LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Rest easy, Wendy Williams fans; your favorite TV host will be on hand to liven up your days for a while.

Fox Television Stations have made a multi-season commitment to "The Wendy Williams Show," renewing the daytime gab-fest through the 2016-17 season.

The renewal will bring "The Wendy Williams Show" into its eighth season, and comes after a strong May sweep performance. During May sweep, "The Wendy Williams Show" doubled its rating in the key women 25-54 demographic on Fox's WNYW in New York, jumping from a 1.2 rating/9 share during the same period last year to a 2.4/16 this year. It also posted strong gains on Fox's Los Angeles station and, in particular, WFLD in Chicago, where it surged 139 percent year-to-year.

Overall, the show has climbed 43 percent year-to-year in the demo - the only talk show in syndication to post a gain - to a 1.2/8.

"'The Wendy Williams Show' has as much momentum as any show on our air right now, both qualitatively and quantitatively," Fox Television Stations senior vice president of programming Frank Cicha said. "Over the last few years, it's evolved into the ideal lead-out to our morning news blocks. Like our news, the show delivers a day/date immediacy that serves as a blueprint for where we want to be the rest of the day."

[More from BGR: ]

UPDATE: Walkley confirmed to The New York Times that his checks do not include Apple Stores, where a large portion of iPhone sales take place. As such, the data in this report does not paint an accurate picture of U.S. smartphone sales.

[More from BGR: ]

It is estimated that Samsung spenton marketing, advertising and other promotional activities in 2012, andin the first quarter of 2013. Walkley believes that the companys marketing efforts have paid off.

We believe dominant sales of the S4 versus other Android smartphones was driven by Samsungs extremely strong Galaxy consumer brand and well-executed marketing campaign, as our surveys indicated store representatives often recommended the HTC One ahead of the Galaxy S4, the analyst wrote in a recent research note picked up by Business Insider.

Walkley added that despite , Samsungs closest Android competitor doesnt have the brand, distribution, and marketing budget to drive even stronger sales.

According to recent data from research firm comScore, Apple was . The company was found to have a 39.2% share of the market, ahead of Samsungs 22% share. It should be noted, however, that this data was gathered before the launch of the Galaxy S4.

This article was

For the second time in three days, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper took the rare step of declassifying some details of an intelligence program to respond to media reports about counterterrorism techniques employed by the government.

"Disclosing information about the specific methods the government uses to collect communications can obviously give our enemies a 'playbook' of how to avoid detection," he said in a statement.

Clapper said the data collection under the program, first unveiled by the newspapers The Washington Post and The Guardian, was with the approval of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Court and with the knowledge of Internet service providers. He emphasized that the government does not act unilaterally to obtain that data from the servers of those providers.

Clapper's reaction came a day after President Barack Obama defended the counterterrorism methods and said Americans need to "make some choices" in balancing privacy and security. But the president's response and Clapper's unusual public stance underscore the nerve touched by the disclosures and the sensitivity of the Obama administration to any suggestion that it is trampling on the civil liberties of Americans.

Late Thursday, Clapper declassified some details of a phone records collection program employed by the National Security Agency that aims to obtain from phone companies on an "ongoing, daily basis" the records of its customers' calls. Clapper said that under that court-supervised program, only a small fraction of the records collected ever get examined because most are unrelated to any inquiries into terrorism activities.

His statement and declassification Saturday addressed the Internet scouring program, code-named PRISM, that allowed the NSA and FBI to tap directly into the servers of major U.S. Internet companies such as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook and AOL. Like the phone-records program, PRISM was approved by a judge in a secret court order. Unlike that program, however, PRISM allowed the government to seize actual conversations: emails, video chats, instant messages and more.

Clapper said the program, authorized in the USA Patriot Act, has been in place since 2008, the last year of the George W. Bush administration, and "has proven vital to keeping the nation and our allies safe.

"It continues to be one of our most important tools for the protection of the nation's security," he said.

Among the previously classified information about the Internet data collection that Clapper revealed:

It is an internal government computer system that allows the government to collect foreign intelligence information from electronic communication service providers under court supervision.

The government does not unilaterally obtain information from the servers of U.S. electronic communication service providers. It requires approval from a FISA Court judge and is conducted with the knowledge of the provider and service providers supply information when they are legally required to do so.

The program seeks foreign intelligence information concerning foreign targets located outside the United States under court.

