Questions remain, however, about Sharif's stance on another key issue: violent Islamic extremism. Critics have accused his party of being soft on radicals because it hasn't cracked down on militant groups in its stronghold of Punjab province.

That could be a concern for the United States, which has pushed Pakistan for years to take stronger action against a variety of Islamic militant groups, especially fighters staging cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan.

As unofficial returns rolled in Sunday, a day after the election, state TV estimates put Sharif close to the majority in the national assembly needed to govern outright for the next five years. Even if he falls short of that threshold, independent candidates almost certain to swing in Sharif's favor would give his Pakistan Muslim League-N party a ruling majority.

That would put the 63-year-old Sharif in a much stronger position than the outgoing Pakistan People's Party, which ruled for five years with a weak coalition that was often on the verge of collapse.

Pakistan suffers from a growing energy crisis, with some areas experiencing power outages for up to 18 hours a day. That has seriously hurt the economy, pushing growth below 4 percent a year. The country needs a growth rate of twice that to provide jobs for its expanding population of 180 million.

Ballooning energy subsidies and payments to keep failing public enterprises afloat have steadily eaten away at the government's finances, forcing the country to seek another unpopular bailout from the International Monetary Fund. Pakistan also has an ineffective tax system, depriving the government of funds.

Sharif, the son of a wealthy industrialist, is seen by many as more likely to tackle the country's economic problems effectively because much of his party's support comes from businessmen. He is also expected to push for better relations with Pakistan's archenemy and neighbor India, which could help the economy.

The Pakistan People's Party was widely perceived to have done little on the economic front.

"Anything better than zero and you have already improved on the PPP's performance in terms of managing the economy," said Cyril Almeida, a columnist for Pakistan's Dawn newspaper.

The former ruling party was soundly beaten in Saturday's election. Sharif's party was leading in contests for 127 seats, just short of the 137 directly elected seats needed to form a majority, state TV said.

The PPP was ahead in contests for 32 national assembly seats, a significant drop from the 91 seats the party won in the 2008 election.

Independent candidates were leading in more than 20 contests, and they historically join the party that forms the government, which would leave the Pakistan Muslim League-N with a majority.

"I'm sure business and the economy will be far better in a couple of years," said Amir Nayaz, one of hundreds of Sharif supporters who gathered outside his home in Punjab's capital, Lahore, beating on drums, dancing and chanting slogans.

It was a remarkable comeback for the two-time prime minister, who was toppled in a 1999 coup by then-army chief Gen. Pervez Musharraf and was sent into exile in Saudi Arabia for years. He returned in 2007, and his party came in second in elections the following year.

Over the last five years, Sharif put steady pressure on the PPP-led government. But because he was wary of army interference, he never applied enough pressure to threaten the government's hold on power. That attitude helped enable parliament to complete its term and transfer power in democratic elections for the first time since the country was founded in 1947.

President Barack Obama praised "the historic peaceful and transparent transfer of civilian power."

In an ironic twist, the man who toppled Sharif in a military coup, Musharraf, is currently under house arrest in the country after returning from self-imposed exile. It will be up to Sharif's government to decide whether to bring treason charges against Musharraf in the Supreme Court.

Sharif's party managed to weather a serious challenge from former cricket star Imran Khan, whose criticism of the country's traditional politicians energized the youth. Even though Khan failed to deliver his promised "political tsunami," his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party did much better than it had historically.

It was leading in contests for 31 national assembly seats, state TV said, and appeared to be in position to possibly form the government in northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The party boycotted elections in 2008 and only won one national assembly seat in 2002.

The Pakistani Taliban, which has been waging a bloody insurgency against the government, tried to derail the election with attacks. More than 150 people were killed with guns and bombs in the run-up to the election, including 29 on election day.

The deadly campaign failed to keep people away from the polls. Turnout was nearly 60 percent, the highest in more than 40 years, the election commission said. But the violence, which mainly targeted secular parties, may have helped candidates seen as taking a softer line toward the militants, like Sharif and Khan, because they were able to campaign more freely.

