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According to the Bureau's review of the November election, 66.2 percent of registered black voters went to the polls, compared to 64.1 percent of white voters — and only 61.8 percent of voters overall. The election marks the first time that turnout in the African-American community has been higher than in other ethnic groups.

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Black turnout was highest in Wisconsin, Mississippi, and North Carolina. The lowest percentages — of eligible black voters, not of voters overall — were in Arizona, Washington, and Arkansas. (Many states have African-American populations too small for the Census Bureau to track; those states are in white in the interactive map below. Otherwise, the darker the color of the state in the map, the higher the turnout.)

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Looking at a map of the results in 2012, it's hard to see a strong correlation between that turnout and electoral results. Here's how each state voted, using the traditional red/Republican, blue/Democrat format.

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The effect comes into sharper relief when you look at the margin of black turnout — in other words, how much black voters turned out compared to voters on the whole. That gives us this map, wherein darker shaded states indicate higher turnout compared to the voting population, and lighter shades indicate lower margins.

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Swing states — Ohio, North Carolina, Indiana, Wisconsin — had black turnout that was higher than the rest of the population, perhaps in part due to turnout efforts in those states.

With the Supreme Court currently reviewing the 1965 Voting Rights Act, mandating, among other things, that certain states subject new voting plans to the Department of Justice before implementation, it's worth seeing how turnout did in those states. Below are the states that have some form of mandated review, or preclearance.

As may be clear from the maps above, those states didn't see lower-than-average black turnout. In fact, averaging both turnout and deviance from the norm in those Voting Rights Act (VRA) states, we see that they outperformed non-VRA ones.

This data carries a heavy caveat, of course. The 2012 election featured the nation's first African-American president facing off against a not-terribly-popular white Republican. And Voting Rights Act states are commonly ones in which there's a higher percentage of African-Americans; racism against that community is why Congress stepped in to create the VRA in the first place.

The true test will likely come in 2016, when Obama is not on the ticket. It's very likely that black turnout is no longer the highest during that election. And there's a small chance that .

If users choose to download Facebook's Home software starting on April 12, the social network will become the hub of their Android smartphones. A phone from HTC that comes pre-loaded with Home will also be available starting that day, with AT&T Inc. as the carrier.

The idea behind the software is to bring Facebook content right to the home screen, rather than requiring users to check apps. "Home" comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from phones and tablet computers. Of its 1.06 billion monthly users, 680 million log in to Facebook using a mobile gadget.

The service is part of Facebook's move to shift its users' focus from "apps and tasks" to people, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg during Home's unveiling at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Thursday.

The new product, which resides on the home screen of Android phones, is a family of apps designed to help people share things with their Facebook friends. Rather than seeing a set of apps for email, maps and other services when they first turn on their phones, users will be greeted with photos and updates from their Facebook feeds. There will be ads too, eventually.

"We think this is the best version of Facebook there is," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg says users can have an experience on Android phones that they can't have on other platforms. That's because Google makes the software available on an open-source basis, allowing others to adapt it to their needs.

Recognizing that text messaging is one of the most important tasks on a mobile phone, Facebook also showed off a feature called "chat heads." This lets users communicate with their friends directly from their phone's home screen without opening a separate app.

The move that coincides with rapid growth among the number of users who access the social network from smartphones and tablet computers and Facebook's aim to evolve from its Web-based roots into a "mobile-first" company.

"What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers' experience," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

The new Home service won't be available on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Apple's iOS and Mac operating systems include features that integrate Facebook's services, but Zuckerberg says doing something like Home would require a closer partnership.

Apple had no immediate comment.

The deeper mobile integration will likely help Facebook to attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

The mobile advertising market is growing quickly, thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. Research firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.

EMarketer said Wednesday that it expects Facebook Inc. to reap $965 million in U.S. mobile ad revenue in 2013. That's about 2.5 times the $391 million in 2012, the first year that Facebook started showing mobile ads. Clark Fredricksen, vice president at eMarketer, says "there are some clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operating systems and handsets make sense for Facebook. At the end of the day, the more deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or operating system or handset," the better.

Facebook's stock rose 82 cents, or 3.1 percent, to close at $27.07 following the announcement. It's still 23 percent below its initial public offering price of $35.

___

Barbara Ortutay reported from New York.

MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes, the central figure in the Operation Puerto probe into a doping ring in cycling, got a one-year prison term on Tuesday as the judge ordered all evidence from the case to be destroyed.

