined to add another world title to his collection and sees his June 29 opponent as the next step towards doing just that," Haye's promoters said in a statement.

(Reporting by Sonia Oxley; Editing by Mark Meadows)

Circling, bounding over and pawing at a mound of garbage bags, the four dogs quickly have rodents on the run.

"Come on ... I mean, 'tally ho!' says one of their owners, Susan Friedenberg. In a whirl of barks, pants and wagging tails, dogs tunnel among the bags and bolt down the alley as their quarry tries to scurry away.

Within five minutes, the city has two fewer rats.

In a scrappy, streetwise cousin of mannerly countryside fox hunts, on terrain far from the European farms and fields where many of the dogs' ancestors were bred to scramble after vermin and foxes, their masters sport trash-poking sticks instead of riding crops and say it's just as viable an exercise for the animals' centuries-old skills.

"It's about maintaining the breed type through actual work," says Richard Reynolds, a New Jersey-based business analyst and longtime dog breeder who might be considered the group's organizer if it would accept being called organized.

Known with a chuckle as the Ryders Alley Trencher-fed Society parse the acronym the rodent-hunters have been scouring downtown byways for more than a decade, meeting weekly when weather allows.

On a couple of recent nights, an eclectic group of ratters converged on an alley near City Hall about an hour after sunset. The lineups included two border terriers; a wire-haired dachshund; a Jack Russell terrier/Australian cattle dog mix; a Patterdale terrier, an intense, no-nonsense breed that's uncommon in this country; and a feist, a type of dog developed in the American South to tree squirrels.

"Get 'im! Go!" Serge Lozach yelled as his cairn terrier, Hudson, streaked down an alley after a fleeing rat. Unlike many of the other owners, Lozach doesn't breed or show dogs, but he has taken Hudson to several alley hunts.

"I like watching him have fun," Lozach said.

Although the dogs have hunting instincts, it takes training to capitalize on them. Just because your pet runs after backyard squirrels doesn't mean it could ever catch one.

When at its best, the alley pack works together. One dog will sniff out a rat and signal its whereabouts, often by barking. Another leaps at the hideaway to rout the quarry, and then a third lurches to catch it as it flees. A rat that scuttles into the open might get caught in a rundown, or even a tug of war, between dogs that circle and flank it.

After making a kill with a bite or a shake, the hunters trot back, rat in mouth, and allow their owners to take it from their jaws. The night's kill ends up in a trash bin.

There's no official estimate of how many rats rove the city's streets, basements, parks and subways. But there are plenty.

Officials have tried a number of innovative tactics to rout them, including a 2007 city Health Department initiative that sent inspectors with hand-held computers to map infestations in a Bronx neighborhood and then followed up with owners to address the problems.

Recently, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority agreed to let an Arizona-based company test a form of rat birth control by setting out bait in some subway stations this summer.

But the terrier forays are an unofficial undertaking, and participants say they're less about killing rats than giving dogs the experience of chasing them. The Health Department declined to comment on the hunts.

The idea has a long history. A noted 1851 examination of working-class life in London describes rat-catchers working the city's streets with ferrets and terriers. More recently, a rat-catching dachshund got attention in Seattle when its owner happened by while City Councilman Tom Rasmussen was checking out a downtown cleanup program in 2010. Rasmussen snapped a picture of the dog, rat in mouth, and posted the photo on his website.

There's even an American dog breed called a rat terrier, though its origins lie on farms.

Rat-tracking recently became an official canine sport, called "barn hunt." Dogs get two minutes to sniff around a hay-bale maze and indicate where they smell a rat concealed in a crush-proof, aerated tube; the dog never catches the quarry. Dozens of dogs competed in the first trials this past month in Columbia, Mo.

While dog owners may see it as time-honored pursuit, rat-hunting riles animal-rights advocates. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which opposes hunting in general, expressed outrage after video of a dog snatching rats in a New York City park surfaced online two years ago. PETA Spokesman Martin Mersereau calls the alley rat quests "a twisted blood sport masquerading as rodent control."

Reynolds counters that "there are lots of worse things that people do to rats," noting that poisons can sicken the animals for hours.