Sharif has called for negotiations with the Pakistani Taliban but hasn't said clearly whether he thinks army operations against the militants should continue until peace is achieved. His party, which has ruled Punjab for the past five years, has not taken any clear action against the powerful Lashkar-e-Taiba militant group based in that province. Those militants are blamed for the 2008 attack on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed 166 people.

"I don't think that these guys have enough understanding of the risk," said Imtiaz Gul, director of the Islamabad-based Center for Research and Security Studies, referring to Sharif's party members. "They think they cannot afford to stoke unnecessary trouble for them by cracking down on people or groups who are extremists or terrorists."

It's also unclear what Sharif's policy will be toward neighboring Afghanistan, where the U.S. plans to withdraw most of its combat troops by 2014 and is seeking help from Pakistan to negotiate peace with the Afghan Taliban. Pakistan and Afghanistan have long had tense relations.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai promised "full cooperation" with Pakistan's new government Sunday, but alluded to the often-hostile relationship between the two countries and suspicions that Islamabad has aided insurgents and contributed to Afghanistan's instability.

"We hope that the new elected government provides the ground for peace and brotherhood with Afghanistan" and cooperates "in rooting out terrorist sanctuaries," he said.

The U.S. and Pakistan have also had a troubled relationship, especially after the 2011 American raid that killed Osama bin Laden in a Pakistani army town.

Sharif is expected to be somewhat more nationalistic and protective of state sovereignty when it comes to relations with the U.S. than the outgoing government. He defied U.S. opposition to Pakistan's nuclear test in 1998 and has criticized unpopular American drone attacks targeting militants in the country. But that doesn't mean the relationship will radically change, especially since the army often plays a dominant role in foreign policy issues.

"At the end of the day, Sharif is a businessman, and he looks at these things through a kind of pragmatic analysis," Almedia said. "I don't see any reason for him to want ties with U.S. to be poor, tense or troublesome."

___

Associated Press writers Rebecca Santana, Munir Ahmed and Zarar Khan in Islamabad and Kathy Gannon in Kabul, Afghanistan, contributed to this report.

___

Abbot reported from Islamabad.

[More from BGR: ]

The question now is whether Google will do anything to clamp down more on Android and thus prevent third-party developers from moving it too far away from its origins as a Google-centric operating system. ABI Research analystAapo Markkanen expects that Google will exercise some gradual muscle flexing to reassert its control over the platform, though it wont ever go so far as to close the platform to third-party changes all together. If anything, he simply thinks that Google could bar certain Android overlays such as Home from being distributed through the Google Play store going forward.

[More from BGR: ]

The situation, however, may look pretty different once the current land grab stage of the platform race starts to be over, he writes. It is then when itll be the right time for Google to start exercising more control over Android. It is unlikely ever to close-source it, but there are also many other levels it could pull. Google Play is an obvious source of control, and then theres always the option of revamping OHA with a right mix of sticks and carrots e.g. by investing more in partner-exclusive apps and services, and giving the partners a more privileged (that is, earlier) access to new Android versions code.

This article was

BUDAPEST (Reuters) - A Hungarian court has given the go ahead for a far-right protest on Saturday before an international conference of Jewish leaders in Budapest, saying a police ruling that banned it was belated and unlawful.

But Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had ordered the police ban, said the court ruling was "unacceptable" and has asked the president of the Supreme Court to intervene and the interior minister to stop the rally.

The rally, to be held near parliament, will feature speeches from leader of the far-right Jobbik party and Marton Gyongyosi, a Jobbik lawmaker whose call for Jews to be registered on lists as threats to national security was condemned internationally.

The rise of far-right movements and anti-Semitism across Europe, notably in Hungary, where more than half a million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, will be the focus of the World Jewish Congress when it meets in Budapest on Sunday.

Police had barred the rally after the order by Orban to prevent any disturbance around the three-day congress, but a Jobbik lawmaker brought the case to try to reinstate it.

"The court has established that the conduct by police, banning the event on the basis of unfounded presumptions, represented a serious violation of the law," the Budapest Public Administration and Labor Affairs Court said in the ruling published on its website on Friday.

