Relatives of those killed and activists celebrated the 80-year sentence handed down by a tribunal to Rios Montt on Friday, a sweet moment in their long struggle to punish the former dictator who presided over one of the bloodiest chapters of a war that killed some 200,000 people, mainly indigenous Mayans.

During the trial Ixil Mayans, who have long suffered discrimination, stood up and testified about mass rapes, the killings of women and children, and other atrocities that authorities had often denied took place.

"It's important that victims were given a voice, that theywere given an opportunity to be heard, to feel vindicated, to show they are not crazy and that what they went through did happen," said human rights activist Helen Mack, whose sister Mirna was killed in 1990 while documenting abuses against indigenous communities during the war.

"It's a painful process for Guatemala but we need go through it if we want to heal our wounds as a society," said Mack.

But she warned that it remains to be seen if justice will be served in the case, despite the conviction of the 86-year-old ex-general for genocide and crimes against humanity.

"This sentence is still not firm because Rios Montt's lawyers have already said they will work to nullify it," she added.

The ruling was the state's first official acknowledgment that genocide occurred during the 36-year civil war that ended with peace accords in 1996. It was also the first time such a sentence for genocide was ever handed down against a former Latin American leader in his own country.

For Guatemalan Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu the unprecedented trial was an opportunity for Ixil Mayans to show other indigenous communities how to exercise their rights.

"This was achieved by the Ixil people. This could mean that everyone, all indigenous people all over the planet who have been treated with hatred, who have been branded as liars, could hopefully start living in harmony," Menchu said.

When the guilty verdict was announced, the crowded courtroom erupted in cheers. Some women who lost relatives in the massacres wept.

Indians from ethnic Mayan groups broke into song after the verdict, singing "We only want to be human beings ... to live life, not die it."

"This is a verdict that is just. This brings justice for the victims, justice for the people of Guatemala," said Edgar Perez of the Association for Justice and Reconciliation, one of the groups that originally brought the criminal complaint against the ex-dictator a dozen years ago.

"Judge, Judge! Restore order!" Rios Montt shouted as cameramen and photographers swarmed him after the verdict was announced.

In delivering the verdict by the three-judge tribunal, Presiding Judge Yassmin Barrios said "he knew about everything that was going on and he did not stop it, despite having the power to stop it from being carried out."

The proceedings suffered ups and downs as the trial was suspended for 12 days amid appeals and at times appeared headed for annulment.

Prosecutors argued that Rios Montt must have had knowledge of the massacres of Mayan Indians when he ruled Guatemala from March 1982 to August 1983.The three-judge panel essentially concluded that the massacres followed the same pattern, showing they had been planned, something that would not be possible without the approval of the military command, which Rios Montt headed.

Rios Montt had said he never knew of or ordered the massacres while in power.A co-defendant, Jose Mauricio Rodriguez Sanchez, a 68-year-old former general who was a high-ranking member of the military chiefs of staff during Rios Montt's administration, was acquitted.

The 80-year sentence was somewhat symbolic, given Rios Montt's age and the fact that Guatemala's maximum sentence is 50 years. His lawyers vowed to appeal the ruling.

"This is an unjust verdict. We already knew they were going to convict him, the general (Rios Montt) even came with his suitcase packed," said defense lawyer Francisco Palomo.

Dozens of victims testified of atrocities. A former soldier directly accused President Perez Molina of ordering pillaging and executions while serving in the military during the Rios Montt regime. Perez Molina called the testimony "lies."

Rios Montt seized power in a March 23, 1982, coup, and ruled until he himself was overthrown just over a year later. Prosecutors say that while in power he was aware of, and thus responsible for, the slaughter by subordinates of at least 1,771 Ixil Mayas in San Juan Cotzal, San Gaspar Chajul and Santa Maria Nebaj, towns in the Quiche department of Guatemala's western highlands.

Those military offensives were part of a brutal, decades-long counterinsurgency against a leftist uprising that brought massacres in the Mayan heartland where the guerrillas were based.

