June 16 (Reuters) - A war of words between the coaches of Iran and South Korea has spiced things up between the Group A rivals as they bid to secure automatic qualifying spots for the 2014 World Cup.

The top two sides in the group clash in Ulsan on Tuesday, while Uzbekistan host Qatar looking for a big win to sneak in ahead of the Iranians in the final round of matches.

In Group B, Australia are in the driving seat for the second automatic berth and will seal a third successive World Cup appearance with victory over Iraq. Japan have already booked their spot in Brazil as group winners.

South Korea, on 14 points, could still take one of Group A's two automatic berths even if they lose to Iran but coach Choi Kang-hee has ensured Tuesday's clash will not lack intensity.

In comments that infuriated counterpart Carlos Queiroz, Choi said he wanted revenge for October's 1-0 defeat in Tehran where his team were "badly treated".

"The manners they showed were not good ... they were not hospitable. Aside from who makes it to the World Cup, I would like to beat Iran no matter what," Choi told reporters after his side's 1-0 win against Uzbekistan on Tuesday.

"Honestly, I dislike Iran more (than Uzbekistan). I hope Uzbekistan make it to the World Cup."

Iran, who beat Lebanon 4-0 on Tuesday, have 13 points while Uzbekistan have 11.

Choi's comments did not go down well with Queiroz, who wanted an apology from the South Korean coach.

"Choi should apologise to the Iranian people," the Portuguese told reporters upon arrival in Seoul.

"He said the Korean team was badly treated in Iran but we gave the best treatment available. He humiliated the Iranian citizens."

The war of words escalated after the former Real Madrid coach accused the Koreans of not pushing harder for a bigger victory against the Uzbeks.

"I will buy an Uzbek uniform and give it to Choi as a present," the Iran boss quipped.

Despite the heightened tensions, a draw in Ulsan should be enough to secure automatic qualification for both teams at the soccer showpiece in Brazil as Iran have a superior goal difference to the Uzbeks.

The two third-place finishers in the Asian qualifying groups will face off over two legs with the winners taking on a South American side in two matches for a berth in Brazil.

The Uzbeks' best chance of snatching an automatic berth will be to beat Qatar and hope Korea defeat Iran.

"Nothing has been lost, we still have a chance," Uzbekistan coach Mirjalol Kasimov said after an own goal by Akmal Shorakhmedov just before halftime handed the Koreans victory in their match on Tuesday.

"I really think Korea will win against Iran on June 18 and we will also play well against Qatar and will qualify for the World Cup."

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai; editing by Peter Rutherford)

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- The image was chilling: Snowmobile rider Caleb Moore, launched over his handlebars on a backflip gone wrong, rolled down the landing hill with his 450-pound machine somersaulting behind him.

Run over by his sled, Moore lay on the snow for several minutes before being helped off the course. As of Wednesday, he was hospitalized in critical condition because of bleeding around his heart and a complication involving his brain.

Moore's was the worst accident at the Winter X Games, which wrapped up Sunday night after four days of competition, but it wasn't the only harrowing moment. The wipeouts included a runaway snowmobile that sent spectators scrambling.

Even the highlights were hardly tame. Snowboarding star Shaun White soared a competition record 24 feet into the air during the superpipe competition, and fellow boarder Elena Hight showed off a difficult trick called a"double alley-oop backside rodeo" that involved a couple of backflips and a 180-degree rotation. It had never been seen in a competition.

All that, plus Moore's crash, has some wondering whether dialing up the difficulty each year improves action sports or has simply made them too dangerous.

"Should we be asking these questions? We absolutely should be," said Dan Lebowitz, the executive director of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, which examines the role of sports to promote healthy development and social responsibility.

The people performing these superhuman feats "really are just human," he said. "How do we maintain safety in that progression when that progression sometimes pushes every envelope to some amazingly extreme point?"

Moore's injuries underscore the dangers at Winter X, which was filled with numerous cover-your-eyes crashes.

