BEIJING (Reuters) - Google Inc said on Monday that its vice-president and Greater China president, Liu Yun, has stepped down to pursue other opportunities.

His replacement will be Scott Beaumont, who currently runs the company's partnerships business in Europe.

Google's share of the search engine market in China has been slipping, spurred by its decision to no longer censor its searches on the mainland and move its servers to Hong Kong in March 2010, just months after Liu took over.

Google held 8 percent of market in terms of page views in June 2011, coming second to Baidu with 81 percent, according to Chinese data firm CNZZ. Its share has fallen 6 percentage points over two years according to last month's data, dropping to fifth place. New entrant Qihoo 360 already holds 15 percent of market share.

"Once they made the decision to move their servers out of mainland China their prospects here dimmed considerably," said Mark Natkin, managing director of Marbridge Consulting, a China technology research firm.

Google's Android operating system has also proven difficult to monetize, despite its success in terms of take-up in China.

For the three months ending in April this year 69 percent of all smartphones sales were on the Android system. Phones using Apple's iOS, Android's closest competitor, made up 25 percent of sales in the same period, according to data from Kantar, a market research group.

The ways the company usually monetizes Android, like its app store, often get stripped out of the software in China when it is remade for the local market, said Natkin.

The prevalence of Android in China drew the ire of its political system in a March report by the state-controlled think tank China Academy of Telecommunications Research, which operates under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The report said that Google had too much control over China's smartphone sector, which had become dependent on Android, and had discriminated against certain local firms.

The paper suggested that the government would throw its full support behind a viable domestic challenger to Google.

"Google's biggest challenge remains how to penetrate China," said Elinor Leung, Hong Kong-based head of Asia telecom and internet research at CLSA.

"Their servers have been moved to Hong Kong and their Android operating system has been localized," she said, adding that Liu's departure and the arrival of Beaumont would likely have little impact.

(Reporting by Paul Carsten in Beijing; Editing by Louise Heavens)

The announcement comes just nine days after the European Union took Hungary off the list of member states which must take measures to cut their budget deficits, removing the threat of cuts in development funds from Brussels.

Hungary had postponed the decision on the wage hikes, which are part of a new career model for teachers, to secure a favorable decision from the EU.

It also unveiled surprise measures this month to generate more than 100 billion forints ($441.32 million) in additional tax revenues, mainly from the telecoms and financial sectors, to help convince Brussels it can keep the budget deficit below the EU threshold of 3 percent of economic output.

Political analysts have said government-imposed energy utility price cuts have helped Prime Minister Viktor Orban's Fidesz keep its ratings well ahead of rivals in the opinion polls and wage increases could also support its popularity.

Zoltan Balog, minister for human resources, was quoted by the national news agency MTI as saying the rise would probably cover half of the planned total increase in teachers' wages.

The rest could come on January 1 or September 1 next year, or in two steps, but a decision will be taken later, he said.

The total monthly wage increase for a teacher with 30 years' experience would amount to about 110,000 forints ($490), Balog said, without disclosing the cost of the measure to the state budget.

According to media reports, the country of 10 million employed about 140,000 school and kindergarten teachers in 2012.

An opinion poll by Tarki carried out on June 12-21 showed that Fidesz had 26 percent support among all voters, twice as much as the main opposition party, the Socialists.

($1 = 226.5916 Hungarian forints)

(Reporting by Sandor Peto, editing by Gareth Jones)

The rookie sensation from the Los Angeles Dodgers was left out again after a string of substitutes were added to the National League roster Sunday. But this time, fans were not responsible. Instead, it sounds as though Puig's ailing hip settled baseball's big debate.

"If a guy is hurt, it doesn't make sense for him to go," Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said.

Puig may not be headed to Citi Field, but plenty of Pirates are.

Pittsburgh reliever Mark Melancon was picked as a replacement for the NL squad, giving the Pirates five All-Stars for the first time since 1972. That year Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Steve Blass, Al Oliver and Manny Sanguillen represented the defending World Series champions at the National League's 4-3, 10-inning win in Atlanta.

