SERRA SAN BRUNO, Italy (Reuters) - Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins has yet to show the form of last season that would make him top favorite for the Giro d'Italia, according to Juan Jose Cobo, the last non-Team Sky rider to beat the Briton on a Grand Tour.

"He's not necessarily the strongest rider," Spaniard Cobo told Reuters before Tuesday's fourth stage where Wiggins lost 17 seconds as the peloton split in the final kilometers.

"Personally I think (Italian) Vincenzo Nibali is equally likely to win."

Wiggins dropped from second to sixth overall on Tuesday, 34 seconds adrift of Italian Luca Paolini. Nibali is in fourth and last year's winner Ryder Hesjedal of Canada fifth, 31 and 34 seconds off the pace respectively.

Cobo, who toppled Wiggins and his Sky team mate Chris Froome to win the 2011 Tour of Spain, believes Wiggins may not be at his best, while others have shown they are in great shape.

"If Bradley had the same level as in last year's Tour then he's probably unbeatable but that's not at all clear yet this season," he said.

"Nibali has been very strong in all the races he's done this year and Wiggins hasn't yet had a chance to show his hand.

"Hesjedal has been very active in a lot of races too, and yesterday (Monday) when he attacked on that last climb, he showed he's got really good form," he added.

"That was very impressive, and he's the most recent winner of the Giro. He's somebody who has to count."

Wiggins has not won a race this season, while Nibali has taken the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race ahead of Froome and the Giro del Trentino, Italy's key warm-up race for the Giro d'Italia, ahead of Wiggins.

"Bradley is a favorite, but one of several, not the top candidate," Cobo said. "He's not been up there yet, but we'll see what happens."

STRONGEST TEAM

Cobo, who raced against Wiggins in last year's Tour de France but as part of his build-up for the Tour of Spain, his big target of the year, said Sky were the strongest team collectively in the Giro.

"When it comes to the third week, they'll be the ones who really matter, they'll make the running," he said.

Cobo said although he beat Wiggins in the 2011 Tour of Spain, wrenching the lead from him on the Angliru, Spain's toughest single climb, the Briton had not been in his top condition then.

"He was coming back from a lot of injuries and a bad crash in the Tour de France. It's nice to have done it, I won't forget that I beat him but you have to keep it in perspective," he said.

Racing injured after he crashed and hit his knee in the reconnaissance of Sunday's team time trial, Cobo was dropped on Tuesday's final climb of the Croce Ferrata early on.

"I was hoping to do well, perhaps even a top-10 result but with this injury, that's not going to happen," he said.

"My best option now is a stage win and to work for (Spanish Movistar overall contender) Benat Intxausti (who lies third behind Rigoberto Uran and Paolini). I'm not going to be beating Wiggins in this year's race, that's for sure."

(Editing by Sonia Oxley)

This year alone, 460 Vietnamese men, women and children have arrived on Australian shores more than in the last five years combined. The unexpected spike is drawing fresh scrutiny of Hanoi's deteriorating human rights record, though Vietnam's flagging economy may also explain why migrants have been making the risky journey.

The latest boat carrying Vietnamese cruised into Australia's Christmas Island one morning last month, according to witnesses on the shore. The hull number showed it was a fishing vessel registered in Kien Giang, a southern Vietnamese province more than 2,300 kilometers (1,400 miles) from Christmas Island, which is much closer to Indonesia than it is to the Australian mainland.

Many Vietnamese who have reached Australia have been held incommunicado. The government doesn't release details about their religion and place of origin within Vietnam, both of which might hint at why they are seeking asylum.

Truong Chi Liem, reached via telephone from the Villawood Immigration Detention Center on the outskirts of Sydney, would not reveal details of his case but said, "I'd rather die here than be forced back to Vietnam."

The 23-year-old left Vietnam five years ago but who was detained en route in Indonesia for 18 months. He said Vietnamese simply looking to make more money shouldn't attempt a boat journey, but he also said, "If a person is living a miserable life, faced with repression and threats by the authorities there, then they should leave."