As for the dogs, they have sometimes gotten stuck in waste bins or tumbled into holes, and a recent night left two with scrapes. But Reynolds says none has ever been seriously hurt or fallen ill.

In one recent foray, the dogs dispatched 13 rats within about a half-hour.

The dogs prowled and prodded for about 90 more minutes before the group gave up for the night. But not to worry, said dachshund owner Trudy Kawami.

"There will always be a million rats in the naked city."

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Abdifatah Haji Aden, Puntland's military court chairman, said the prisoners were executed by firing squad on the outskirts of Bossaso, Puntland's commercial hub, on Tuesday. Aden said one soldier who helped carry out the execution died after being struck by an errant bullet fired by a colleague.

Six of the prisoners were convicted for the murder of Ahmed Abdirahman, a religious leader killed by gunmen in December 2011. The other seven were convicted of various other crimes, mainly targeted killings.

Puntland, in northern Somalia, has escaped the decades of conflict seen in the country's south and central regions. But Puntland has seen attacks and assassinations against government officials.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks closed about 1 percent higher on Thursday, led by tech shares, after weekly jobless claims figures pointed to improving labor market conditions a day before the closely watched monthly payroll report.

The European Central Bank also lifted sentiment, putting the S&P 500 at another all-time closing high, as the ECB cut interest rates for the first time in 10 months and held out the possibility of further action if necessary to boost the euro zone economy.

The move follows Wednesday's Federal Reserve statement in which the Fed said it will continue its bond buying scheme to keep interest rates low and spur growth, and would step up purchases if needed.

"This shows that central banks are very determined to ensure that the system is stable and that the global economy continues to be propped up if needed," said Weyman Gong, chief investment strategist at Signature in Norfolk, Virginia. "This makes us very comfortable with U.S. markets for the rest of the year."

Jobless claims fell sharply in the latest week, dropping to their lowest since the early days of the 2007-09 recession.

The data follows a string of underwhelming reports, including a slow rate of growth in factory activity in the U.S. and China, which added to concerns about the pace of growth going into the April jobs report. Analysts are looking for 145,000 jobs to have been added in the month, up from the 88,000 added in March.

"U.S. markets are very focused on jobs, and the claims report suggests the positive trend of hiring could be continuing," said Gong, who helps oversee $2.5 billion.

The Nasdaq advanced on strength large-cap tech shares like Apple Inc , which rose 1.4 percent to $445.52, and Amazon.com Inc , up 1.7 percent to $252.55. The PHLX semiconductor indexrose 1.4 percent after earlier hitting its highest level in two years.

Facebook Incjumped 5.6 percent to $28.97 after posting strong mobile advertising revenue growth in the first quarter.

The Dow Jones industrial averagewas up 130.63 points, or 0.89 percent, at 14,831.58. The Standard & Poor's 500 Indexwas up 14.87 points, or 0.94 percent, at 1,597.57. The Nasdaq Composite Indexwas up 41.49 points, or 1.26 percent, at 3,340.62.

The S&P ended at a record level and hit a record high intraday level of 1,598.58 earlier in the session. About 74 percent of stocks traded on the New York Stock Exchange closed higher while 73 percent of Nasdaq-listed shares closed up.

Visarose 5.6 percent to $175.40 a day after reporting strong quarterly results and growth in the key U.S. market. The stock earlier advanced to an all-time high.

General Motorsrose 3.2 percent to $31.16 after reporting a stronger-than-expected quarterly profit as its North American business improved and its loss in Europe was smaller than Wall Street estimated.

With 76 percent of the S&P 500 having reported, 68.5 percent have topped profit expectations, more than the 67 percent average over the past four quarters. However, only 45.6 percent have topped revenue expectations, below the 52 percent beat rate over the past year.

After the market closed, American International Group Incrose 2.6 percent to $43.22 after reporting its first-quarter results, while LinkedIn Corpslumped 11 percent after its results.

Gilead Sciencesshares jumped 4.1 percent to $52.18 after its combination hepatitis C pill proved effective in a small trial.

Volume was light, with about 6.02 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.36 billion shares.