Halldor Helgason of Iceland over-rotated on a flip in the snowboard big air competition and had to be taken off on a sled with a concussion. Rose Battersby of New Zealand sustained a lumbar spine fracture in a wipeout during practice before the skiing slopestyle competition, which will be an Olympic sport next winter at the Sochi Games.

Then there was this: Summer X Games motocross champion turned snowmobile newcomer Jackson Strong tumbled off his machine during the best trick competition, the throttle sticking and the sled swerving toward fans as they scurried away. The machine came to a rest when it got tangled in some netting and no one was seriously hurt.

Such a scenario had already crossed the mind of Levi LaVallee, a snowmobiler who captured two gold medals only to be sidelined for the final two competitions after tearing a muscle in his back.

"I've always thought about, 'What happens if the thing tips over and the throttle sticks?'" LaVallee said. "It was good, though, because it showed that X Games has a good setup with the fencing."

Whether action sports are too dangerous is an issue that's been raised before.

When freestyle skier Sarah Burke died in a training accident a little more than a year ago in Park City, Utah, there were questions about the halfpipe. Before that, the sport was examined when snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a severe brain injury in a fall in the same pipe as Burke two years earlier. Pearce has recovered and served as an analyst at Winter X.

But in general, the athletes accept the risks and defend their disciplines.

"To lose Sarah was such a blow to this entire industry," said snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler, who didn't compete this year as she recovers from a serious eye injury she suffered in training. "This sport brings so much joy, happiness and balance to my life and that far outweighs what could happen. You can't ever live your life with what could happen."

In a statement, X Games officials said they've paid close attention to safety issues over the event's 18-year history: "We've worked closely with athletes, risk management specialists, sport organizers and event managers to present the best possible experience for athletes and spectators. Further measures are constantly being evaluated."

Athletes say they prepare as best they can by trying out new tricks into foam pits and air bags set up at the bottom of courses. But even all the caution in the world can't prevent the fact that sometimes well-practiced maneuvers can go wrong in the air.

"You don't want to live your life in fear because of a situation," LaVallee said. "Look, I'm driving down the road right now and the worst-case scenario is a car could swerve over into my lane and run over me there it is, end of the road.

"That's kind of the same thing we think when we're competing. Hopefully, the preparation and countless hours of training and practicing will prevent the worst-case scenario from happening."

Tucker Hibbert the Shaun White of snowmobiling after winning his sixth straight SnoCross title just hopes casual fans understand that what they see on television is not true snowmobiling.

"You're seeing the most extreme side of what we do," Hibbert said. "That's a lot different than what the average person does on a snowmobile."

Hibbert doesn't participate in events such as best trick because, "I just wasn't born with those skills. I sit back and watch those guys, enjoy what they do."

He paused.

"You just hate to see anyone crash, anyone get hurt," Hibbert said.

Moore was in the middle of an impressive run in the freestyle event when he caught the top of the hill that was serving as a landing area. He initially walked away with help and went to a hospital with a concussion.

Moore later developed bleeding around his heart and had surgery. His family said that Moore, of Krum, Texas, also had a complication involving his brain.

Colten Moore, Caleb's younger brother and defending champion in the event, separated his pelvis in a crash later that same night.

LaVallee is no stranger to horrific wipeouts.

While training for the "Red Bull: New Year. No Limits" daredevil series two years ago in Southern California, LaVallee lost control of his snowmobile high in the air and landed violently on his side, bouncing down the landing ramp. He broke ribs, cracked his pelvis, collapsed one lung and punctured the other.

But he returned the next year and jumped a record 412 feet, 6 inches.

"We're passionate about the sport that we're in," LaVallee said.

"Anyone who competes has that drive to succeed, to go bigger than the next person or be the first one to do it."

The mentality is similar throughout action sports, even if the bar keeps getting raised.

"There are going to be benchmarks set and people trying to exceed that benchmark," Lebowitz said. "That's just the essence of our society and our social culture."