Some Vietnamese reach Australia via Indonesia, following the same route that the far more numerous asylum seekers from South Asia and the Middle East have blazed for more than a decade. Others set sail from Vietnam itself, a far longer and riskier journey.

In separate statements, the Australian and Vietnamese governments said the overwhelming majority or all of the arrivals were economic migrants, which would make them ineligible for asylum. Several Vietnamese community activists in Australia and lawyers who have represented asylum-seekers from the Southeast Asian country dispute that categorization or raised questions over the screening process Australia uses.

Those activists and lawyers also raise concerns about what will become of the migrants, saying that while Australia doesn't want to keep them, Vietnam doesn't want to take them back.

"Vietnam's attitude is that, 'These are people who will never be our friends, so why should we take them back?'" said Trung Doan, former head of the Vietnamese Community in Australia, a diaspora group.

In a statement, the Vietnamese government said it is "willing to cooperate with concerned parties to resolve this issue."

Asylum-seekers are a sensitive issue for Vietnam because their journeys undermine Communist Party propaganda that all is well in the country. They also hark back to the mass exodus after the Vietnam War.

Those Vietnamese who fled persecution by the victorious Communists in the immediate aftermath of the war triggered a global humanitarian crisis. Their plight resonated with the U.S. and its allies, and they were initially given immediate refugee status. In 1989, they had to prove their cases pursuant to the Geneva Convention, and acceptance rates quickly fell as a result. Nearly 900,000 Vietnamese did make it out by boat or over land, with the United States, Canada and Australia accepting most of them.

Vietnam remains a one-party state that arrests and hands long prison sentences to government critics, including bloggers and Roman Catholic activists. Human Rights Watch alleges torture in custody is routine. Christian groups have reported on alleged suspicious deaths in custody.

Most independent human rights activists say that repression has increased over the last two years.

Little is known about the background of those that have made the trip this year.

At least some of those who have arrived in the recent past are Roman Catholics who took part in a protest near a cathedral in the capital, Hanoi, said Kaye Bernard, a refugee advocate who has met some arrivals from Hanoi. Others are said to be involved in land disputes with local authorities.

"I don't think you can generalize but there has been an increase in repression in Vietnam. The sentences are getting longer. There is more fear," said Hoi Trinh, an Australia lawyer of Vietnamese descent who heads an organization helping asylum-seekers. "If more people are more fearful, then more of them will flee."

Peter Hansen, a lawyer and Vietnam expert who advised in some appeals involving recent arrivals from Vietnam, said the small number of cases he was aware of didn't involve intellectuals, bloggers or political dissidents most targeted in the current campaign by the government. But he cautioned that current Australian guidelines on the validity of claims from Vietnam didn't take into account the reality of persecution against certain religious sects in specific parts of the country.

"I can't account for why there has been a significant increase this year, but I can tell you now that I'm absolutely certain that there is a proportion of that number who weren't motivated to come here for economic reasons," he said.

Neighboring countries like Cambodia have continued to receive small numbers of asylum-seekers since the 1990s. Many thousands of Vietnamese have left the country to work in Asia or beyond, either illegally or as exported labor. Many don't return after their contracts end.

Australia appears to be the destination of choice, but the country is already facing a record number of asylum-seekers this year. Under public pressure, the Australian government has made it more difficult for people to be considered for asylum and often detained migrants on isolated islands away from lawyers. Critics say Canberra is avoiding its responsibilities under the U.N. refugee conventions by taking these measures.

Along with other nationalities, the Vietnamese are kept in detention, either on the mainland, on Christmas Island or on the Pacific islands of Nauru and Manus. Families and unaccompanied children are kept in lower-security detention facilities. Four Vietnamese, including a teenager, escaped from one such center in Darwin earlier this week, according to authorities.

Australia's desire to get tough on Vietnamese arrivals appears to have run into a problem: The government in Hanoi has shown no interest in accepting the asylum-seekers, according to activists and lawyers.