Now, the Steel City has a fab five once again. Seeking to end a record streak of 20 consecutive losing seasons, the Pirates are 56-37 at the All-Star break and contending for the NL Central lead.

"It's a great honor for our organization and shows how far we have come in the last few years," general manager Neal Huntington said.

Once viewed by the Yankees as Mariano Rivera's possible successor, Melancon was traded by New York, Houston and Boston in a span of 2 years. Now he joins third baseman Pedro Alvarez, center fielder Andrew McCutchen and closer Jason Grilli on the NL roster.

Pirates pitcher Jeff Locke, Washington Nationals right-hander Jordan Zimmermann and Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman, all on the original NL All-Star squad, are hurt and will miss Tuesday night's game at Citi Field.

"It's pretty cool to be considered among the upper echelon of Major League Baseball players," Melancon said. "It's really humbling. It's something you always hope will happen at some point in your career and I'm really excited about it."

He learned of his addition late Saturday afternoon.

"My first thought was, how I am going to get so many people to New York which is a pretty busy city, to say the least on such short notice?" Melancon said.

Pirates traveling secretary Greg Johnson helped with the arrangements to transport a dozen people in Melancon's group.

NL manager Bruce Bochy also selected Sergio Romo, his San Francisco Giants closer, as a replacement pick along with Atlanta catcher Brian McCann. St. Louis closer Edward Mujica was chosen to fill in for teammate Adam Wainwright, who started Sunday night.

Under baseball's labor contract, pitchers who start on the Sunday before the All-Star game may opt not to participate.

Despite four changes to the NL team, only one position player pulled out Sunday and Puig was not picked as the replacement. Though he's spent just six weeks in the majors, Puig has been so successful and exciting that some clamored for his inclusion, sparking a heated debate about whether that would be fair.

Puig was beaten out by Freeman last week in fan balloting online for the NL's final spot, and the Cuban outfielder didn't start for the second straight day Sunday because of a sore left hip, though he singled as a pinch hitter in the fifth inning. He came out after four innings Friday and didn't play Saturday.

After the Dodgers lost to Colorado 3-1 in their first-half finale, Puig was told Freeman had been removed from the NL roster.

"I just found out, but I'm not going either," Puig said through a translator.

Baltimore pitcher Chris Tillman, Kansas City closer Greg Holland and Oakland closer Grant Balfour were chosen by AL manager Jim Leyland of Detroit to replace Tigers ace Justin Verlander, Seattle's Hisashi Iwakuma and Oakland's Bartolo Colon, who all started Sunday. Verlander was the AL starter and loser in last year's All-Star game at Kansas City.

"It's a great honor now that it happened," Balfour said. "It was up in the air and it's nice to know it is official. I can go and have fun and do my thing."

Holland joined outfielder Alex Gordon and catcher Salvador Perez to give Kansas City three All-Stars for the first time since George Brett, Mark Gubicza and Kurt Stillwell in 1988. Holland received the notification Sunday in Cleveland and traveled with Gordon and Perez to New York instead of returning to Kansas City with the rest of the team.

He wasn't sure he was properly packed for the All-Star festivities

"I've got a lot of golf shirts," Holland said. "I don't know if that will pass. We'll see what happens."

Mujica's addition gave the Cardinals six All-Stars, tying Detroit for most in the majors.

Romo joined Giants teammates Buster Posey, Madison Bumgarner and Marco Scutaro to give the struggling World Series champs four representatives.

"I've never really seen myself as an All-Star. I've never really said it's one of my goals to make an All-Star team, but now that it's happening, I'm very proud. I mean, I'm an All-Star. Cool," Romo said. "To be honest, I still feel like I weaseled my way into the big leagues."

NOTES: There are a record 39 first-time All-Stars following the additions of Melancon, Romo, Tillman, Holland, Balfour and Mujica, four more than the previous mark set two years ago in Arizona. ... Holland and Balfour both earned $50,000 bonuses, Romo and Tillman $25,000 each and Melancon $10,000.