A U.N. truth commission said state forces and related paramilitary groups were responsible for 93 percent of the killings and human rights violations that it documented, committed mostly against indigenous Maya. Yet until now, only low or middle-level officials have been prosecuted for war atrocities.

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Associated Press Writer Olga R. Rodriguez contributed to this report

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - LinkedIn Corp shares fell 10 percent on Thursday after disappointing revenue forecasts suggested that a revamped mobile app and other new products designed to keep smartphone users engaged will not deliver on advertising growth as quickly as anticipated.

The social network that targets professional users and specializes in recruiting services has in past months trotted a series of enhancements such as news content for mobile devices, to keep users signed in longer and sell more advertising.

But on Thursday, executives warned that its advertising business will undergo "a more moderate growth" than its other services. Its fledgling, mobile-oriented "newsfeed" ads - or promotions that appear directly in a users' stream of content - remained in testing and would only be introduced gradually.

"The stock is somewhat a victim of its own success," said Needham & Co analyst Kerry Rice.

"They had a really big acceleration in Q4," said Rice. "So I think the market kind of expected similar results in Q1 and throughout 2013."

Shares of LinkedIn have surged about 74 percent this year in a mostly disappointing social media sector. The company's bread-and-butter recruiting services - which accounted for 57 percent of sales - generated strong 80 percent growth in revenue to $184.3 million in the first quarter.

But it said current-quarter revenue would range from $342 million to $347 million, below the $359.3 million expected on average by analysts.

Although LinkedIn hiked its full-year revenue forecast by $20 million on Thursday, the high end of the forecast range was below the average analyst estimate of $1.49 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The company said net income for the first quarter rose to $22.6 million, or 20 cents a share, from $5 million, or 4 cents a share, over the same period. Excluding certain items, LinkedIn said it earned 45 cents a share in the first quarter, well above the 31 cents expected by analysts.

Revenue in the first three months of the year rose 72 percent to $324.7 million from $188.5 million in the year-ago period.

LinkedIn shares slid about 10 percent to $181 from a close of $201.67 on the New York Stock Exchange.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang and Lisa Shumaker)

In a speech to a predominantly student audience, Obama conceded that the root of much violence in Mexico is the demand for drugs in the United States, and acknowledged that most guns used to commit crime in this country come from the U.S. But he said an improving economy is changing Mexico and improving its middle class.

"I see it in the deepening of Mexico's democracy, citizens who are standing up and saying that violence and impunity is not acceptable," Obama told several hundred people gathered on a cool, breezy morning in a covered, outdoor plaza at Mexico City's grand National Museum of Anthropology.

Obama said he is optimistic that the U.S. will change its patchwork of immigration laws. With about 6 million Mexicans illegally in the United States, the issue resonates deeply in Mexico, which also has seen deportations of its citizens from the U.S. rise dramatically under Obama.

Underlying Obama's visit was his desire to persuade the U.S. public and lawmakers that Mexico no longer poses the illegal immigration threat it once did.

"The long-term solution to the challenge of illegal immigration is a growing and prosperous Mexico that creates more jobs and opportunities for young people here," said Obama.

To that end, he called for improving the growing trade relationship between the two countries. Mexico is the second-largest export market for U.S. goods and services. The U.S. also buys more Mexican exports than any other country. Still, the reality of Mexico's economic surge is perhaps not as rosy as Obama portrayed it.

While Mexico's economy has grown, it has yet to trickle down to average workers. Huge poverty rates held steady between late 2006 and 2010, the most recent year for which government statistics are available. Between 40 percent and 50 percent of the population of 112 million Mexicans live in poverty, earning less than $100 a month.

Obama also cited Mexico's healthy manufacturing sector as an example of the country's "impressive progress," with new factories turning out TVs and automobiles for foreign markets. But some of that growth is due to the fact that wages largely have stagnated, while China's have risen, making Mexico more of a low-wage paradise.

Mexico's economy grew by about 1 percent in the first three months of the year and the country isn't creating anywhere near the million jobs annually it needs to employ all the young people entering its workforce.