Australia can't simply put the migrants on the first plane to Hanoi. They need to have travel documents issued to them by Vietnamese authorities, who must first confirm their identities.

Of the 101 Vietnamese who arrived in Australia in 2011, only six have so far been returned to Vietnam. Very few, if any, have been granted asylum, according to lawyers and activists.

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Follow Chris Brummitt on Twitter at twitter.com/cjbrummitt

The finding came in a letter to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who requested the analysis, from Stephen C. Gross, chief actuary for the agency.

It could provide a boost for the immigration bill, which has been attacked by some conservatives as overly costly, as the Senate Judiciary Committee prepares to take up the legislation for amendments and votes beginning Thursday. Meanwhile, a separate dispute loomed as religious leaders warned that adding a gay rights provision to the immigration legislation could cost their support.

Gross' analysis said the immigration bill would boost Social Security's coffers by more than $240 billion over the coming decade and add $64 billion in new tax revenues to Medicare. It also would increase the size of the economy by a full percentage point by 2017, and increase employment.

Gross wrote that the overall effect of the bill on the long-range trust fund balance "will be positive."

Social Security has long-term financial problems because, as more people retire and live longer, there will be relatively fewer workers paying into the system. In 1960, there were 4.9 workers paying Social Security taxes for each person getting benefits. Today, there are about 2.8 workers for each beneficiary, a ratio that will drop to 1.9 workers by 2035 under current law, according to projections by the Congressional Budget Office.

The actuary's letter suggests the immigration bill would slow this trend. Under the bill, there would be nearly 6.6 million more workers paying Social Security taxes in 2024, the actuary projects. That same year, there would be an additional 683,000 people getting benefits. That's nearly 10 additional taxpayers for each new beneficiary.

The Social Security analysis is the first government analysis to quantify economic impacts from the far-reaching bill authored by Rubio and seven other senators, both Democratic and Republican.The legislation came under attack earlier this week in a disputed report from the conservative Heritage Foundation, which claimed the bill would cost $6.3 trillion over 50 years as newly legalized immigrants consume government benefits without paying an equal amount in taxes.

The Social Security analysis doesn't attempt to determine the overall cost of the bill. That figure will be provided by the Congressional Budget Office, which has not yet released its projections.

But the analysis does measures some impacts of the bill, which aims to secure the border, create new avenues for workers to come legally to the U.S., ensure employers don't hire workers here without legal status, and give a path to citizenship to the millions already here illegally.

The analysis finds that of about 11.5 million immigrants here illegally who would be eligible under the bill, around 8 million would apply for and be granted legal status. Many would immediately become taxpayers, but the bill prevents them from receiving government benefits for over a decade.

In the longer term most of these new taxpayers would eventually receive benefits, but the actuary said he still expects the bill to improve the long-term health of Social Security.

The analysis also said that provisions in the bill would reduce by about a half-million per year the future number of people entering the country illegally.

On the gay rights issue, religious leaders issued a warning Wednesday about the impact on the immigration bill if Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., moves forward with an amendment to allow gay Americans to sponsor their foreign partners for U.S. residence like straight married Americans can.

"We're extremely hopeful that this bill will remain an immigration bill and not get tangled up with the issue of gay rights," Richard Land, a leader of the Southern Baptist Convention, told reporters on a conference call. "But if it did, if it did, the Southern Baptist Convention would not be able to support the bill."

Other religious leaders on the call echoed Land's warnings. Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, labeled the gay rights provision "a divisive distraction that must not derail immigration reform."

The four Republican authors of the immigration bill have said that such a provision could cost their support and imperil the bill's chances.

"If that's in the bill, that will kill the bill," Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the authors, said Wednesday. "We've made it pretty clear. Not pretty clear crystal clear. That'll kill the bill."

If Leahy were to offer a gay marriage amendment, attention would turn to Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to see whether they would support it. Schumer and Durbin are among Democratic authors of the bill and both sit on Leahy's committee. Both have expressed support for Leahy's goals on the gay marriage issue without saying how they would vote on his amendment.