It said that police, which banned the protest more than two weeks after it was first announced, had also exceeded the 48-hour time limit to assess the legality of any event.

A police spokesman said after the ruling the rally could now be held legally, however Orban said he still wanted it halted.

"I have instructed the interior minister to use all lawful means to prevent the event, which goes against the constitution," the prime minister said in a statement.

Orban's conservative government, which surged to power in 2010, has repeatedly condemned provocative remarks by Jobbik lawmakers in parliament.

Jobbik became the third largest party in parliament in 2010 after vilifying the Roma minority in its campaign platform and attracting voters frustrated by a deepening economic crisis.

Gyongyosi later apologized for his call for a Jewish list but did not resign. On Sunday, the chairman of a Hungarian anti-racism group was attacked by far-right soccer fans at a game after he confronted people chanting Nazi slogans.

The demonstration titled "Remembering the victims of Bolshevism and Zionism" is due to be held from 0800 GMT on Saturday.

(Reporting by Gergely Szakacs; Editing by Alison Williams)

A young woman makes a bad decision and her father ends up a murder suspect in "The Ophelia Cut," John Lescroart's latest courtroom drama featuring defense attorney Dismas Hardy.

Brittany McGuire meets a man in a coffee shop and realizes he's a loser after one date. Rick Jessup starts harassing her, demanding another chance. She goes to his house to tell him to get lost, then passes out and wakes up in his bed. She realizes she's been drugged and raped.

Twenty-four hours later, Rick is dead and Brittany's father, Moses, becomes the prime suspect. Moses has been sober for quite some time, but he's found completely wasted on alcohol. Also, witnesses saw Moses attack Rick when he learned that Rick was stalking his daughter.

Moses turns to his brother-in-law Dismas for help. Dismas isn't sure Moses is innocent. The witnesses seem to convey guilt, and exoneration, if possible, comes with a high price.

Friends become enemies and moral dilemmas abound in this tense and intricate tale. The story starts off a bit slow, but Lescroart is a master of legal suspense. Once the final page is turned, everything, including the title, makes sense.

"The Ophelia Cut" will be remembered more as a literary endeavor in the vein of Scott Turow than anything Lescroart has done.

___

Online:

http://www.johnlescroart.com/

Saturday, May 4

Deportivo Coruna 0

Atletico Madrid0

Halftime: 0-0; Attendance: 28,000

- - -

Real Madrid4 Angel Di Maria 26, Cristiano Ronaldo 32,70, Kaka 49

Real Valladolid3 Oscar 8, Javi Guerra 35, Lluis Sastre 87

Halftime: 2-2; Attendance: 68,000

- - -

Granada CF 1 Odion Jude Ighalo 28

Malaga 0

Halftime: 1-0; Attendance: 19,000

- - -

Valencia 4 Roberto Soldado 39, Ricardo Costa 44, Ever Banega 60, Jonas 90+4pen

Osasuna0

Red Card: Alejandro Arribas 58, David Timor Copovi 75

Halftime: 2-0; Attendance: 35,000

- - -

Friday, May 3

Celta Vigo 1 Iago Aspas 84

Athletic Bilbao1 Oscar De Marcos 43

Halftime: 0-1; Attendance: 25,000

- - -

Next Fixtures (GMT):

Sunday, May 5

Real Mallorcav Levante(1000)

Real Zaragozav Rayo Vallecano (1500)

Sevillav Espanyol (1700)

Barcelonav Real Betis (1900)

Monday, May 6

Getafe v Real Sociedad(2000)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Regularly eating cereal for breakfast is tied to healthy weight for kids, according to a new study that endorses making breakfast cereal accessible to low-income kids to help fight childhood obesity.

One in every four American children lives in a food insecure household where breakfast isn't a sure thing, lead author Dr. Lana Frantzen told Reuters Health.

"(Cereal) is an excellent breakfast choice, it's simple, and gets those essential nutrients that children need, especially low income minority children," who tend to be hit hardest by childhood obesity and related health problems, said Frantzen, who is employed by Dairy MAX, a regional dairy council in Grand Prairie, Texas.