Fuentes - who is unlikely to be jailed because sentences under two years in Spain are usually suspended - was convicted for crimes against public health, barred from practicing sports medicine for four years and fined.

However, judge Julia Santamaria's decision not to release case evidence, including bags of blood seized in police raids, to anti-doping authorities for further investigations hit hopes that the case would unmask athletes caught up in the doping program.

Fuentes's co-defendant Ignacio Labarta received a four-month jail term and was also barred from practice for four years, while Manolo Saiz, Vicente Belda and Fuentes's sister Yolanda were all cleared.

The Spanish anti-doping agency (AEA) said it would appeal the judge's ruling to destroy the evidence.

"It (the verdict) is positive, but clearly unsatisfactory," Ana Munoz, head of the AEA, told a news conference. "It isn't over yet."

"An option is an appeal against the decision... the AEA can and will start the process.

"It will ask for the bags of blood. We respect the sentence and the independence of the judge but we don't share her interpretation."

The Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) also disagreed with the judge's verdict because their request for access to the bags of blood had been denied.

"They would be necessary for the initiation of sporting disciplinary action," the federation said in a statement.

ACCESS TO EVIDENCE

The RFEC, World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), International Cycling Union (UCI) and Italian Olympic Committee (CONI) were all represented in the three-month trial and have asked for access to the evidence.

They are keen to secure the names of athletes involved and to search for possible evidence of wrongdoing in other sports.

The Puerto case has attracted international attention because some of Fuentes's clients were successful professional riders, including American Tyler Hamilton who gave evidence in February.

Fuentes, who denied doping, said in his opening testimony he also had clients in sports including soccer, tennis, athletics and boxing.

The UK's anti-doping chief executive Andy Parkinson said: "We are disappointed in the decision by the Spanish authorities today.

"Dr Fuentes has admitted to having been involved in multiple prohibited doping activities, and linked with multiple unnamed athletes.

"It therefore cannot be right that these names will remain unknown and that no immediate action can be taken by the anti-doping community to protect our clean athletes."

Former cyclist Jesus Manzano who gave evidence in the trial, told Reuters Television: "It's shameful, I sincerely don't know why they bother charging a person in order to deliver a verdict like that.

"You don't have to be a judge to deliver a sentence like that, a builder could it," added the Spaniard.

Former cycling team director Saiz said: "For me Operation Puerto is over and I want to turn that page and to thank my family and lawyer and my friends for all their support over the years... and to a cyclist in particular, Carlos Sastre.

"He remembered me when he was in the Tour de France and that meant a lot to me."

As Spain's current anti-doping legislation was not in force in 2006 when police seized anabolic steroids, transfusion equipment and blood bags in raids, the five co-defendants were tried only for violating public health regulations.

The public prosecutor had asked for jail sentences of two years.

AVOID DETECTION

"It has been proven that since at least 2002 Fuentes was carrying out practices consistent with those of blood extraction... for later re-infusion... with the aim to artificially increase the physical performance of the cyclist," the verdict said.

"In some cases, on top of the extraction and re-infusion of blood, Fuentes dispensed to the cyclists certain specialized pharmaceutical products included on the list of substances banned in sport."

The report listed substances such as EPO, growth hormones and testosterone.

"Fuentes planned the system... co-ordinated their physical preparation with a view to the calendar of competitions in a season for each cyclist," the report added.

"The end was to optimize competition results and at the same time to help the cyclist avoid detection in the anti-doping controls."

The practice of boosting the flow of oxygen in the blood, the use of banned substances, and the methods used constituted "an important risk for the health of the cyclist."

Spain has been hoping the trial would help to dispel the impression that the nation was soft on doping and boost Madrid's bid to win the right to host the 2020 Olympic Games.

The country is pushing through parliament anti-doping legislation which the government says will bring Spain into line with international norms.

(Reporting by Mark Elkington; Editing by Clare Fallon and Pritha Sarkar)

(Reuters) - The U.S. government filed court documents Tuesday laying out its case against cyclist Lance Armstrong, who is accused of defrauding the Postal Service by taking millions of dollars in sponsorship money while flouting professional cycling rules by doping.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in February it would join a whistleblower lawsuit brought in 2010 by Armstrong's former teammate, Floyd Landis, and on Tuesday filed its formal complaint.

Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and was banned for life from cycling in 2012 after accusations he had cheated for years. In January, he said the accusations were true in an interview with television host Oprah Winfrey.