The administration now says it has "high confidence" that President Bashar Assad's forces have killed up to 150 people with sarin gas. Although that's a tiny percentage of the approximately 93,000 killed in the civil war so far, the use of a chemical weapon crosses President Barack Obama's "red line" for escalating U.S. involvement in the conflict and prompted the decision to send arms and ammunition, not just humanitarian aid and defensive non-lethal help like armored vests and night goggles.

The administration's plan heading into the G8 meeting of industrialized nations beginning Monday is to use the chemical weapons announcement and Obama's decision on arms to persuade Russia to increase pressure on Assad to send a credible negotiating team to Geneva for talks with the opposition.

In addition, Obama is expected to use the G8 meeting and discussions on the sidelines to further coordinate with the British, French and potentially others an increase of assistance lethal, non-lethal and humanitarian to the rebels, the political opposition and refugees.

In a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States has determined that sarin was used in a March 19 attack on the Aleppo suburb of Khan al-Assal and in an April 13 attack on the neighborhood of Shaykh Maqsud. She said unspecified chemicals, possibly including chemical warfare agents, were used May 14 in an attack on Qasr Abu Samrah and in a May 23 attack on Adra.

U.S. officials have not disclosed any details about the weapons they intend to send to Syria or when and how they will be delivered. According to officials, the U.S. is most likely to provide the rebel fighters with small arms, ammunition, assault rifles and a variety of anti-tank weaponry such as shoulder-fired rocket-propelled grenades and other missiles.

As of Friday, however, no final decisions had been made on the details or when it would reach the rebels, according to the officials, who insisted on anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal administration discussions with reporters.

Obama has consistently said he will not put American troops in Syria, making it less likely the U.S. will provide sophisticated arms or anti-aircraft weapons that would require large-scale training. Administration officials are also worried about high-powered weapons ending up in the hands of terrorist groups. Hezbollah fighters are among those backing Assad's armed forces, and al-Qaida-linked extremists back the rebellion.

The lethal aid will largely be coordinated by the CIA, but that effort will also be buttressed by an increased U.S. military presence in Jordan.

U.S. officials say Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is about to approve orders that would leave roughly a dozen F-16 fighter jets and a Patriot missile battery in Jordan after ongoing military exercises there end later next week. That would result in several hundred more U.S. troops staying in Jordan to support the fighters and missiles, in addition to the approximately 250 that have been there for some time.

The added military troops and equipment are designed to increase stability in the region and are not part of the effort to train Syrian rebels or take part in any offensive operations in Syria, the U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the details.

The biggest hurdle for the U.S. strategy remains Russia, a major weapons supplier to Assad.

President Vladimir Putin's foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said Friday that Moscow doesn't believe the U.S. finding on chemical weapons.

"I wouldn't like to draw parallels with the famous dossier of Secretary of State Colin Powell, but the facts, the information presented by the U.S. didn't look convincing," he said. The comment indeed drew a parallel with Powell's speech to the U.N. asserting pre-war Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a claim that proved false.

Ushakov also suggested that sending weapons to the opposition would diminish Moscow's interest in negotiations in Geneva.

"If the Americans make and fulfill a decision to provide a greater assistance to the rebels, to the opposition, it's not going to make the preparations for an international conference on Syria any easier," he said.

Obama's deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, acknowledged the differences that remain between U.S. and Russia on the Syrian crisis. Despite their disagreement over chemical weapon use, the U.S. will continue to talk to the Russians about ways to achieve a political settlement in Syria, considered the best option by all .

"We have no illusions that that's going to be easy," Rhodes said, adding that Obama and Putin would meet next week.

Getting Western allies to increase support for the rebels won't necessarily be easy, either.

British Prime Minister David Cameron has said he there is credible evidence of "multiple attacks" using chemical weapons by Assad's fighters, but indicated that al-Qaida-linked elements in the opposition movement had also attempted to acquire chemical weapons for probable use in Syria. Still, he restated the government's position that no decision had been taken to arm moderate rebels opposed to Assad. The Obama administration says it has no evidence the opposition has used chemical weapons.