___

AP Sports Writers Mike Fitzpatrick, Bernie Wilson in San Diego and Beth Harris in Los Angeles, and AP freelance writers Steve Herrick in Cleveland, John Perrotto in Pittsburgh and Rick Eymer in Oakland, Calif., contributed to this report.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Since 2010, Square Inc's matchbox-sized card readers have steadily supplanted credit card machines in coffee shops and corner stores across the United States.

Now, the company, one of Silicon Valley's most highly valued private firms, is diving into a market as expansive the internet itself.

Square launched a shopping website this week called Square Market to serve as an online storefront and payment processor for small businesses, a move that pits the closely held company, valued at $3.25 billion, against popular e-commerce destinations such as eBay Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Etsy.

After spending years tackling offline transactions with his card reader and in-store software package, Square founder Jack Dorsey sees his online market as the company's capstone product. Mom-and-pop retailers that use Square to accept credit cards and digitally manage inventory can now take their business online as well, he said.

"We want to make every commercial transaction easier," Dorsey told Reuters. "What you're seeing here is the completion of that picture."

Square, which makes money by taking a 2.75 percent cut of every payment it processes, has raised the competitive ante, especially with eBay, the Web bazaar whose PayPal subsidiary is one of the dominant online payment operators.

However, there are countless other competitors in an U.S. online retail market, which is expected to reach $278.9 billion by 2015, according to Forrester Research.

Dorsey conceded that Square Market would be dwarfed by e-commerce companies such eBay and Amazon, at least initially. But in an age of Facebook Inc and Twitter, Square's merchants can now reach millions.

"I don't know if a buyer is thinking: "Should I go to Ebay, or should I go to Etsy, or Square?" Dorsey said. "In the end, it's about what the merchant is selling. If you can present excitement around an item, and that item goes viral, it becomes huge."

Dorsey, the 36-year old entrepreneur who invented Twitter in 2006, wants to seamlessly integrate Square Market with Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest. Because Square keeps credit card information on file, a shopper who clicks on a tweet that links to a Square Market product needs only to click once more to purchase the item.

Merchants who use Square's iPad software to process payments and track sales can quickly upload their inventory for free to a Web page, which automatically displays the products in a grid format.

"Flip a switch and suddenly you're online," Dorsey said.

Unlike Amazon, which was launched in 1995 as a humble bookseller, Square's catalog is decidedly urban-chic. Merchants that have participated so far include a few dozen fashion boutiques, an indie rock band, a bakery in Park Slope, Brooklyn and a purveyor of designer hand axes.

Square Market has also signed up some small service providers, from lawn mowers to massage therapists, said Square product director Ajit Varma.

Rick Oglesby, a mobile payments analyst at AITE Group, said Square could tap into a large market that includes neighborhood bakeries and ice cream parlors with no Web presence. Nearly 67 percent of small businesses do not have an e-commerce presence, Oglesby added, citing his own survey.

"There's a very big opportunity to help these businesses create an online channel for the first time," he said. "This is a neat solution for the small guys."

At a time when the company is facing competitive pressure from all sides, Square is hoping to raise its profile with shoppers, both online and offline, to entice merchants to adopt its service.

"Ultimately, they need to get more consumer eyeballs so that they're more and more attractive to merchants," Oglesby said.

Cory Verellen, the owner of a boutique shop in Seattle that sells and repairs Polaroid cameras, said he keeps an independent website that uses PayPal. He is not ready to abandon his website for Square Market yet, but is pleased it was already sending him new customers as of late Wednesday, the first day it opened.

"Even today, I've had so many people get a hold of me and say: I can't believe a store like this exists,'" Verellen said. "So the biggest benefit to me is advertising. Square's building its own small business ecosystem and I think we could be seeing something big."

(Reporting by Gerry Shih. Editing by Andre Grenon)

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Mohamed ElBaradei emerged as the top opposition leader in the campaign to oust President Mohammed Morsi, who was toppled by the military on July 3 after four days of huge demonstrations.