The government cannot target anyone under the program unless there is an "appropriate, and documented, foreign intelligence purpose" for the acquisition. Those purposes include prevention of terrorism, hostile cyber activities or nuclear proliferation. The foreign target must be reasonably believed to be outside the United States. It cannot intentionally target any U.S. citizen or any person known to be in the U.S.

The dissemination of information "incidentally intercepted" about a U.S. person is prohibited unless it is "necessary to understand foreign intelligence or assess its importance, is evidence of a crime, or indicates a threat of death or serious bodily harm.

The Post and the Guardian cited confidential slides and other documents about PRISM for their reports. They named Google, Facebook, Microsoft Corp., Apple Inc., Yahoo Inc., AOL Inc. and Paltalk as companies whose data has been obtained.

All the companies have issued statements asserting that they aren't voluntarily handing over user data. They also are emphatically rejecting newspaper reports indicating that PRISM has opened a door for the NSA to tap directly on the companies' data centers whenever the government pleases.

In his statement, Clapper appeared to support that claim by stressing that the government did not act unilaterally, but with court authority.

The Guardian reported Saturday that it had obtained top-secret documents detailing an NSA tool, called Boundless Informant, that maps the information it collects from computer and telephone networks by country. The paper said the documents show NSA collected almost 3 billion pieces of intelligence from U.S. computer networks over a 30-day period ending in March, which the paper says calls into question NSA statements that it cannot determine how many Americans may be accidentally included in its computer surveillance.

NSA spokesperson Judith Emmel said Saturday that "current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication." She said it may be possible to determine that a communication "traversed a particular path within the Internet," but added that "it is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address."

Emmel said communications are filtered both by automated processes and NSA staff to make sure Americans' privacy is respected.

"This is not just our judgment, but that of the relevant inspectors general, who have also reported this," she said.

Amid unsettling reports of government spying, Obama assured the nation Friday that "nobody is listening to your telephone calls. What the government is doing, he said, is digesting phone numbers and the durations of calls, seeking links that might "identify potential leads with respect to folks who might engage in terrorism."

While Obama on Friday said the aim of the programs is to make America safe, he offered no specifics about how the surveillance programs have done that. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., on Thursday said the phone records sweeps had thwarted a domestic terror attack, but he also didn't offer specifics.

The revelations have divided Congress and led civil liberties advocates and some constitutional scholars to accuse Obama of crossing a line in the name of rooting out terror threats.

Obama, himself a constitutional lawyer, strove to calm Americans' fears but also to remind them that Congress and the courts had signed off on the surveillance.

"I think the American people understand that there are some trade-offs involved," he said when questioned by reporters at a health care event in San Jose, Calif.

Obama echoed intelligence experts both inside and outside the government who predicted that potential attackers will find other, secretive ways to communicate now that they know that their phone and Internet records may be targeted.

An al-Qaida affiliated website on Saturday warned against using the Internet to discuss issues related to militant activities in three long articles on what it called "America's greatest and unprecedented scandal of spying on its own citizens and people in other countries."

"Caution: Oh brothers, it is a great danger revealing PRISM, the greatest American spying project," wrote one member, describing the NSA program that gathers information from major U.S. Internet companies.

"A highly important caution for the Internet jihadis ... American intelligence gets information from Facebook and Google," wrote another.

Former Rep. Pete Hoekstra, R-Mich., who served on the House Intelligence Committee for a decade, said "the bad folks' antennas go back up and they become more cautious for a period of time."

"But we'll just keep coming up with more sophisticated ways to dig into these data. It becomes a techies game, and we will try to come up with new tools to cut through the clutter," he said.

Hoekstra said he approved the phone surveillance program but did not know about the online spying.

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Associated Press writer Maamoun Youssef in Cairo contributed to this report.

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Follow Lara Jakes Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP.

onternational between England and New Zealand at Lord's on

Friday.