French President Francois Hollande told reporters Friday that the use of chemical weapons by Assad "confirms that we must exercise pressure on the regime." But Foreign Ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot would not say whether the U.S. claim of chemical weapons adds momentum to arming rebels.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, however, voiced opposition to the U.S. decision to send arms to the Syrian rebels. He said no one can be certain chemical weapons were used without an on-the-ground investigation. Increasing the flow of arms to either side "would not be helpful," he said

Washington's decision comes after several military setbacks for the rebels and as Lebanon's Hezbollah militia becomes increasingly involved, fighting alongside Assad's forces. Hezbollah's role was key in the capture of the strategic rebel-held town of Qusair earlier this month.

The U.S. has so far provided $250 million in non-lethal military and political aid to the Syrian opposition. The Obama administration has already told Congress that $127 million of this aid is in the pipeline. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Friday the administration now has notified Congress that the remaining $123 million in assistance, including body armor and other equipment such as night-vision goggles, is beginning to move to the Syrian rebels.

The plan to arm the rebels comes after a tricky assessment of which groups in the opposition the U.S. and allies can work with and which should be avoided.

"I think we know who the good guys are ... who we can trust and who we cannot," said Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He received briefings from U.S. diplomats and intelligence officials in Jordan last month and visited a refugee camp at the Syrian border.

He said the U.S. aid will include weapons training and basic military tactics, and share intelligence to help guide the rebels to the right targets.

"Intelligence is a key component to helping the opposition warfighters to make sure they make the right decisions to turn the tide of this fight," said Ruppersberger.

The CIA has led U.S. outreach to the rebels from outside Syria, meeting rebels at refugee camps and towns along the Turkish and Jordanian borders. CIA paramilitary officers, as well as special operations trainers, have trained select groups of rebels in Jordan on the use of encrypted communications equipment the nonlethal aid provided by the Obama administration and they have helped the rebels learn how to fire anti-aircraft weapons and small arms provided by Gulf states.

"We've been looking at this for a long time now," said John McLaughlin, former acting director of the CIA. "You can do a pretty good diagram of who the rebel forces are, what the number of foreign fighters are. We've come to the conclusion that there is an acceptable level of risk, understanding we will lose control of some of the weapons."

__

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Kimberly Dozier in Washington, Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations, Elaine Ganley in Paris and Cassadra Vinograd in London contributed to this report.

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's economy churned out a spectacular 95,000 jobs in May, the second-biggest gain in 37 years, according to an official report that raised hopes the economy is gaining momentum, but was also taken with a grain of salt.

The gain would be the equivalent of the far larger U.S. economy creating nearly 900,000 jobs in one month, well above the 175,000 workers hired there last month.

But Canada's monthly figures are always volatile, given the complications of conducting a survey of households to determine how many jobs have been created, and many analysts prefer to focus on a six-month average.

Canada's unemployment rate ticked down to 7.1 percent in May from 7.2 percent, Statistics Canada said in its report on Friday. The construction sector accounted for nearly half of the May hiring, pointing to the strength of Canada's heated housing sector, and analysts doubted that would last.

The data handily beat market expectations for 15,000 new jobs, but it changes little for the Bank of Canada, which is expected to keep interest rates on hold at their current low levels until late 2014.

"This erases some of the fears in the market that Canada was wildly underperforming the U.S. and the domestic economy was very weak," said Camilla Sutton, chief currency strategist at Scotia Bank in Toronto.

Canada long ago recovered all the jobs lost during the 2008-09 recession, but unemployment remains above pre-crisis levels and net job losses were recorded in the first four months of this year.

After the data, the Canadian dollar jumped to its strongest level against the U.S. dollar since mid-May, rising to C$1.0186, or 98.17 U.S. cents. It gave back some of those gains to trade at C$1.0210 at around 1230 a.m. EDT (1630 GMT) compared with C$1.0250 just before the jobs report.