(Editing by Nick Zieminski)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LivingSocial, the second-largest daily deal company behind Groupon Inc, said on Friday it was hit by a cyber attack that may have affected more than 50 million customers.

The company said the attack on its computer systems resulted in unauthorized access to customer data, including names, email addresses, date of birth for some users and "encrypted" passwords.

LivingSocial stressed customer credit card and merchants' financial and banking information were not affected or accessed. It also does not store passwords in plain text.

"We are actively working with law enforcement to investigate this issue," the company, part-owned by Amazon.com Inc, wrote in an email to employees.

LivingSocial does not disclose how many customers it has. However, spokesman Andrew Weinstein said "a substantial portion" of the company's customer base was affected. LivingSocial is also contacting customers who closed accounts, because it still has their information stored in databases, he added.

The attack hit customers in the United States, Canada, the U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Southern Europe and Latin America. Customers in South Korea, Indonesia, Philippines and Thailand were not affected, Weinstein said.

"In light of recent successful widespread attacks against major social networking sites, it's obvious that these providers are simply not doing enough to protect their customers' information," said George Tubin, senior security strategist at Trusteer, a computer security company.

The attack comes as LivingSocial struggles to handle a decline in consumer and merchant demand for daily deals. The company raised $110 million from investors, including Amazon earlier this year, but was forced to make large concessions to get the new money.

Amazon invested $56 million in LivingSocial in the first quarter, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, which also revealed the company had a first-quarter operating loss of $44 million on revenue of $135 million.

LivingSocial said on Friday it was beginning to contact more than 50 million customers whose data may have been affected by the cyber attack.

LivingSocial told customers in an email that they should log on to LivingSocial.com to create a new password for their accounts.

"We also encourage you, for your own personal data security, to consider changing password(s) on any other sites on which you use the same or similar password(s)," LivingSocial Chief Executive Tim O'Shaughnessy wrote in the email.

"We are sorry this incident occurred."

All Things D reported the cyber attack earlier on Friday.

(Reporting by Alistair Barr; Editing by Tim Dobbyn, Bernard Orr and Andre Grenon)

The research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, findssnacking on other microbes, a form of feeding called heterotrophy. Heterotrophs can't make their own organic nutrients, so they have to eat other life forms. This is in contrast with autotrophs (think plants), which can synthesize their own food from sunlight or inorganic chemicals.

Researchers suspected that organisms have been eating other organisms for a very long time about 3.5 billion years, said study researcher Martin Brasier, a professor at Oxford University's department of earth sciences. The new study clarifies the process about 1.9 million years ago. []

"In this study, for the first time, we identify how it was happening and 'who was eating who,'" Brasier said in a statement. "In fact, we've all experienced modern bacteria feeding this way, as that's where that 'rotten egg' whiff of hydrogen sulfide comes from in a blocked drain."

Early Earth may also , according to a 2007 study that found that ancient microbes may have shone a purplish hue.

Brasier and his colleagues analyzed fossils of a bacterium called Gunflintia. These fossils measured just 3 to 15 microns in diameter; in comparison, the eye of a needle is about 1,230 microns across. Compared with other bacterial fossils, the tubular outer sheath of Gunflintia were more likely to show perforations, a sign that other bacteria had been snacking on them.

Another clue that early Earth was a bacteria-eat-bacteria world was the discovery of iron sulfide replacing some segments of the Gunflintia sheaths. Iron sulfide, the compound that makes up fool's gold, is a waste product of certain heterotrophic bacteria that . These sulfate-reducing bacteria, which ultimately produce sulfides, date back 3.5 billion years, according to previously researched fossils.

"Whilst the Gunflintia fossils are only about half as old, they confirm that such bacteria were indeed flourishing by 1,900 million years ago," researcher David Wacey, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Western Australia, said in a statement, referring to the fossils from this study. "And that they were also highly particular about what they chose to eat."

The sulfate-breathers may not have been the only ones chowing down. The researchers also found clusters of 1-micron-sized rod and sphere bacteria in the Gunflintia fossils that may have died while in the process of consuming the larger microbes.

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