New Zealand won the toss

ENGLAND

A.Cook c Ronchi b Southee 30

I.Bell c Ronchi b Southee 18

J.Trott c Taylor b N.McCullum 37

J.Root b N.McCullum 30

E.Morgan c Ronchi b McClenaghan 6

J.Buttler c McClenagan b Williamson 14

C.Woakes c Guptill b Mills 36

T.Bresnan b Southee 25

G.Swann c N.McCullum b McClenaghan 15

J.Anderson not out 5

Extras (1nb, 6w, 4lb) 11

TOTAL (for nine wickets, 50 overs) 227

Fall: 1-45 2-50 3-117 4-124 5-126 6-159 7-182 8-216 9-227

Bowling: McClenaghan 10-0-49-3 Mills 10-0-36-1 Southee

10-2-37-3 N.McCullum 10-0-34-2 Franklin 4-0-29-0 Williamson

6-0-38-1

NEW ZEALAND

L.Ronchi c Swann b Anderson 0

M.Guptill not out 103

K.Williamson c Buttler b Anderson 0

R.Taylor c Buttler b Anderson 54

G.Elliott b Swann 27

B.McCullum c Morgan b Dernbach 5

J.Franklin not out 16

Extras (10w 4b 12lb) 26

TOTAL (for five wickets, 46.5 overs) 231

Fall: 1-1 2-1 3-121 4-168 5-185

Bowling: Anderson 9-0-31-3 Dernbach 10-1-55-1 Woakes

6-0-45-0 Bresnan 9.5-1-36-0 Swann 10-0-33-1 Root 2-0-15-0

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - Proving no good deed goes unrewarded, an emotional Tony Kanaan was paid back in full by a young fan and an old friend whose talismans helped power the Brazilian to his first Indianapolis 500 victory on Sunday.

One of the most popular drivers in IndyCar Series, Kanaan's win was greeted with thundering approval across the sprawling speedway as a crowd estimated at close to 250,000 watched the 38-year-old cruise to the checkered flag under caution.

But it is likely no one was more excited than a long time fan and former IndyCar champion Alex Zanardi, who both turned over good luck charms to Kanaan with the hope it would bring him the one victory that had always been just beyond his reach.

On Sunday at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Lady Luck finally smiled on Kanaan as he won the crown jewel of North American motor racing on his 12th attempt, tying a record for the most tries before earning an Indy 500 victory.

"I never had doubt I could win this thing," Kanaan told reporters. "I think we can prove that theory that says that nice guys don't win ... I guess we proved them wrong."

A former IndyCar champion, Kanaan had led 221 laps at the famed Brickyard coming into Sunday's race, more than any other non-winner besides Michael Andretti and Rex Mays.

Kanaan had known nothing but bad luck and heartache on the 2.5 mile oval, coming close but never quite able to find his way to Victory Lane. He entered Sunday's race with five top-five finishes, including a second place in 2004 and third place in 2003 and 2012.

But Zanardi and the young fan decided it was time Kanaan's luck changed and the two rallied around the Brazilian who had once rallied around them.

CHARM RETURNED

Nine years ago, a 14-year-old girl was in a coma awaiting surgery at an Indianapolis hospital when Kanaan made a visit and offered her mother a good luck charm to help see her safely through the operation.

Now 24 years old and healthy, the woman returned the charm to Kanaan four days ago along with a note, telling him to go and win the one race he wanted most.

"I had this thing that my mom gave me," explained Kanaan. "It was kind of a necklace to protect me, not to bring me luck, because you know the way moms are.

"So I took it out and I said to her mother, 'I don't know if you believe in these things but I had this for a while. It always protected me. My mother gave it to me. I want to give it to you.'

"Four days ago, she showed up, gave me a letter with an envelope. I opened the letter. She said that she had enough of luck in her life. She got married, and she wanted to give it back to me to bring me luck."

When Zanardi was nearly killed in a crash during an IndyCar race in Germany and lost both his legs, Kanaan was one of the first their to support the Italian.

Zanardi decided it was time to pay back that kindness on Sunday when he showed up at the Brickyard with a gold medal he won at the 2012 London Paralympics hoping it too might give his friend an edge.

"Right before the race, he gave it to (team owner Jimmy Vasser). Jimmy brought it to the bus. I was laying in bed. Jim said, 'Zanardi asked you to rub it.'

"I actually cuddled with the thing."

While luck may have contributed to Kanaan's win, victory did not come without the experience and patience that comes with 12 years of challenging the world's most famous speedway.

It was that experience that told Kanaan that there was a good chance of a yellow caution flag coming out in the closing laps as drivers made their moves.

He was right, and when Graham Rahal struck the wall, Kanaan bounced on leader Ryan Hunter-Reay at the restart. Then, when Dario Franchitti crashed with two laps to run, bringing out another yellow, Kanaan knew he had won.

"I knew a yellow flag with six, seven, eight laps to go, it's a big potential for another yellow right away," said Kanaan. "I was in the perfect place, exactly where I wanted to be, right behind the leader, with three to go because I knew a potential yellow could happen.

"It happened. I guess it was right."

(Editing by Frank Pingue)

Zoo officials say the Mangarahara cichlid is thought to be extinct in the wild and that two of the last known individuals both male are in the zoo's aquarium. A third is in the Berlin zoo.