DATA VOLATILITY

The May data brings average monthly employment growth to 19,000 over the past six months.

Analysts and even a very pleased Prime Minister Stephen Harper warned against divining too much from figures from a single month.

Canada's jobs figures are based on interviews with households whereas the U.S. payrolls data is based in information from hiring companies.

Previous blockbuster Canadian jobs reports have been viewed with skepticism and later seen as anomalies.

Some 76,700 full-time positions were added in the month and 94,600 new jobs were in the private sector, Statscan said.

The report is good news for the Conservative government, which is reeling from an expenses scandal but has tried to brand itself as a strong steward of the national economy and public finances.

In a statement, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty touted Canada's job record as the strongest in the Group of Seven industrialized nations. But he warned that all was not well in the global economy.

"Canada is not immune to these challenges from beyond our border and we will be impacted," he said.

GROWTH, PRODUCTIVITY EYED

After a sluggish second half of 2012, rising exports helped pull first-quarter growth to an annualized rate of 2.5 percent, the fastest in six quarters.

The Bank of Canada expects 1.8 percent growth in the second quarter and 1.5 percent growth in 2013 as a whole.

Statscan also said the labor productivity of Canadian businesses increased 0.2 percent in the first quarter, in line with expectations.

It was the second straight quarter of tepid growth after three quarters of declines.

Canada has generally lagged the United States on productivity measures and that was the case in the first quarter as well as U.S. labor productivity grew 0.5 percent.

Canadian business output expanded 0.7 percent in the first quarter while hours worked rose at a slower 0.5 percent pace.

Labor unit costs in Canada declined 1.8 percent when measured in U.S. dollars compared with a 1.3 percent decline for American businesses.

(Additional reporting by Alex Paterson, Solarina Ho and Randall Palmer; editing by James Dalgleish, Janet Guttsman, G Crosse and David Gregorio)

Gov. Tom Corbett challenged the penalties against Penn State for its handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal. Corbett issued a statement Thursday that said he feels strongly the claims he raised were compelling and deserved a thorough review by the courts.

Corbett says people and businesses in Pennsylvania are suffering because of the sanctions the school agreed to nearly a year ago.

The judge's order dismissing the lawsuit in its early stages calls the litigation a "Hail Mary pass."

The NCAA penalties include a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban and a loss of football scholarships.

Corbett didn't indicate if he plans to appeal the decision. His office hasn't disclosed the lawsuit's cost.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two leading Republican senators on Wednesday unveiled proposals requiring much tighter security on the U.S.-Mexico border before undocumented immigrants could gain permanent residency under the broad immigration bill the Senate is considering.

The two separate amendments by John Cornyn, the second-ranking Senate Republican, and Rand Paul, a potential 2016 presidential contender, are likely to draw fire from many Democrats who have said such provisions would erode the path to citizenship at the heart of the White House-backed bill.

Both senators would establish strict benchmarks for border security that would need to be met as a condition of granting permanent legal status and a path to citizenship for some 11 million undocumented immigrants.

"My idea takes border security a step further than anybody else in Congress," Paul, of Kentucky, said in a statement. His proposal would require Congress to write a border security plan and take votes each year on whether it has achieved its goals.

Cornyn, of Texas, would require the government to have the capability to monitor all portions of the southern border and stop at least 90 percent of people trying to cross the border illegally.

The full Senate is expected to begin work next week on the most sweeping overhaul of the U.S. immigration system in nearly three decades. The bill would authorize billions in new spending for enhanced border security and would create new visa programs for high- and low-skilled workers.

Both Republican and Democratic senators are likely to offer a crush of amendments to bolster border security, considered by critics to be a weak link in broad immigration reform.

Skeptics of immigration reform warn of the risk of a repeat of 1986 when President Ronald Reagan signed sweeping legislation that offered amnesty to 3 million undocumented immigrants, but failed to obtain the level of border security that backers of the measure had anticipated. These critics complain that the 1986 amnesty ended up attracting more illegal immigrants.