Armstrong and his teammates from Tailwind Sports were paid $40 million by the Postal Service from 1998 to 2004, according to the suit. Armstrong's salary during that time, excluding bonuses, was $17.9 million, according to the complaint.

The government is suing under the False Claims Act and can recoup up to three times the amount it lost as a result of the fraud. The complaint also alleges breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud.

An attorney for Armstrong said the complaint was opportunistic and insincere.

"The U.S. Postal Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship of the cycling team. The USPS was never the victim of fraud," said attorney Elliot Peters in a statement. "Lance Armstrong rode his heart out for the USPS team, and gave the brand tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years."

The complaint echoes Landis' claims that Armstrong and others defrauded the U.S. government by falsely denying the doping accusations and continuing their sponsorship relationship with the Postal Service.

When the government believes a suit has merit, it may take over the litigation. The individuals, or whistleblowers, get a portion of the proceeds if the case is successful.

The U.S. complaint accuses Armstrong of using at least one prohibited substance or method in connection with every Tour de France between 1999 and 2005. "Moreover, he knew that his teammates were engaged in similar doping practices, and he actively encouraged and facilitated those practices," the complaint said.

"(T)he United Stated suffered damage in that it did not receive the value of the services for which it bargained," the complaint said.

A lawyer for Landis, Paul Scott, said in statement that he was "pleased to see the United States take this important step toward recovering taxpayer dollars lost to fraud."

The case is U.S. ex rel Landis v. Tailwind Sports Corp, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 10-976.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye in New York; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Each year, the Utah-based Barron family attends a local college graduation so their daughters can present graduates with the necklaces - part of parents Randy and Janae Barron's plan to introduce their children to the idea of saving for a college education from an early age.

All of their children are responsible for kicking in half of the money for their 529 college savings plans, tax-advantaged higher education investment accounts. The Barrons' three daughters accumulate college savings through birthday and holiday gifts, essay contests and community service awards.

[Avoid theparents make.]

Saving for their educations builds a positive attitude as much as it builds college funding. "Nothing builds a child's confidence more than investing in their own future," says Lynne Ward, executive director of the Utah Educational Savings Plan. When children participate "in saving for their own college expenses, they not only learn the value of saving but also make a commitment to achieve a higher education."

To get children to help contribute to their own college funds, check out the four tips below offered by the Barrons and a financial expert.

1. Match funds when possible: The Barrons match contributions their three girls deposit into their individual 529 plan accounts. The girls get excited seeing their money double.

When 14-year-old Morgan was in elementary school, she earned a $600 cash prize from an essay contest. Her parents added $600. Mom Janae recounted how Morgan's older sister Amber told her, "You're rich!" after learning of her sister's $1,200 total.

The excitement continued when they won other contests. Janaerecalls one instance where both of the older girls won savings bonds. Amber, now 17, decided to cash out her savings bond so she could double it with her parent's contribution, since the Barrons only match 529 plan deposits. Morgan said, "Yeah, yeah, let's cash our savings bonds."

For an additional incentive, the Barrons offer to completely pay for graduate school for any of their children who graduate from college.

[Follow thisin 2013.]

2. Let the state chip in: Check to see if your state offers a matching grant program, says Dale Ellis, 529 plan project coordinator for the Arkansas State Treasury. A matching grant is where a state plan matches money deposited into the account by parents or others.

The good news is that the state typically doesn't take into account who puts money into the plan, he says.

If a state provided matching funds, a child could deposit $250, the parent could deposit $250 and the state plan would add $500, for a total of $1,000 added to college savings. State matching funds could continue for as many years as an individual plan allows, Ellis says.

[Learn more about .]

3. Have a clear conversation about financial responsibility: The Barrons send the children family expense reports. Before their children pick a career field or guess at the cost of a college education, the Barrons want them to understand the costs of living both during and after college.

Randy sent his eldest daughter an email that included the annual cost of her cellphone, $500, and the cost to fix the family van that she drives, $3,000. He also mentioned auto insurance costs. The Barrons believe it helps their children choose career fields to study with enough potential income that they could support a family.

[Get the most from your tuition dollars with these majors.]

4. Share 529 plan statements: The Barrons show each daughter her 529 plan statement every quarter. They want their children to know how their contributions have added up.

Middle daughter Morgan has nearly $5,000 in her account. About $2,000 came from her contributions, $2,000 from her parents' matching funds and $1,000 from investment earnings.