Officials say the species' habitat in Madagascar has dried up due to dam construction.

The zoo on Friday asked aquarium owners and fish collectors to come forward it they know of any living females "so that a vital conservation breeding program can be started."

Officials say a worldwide search of zoo and aquarium organizations has so far proved fruitless.

Cullen Finnerty, 30, a former Grand Valley State University quarterback, went missing Sunday while fishing near his family's cottage. His body was found in Webber Township about a mile from where he disappeared, but authorities said no foul play was suspected. An autopsy will be needed to determine how he died, they said.

Finnerty led Grand Valley State University to three Division II national titles and more than 50 wins during his four years as a starter in Allendale, Mich., last decade. His body was found about 8 p.m. in woods within a mile of where he disappeared, said Lake County Undersheriff Dennis Robinson.

Robinson said the body was not in the water and was found in a wooded area in near the family's cottage.

The search drew scores of police and volunteers, including staff and players from Grand Valley State.

Finnerty last spoke to a family member that night in a phone call in which he said "he was nervous about something," Sheriff Robert Hilts said earlier Tuesday. Based on that call, the family suspected "he might be having some kind of a mental episode that he was either afraid or something and ran off into the woods," Hilts said.

The sheriff said authorities had been tracking Finnerty's cellphone "until it went dead." The terrain made the search for the 6-foot-3, 230-pound ex-athlete difficult, Hilts said.

"This is the last river that I'd pick to fish," he said, citing logjams and dense brush. "And it's a very tough river to navigate."

Searchers from the sheriff's office, state police and area fire departments fanned out Tuesday across a square-mile area of Webber Township, which is about 65 miles north of Grand Rapids.

In addition, dozens of current and former Grand Valley State players, coaches and staff hopped on a bus and headed north to Lake County to lend a hand in the search effort.

Grand Valley coach Matt Mitchell, who was a defensive assistant when Finnerty led the Lakers to national titles in 2005 and 2006, as well as former Grand Valley coach and current Notre Dame offensive coordinator Chuck Martin were among those helping out.

Finnerty, who starred at Brighton High School, originally accepted an offer to play at the University of Toledo but transferred to Grand Valley after redshirting in 2001.

The dual-threat QB played for Grand Valley teams that won Division II titles in 2003, 2005 and 2006. He briefly was a member of the Baltimore Ravens and later the Denver Broncos.

Mitchell said Finnerty was "held in very high regard. He was the starting quarterback on national championship teams. But he's more than that: He's one of the most loyal teammates we've ever had."

Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly was Grand Valley's coach during the 2003 national championship season.

"It's very chilling," Kelly said Tuesday, before Finnerty's body was found. "He led me to a national championship as a true freshman. When I left, coach Martin took over and won two more national championships. My heart goes out to the family and to his beautiful wife."

___

AP reporter Tom Coyne in South Bend, Ind., contributed to this story.

___

Mike Householder can be reached at mhouseholder(at)ap.org and http://twitter.com/mikehouseholder

My husband and I are full-time students, ex-military and taking advantage of the G.I. Bill. We're looking for jobs, but my parents have threatened not to speak to me if we take jobs closer to his parents. I'm trying to be fair to both sets of parents, but we can't stay unemployed because of this issue. We have a family to support.

I tried reasoning with them, but I'm unsure how to proceed. Dad called and offered my husband a job in my hometown. We declined because if we accept, they will expect us to live near them. Please tell me what to do. I don't want my family to fall apart any more than it already has. -- SMOTHERED IN THE SOUTH

DEAR SMOTHERED: If you feel smothered now, imagine how it would be if you and your husband were economically dependent on your parents. No part of your lives would be separate from them, and you would be completely under their control. Holding the family together is not your responsibility, and you should not sacrifice your independence in an attempt to do so.

Your parents' emotional blackmail has already driven away two of your sisters and their families. I assume you have relationships with your siblings. I'm advising you to maintain them and live your own lives. With time, your parents may realize they haven't isolated their children; they have isolated only themselves.

DEAR ABBY: Today I saw a former classmate I hadn't seen in 22 years. He always seemed a little slow and different from the rest of us, and he was picked on at school because of it. When I said hello to him and reminded him of my name and that we went to school together, he said, "You danced with me at prom, and I always thought that was so nice!" I had forgotten that I had danced with him, but obviously, the fact that I did meant something to him.

My parents raised me to be nice to everyone, even if they weren't in my circle of friends. I'm not claiming that I was a saint in school, but I did try to stand up for people who were being picked on.