Obama spoke on the second day of his Mexico City visit, peppering his remarks with Spanish phrases, including that he was "entre amigos" or "among friends." He concluded with "Viva Mexico. Viva los Estados Unidos. Que Dios los bendiga" or "Long live Mexico. Long live the United States. May God bless them."

After the speech, he was heading to Costa Rica, where he planned to deliver a blunter message to Central American leaders struggling with weak economies and drug violence. Obama was to meet with Costa Rican President Laura Chinchilla before joining leaders from the Central American Integration system. The regional network also includes the leaders of Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama.

The U.S. view of the region is that its pervasive violence and security weaknesses are holding back economic growth, and that with fewer Mexicans crossing the border illegally, the rest of the region has become the main source of illegal immigration into the United States.

As a result, Obama is expected to call for stepped up security cooperation, regional economic integration and improvements in human rights and democratic reforms.

"We want to make sure that our hemisphere is more effectively integrated to improve the economy and security of all peoples," Obama said Thursday. "There is a whole range of opportunities, and that will be the purpose of this trip."

Friday's speech came as Obama's popularity in Mexico has risen in recent years and as views of the United States also improve. A Pew Research Center poll in March found that two-thirds of Mexicans have a favorable opinion of the U.S., compared with 44 percent in 2010. About half of Mexicans have confidence that Obama will do the right thing on world affairs, up from 38 percent in 2011.

Still, dozens of migrant families deported from the U.S. even though their children were born there rallied outside the U.S. Embassy before Obama's arrival Thursday. "Obama, don't deport my Mama," one sign said. So far, the Obama administration has deported more than 1.6 million people.

For all the attention to commerce and trade, the visit to Mexico less than two days long was not designed for major breakthroughs or new initiatives. Indeed, on one of the top economic pacts before them, Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto merely reaffirmed a goal to conclude negotiations this year on a Trans-Pacific Partnership, an Asia-Pacific trading bloc that is key to Obama's efforts to boost exports to Asia.

Both men, however, did announce a new partnership to build on the business relationship with closer cooperation between top officials in Mexico and the U.S., including Vice President Joe Biden.

At a joint news conference Thursday, Obama and Pena Nieto carefully sidestepped potential trouble spots. Obama steered clear of commenting on Pena Nieto's decision to end the broad access that U.S. security agencies have had in Mexico to combat drug trafficking. The decision has alarmed some U.S. officials.

"President Pena Nieto and his team are organizing a vision about how they can most efficiently and effectively address these issues," Obama said. "And we will interact with them in ways that are appropriate, respecting that ultimately Mexico has to deal with its problems internally and we have to deal with ours as well."

For his part, Pena Nieto declined to be drawn into the immigration debate in Washington, a top priority for Obama but one that is at a delicate stage in Congress. Asked to comment, the Mexican president merely acknowledged the efforts under way in Congress.

"Mexico understands that this is a domestic affair for the U.S. and we wish you the best push that you're giving to immigration," he said.

Likewise, Pena Nieto demurred when asked to react to the failure of the U.S. Senate to pass gun control legislation, including an expanded background check for firearms buyers, even though many guns obtained illegally in the U.S. end up in the hands of drug dealers in Mexico.

He said he agreed with Obama's campaign to stem gun violence, but added: "This is a domestic issue in the United States."

Obama vowed to keep pressing for gun legislation, saying: "We recognize we've got obligations when it comes to guns that are oftentimes being shipped down south and contributing to violence here in Mexico."

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Follow Jim Kuhnhenn on Twitter: http://twitter.com/jkuhnhenn

The stock market has recovered all the ground it lost over the previous two weeks, when worries over slower economic growth, falling commodity prices and disappointing quarterly earnings battered financial markets.

The S&P 500 index rose 11.37 points to close at 1,593.61. The 0.7 percent increase nudged the index above its previous closing high of 1,593.36, reached on April 11.

"The market has had a terrific run," said Philip Orlando, chief equity strategist at Federated Investors, noting that the S&P 500 is up 12 percent since the start of 2013. "At the beginning of the year, I thought we were going to 1,660 (for the whole year). We're only about 5 percent from that."