"When children know there's money set aside for college, it raises the expectations they have in themselves," Ellis says. They can see how their money grows, and that now they need to get good grades and apply themselves.

Trying to fund your education? Get tips and more in the U.S. News Paying for College center.

Zou, whose bronze in Athens was China's first Olympic boxing medal, won gold at the Beijing Games and beat Thailand's Kaeo Pongprayoon in London last year to become the first light-flyweight to win three Olympic medals.

A popular figure in his country, the 31-year-old beat Mexican Eleazar Valenzuela with all three judges giving him a 40-36 victory amid huge cheers from his home fans at the Venetian Macau resort hotel.

Zou, also a three-time amateur world champion, has signed a professional contract with Bob Arum's Top Rank promotion, which also has eight-division world champion Manny Pacquiao and WBO welterweight title holder Timothy Bradley in its ranks.

Officials in Macau, the world's largest gambling destination, are aiming to transform the casino-dominated enclave into an international leisure and tourism destination.

The southern Chinese hub, where gambling revenues reached $38 billion in 2012 - six times that of Las Vegas - is heavily reliant on the casino industry.

(Reporting by Sudipto Ganguly in Mumbai and Farah Master in Hong Kong; editing by Stephen Wood)

Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi was not hurt in the explosion in the capital's western neighborhood of Mazzeh, state TV said. The TV showed footage of heavily damaged cars and debris in the area as firefighters fought to extinguish a large blaze set off by the blast.

The state news agency said several people were killed in the blast, while the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said the explosion killed at least five, including two of al-Halqi's bodyguards and one of the drivers in his convoy.

As evidence that the prime minister was unhurt, the state-run Al-Ikhbariya station said al-Halqi went into a regular weekly meeting with an economic committee straight after the bombing. The station broadcast video of the prime minister sitting around a table in a room with several other officials.

But in comments after the meeting, al-Halqi made no reference to the blast, nor was he asked about it by reporters, leaving doubt as to whether the footage was filmed before or after the bombing.

The state news agency, meanwhile, quoted al-Halqi as saying that the assassination attempt exposes how armed groups "are bankrupt" after the latest advances made by Syrian troops around the country.

Syria's conflict started with largely peaceful anti-government protests in March 2011 but eventually turned into a civil war that has so far killed more than 70,000 people, according to the United Nations.

It will take more fossil discoveries to sort that out.

The human branch of the evolutionary tree, called Homo, is thought to have arisen from a group of ancient species called australopithecines. The newly studied species is a member of this group, and so its similarities to humans are enticing for tackling the riddle of how Homo appeared.

It's called Australopithecus sediba (aw-STRAL-oh-PITH-uh-kus se-DEE-bah), which means "southern ape, wellspring." It lived some 2 million years ago, and it both climbed in trees and walked upright. Its remains were discovered in 2008 when the 9-year-old son of a paleoanthropologist accidently came across a bone in South Africa.

A 2011 analysis of some of A. sediba's bones showed a combination of human and more apelike traits, like a snapshot of evolution in action. That theme continues in six papers published online Thursday by the journal Science, which complete the initial examination of two partial skeletons and an isolated shinbone.

Jeremy DeSilva of Boston University, lead author of one of the papers, said the fossils reveal an unexpected "mosaic of anatomies."

"I didn't think you could have this combination, that hand with that pelvis with that foot... And yet, there it is," he said.

DeSilva said he has no idea how A. sediba is related to humans, noting that the different traits argue for different conclusions.

Among the new analyses, the ribs show the creature's upper trunk resembled an ape's, while the lower part looked more like a human's. Arm bones other than the hand and wrist look primitive, reflecting climbing ability, while earlier analysis of the hand had shown mixed traits.

The teeth also show a mix of human and primitive features, and provide new evidence that A. sediba is closely related to early humans, said Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg of Ohio State University, a co-author of a dental analysis. It and an older South African species, A. africanus, appear more closely related to early humans than other australopithecines like the famous "Lucy" are, she said.

But she said the analysis can't determine which of the two species is the closer relative, nor whether A. sediba is a direct ancestor of humans.

Another study found a mix of human and apelike traits in leg bones, and concluded that A. sediba walked like no other known animal.

Its heel was narrow like an ape's, which would seem to prevent walking upright, but the more humanlike knee, pelvis and hip show A. sediba did just that, DeSilva said.