I wanted to share with your readers that any act of kindness probably means more than you know to the other person. I will be sharing my parents' message of kindness with my own daughter, and I hope other parents read this and do the same. -- PASSING IT ON IN OHIO

DEAR PASSING IT ON: Thank you for a wonderful letter. Your lesson in compassion is one that all parents should discuss with their children.

DEAR ABBY: I'm an 18-year-old girl who will be job searching pretty soon. I have never felt the need to wear makeup in my day-to-day life, but now I'm wondering. Is it unprofessional to go into a workplace sans makeup? Will future bosses think I don't look put-together? I wonder if any other girls my age are having the same confusion. -- READY TO BE OUT THERE

DEAR READY: It depends upon what kind of job you'll be searching for. If you plan to work with the public, you should try to look your best at all times. For your interviews, you should be neatly, but conservatively dressed. And as for makeup, you needn't apply it as though you were going on stage, but a touch of color wouldn't hurt.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

For an excellent guide to becoming a better conversationalist and a more sociable person, order "How to Be Popular." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Popularity Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

LONDON (Reuters) - Even with one of the world's most athletic opera singers at her side and plenty of practice, American mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato reckons the latest London production of Gioachino Rossini's "La Donna Del Lago" is the challenge of a lifetime.

DiDonato and Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Florez told Reuters at the Royal Opera House production's opening on Friday night that performing their technically demanding roles in the John Fulljames interpretation is almost like an elite sport.

"When you're on stage and you know you have to hit this incredibly difficult note, and there's an exhilarating silence in the audience and everybody is zeroed in on you, it's like you're running for gold in the Olympics," DiDonato said.

"La Donna del Lago" or Lady of the Lake is based on an 1810 Walter Scott poem in which Didonato plays the ginger-haired Elena: the enchanting Lady of the Lake who finds herself at the center of - not one - but two love triangles.

Florez, who sings the role of her love-struck suitor King James V and is well known for his incredible vocal range, said the piece never gets easier.

"Everything about it is difficult," Florez said. "I have performed the part many times before but it is still a huge challenge."

Elena's father is fighting with the clans against the king's rule and has promised his daughter's hand in marriage to the brutish clan leader, Rodrigo.

But Elena is smitten with the young romantic hero Malcolm and at the same time has become the object of desire for King James - who disguises himself as a hunter to win her heart.

Florez, known in the opera world as a vocal acrobat, plays a domineering king whose steely veneer crumbles when he encounters the striking Elena, revealing his sensitive core.

The tenor showcases his vocal brilliance in a heart-wrenching aria in which the king declares his love.

He doesn't quite eclipse his showstopping "Ah! Mes Amis" from Donizetti's "La Fille du Rgiment", where he hits nine top C's, but certainly rivals it as a piece de resistance.

Although he is frequently cast in Rossini, Donizetti or Bellini operas, where rapid-fire strings of notes regularly loop up and down the musical staff, Florez said he is always looking for new challenges.

"I know what I can do and I know what I'm most comfortable with but I'm always looking for new roles," he said.

STRIKING SET

Premiered in 1819 at the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, "La Donna del Lago", which also stars leading bel canto voices Simon Orfila and Colin Lee, evokes the magical mystery of Rossini's Scottish landscapes through a striking set.

The first act is staged against the backdrop of a giant painting, depicting dramatic Highland lochs and hills, before it is rolled aside to reveal a giant winding staircase representing Elena's home.

The passion, frustration and desperation that the characters endure are illustrated through the use of flames and smoke and adead hog is cut open over a cauldron on stage before an epic stand-off between the king and the Highland rebels.

DiDonato, who last month announced that she would be headlining the Last Night of the Proms in London's Royal Albert Hall in September, described the opportunity to perform in London as returning to her "home away from home".

Born and educated in middle class Kansas, London is widely perceived to be the place of her first breakthrough, when she starred as the love interest in Leos Janacek's 2003 version of "Cunning Little Vixen".

Since then, she has earned accolades for her growing discography, one cherry on the cake being her 2012 Grammy Award and 2010 Gramophone Artist of the Year prize.

The 44-year also fosters a growing fan base through her blog and Twitter page, injecting a new energy into the sometimes achingly traditional world of opera through social media.

Under the pseudonym "Yankeediva" she tweets, blogs and regularly uploads YouTube videos to share anecdotes of her experiences travelling the world and pursue a passion for improving arts education.

"I want young people to understand how exciting and important the arts can be and social networks are a great media for doing this."

(Reporting By Josie Cox, editing by Paul Casciato)