Previous studies have linked eating breakfast with maintaining a lower body mass index (BMI) over time. The new study looked at the role that breakfast, specifically cereal, plays in both weight and nutrition among low-income kids.

Frantzen and her coauthors interviewed 625 schoolchildren as they progressed from fourth to sixth grades in San Antonio. Once a year they asked the children to remember what they had had to eat over the previous three days and calculated their BMI, a measure of weight relative to height.

As fourth graders, 64 percent of the kids said they'd eaten breakfast on each of the last three days, compared to 42 percent by the time they were sixth graders.

With data for three days per year for three years in a row, the researchers ended up with nine days of breakfast analysis for each child. Kids who ate cereal four out of the nine days tended to be in the 95th percentile for BMI, which is considered overweight, compared to kids who ate cereal all nine days, whose measurements were in the 65th percentile, in the healthy weight range.

Thirty-two percent of fourth graders did not eat breakfast at all, 25 percent had something other than cereal and about 43 percent had cereal.

Cereals, like Frosted flakes, Cheerios and Kix, were the most common breakfast items. Children who didn't eat cereal but did have breakfast reported having foods ranging from scrambled eggs, white bread and sausage to granola bars, tortillas and breakfast tacos.

Only 70 kids had cereal on every one of the three days, but for each time they had cereal, their intake of certain nutrients was higher than that of other kids, Frantzen's group reports in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Kids who ate more cereal got more vitamin D, B-3, B-12, riboflavin, calcium, iron, zinc and potassium in their diets than kids who ate less cereal or none at all. They also got slightly more calories, fat, fiber and sugar.

Cereals are fortified with a variety of vitamins and minerals, and the milk that usually comes with cereals is a good source of calcium, potassium and vitamin D, Frantzen said.

"I think it was a nice advancement in knowledge overall about the importance of eating breakfast," according to Dr. Matthew Haemer, medical director of the nutrition and fitness clinic at Children's Hospital Colorado in Aurora.

"But the analysis that they do didn't separate out kids who only ate cereal compared to those who ate something else," said Haemer, who was not involved in the study.

Policies like the School Breakfast Program are already in place to provide a low cost or free meal to kids who qualify, but the issue demands more attention and resources, since generations of kids are starting out the day without a healthy breakfast, he said.

Haemer told Reuters Health he was particularly struck by the fact that for the three days surveyed, each additional day that included cereal was associated with a 2 percentile decrease in BMI.

"Moving BMI percentile down 2 percentage points, that's not going to cure the obesity epidemic, but it is a significant difference," he said.

There is an association between cereal and healthier BMI, but it's still unclear how it works, Haemer said. He recommends that if parents choose cereal as a quick, easy option, they go for one high in fiber and low in sugar and fat.

"They didn't really look thoughtfully at the other types of breakfasts that could be eaten, for example there may be benefits of including oatmeal and low fat turkey sausage that could be part of a healthy breakfast," he said.

"There's still a lot of science to be done," he said. "Cereal appears to be part of the picture but it's not the complete picture."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/Z2ao7l Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, online February 27, 2013.

By Alonso Duralde

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - As Criticwire recently pointed out, the years after 1988 were littered with "Die Hard" knock-offs, set in or on buses ("Speed"), aircraft carriers ("Under Siege"), hockey arenas ("Sudden Death") and Air Force One ("Air Force One").

A quarter-century later, "Die Hard" finally comes to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. with "Olympus Has Fallen," a thrilling but dopey action flick that keeps things moving even while it defies logic and slavishly follows the barefoot-Bruce-Willis formula.

This time around, the Lone Renegade Who's Our Only Hope is Mike Banning (Gerard Butler), a high-ranking Secret Service agent who got bounced to Treasury a year and a half earlier after he made the tough choice to save the life of President Asher (Aaron Eckhart) in a car accident even though it meant losing the First Lady (Ashley Judd).