The military-backed government has dissolved the Islamist-dominated upper house of parliament, further angering the Brotherhood, which has won every election since the February 2011 downfall of Morsi's predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, in a similar mass uprising.

ElBaradei, 71, won a Nobel Peace Prize for his role as the head of the U.N.'s International Atomic energy Agency. He returned home to assume a role in the anti-Mubarak uprising and emerged as one of the most visible leaders in the badly fractured Egyptian liberal and secular opposition to the Brotherhood and its government.

He headed of the National Salvation Front, a coalition of largely secular groups. Tamarod, the newly founded youth movement that initiated the anti-Morsi protests on June 30 that ultimately led to his ouster, also chose ElBaradei as its representative.

ElBaradei will be tasked with handling Egypt's foreign relations, filling a position that did not exist under Morsi or previous governments. The details of his mandate remain unclear.

After the veteran diplomat was sworn in Sunday, NSF spokesman Khaled Dawoud said ElBaradei no longer heads the NSF coalition.

"He is now a vice president for all Egyptians," Dawoud said.

Egypt's interim President Adly Mansour oversaw the swearing in of ElBaradei, as the military and its government push ahead with a transition plan.

The Brotherhood is not giving in. Thousands of Morsi's supporters are demonstrating to demand his reinstatement. They are also demanding that Morsi be released from detention. He has been held by the army in an undisclosed location since his removal from office.

His Muslim Brotherhood is calling for mass protests Monday across Egypt to denounce the military's moves and the arrest of some of the group's top leaders. Morsi's supporters have characterized his removal from power as a "military coup" led by former Mubarak-era regime officials. Morsi was Egypt's first freely elected president.

The military has brushed aside the Brotherhood's demands. The new army-backed administration has suspended the constitution, drafted under Morsi, and has set forth plans to hold parliamentary and presidential elections by early next year.

Talks are underway in Cairo to select a new Cabinet that may be sworn in sometime this week, according to local media reports.

ElBaradei's NSF was among Morsi's strongest critics. The coalition stood with Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as he announced Morsi's ouster.

On Sunday, el-Sissi was quoted by the state-run Middle East News Agency defending the military's actions, saying that it acted "under the will of the people and in their service."

"The Egyptian Armed Forces, with all of its members and leaders, chose to serve the people and the empowerment of free will," he told a meeting of army officers, according to MENA.

District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has announced a new program that focuses on targeted curriculum for first-time ninth graders in the Washington, D.C., district. Its aim is to transition the students into high school, maintain their social well-being, and succeed with good grades.

The New System

In a , DCPS introduced academies to "help first-year ninth grade students successfully transition to and succeed in high school." Backed by extensive research, these academies will cater to a student's emotional, social, and academic needs.

DCPS Chancellor Kaya Henderson said in the press release, "We know that ninth grade is a critical transition year, and data show us that without the right supports, our students are at a high risk of truancy. It's clear that we need to do something differently."

The academics will only cater to first-year ninth graders and will not be available to those repeating the grade. With that standard in place, school officials hope for positive reinforcement, a lower percentage of truancy, and a higher percentage of success.

"I'm excited," Cardozo Senior High School Principal Tanya Roane . "First-time ninth-graders will have an opportunity to really sit in a class amongst their peers and not be influenced by someone taking the course for a second time, who may not be as positive."

The Concept

Students enrolled in academies will be teamed with a guidance counselor, social worker, and group of teachers. Over the course of the year, students will be evaluated based on attendance and performance in school.

The academies will also initiate a system of targeted curriculum. Promising students doing well will be enrolled in English I and Algebra I, one honors course, and an extracurricular activity. Others who are struggling will take "support courses" and an advisory course that will teach study and organization skills, as well as participate in an extended day program, the Saturday Academy, and an extracurricular activity.

Field trips to workplaces, college visits, family conferences, and quarterly recognition assemblies will also be part of the academy program.