Gay rights groups are lobbying aggressively for the gay marriage language to be included and they dispute suggestions that it would jeopardize the bill.

"It's not something that should be considered a poison pill or a hot potato," said Gregory T. Angelo, who runs the gay GOP group Log Cabin Republicans.

"There are 11 states and the District of Columbia that recognize relationships between committed same-sex couples," Angelo said in an interview. "These are individuals who are here legally, who are in marriages and who are denied the rights of their straight counterparts."

President Barack Obama included a provision recognizing gay partnerships in his own immigration bill, but he has made it clear in recent comments that the Senate measure meets his criteria for an immigration overhaul, even without the provision.

In another development, more than two dozen conservative leaders have signed on to a statement supporting action to overhaul the nation's immigration laws, calling the Senate bill an "important starting point."

In a statement being released Thursday, the officials said: "Simply opposing immigration reform should not be the conservative response to this problem. We believe conservatives should be leading the way on this issue by supporting legislation that upholds conservative principles."

The statement was organized by Al Cardenas, chairman of the American Conservative Union.

___

Associated Press writers Stephen Ohlemacher and Josh Lederman contributed to this report.

Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda said rescue teams are being dispatched Tuesday to Mayon volcano in the central Philippines to look for four more climbers and guides still trapped near the crater.

Guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network by cellphone from a camp near the crater that the four climbers died after being hit by huge rocks. Another man was critically injured from a group of eight that included five foreigners and three Filipino guides. The nationalities of the foreign climbers are not yet clear.

So far, scientists have deployed about 25 of these GPS-equipped javelins in , and another four on the , said Hilmar Gudmundsson, a researcher at the British Antarctic Survey (BAS). The javelins will automatically record and relay their positions for two to three years, allowing researchers to figure out how quickly the glacier is flowing into the ocean. Preliminary measurements show that the Pine Island Glacier's march to the sea is speeding up, Gudmundsson told OurAmazingPlanet.

Thefaster than any other glacier in Antarctica, and it's important to find out why and exactly how fast, Gudmundsson said. By some estimates, this glacier alone could be responsible for about 5 percent of global , although that is a rough calculation and varies by year, he added.

The javelins are designed to only partially embed into the ice, so that they are still able to communicate with satellites. To that end the devices are equipped with small parachutes and "ice brake" fins to keep them from disappearing beneath the ice sheet when they crash land, Gudmundsson said.

Like many glaciers in polar regions, the Pine Island Glacier's expanse of ice doesn't stop when it reaches the ocean. Instead, the ice flows into the sea, where it floats atop the water, forming a platform of ice called an ice shelf. Measurements have shown that the Antarctic Ocean is warmer than it used to be, and is melting the bottom of this ice shelf. That produces less resistance for the glacier on land, which, as a result, slides toward the ocean faster than before, Gudmundsson said.

And behind the Pine Island Glacier is an even larger section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, one of the largest in the world. The glacier acts like a plug in a leaky dam, and if it collapses, it could have devastating consequences for global sea levels, he added.

The javelins Gudmundsson and his team have deployed allow researchers to measure areas, like this one, that are difficult to access over land. "This opens up new possibilities. We can instrument areas that were previously out of reach," he said. "These data will give us a clear picture of what's going on but will also give us a valuable data set to test our [computer] models."

Email or follow him . Follow us, or . Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

MTV said it has ordered a one-hour pilot episode and that producer Dimension Films is in negotiations with the franchise's director, Wes Craven, to direct the pilot.

The series is expected to air in summer 2014, said MTV, a unit of Viacom.

The film series, about a masked serial killer who stalks his victims, began in 1996, and it had follow-up instalments in 1997, 2000 and 2011.

Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette were the main stars of the cast over the course of the four films.