During a White House visit by the South Korean premier, a well-orchestrated attack on Washington, D.C., sees a plane fly into the Washington Monument while terrorists take the president and his advisors hostage in the bunker beneath the White House. Banning sneaks in during a firefight and winds up being the only link with the outside world, communicating via the president's satellite phone with the head of the Secret Service (Angela Bassett), a blustery general (Robert Forster) at the Pentagon and the Speaker of the House (Morgan Freeman).

The latter is acting chief executive while the prez and VPOTUS are being held hostage but relax everyone, it's Morgan Freeman. (The cool-headed Freeman and Bassett essentially play Reginald VelJohnson to Butler's Bruce Willis, while Forster is the Paul Gleason.)

The villainous plot leads, inevitably, to the bright red countdown clock that features in so many action movies, and the terrorists' scheme has so many holes that it's best not to ask questions. Subsequently, director Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day") provides explosions and gun battles (R-rated, blood-splattery gun battles, it's worth noting) with enough frequency to paper over the gaps in the script by first-timers Creighton Rothenberger and Katrin Benedikt.

With all this rushing about and blowing things up, however, the movie skirts past some potentially interesting subplots; for example, it's established early on that the president's young son (Finley Jacobsen) knows all the secret ins and outs of the White House after hanging out with Mike and the rest of the security detail.

He's set up as a character akin to Eric Shea's in "The Poseidon Adventure," and we figure he'll outfox the bad guys and maybe even help save the day, but no - he's found by Mike and rescued in fairly short order.

Of course, this is a movie where national monuments are blown up and soldiers and innocent civilians get killed by bullets and debris as though 9/11 never happened, so it's no surprise that so much of the movie feels like it was chucked onto the screen without much forethought.

"Olympus Has Fallen" ranks among the best movies that Butler has ever made, but that's damning with faint praise.

He occasionally slips into his native Scottish brogue, and no one apparently felt like ADR-ing over it. (Another minor mistake that no one bothered to fix was the TV news lower-third that reads, "Terrorist Attack The Whitehouse.")

There are tons of talented actors slumming here, including Melissa Leo, Radha Mitchell, Cole Hauser and Dylan McDermott, but they're not called upon to do much. (Many of them spend the film literally phoning it in, or at least shouting into a walkie-talkie.)

Yes, you'll guess who the secret turncoat is within the first five minutes of the movie, and you'll roll your eyes over some of the script's lazier ideas and moments of "America, Fk Yeah!" jingoism. But you won't be bored by "Olympus Has Fallen," and if you're in the mood for some trashy adventure, the movie makes up in adrenaline what it lacks in brains.

- - -

Heat 98, Bucks 86

Dwyane Wade scored 21 points and Chris Andersen sparked a big run at the start of the fourth quarter as Miami took a 2-0 lead over visiting Milwaukee.

LeBron James collected 19 points, eight rebounds and six assists and Andersen scored eight of his 10 points in the fourth as the Heat picked up their 10th straight win going back to the regular season.

The best-of-seven series shifts to Milwaukee for Game 3 on Thursday.

The Bucks closed to 68-65 at the beginning of the fourth quarter but Andersen got things started for the Heat with a pair of offensive rebounds and a three-point play that began a 12-0 run and put the game out of reach.

Ersan Ilyasova scored 21 points and Mike Dunleavy added 16 to lead Milwaukee.

- - -

Knicks 87, Celtics 71

Carmelo Anthony scored 34 points and hosts New York used another dominant second half to take a 2-0 series lead.

J.R. Smith scored 19 points off the bench and Raymond Felton added 16 for the Knicks, who erased a six-point halftime deficit by limiting the Celtics to 23 points in the second half - a franchise playoff low for Boston.

Paul Pierce had a team-high 18 points and foul-ridden Kevin Garnett added 12 points and 11 rebounds for the Celtics. The series shifts to Boston for Game 3 on Friday.

The Celtics led by as many as nine points in the second quarter before settling for a 48-42 halftime edge.

Iman Shumpert opened the third quarter with a pair of three-pointers and Anthony had nine points in a 24-4 burst as New York stormed ahead by 14 and took a 74-59 lead into the fourth.