A pair of better economic reports gave investors some encouragement. Wages and spending rose in the U.S. last month, and pending home sales hit their highest level in three years.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 106.20 points to 14,818.75, up 0.7 percent. Microsoft and IBM were among the Dow's best performers, rising more than 2 percent each.

IBM, which rose $4.84 to $199.15, accounted for a third of the Dow's increase. The index is just 46 points below its own record high of 14,865 reached on April 11.

Tech's popularity Monday was a change from earlier this month, when it lagged the rest of the market. Concerns about weak business spending and slower overseas sales have cast a shadow over big tech firms, said Marty Leclerc, the managing partner of Barrack Yard Advisors, an investment firm in Bryn Mawr, Pa.

Revenue misses from IBM and other big tech companies have highlighted the industry's vulnerability to the world economy. But Leclerc thinks tech companies with steady revenue and plenty of cash look appealing over the long term.

Information technology stocks rose the most of the 10 industry groups in the S&P 500 on Monday, up 1.6 percent. It's the only group that remains lower over the past year, down 2 percent, versus the S&P 500's gain of 14 percent.

Federated's Orlando thinks tech stocks could continue to rally as investors shift money from companies that pay big dividends and have rallied recently -- utilities, healthcare and consumer staples. "They've been buying these companies, but four months into this year they've gotten expensive," Orlando said.

The Nasdaq composite rose 27.76 points to 3,307.02, an increase of 0.9 percent. Apple, the biggest stock in the index, surged 3 percent, or $12.92, to $430.12.

The Nasdaq remains far below its record closing high of 5,048.62, hit March 10, 2000, before the dot-com bubble popped.

The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes reached the highest level since April 2010, according to the National Association of Realtors. Back then, a tax credit for buying houses had lifted sales. In a separate report, the government said Americans' spending and income both edged up last month.

A handful of companies reported earnings on Monday. Eaton Corp.'s quarterly net income beat Wall Street's estimates, helped by its acquisition of Cooper Industries, an electrical equipment supplier. But the manufacturer's revenue fell short. Its stock climbed 3 percent, or $1.63, to $60.28.

Eaton's results followed a larger pattern this earnings season. Of the 274 companies that have turned in results, seven of 10 have beaten analysts' estimates for earnings, according to S&P Capital IQ. But when it comes to revenue, six of 10 have missed estimates. That suggests companies are squeezing more profits out of cost cutting, instead of higher sales.

The stocks of Moody's and McGraw-Hill, which owns Standard & Poor's, surged following news that the ratings agencies settled lawsuits dating back to the financial crisis that accused them of concealing risky investments. McGraw-Hill gained 3 percent, or $1.45, to $53.45, while Moody's jumped 8 percent, or $4.57, to $59.69, the biggest gain in the S&P 500.

In the market for government bonds, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note slipped from 1.67 late Friday to 1.66 percent, close to its low for the year.

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AP Business Writer Bernard Condon contributed to this report.

Manufacturers shipped 216 million smartphones worldwide in the first three months of this year, compared with 189 million regular cellphones, according to a study IDC released late Thursday. IDC said smartphones made up 51.6 percent of the 419 million mobile phones shipped.

In the U.S., smartphones overtook regular cellphones in 2011. IDC analyst Ramon Llamas said Friday that the shift to a global majority of smartphones is now being driven by consumers in developing countries such as China, India and Indonesia.

Another firm, ABI Research, found that smartphones made up 49 percent of shipments in the first quarter. Samsung Electronics Co., the world's largest phone maker, doesn't provide a breakdown of its phone shipments, and analysts vary in their estimates. Even going by ABI's numbers, it's clear that smartphones will solidly overtake the market this year.

The shift from phones primarily designed for calls, and perhaps texting, to ones with advanced operating systems and touch screens has roiled the cellphone industry. Finland's Nokia Corp. was for many years the world's largest maker of cellphones, but it has failed to translate that into success in smartphones. It's now the second-largest maker of phones overall, behind Samsung Electronics Co., but it falls far down the list of smartphone makers.