The franchise, which was praised for its satirical take on the slasher subgenre of horror films, has grossed more than $600 million worldwide, according to box office tracker Boxofficemojo.com.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Mohammad Zargham)

The reigning NL Cy Young winner gave up a home run on his second pitch and was later booed off the mound. Dustin Ackley hit his first career grand slam and Michael Saunders homered twice as the Seattle Mariners romped 8-1 Saturday.

"We're somewhat of a dysfunctional team right now," Dickey said. "We're kind of searching for a way to score runs, a way to pitch well. We're doing a lot of things poorly, myself included."

Toronto has lost four straight and has been outscored 25-3 in that span. A season-worst 11 games below .500, the Blue Jays have lost 14 of 18 overall.

"We're all pretty beat up mentally right now but you've got to get through that," Blue Jays manager John Gibbons said. "That's professional baseball. There's a lot of season left. You get tested and you find out what you're made of."

Dickey (2-5) was among several stars Toronto added during an offseason overhaul. Despite all the All-Stars, the Blue Jays are 10-21 and in last place.

Pressed on his use of the word "dysfunctional" after a report Friday of tension in the Blue Jays clubhouse, Dickey insisted there's no issue with Toronto's chemistry.

"We've got a group of great guys," the knuckleballer said. "And the chemistry in here, nobody is blaming other people. We're all trying to own what ours is to own in this. But we're not very good right now and everybody knows it. That's no secret."

Dickey was booed by the crowd of 35,754 after Raul Ibanez hit a one-out triple in the sixth and scored on Kelly Shoppach's double. As the runs piled up, some fans responded with chants of "Go, Leafs, Go!" for the NHL's Maple Leafs, currently in the playoffs against the Boston Bruins.

"I did hear them, it was hard not to," Dickey said. "They were pretty animated. You can't blame them. We've played well below our expectation. We're booing ourselves. It's tough."

Pitching on an extra day of rest because of lingering neck and back soreness, Dickey lost his third straight start. He allowed six hits, including a season-high three home runs. He walked two and struck out five.

"He didn't give up a lot of hits but they were big hits," Gibbons said.

Dickey said his neck and back weren't a concern against the Mariners, and Gibbons said the Blue Jays see no need to put Dickey on the disabled list.

Dickey lost consecutive starts only once during his outstanding season with the New York Mets last year. His previous three-start losing streak came in July and August of 2011.

It was a bad day all around for the Blue Jays, who even appeared to lose track of the number of outs and were slow to come off the field after Kendrys Morales struck out to end the fifth.

Hisashi Iwakuma (3-1) welcomed the Seattle hitting after receiving just one run of support in his previous three outings. He pitched seven innings to win for the first time in four starts.

Iwakuma allowed one run and five hits. He walked three and struck out five, lowering his ERA to 1.61.

"He's one of the better guys in the league right now and you can see why," Gibbons said.

Yoervis Medina pitched the eighth and Oliver Perez worked the ninth for the Mariners, who have won seven of their past eight meetings with Toronto. Seattle has won six of seven overall.

Saunders homered on Dickey's second pitch of the game, the second leadoff homer of his career, then added another solo shot in the fifth. It was the fourth multihomer game of his career and his first this season.

Saunders added an RBI double off Brett Cecil in the ninth.

"He had a big day for us," Seattle manager Eric Wedge said. "He just brings a lot of energy and intensity to the top of our lineup."

Ackley connected on a 3-2 pitch in the fourth, immediately after Dickey had loaded the bases with back-to-back walks to Ibanez and Shoppach.

"That's an awesome feeling," Ackley said. "Hitting a home run in general is a great feeling, but to have three guys on base and to put your team up, it was pretty important for us."

Ackley's first homer of the season was Dickey's biggest regret of the afternoon.

"Outside of that I wasn't too disappointed, but that singular pitch really put us in the hole, big time," Dickey said.

Blanked by Felix Hernandez on Friday, the Blue Jays struggled to get anything going against Iwakuma, snapping a 23-inning scoreless streak on Munenori Kawasaki's sacrifice fly in the seventh.