- - -

Warriors 131, Nuggets 117

Stephen Curry scored 30 points and had 13 assists as visiting Golden State evened the first-round Western Conference series with Denver at one game apiece.

Jarrett Jack joined the starting lineup with David Lee (torn hip flexor) out and contributed 26 points and seven assists for the Warriors, who host Game Three of the best-of-seven series on Friday. Golden State shot 64.6 percent from the floor.

Ty Lawson recorded 19 points and 12 assists and Corey Brewer scored 19 off the bench for the Nuggets, who lost at home for the first time since Jan. 18.

The game was tied at 42-42 with 7:18 left in the first half when Curry scored nine and Harrison Barnes added the other five during a key 14-3 burst.

- - -(Editing by Peter Rutherford/Patrick Johnston)

"My deepest conviction, the guiding principle of the administration, is that the United States of America must strive to expand the reach of freedom," Bush said. "I believe that freedom is a gift from God and the hope of every human heart."

Obama and Bush spoke along with the three other living former presidents in a rare reunion at the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center. "To know President George W. Bush is to like him," Obama said.

The presidents lauded Bush's aid to the people of Africa, his effort to reach across the aisle on issues like immigration and education and his leadership in the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks. But they avoided the two wars that dominated much of his time in office Iraq and Afghanistan.

The presidents Obama, Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter were cheered by a crowd of former White House officials and world leaders as they took the stage together to open the dedication. They were joined on stage by their wives the nation's current and former first ladies for the outdoor ceremony on a sun-splashed Texas morning. For Bush, 66, the ceremony also marked his unofficial return to the public eye four years after the end of his deeply polarizing presidency.

The five men have been described as members of the world's most exclusive club, but Obama said they are "more like a support group."

"Being president above all is a humbling job," Obama said. He said there were moments that they make mistakes and wish they could turn back the clock, but "we love this country and we do our best."

In a reminder of his duties as the current Oval Office inhabitant, Obama planned to travel to Waco in the afternoon for a memorial for victims of last week's deadly fertilizer plant explosion.

Obama praised Bush for pushing to reform the country's immigration system, although Congress never agreed to go along during Bush's time in office. Obama said he hopes they will this year. "And if we do that it will be in large part thanks for the hard work of President George W. Bush," Obama said.

President George H.W. Bush, who has been hospitalized recently for bronchitis, spoke haltingly for just about 30 seconds while seated in his wheelchair, thanking guests for coming out to support his son. A standing ovation lasted nearly as long as his comments, and his son and wife helped him to his feet to recognize the applause.

Clinton, too, was warmly received by the heavily Republican crowd, who applauded and laughed along with his joke-peppered speech. He concluded on a serious note about the importance of the leaders coming together. "Debate and difference is an important part of every free society," Clinton said.

President Jimmy Carter praised Bush for his role in helping secure peace between North and South Sudan in 2005 and his approval of expanded aid to the nations of Africa. "Mr. President let me say that I am filled with admiration for you and deep gratitude for you about the great contributions you've made to the most needy people on earth," Carter said.

Former first lady Laura Bush said the library isn't just about her husband, but reflects the world during his time as the first president as the 21st century. "Here we remember the heartbreak and heroism of Sept. 11 and the bravery of those who answered the call to defend our country," she said.

Presidential politics also hung over the event. Ahead of the ceremony, former first lady Barbara Bush made waves by brushing aside talk of her son, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, running for the White House in 2016.

"We've had enough Bushes," said Mrs. Bush, the wife of George H.W. Bush and mother of George W. Bush. She spoke in an interview with NBC's "Today" show.

Yet George W. Bush talked up the presidential prospects of his brother in an interview that aired Wednesday on ABC.

"He doesn't need my counsel, because he knows what it is, which is, 'Run,'" Bush said.

Key moments and themes from George W. Bush's presidency the harrowing, the controversial and the inspiring would not be far removed from the minds of the presidents and guests assembled to dedicate the center, where interactive exhibits invite scrutiny of Bush's major choices as president, such as the financial bailout, the Iraq War and the international focus on HIV and AIDS.