Cellphone pioneer Motorola Mobility, a U.S. company now owned by Google, has stumbled through the transition as well, while Apple Inc. has become the world's third-largest maker of cellphones, less than six years after launching the first iPhone. Samsung and Apple are the top makers of smartphones. LG Electronics Inc. of South Korea; HTC Corp. of Taiwan; and ZTE Corp. and Huawei Technologies Ltd. of China jostle for the No. 3 position.

MANAMA (Reuters) - Formula One's sole tire suppliers Pirelli warned on Friday that time was running out on a new contract if they were to stay in the sport beyond the end of the season.

"Time is of the essence, I would suggest," the Italian company's motorsport director Paul Hembery told reporters at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hembery said he had tried to avoid setting a deadline for a deal, so as not to create unnecessary tension, but the world's fifth largest tire maker "won't and cannot hang on forever.

"I've got a pretty good idea when that (deadline) is going to be and I've urged the teams to decide what they want very quickly," he said.

Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone told reporters that, from his part, a deal was signed but it also has to be agreed by the teams and the Paris-based governing International Automobile Federation (FIA).

Pirelli returned to the sport as sole supplier in 2011 following an FIA tender for a three-year period. In theory, the contract should again go out to tender although Hembery suggested the world body could simply ratify an extension.

The Briton said Pirelli had made a proposal but it was subject to regular review by the company's board.

He pointed out that European car sales had shrunk again in March after a dismal 2012, and that had a heavy impact on Pirelli although there was sales growth in many other markets.

"We are a European-based company and when we are taking tough decisions in Europe and you are looking to renew a significant project like F1, you have to keep going back to the board," he said.

"I had to present a document for our board again last month and it went back to them to review again the project. It's not my decision whether Pirelli stays in Formula One, it's the shareholders of the company.

"The sport we believe is a good platform for Pirelli going forward but big companies come under a lot of pressure. At a certain point someone has to make a decision somewhere," declared Hembery.

He made clear that Pirelli had plenty of other projects they wanted to do around the world and the resources would be reallocated if not needed in Formula One.

"We've made what we feel is a proposition that we can sustain with the current business environment and if that is acceptable then it's as it is. And if it's not, we need to know it's not," he said.

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

The historical bestseller set in Henry VIII's court has already won the Man Booker Prize for Fiction and the Costa Book Award. If she takes the Women's Prize, Mantel will become the first person to win all three of Britain's top literary prizes.

The shortlist for the 30,000-pound ($45,900) literary prize released on Tuesday also included two former winners: fellow Briton Zadie Smith for "NW" and American writer Barbara Kingsolver for "Flight Behaviour".

The other three books were "Where'd You Go Bernadette" by U.S. author Maria Semple, "May We Be Forgiven" from American A.M. Homes and "Life After Life" by Briton Kate Atkinson.

"The shortlist for 2013 represents six tremendous writers at the top of their game," chair of the judging panel Miranda Richardson said.

"Their individual novels are flawlessly presented, they contain a heady mix of ideas and without exception take the reader on a unique and deeply satisfying journey."

"Bring Up the Bodies" is the second book in Mantel's trilogy about Cromwell's rise to power. The other novels on the shortlist included Smith's look at characters in north London, a darkly comic novel about 21st century domesticity from Homes and Kingsolver's exploration of climate change and rural poverty in America's Appalachian region.

Atkinson's tale follows the turbulent events of the last century in Britain through the constantly reincarnating character of Ursula Todd. Semple sets her story in Seattle, where 15-year-old Bee searches for her missing, wealthy and erratic mother Bernadette Fox.

Set up in 1996 to celebrate and promote international fiction by women throughout the world to the widest range of readers possible, the Women's Prize for Fiction is awarded annually for the best novel of the year written by a woman.

Any woman writing in English - whatever her nationality, country of residence, age or subject matter - is eligible.

The award ceremony will take place in London on June 5.

Previous winners besides Smith and Kingsolver include Madeline Miller for "The Song of Achilles" last year, Rose Tremain for "The Road Home" in 2008 and Lionel Shriver for "We Need to Talk About Kevin" in 2005.

($1 = 0.6531 British pounds)

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Pravin Char)