The Plan

Fall 2013 will see academies at Anacostia, Ballou, Cardozo, Coolidge, Dunbar, Eastern, Roosevelt, Wilson, and Woodson high schools. These schools were chosen based on their high percentage of ninth grade repeaters.

Officials are still putting together plans for the grade repeaters. Some may attendafter school exclusively dedicated to help them succeed or credit-recovery programs at night while still taking some courses during the regular school day. Chancellor Henderson said that the district will take an aggressive approach to repeat students, sending them to alternative schools to "provide a different and perhaps more successful path to graduation," says The Washington Post.

The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver said the Oklahoma City-based arts and crafts chain, along with Mardel bookstores, not only can proceed with their lawsuit seeking to overturn a portion of the Affordable Care Act, but can probably win.

The judges unanimously sent the case back to a lower court in Oklahoma, which had rejected the companies' request for an injunction to prevent full enforcement of the new law.

"Hobby Lobby and Mardel have drawn a line at providing coverage for drugs or devices they consider to induce abortions, and it is not for us to question whether the line is reasonable," the judges wrote. "The question here is not whether the reasonable observer would consider the plaintiffs complicit in an immoral act, but rather how the plaintiffs themselves measure their degree of complicity."

Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., Mardel Inc. and their owners, the Green family, argue for-profit businesses not just religious groups should be allowed to seek an exception if the law violates their religious beliefs. The owners approve of most forms of artificial birth control, but not those that prevent implantation of a fertilized egg such as an IUD or the morning-after pill.

Hobby Lobby is the largest and best-known of more than 30 businesses in several states that have challenged the contraception mandate. A number of Catholic-affiliated institutions have filed separate lawsuits, and the court suggested faith-based organizations can follow for-profit objectives in the secular world.

"A religious individual may enter the for-profit realm intending to demonstrate to the marketplace that a corporation can succeed financially while adhering to religious values. As a court, we do not see how we can distinguish this form of evangelism from any other," they wrote.

A majority of judges couldn't decide whether the Oklahoma court had sufficiently addressed two parts of Hobby Lobby's initial complaint and sent them back for further review at the local level.

Throughout a ruling that covered more than 160 pages, the judges noted Hobby Lobby faced a difficult choice violate its religious beliefs, pay $475 million in fines for failing to comply with the law (a $100 fine per day for each of its 13,000 workers), or pay $26 million to the government if it dropped its health care plan altogether.

Hobby Lobby and Mardel won expedited federal review because the stores would have faced fines starting Monday for not covering the required forms of contraception. The 10th Circuit judges said the Oklahoma court was wrong to not grant the companies an injunction in the face of serious financial penalties.

Hobby Lobby and other companies challenging the contraception mandate say the morning-after pill is tantamount to abortion because it can prevent a fertilized egg from becoming implanted in a woman's womb. The 10th Circuit heard the case before eight active judges instead of the typical three-judge panel, indicating the case's importance.

The U.S. Department of Justice argued that allowing for-profit corporations to exempt themselves from requirements that violate their religious beliefs would be in effect allowing the business to impose its religious beliefs on employees. In its ruling, the 10th Circuit cited a 2010 U.S. Supreme Court conclusion that for-profit corporations have rights to political expression.

"We see no reason the Supreme Court would recognize constitutional protection for a corporation's political expression but not its religious expression," the judges wrote.

One judge went even further in a concurring opinion.

"No one suggests that organizations, in contrast to their members, have souls," Judge Harris Hartz wrote. "But it does not follow that people must sacrifice their souls to engage in group activities through an organization."

Hobby Lobby calls itself a "biblically founded business" and is closed on Sundays. Founded in 1972, the company now operates more than 500 stores in 41 states and employs more than 13,000 full-time employees who are eligible for health insurance.

Emily Hardman, spokeswoman for the Washington-based Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Hobby Lobby, called the ruling a "resounding victory for religious freedom."

But Americans United for Separation of Church and State said the judges were wrong.