Democrats have vowed to fight any amendments - including those on border security - that would create too many obstacles to the 13-year path to citizenship in the Senate bill.

The bipartisan "Gang of Eight" senators who wrote the immigration bill are trying to preserve Democratic priorities in the legislation while courting enough Republican votes to ensure its passage.

CHALLENGE IN HOUSE

Senator Marco Rubio, a member of the Gang of Eight and also a potential 2016 White House candidate, is leading the effort to reach out to Republicans.

An aide to Rubio said the Florida senator's staff has been "working closely with Cornyn's office" on parts of his border-security amendment for weeks. In a series of television and radio appearances, Rubio has defended the bill but also said he would like to some changes to it, including more stringent border provisions.

Rubio and Paul were among several Senate Republicans who met on Wednesday with conservative House of Representatives Republicans to discuss the immigration issue.

Comprehensive immigration is expected to face its biggest challenge in the Republican-led House, where many conservatives view the provision to grant legal status to undocumented immigrants as amnesty to people who broke the law.

In addition to Rubio and Paul, Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah and Jeff Sessions of Alabama were also scheduled to attend the meeting with House Republicans.

Flake is a member of the Senate Gang of Eight. Paul has signaled he is open to supporting the bill but wants to see stronger border-security provisions and other changes.

Cruz and Lee are both skeptics of the immigration bill and Sessions is one of the Senate's most vocal critics of the legislation.

At a breakfast with reporters on Wednesday, Representative Tom Price of Georgia, a leading conservative voice in the House, expressed skepticism that a majority of Republicans in his chamber would support a bill that included a path to citizenship.

"I think at this point that would be highly unlikely because I don't think there's any trust of our conference in the administration to enforce current laws that are on the books as they relate to much of immigration," Price said.

(The story changes "legal status" to "permanent residency" in first paragraph, adds dropped words "permanent" and "million" in third paragraph.)

(Editing by Vicki Allen and Jim Loney)

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's exports posted their lowest growth rate in almost a year in May while imports unexpectedly fell, government data showed on Saturday, underlining concerns that growth in the world's second-largest economy could slow anew in the second quarter.

Evidence has mounted in recent weeks that the economy is fast losing growth momentum as sluggish domestic demand fails to make up for lethargic export sales.

The latest figures, shorn of the hot money speculation and exports to warehouses but booked as sales that had inflated previous months' data, more accurately reflect the grim reality facing China's exporters.

"The trade data reflects the sluggish domestic and overseas demand, signaling a slower-than-expected recovery in the second quarter," said Shen Lan, an economist at Standard Chartered in Shanghai.

Data for May retail sales and industrial output, as well as investment and inflation, are due on Sunday and could provide more evidence of the slowdown.

Exports edged up 1 percent in May from a year earlier, the lowest growth since last July and against a median forecast in a Reuters poll of a rise of 7.3 percent. Data was even worse for imports - they fell 0.3 percent against expectations of a 6 percent rise.

The trade surplus was $20.4 billion for the month, compared with market expectations of $19.3 billion.

Exports to the United States, China's top export destination, fell 1.6 percent in May, the third straight month of declines, while those to the European Union, the second most important market, fell 9.7 percent, also the third straight month of declines.

However, in one bright sign, separate customs data showed that China's imports of major commodities rose in May compared with the previous month, helped by lower prices on world markets and pointing to resilient demand.

TESTING TIMES

It has been an uncomfortable few months for China's leaders as a raft of data has pointed to a lack of traction for growth.

"The domestic economy is facing great downward pressure and the stable development of foreign trade still faces great challenges," Vice-Minister of Commerce Zhong Shan said in a statement on the ministry's website (www.mofcom.gov.cn).

China's overseas demand had not recovered obviously while exporters faced more fierce competition in the global market, Zhong said.

However, Premier Li Keqiang struck a more upbeat note, being quoted by state television as saying that China's economy was generally stable, growth was within a "relatively high and reasonable range" and the employment situation was stable.