NOTES: Wedge gave 1B Justin Smoak and OF Jason Bay the day off against Dickey. ... Dickey underwent an MRI on Wednesday that revealed mild inflammation in his neck and back. It's the same injury that forced him to leave after the sixth inning of an April 18 start against the Chicago White Sox. ... Dickey went 5-8 with a 5.21 ERA in 32 games for Seattle in 2008. ... Seattle's Joe Saunders (2-3) faces Brandon Morrow (0-2) in Sunday's series finale.

The Giants blew a 5-0 lead and wasted a bases-loaded opportunity in the ninth before Quiroz hit an 0-2 pitch from Dodgers closer Brandon League (0-1) into the left field stands. Quiroz pumped his fist as soon as he left the batter's box and scurried around the bases with his first career walkoff hit. He is 4 for 6 this season as a pinch hitter.

The two teams combined for 19 runs, 30 hits and combined to strand 24 runners in a game that lasted 4 hours, 11 minutes.

A.J. Ellis homered and was one of six Dodgers with two hits as Los Angeles lost for the fifth time in seven games.

It was San Francisco's fourth straight win over its NL West rival and the second straight by walkoff home runs. Buster Posey's homer lifted the Giants to a 2-1 win on Friday night.

Both teams had a chance to win it in the ninth.

Los Angeles got a one-out single from Dee Gordon but failed to advance him past second, while the Giants loaded the bases before Posey hit into an inning-ending double play.

The Dodgers haven't had a good time at all in the first two games of this series.

One day after left-hander Ted Lilly went on the disabled list, Los Angeles lost shortstop Hanley Ramirez to a hamstring injury less than a week after his return from an offseason thumb injury. Then first baseman Adrian Gonzalez was a late scratch with neck pain.

San Francisco, on the other hand, won its fifth straight.

Gordon put the Dodgers up 9-8 in the seventh when he drew a leadoff walk against Javy Lopez and was sacrificed to second. Gordon stole third and scored on a headfirst slide into home to beat the throw from San Francisco second baseman Marco Scutaro following Carl Crawford's infield grounder.

Pablo Sandoval's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the seventh tied it at 9-all.

The Giants batted around in the first inning and led 5-0 after two to chase Dodgers starter Matt Magill. Posey had a two-run double to help get the defending World Series champs out to their early lead.

Ellis homered off San Francisco starter Ryan Vogelsong with one out in the fourth before Los Angeles sent 12 men to the plate and took the lead in the fifth.

Matt Kemp had a two-run double while Gordon tripled in two runs when his hit bounced past sliding right fielder Hunter Pence. Gordon later scored on Nick Punto's single.

After Andres Torres ended an 0-for-14 slump with a solo home run off reliever Javy Guerra in the fifth to pull the Giants within 8-7, Posey scored the tying run on a wild pitch by Paco Rodriguez in the sixth.

The two teams traded runs in the seventh, setting the stage for the finish.

NOTES: Giants CF Angel Pagan left the game after the fifth inning with a right hamstring strain. ... San Francisco's starting pitchers haven't recorded a win since April 21, the team's longest drought since a 14-game stretch in 2010. ... Magill threw 43 pitches in the first inning. ... Injured Dodgers pitcher Zack Greinke threw a 60-pitch bullpen session in his latest step back from a broken left clavicle. "He felt like he had a lot more left, so that was good," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said. ... LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu (3-1), who starts the series finale for Los Angeles, is coming off a 12-strikeout performance against Colorado. He'll oppose San Francisco RHP Matt Cain (0-2), who is seeking his first win of the season.

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 | I am a mother of a 9-year-old boy with autism. He is in the fourth grade, and we live in Victorville, Calif. From the time my son was born until his diagnosis, my family and I knew something about him was different. Whenever there was a change, he struggled. For example: From breastfeeding to the bottle and, from baby food to real food there was a massive struggle. This included screaming for hours. We also noticed he would line things up. He would then move them across his belly, and then line them up again. This would go on for a long period of time. He also did a lot of rocking back and forth.