When people walk, they strike the ground with the heel first. But that would be disastrous from A. sediba's narrow heel bone, so instead the creature struck the ground first with the outside of the foot, DeSilva and co-authors propose. The foot would react by rolling inward, which is called pronation. In people, chronic pronation can cause pain in the foot, knees, hip and back, said DeSilva, who tried out the ancient creature's gait.

"I've been walking around campus this way, and it hurts," he said.

But the bones of A. sediba show features that evidently prevented those pain problems, he said. The creature apparently adopted this gait as a kind of compromise for a body that had to climb trees proficiently as well as walk upright, he said.

___

Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

It's a term Philip Glass never liked as a term for his musical style, and the rich complexity of "The Lost," his newest opera, proves those who insist on using it just plain wrong.

Written for the new Linz opera house, where it world-premiered Friday, "The Lost" "Spuren der Verirrten" in the original German is a strangely reassuring confirmation that although mankind has gone astray we are all in the same boat; that while all we do has no sense, that rule applies to all of us.

Life; death; fame; fortune; joy; tears. All human striving in vain. It's a story that has been told many times, in word, music, song and dance."The Lost" combines all those threads and then some with magnificent result in what in some ways combines Samuel Becket's"Waiting for Godot," and Fritz Lang's "Metropolis."

Don't look for named characters. That would be too personal. Instead we have singer "A'' interacting with "B'' and so on. The fact that "A'' and "B'' are lost is clear from the very start, even as they mark the way they came.

Hansel and Gretel did that too. In vain.

Two hours later, pause included, more than a hundred people crowd the cavernously deep stage and spill into the pit where they make a show of playing imaginary instruments. The orchestra has moved onto stage. They wear funny hats and conductor Dennis Russell Davies sports a paper crown.

The music soars to a crescendo. Drums pound. All of humanity is lost, and all around is chaos. "Where are we?" they sing on the sinister, red-lit stage, knowing there will be no answer.

But a lot happens before that sonorous end, as one tableau follows the other depicting vignettes of the banality of being.

An old couple sit, both soaking their feet. "Whatever happens I will never desert you," sings one. "We've come through tougher times than these," intones the other; "Even when you sweated in fear, it smelled good" exchanges that make clear in their triteness that it is the audience all of us who are on stage.

Another couple are fighting, "Die, die," screams one before changing tack in mid-breath to suddenly sing "Let's get along again, neighbor. Peace."

Bizarre shapes populate the action.An armless man moves wormlike across the stage as his partner berates him for failing life's tests. They both die.

Another character "The Third" takes on the role of the Greek chorus loudly proclaiming the futility of it all, while "The Spectator" wonders where all the exertion is leading.

Adding to the on-stage edginess is nervous ballet choreography. The dancers jerk and move rapidly but without a sense of the purpose that a life lived well should have. The motions are mechanical. Life is mechanical.

A visual feast, compliments of director David Pountney, choreographer Amir Hosseinpour, and Anne Marie Legenstein, who created the bewildering array of delightfully bizarre costumes. Fabrice Kebour's lighting cold and dreary blues, alternating with jarring brightness were also effective.

But none of it would work without Glass's music.

Menacingly buzzing strings, roaring brass instruments and a crashing synthesizer alternate with poignantly melodic lines. Glass is boldly symphonic in one moment, softly insistent the next, weaving a harmonic tapestry that becomes part of the visual fabric on stage.

One of the world's greatest living composers, Glass shows in "The Lost" that he truly is a man for all musical seasons and his wonderful sounds are brought alive by Davis, the conductor, who leads Bruckner Orchestra with the authority and vigor that this music demands.

The soloists from "A'' to "K'' also did well, in roles that were less challenging vocally and more dramatically.

Ahead of the performance, Austrian dramatist Peter Handke, on whose play the opera is based, praised Glass'swork as "faithful" to his own while Glass described his effort as an attempt at "Gesamtkunst" the term coined by Richard Wagner meaning "Total Art."

"I call it earth, air, fire and water," he said in comments to The Associated Press of the totality of art forms that went into "The Lost." ''Movement, text, image and music those are the elements we worked with."

While not speaking German, Glass said working to Rainer Mennicken's libretto in that language was no problem because "I knew the grammar and I just plugged in the words. Beyond that, he also is drawn to Austria "because the musicians are so good."

"I used to think that the American orchestras would be my true home," he said. "But I found out that there is another element, another layer of music that you get in a Central European orchestra a depth of sound" that most American ensembles do not have.