"There are increasingly intricate and complicated factors in the economy and we should strictly monitor the changes in the economic situation," said Li.

China needs to make use of liquidity already in the economy to support real economic development and curb over-capacity in certain industries, he added.

Surveys this month showed that China's factory activity shrank for the first time in seven months in May, with export orders falling, while growth in the services sector cooled.

A Reuters poll taken before Sunday's retail and industrial data shows industrial output is seen up 9.3 percent, unchanged from April, while growth in fixed-asset investment, one of the two main drivers of China's economy in 2012, likely rose 20.5 percent in the first five months of this year.

That would be equivalent to investment rising 20.2 percent in May from a year ago, Reuters' calculations showed, the slackest pace in at least three months.

Growth in retail sales is forecast at 12.9 percent in May, little changed from April's 12.8 percent and below last year's monthly average expansion of 14.2 percent.

The IMF and OECD last month cut their forecasts for China's 2013 economic growth to 7.75 percent and 7.8 percent, respectively.

China's annual economic growth had slowed to 7.7 percent in the first quarter from 7.9 percent in the previous quarter. The full-year annual growth of 7.8 percent in 2012 was the weakest since 1999.

However, China's leaders have adopted a greater tolerance for a slowdown and are likely to allow quarterly growth to slip as far as 7 percent before triggering fresh stimulus to lift activity, sources told Reuters this week.

NO SMOKE AND MIRRORS

One of the reasons the May export data was so grim is that the government had cracked down on the speculative activities that had created double digit rises in export growth every month this year, even as China's main markets slowed.

"The dramatic slowdown in yoy (year-on-year) export growth in May in part reflects the impact of a clamp down by the government on firms dressing up financial inflows as exports," Louis Kuijs, an economist at RBS, said in an emailed note.

China's customs also acknowledged the lack of extraneous factors, reflected in the fact that exports to Hong Kong, the main centre for currency arbitrage and warehouse storage, grew only 7.7 percent in May, down from a 57 percent surge in April.

"The arbitrage trade to Hong Kong has basically been curbed and the trade between mainland and Hong Kong dropped sharply," it said on its website, www.customs.gov.cn.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Jeremy Laurence and Robert Birsel)

Rikki Wills, 25, was one of the five drum majors who led Champion's funeral march, escorting his casket during the funeral.

Champion, 26, was a member of the college's famed "Marching 100" band when he collapsed and died Nov. 19, 2011 on a bus parked outside an Orlando, Fla., hotel after a football game.

The death was ruled a homicide and Champion's torso was covered with bruises that were inflicted during a brutal hazing ritual that contributed to his death, according to investigators.

Wills was sentenced to one year of "community control"--a formal name for house arrest--and five years of state probation.

In May, Wills pleaded no contest to felony hazing resulting in death and his attorney said he has "owned up to what his part was."

"He acknowledges that he was on the bus and he basically did a pull-through basically trying to help Robert stay on his feet and continue to the back of the bus as fast as possible so he didn't get struck," Wills' attorney William Hancock told ABCNews.com today after the sentencing.

"He felt he was doing everything he could to protect him," Hancock said.

Over 2,000 pages of evidence from the investigation into Champion's death were released by the Florida District Attorney's Office in May 2012, which delivered a blow-by-blow of the events from the night of Champion's death.

Champion endured a lethal pummeling down the aisle of a pitch-black bus that rocked from the force of the violence inside, according to the documents.

Champion struggled, with a female band member holding him back to prolong the punishment, through a gauntlet of band mates who used their fists, feet, straps and sticks to pound him into unconsciousness.

"Rikki felt that he had done everything he possibly could to talk Robert out of doing this and was acutely surprised when Robert participated in the hazing," Hancock said.

He added that he believes FAMU is more to blame than the students who participated in the hazing ritual.

"I really think the blame falls greater on the institution that perpetuated the hazing than the participants, but he certainly owned up to his personal responsibility," Hancock said.