"This isn't religious freedom; it's the worst kind of religious oppression," executive director Barry Lynn said in a statement.

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Kristen Wyatt is on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/APkristenwyatt

Against a soundtrack of romantic orchestral music and the backdrop of a twisted old olive tree, the collection presented on the first day of Milan Fashion Week on Saturday referenced the southern island's architectural wonders, natural beauty and native fauna.

The designing duo Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana stamped their creations with images of ancient Greek temples and pastoral countryside scenes, imprinted across three-piece suits and loose top-and-shorts combinations. The renderings are in black-and-white and color, creating a tapestry effect.

Dolce&Gabbana's Sicily is both formal and restrained, requiring suits that can be bold in shimmering red or blue, or simply somber black, and casual and lusty, with roughly woven drawstring pants or Bermuda shorts worn with nothing at all.

Outfits were paired with woven shoes, dark or white, or Greek-style leather sandals.

Just after the designers took their bows at the end of the show, a naked man jumped on the runway. He was immediately led away, and his motives were unclear.

On a more decorous note, Barcelona soccer player Lionel Messi set up shop in a Dolce&Gabbana boutique in the city center Saturday to sign books of photographs taken by Dolce himself.

CANNES (Reuters) - Three years after "Senna", the hit film biography of the late Brazilian racing driver Ayrton Senna, sporting documentaries about Jackie Stewart, Muhammad Ali and Pele are competing for attention at the Cannes Film Festival.

In "Weekend of a Champion", the Polish-French filmmaker Roman Polanski follows Stewart, his long-time friend, as he prepares to drive in the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix, at a time when the risks to drivers were far greater than they are now.

Polanski said he had forgotten about the film, which was screened at the Berlin film festival in 1972 but never released, until a recent call from a processing lab holding the footage.

He decided to resurrect it, adding a sequence where he and Stewart reunite more than 40 years later to discuss how the sport has changed.

"Back in the day, it was much freer. People could practically, or almost, walk onto the track. Now it's a bit NASA, a bit Martian," Polanski said after the revised version premiered in Cannes on Tuesday.

Three-times world champion Stewart, now 73, said Formula One had always been at the sharp end of technology, "but I think the racing is still as good today as ever, maybe even better".

"The animal is the same, the driver has the same mentality, the same type of person," he told Reuters in an interview.

British director Stephen Frears' documentary "Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight" aims to bring public attention to the boxer's court battle after he refused to fight in the Vietnam War, a stand that made him known far beyond his sport.

HERO AND VILLAIN

Ali refused to be conscripted into the U.S. military in 1967, on the basis of his religious beliefs and his opposition to the war. A hero to a growing anti-war movement, vilified by others, he was found guilty of evading the draft.

At the height of his career, he was stripped of his world heavyweight title and barred from the ring for nearly four years while his ultimately successful appeal worked its way up to the Supreme Court.

The film, made for Time Warner's HBO cable network and screened at Cannes on Wednesday, stars Christopher Plummer and Danny Glover, but no one plays Ali, now 71, who has suffered from Parkinson's disease for three decades and appears only in archive footage.

Frears said he had wanted to highlight the case after discovering how badly Ali had been treated, and had received Ali's approval when he showed him the film two weeks ago.

"I just had no idea that that was the story, but nobody did, nobody realized," Frears said.

Pele, 72, was in Cannes to discuss a film about his life being made by Hollywood producer Brian Grazer, maker of "Apollo 13" and "A Beautiful Mind", to be released next year as Brazil hosts the 2014 soccer World Cup.

"Pele" focuses on the Brazilian star's rise from an impoverished childhood to lead his country to its first World Cup victory, in Sweden in 1958.

A documentary called "Pele Forever" was made about his life in 2004, but he said the new one aimed to inspire young people, many of whom are facing bleak prospects.

"The way we constructed the film is for the new generation," he told Reuters in an interview.

(Additional reporting by Rollo Ross and Johnny Cotton; Writing by Belinda Goldsmith; Editing by Kevin Liffey)