More than 70 million pages of paper records. Two hundred million emails. Four million digital photos. About 43,000 artifacts. Bush's library will feature the largest digital holdings of any of the 13 presidential libraries under the auspices of the National Archives and Records Administration, officials said. Situated in a 15-acre urban park at Southern Methodist University, the center includes 226,000 square feet of indoor space.

A full-scale replica of the Oval Office as it looked during Bush's tenure sits on the campus, as does a piece of steel from the World Trade Center and the bullhorn that Bush used to punctuate the chaos at ground zero three days after 9/11. In the museum, visitors can gaze at a container of chads the remnants of the famous Florida punch card ballots that played a pivotal role in the contested 2000 election that sent Bush to Washington.

Laura Bush led the design committee, officials said, with a keen eye toward ensuring that her family's Texas roots were conspicuously reflected. Architects used local materials, including Texas Cordova cream limestone and trees from the central part of the state, in its construction.

From El Salvador to Ghana, Bush contemporaries and former heads of state made their way to Texas to salute the American leader they served alongside on the world stage. Among the foreign leaders were former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The public look back on the tenure of the nation's 43rd president comes as Bush is undergoing a coming-out of sorts after years spent in relative seclusion, away from the prying eyes of cameras and reporters that characterized his two terms in the White House and his years in the Texas governor's mansion before that. As the library's opening approached, Bush and his wife embarked on a round-robin of interviews with all the major television networks, likely aware that history's appraisal of his legacy and years in office will soon be taking form.

An erroneous conclusion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, a bungling of the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina and a national debt that grew much larger under his watch stain the memory of his presidency for many, including Obama, who won two terms in the White House after lambasting the choices of its previous resident.

There's at least some evidence that Americans are warming to Bush four years after he returned to his ranch in Crawford, even if they still question his judgment on Iraq and other issues. While Bush left office with an approval rating of 33 percent, that figure has climbed to 47 percent about equal to Obama's own approval rating, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll released ahead of the library opening.

Bush pushed forcefully but unsuccessfully for the type of sweeping immigration overhaul that Congress, with Obama's blessing, is now pursuing. And his aggressive approach to counterterrorism may be viewed with different eyes as the U.S. continues to be touched by acts of terrorism.

Obama, too, may have his own legacy in mind. He's just a few years out from making his own decision about where to house his presidential library and the monument to his legacy.

___

Associated Press writer Nomaan Merchant contributed to this report.

___

Follow Josh Lederman on Twitter: http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - Using voice to send text messages while driving is just as dangerous as texting with fingers, with driver response times significantly delayed no matter which method was used, a study released on Tuesday showed.

The study by the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University was the first to compare voice-to-text and traditional texting on a handheld device in an actual driving environment.

"In each case, drivers took about twice as long to react as they did when they weren't texting," Christine Yager, who headed the study, told Reuters. "Eye contact to the roadway also decreased, no matter which texting method was used."

The research involved 43 participants driving along a test track without any electronic devices present. The same participants then drove while texting and again while using a speech-to-text device.

Yager said speech-to-text actually took longer than traditional texting, due to the need to correct errors in the electronic transcription.

"You're still using your mind to try to think of what you're trying to say, and that by proxy causes some driving impairment, and that decreases your response time," Yager said.

The biggest concern is that the driver felt safer while using voice-to-text applications instead of traditional texting, even though driving performance was equally affected, she said.

This may lead to a false belief that texting while driving using spoken commands is safe when in reality it is not, Yager said.

The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association says 6.1 billion text messages per day were sent in the United States in 2012. Some 35 percent of drivers admit to reading a text or email while driving in any given month, while 26 percent admitted to typing one, according to data from AAA, a national drivers' organization.

"Every day, new technologies come out, and it is important to educate the public that even these seemingly new distractions are still distractions, and it will help people be safer when they get into the vehicle," Yager said.

(Reporting by Jim Forsyth; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Eric Walsh)