My son was diagnosed with high-functioning autism when he turned 3 by Inland Regional Center. My son knows that he has autism and will tell people that he has it. He will say that he is extra-sensitive because he has autism.

Cognitively, intellectually, and academically, my son excels. He always has. However, socially and emotionally is where his greatest struggle lies. Even though he is diagnosed as high-functioning, I would consider his social/emotional issues as severe. He does not like meeting new people, or being in new situations. He does not really like going out of the house at all. Even if there are kids his age, he doesn't want anything to do with them.

My son has poor self-esteem and is pessimistic. Lately he's been telling me that he wishes he had a happy life. He often says that he is not good at anything, and can't do anything right. His day-to-day life is on a routine. He doesn't handle it well when anything changes, and I mean anything. It could be the tiniest thing that changes, and he will go into a fit. For example: His bus driver called me last night saying he will be picked up before 6 a.m. My son threw a fit on and off all night.

What I would like others to know about my son is that this is real. He cannot help the way that he is. He's been called a baby and been told to "knock it off." This is how he is. He does his best just to get through each day.

I think that people in general have come a long way with autism, especially since so many children are getting diagnosed these days. It seems to be more and more accepted. I know for myself it was a relief to get an answer that made sense.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - The Florida Senate sent Governor Rick Scott a package of capital-punishment reforms on Monday designed to prevent condemned killers from spending decades on Death Row, despite warnings that speeding up the legal appeals process could lead to innocent prisoners being executed.

The "Timely Justice Act" sets deadlines for condemned killers to file appeals, and for the state to proceed with issuing warrants after the Florida Supreme Court upholds death sentences.

It also sets competency standards for lawyers handling cases. To reduce the number of appeals alleging incompetent counsel, any attorney twice found to have provided "constitutionally deficient representation" will be suspended from handling death appeals for five years.

"Is swift justice fair justice?" asked Democratic party Senator Arthenia Joyner, a Tampa attorney who voted against the bill. "We have seen cases where, years later, convicted people were exonerated," she said.

"I don't see the reason for the swiftness, especially with DNA evidence that can exonerate," said Senator Maria Sachs, who is also an attorney and a Democrat.

But Republican Senator Rob Bradley said, "this is not about guilt or innocence, it's about timely justice." Frivolous appeals designed only for delay are not fair to victims and their families, he said.

The act also requires the state Supreme Court to make annual reports to the Legislature on how many capital appeals have been pending more than three years. Attorneys found to have provided incompetent counsel would also be reported to the Florida Bar.

"Only God can judge," Matt Gaetz, a Republican who sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives, said last week during House debate. "But we sure can set up the meeting."

The House passed Gaetz's bill 84-34 last week. Governor Scott, a conservative Republican, is expected to sign the changes into law.

Florida has 400 men and five women currently under death sentence, with the next execution set for May 29. Gaetz and backers of his bill said 155 have been on Death Row for more than 20 years and 10 have been there more than 35 years.

Staff analysis of Gaetz's bill said the average time between sentence and execution, since Florida resumed executions in 1979, has been 13 years. The state has carried out 75 warrants in that time, second only to Texas, which has executed 496 convicted killers since 1976.

Richard Dieter of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., said 33 states currently have capital punishment, but Maryland is set to abolish it when that state's governor signs a repeal law this week. Five states have repealed the death penalty in the past six years, Dieter said.

"There's been a trend away from capital punishment," said Dieter. "The number of sentences imposed in the country has declined by 75 percent since 1990 and only nine states carried out an execution last year."

State Senator Darren Soto tried on Friday to raise the required jury vote from seven to 10 for death penalties. He said Florida is the only state allowing juries to recommend death by a simple majority of 7 to 5. He said Alabama is the only other state allowing non-unanimous death recommendations, which he said require 10 votes there.

(Editing by David Adams and Nick Zieminski)