Champion's parents traveled to Orange County, Fla., for the hearing from their home in Georgia. The Champion family's attorney was not immediately available for comment.

Thirteen FAMU band members were charged in relation to Champion's death.

The first defendant sentenced in Champion's death was, 24, who got two years of probation and 200 hours of community service in October 2012.

"The judge had stated that your part in Robert's death was really minimal, but you and I know that's not true," Champion's mother Pamela Champion told Jones in court. "It will always be there haunting you. We both know that."

In an age where bigger is seen as better when it comes to smartphones, and 5- or 6-inch screens are becoming more common, Mozilla -- the nonprofit organization which leads development of the-- made it a goal to help smartphone manufacturers producewith itsMost of these gadgets are about the size of the original iPhone, with low-end hardware specs and price tags to match.

There still aren't any Firefox OS phones being sold new in the United States, through wireless carrier partnerships. However, app developers and technology enthusiasts can now purchase an entry-level Firefox phone from Geeksphone in Spain,

"A developer device with a developer build"

According to Mozilla's Director of Websites and Developer Engagement, Stormy Peters, "The software here [in the Keon] is not necessarily 100% representative of what will ship into customer's [sic] hands." Those customers being the people who will eventually buy Firefox phones new from wireless carriers, when they launch in different markets worldwide later this year.

Anyone can buy a Keon, app developer or not; there isn't a check to see if you know Javascript. If you aren't planning to work on Firefox apps or the OS itself, though ...

"We would urge them to wait"

The "full [Firefox] experience" isn't ready yet on the Keon, according to Peters, although it is expected to receive updates "every couple of weeks" to add new features and performance improvements. The latter may be sorely needed; CNet editor Rich Trenholm said that the Alcatel One Touch Fire, a Firefox OS handsetto the Keon,even for "basic functions."

What exactly is under the Keon's hood?

The One Touch Fire has a 1 GHz processor and an HVGA (320x480) screen, the same as the Keon's. It has only 256 MB of RAM compared to the Keon's 512, though, which would slow it down as it opened new apps and web browser tabs.

The Keon also has 4 GB of internal storage, and a microSD slot to add a memory card.

Are there any more powerful Firefox phones for sale?

Geeksphone is also offering the Peak, a 4.3 inch smartphone with a 1.2 GHz dual-core processor (but the same 512 MB of RAM and 4 GB of storage). It is much more powerful than the cheap Firefox OS devices which will be sold at retail later this year, and is designed "for developers wanting to experiment with apps for devices that might be commercially available in the future."

The Peak costs $194 plus shipping.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

Ain the layaway section.

Wayne Brandenburg told CNN said he would casually browse through the store a few times a week before meeting his future wife, Susan, who was working as a cashier in the store.

Id ask her how she was that day, and tell her she looked very nice, he said.

Eventually, Wayne built up the courage to ask Susan on a date. His wife had previously died and Susan was working at the store after her divorce. Susan accepted the invitation to a Chinese buffet dinner and each of them brought their two grandchildren along for the night so Susan would feel comfortable.

After that first date, Wayne says he had fallen for Susan and began bringing her favorite lunch to Wal-Mart each day.

He was very much a gentleman, and I looked forward to seeing him, she said.

And while the story might sound a bit unusual, its actually somewhat common, according to one study. In fact, Psychology Today says .

Perhaps the saying should go, Love comes when you least expect itor when you go to Wal-Mart, said Wal-Mart spokesperson Ashley Hardie..

A year later, Wayne proposed. Susan accepted, but they couple were not . When they were trying to decide where to hold the reception, Wayne said he came up with the idea of getting married in the store where they had first met.

I first said it as a joke, Wayne said. But we batted it around and realized that its where we met, where we dated and where most of her friends worked, so we asked the store and they gave us their blessing.

The wedding cake even came from the stores bakery, although Susans grandchildren insisted on sprucing it up before the ceremony. They were reportedly joined by family, friends and even some store customers who stopped in to observe the ceremony.