WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House said on Tuesday the president would veto legislation that would prioritize U.S. debt payments if the nation hits its borrowing limit, sending an early salvo in the next round of federal budget skirmishes.

The nation's debt ceiling has been a centerpiece of budget fights between President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans for several years and brought the nation to the brink of defaulting on its debt in the summer of 2011.

While there has been a lull in the dispute, matters are expected to soon fester again when the administration begins running out of ways to raise money to pay U.S. government obligations.

On May 19, the borrowing limit's temporary suspension voted by Congress in March comes to an end. Then, a new debt ceiling lawmakers approved would go into effect at the level necessary to pay U.S. debt up to that point.

That new cap is anticipated to be about $16.9 trillion, up from the current level of $16.4 trillion.

With U.S. debt immediately meeting the new ceiling, the Treasury will then juggle its funds to meet federal financial obligations through at least the end of July, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

In the interim, some Republicans would like to use the borrowing cap to extract fiscal concessions from the president, either in the form of spending cuts or tax cuts.

To pressure the administration, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives is considering legislation that would allow lawmakers to put off raising the debt ceiling by requiring the U.S. Treasury to pay public bondholders and beneficiaries of government programs if Congress doesn't raise the cap.

The measure would almost certainly fail to pass the Democrat-led Senate and is therefore unlikely to become law. But it shows that Republicans aim to use the debt issue for leverage.

The White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement that the administration "strongly opposes" the debt payment prioritization measure, which it described as "political gamesmanship" and said would result in Congress refusing to pay obligations it has already agreed to.

VOW TO VETO

"This bill would threaten the full faith and credit of the United States, cost American jobs, hurt businesses of all sizes, and do damage to the economy," OMB said in a statement. "If the president is presented with legislation that would result in the Congress choosing to default on the full faith and credit of the United States, he would veto it."

The president this year has refused to negotiate with Congress over raising the debt ceiling, saying that a U.S. debt default should be unthinkable to either political party.

At the last face-off between the White House and Republicans over budget issues in February, Republicans stood firm on letting across-the-board spending cuts go into effect March 1 despite dire warnings from the administration the cuts would damage the economy.

But Republicans backed away from making an issue of the debt ceiling at that time and voted to allow it to be suspended until this month.

As a policy matter, Republicans are focused on debt and deficit reduction and shrinking the size of government. Democrats' primary focus is on strengthening economic growth and job creation - which is helped by federal spending. They therefore advocate a more gradual approach to deficit reduction.

After the deepest recession since the Great Depression and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the debt held by the public as a percentage of the nation's output has soared from 35.5 percent in 2007 to 71.3 percent in 2012. During that time, Congress has raised debt limit from $9.8 trillion to its current $16.4 trillion.

Republicans have said the need to raise the nation's borrowing cap should be an opportunity to discuss reining in spending or tax reform.

"Every single one of the half-dozen proposals that have actually worked to reduce spending in Congress over the last three decades have come out of this same process," Senate Budget Committee member Rob Portman, a Republican, said Tuesday at a conference sponsored by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

"Why? Because the American people do not like to extend the debt limit," he said.

(Editing by Philip Barbara)

(Reuters) - A fierce wildfire threatening 4,000 homes northwest of Los Angeles was about 30 percent contained on Saturday as higher humidity and cooler temperatures helped firefighters, fire department spokesmen said.

The fire in coastal Ventura County has blackened about 28,000 acres of rugged brush land since it started on Thursday. It was not expected to be under control until May 13, Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Tom Kruschke said.

A drop from record-high temperatures on Friday and lighter, cooler winds off the Pacific Ocean helped the 1,900 firefighters brought in from across California.

"We're getting much more favorable weather conditions here. We don't have the high winds and the high temperatures," Kruschke said.

Light rain forecast for Sunday and heavier rain expected for Monday and Tuesday also could help firefighters and aircraft battling what authorities are calling the Springs Fire.

About 4,000 homes have been threatened by the fire and 15 damaged. No injuries have been reported from the fire, but a firefighter and a civilian were hurt in a vehicle collision, the department said on its website.

A spokesman for the Ventura County Sheriff's Department said an evacuation order affecting several thousand people had been lifted for all but a small area.

Less than 12,000 acres had burned since the mid-April start of the Southern California fire season, until the sharp increase this week with the Springs Fire and five smaller blazes around the state, said Daniel Berlant, a spokesman for the state's Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

The department had moved ahead its official start date for the season by two weeks because of dry conditions, already at levels typical for June or July, Berlant said. Snow pack in California's Sierra Nevada mountains is 17 percent of normal.

Some weather forecasters have predicted the season will get worse with a summer of high temperatures and drought throughout much of the U.S. West.

The fire forced the closure of California State University Channel Islands in Camarillo, where the temperature was a record 96 degrees Fahrenheit (36 Celsius) on Friday. It is tentatively scheduled to reopen on Sunday, the school said on its website.

The Point Mugu U.S. Naval Air Station has lifted its order that non-essential personnel stay home because of the fire. A base housing unit was evacuated on Friday because of heavy smoke.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson in Washington; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Vicki Allen)

Leonel, as he likes to be called, lived inalmost his entire life, but his family is back innow after his father lost his job. The boy is adjusting to a new way of learning here in the capital of Sonora state in northern Mexico, where familiar US school fixtures like cafeterias or school buses are rare.

Arriving in anfrom the US to Mexico, students like Leonel are changing the country's classrooms and posing new challenges to an education system that experts say is ill equipped to integrate children accustomed to US schools.

"It's a new student population and schools are having to adapt," says Leonel Gil Vinalay, who works in the international division of Sonora's Secretariat of Education and Culture (SEC).

Throughout Mexico, US-born children and kids born in Mexico but raised north of the border face multiple barriers to school enrollment and, once in the classroom, many struggle in their new environment. Not only must they deal with different teaching methods that turn the US model of learning on its head, but they also confront a language barrier and cultural divide.

With an eye toward improving academic success and matriculation in Mexico, scholars in Sonora, aided by academic researchers on both sides of the border, recently launched a three-year study on the challenges these youngsters face in the country of their parents.

About 300,000 of the 1.4 million people who returned to Mexico between 2005 and 2010 were US-born children. Their families were either deported orimmigration laws, according to thein .

The Sonora study will build on preliminary research conducted in 2010, after Mexican educators started noticing an upswing in the number of US-educated students arriving here.

THE UNKNOWN

Gloria Ciria Valdz Gardea, a professor and lead researcher at Sonora College in , says some 10,000 students coming from US schools are enrolled in the state's public schools. But she suspects the number may be much higher because of new arrivals and others who may be slipping through the cracks due to a burdensome enrollment system that requires parents to produce myriad documents sealed and certified in the US to officially accredit their children's studies.

"We don't know exactly how many there are, who they are, or if they are staying in school," Ms. Valdz Gardea says of the transnational students.

A major obstacle confronting parents trying to enroll their children in school is "a tortuous administrative process that causes a lot of uncertainty," Valdz Gardea adds, citing the study's preliminary findings.

Parents who are deported suddenly may lack US documents proving their children attended school. Thehas expelled thousands of people living in the country illegally, at a record pace of about 400,000 a year. But even students whose parents had time to obtain official transfers from US schools can face a maze of red tape.

State education officials are taking steps to make it easier for parents to navigate the system, including temporarily waving required documentation and ensuring that principals and other school personnel are aware of the unique needs of transnational students.

Schools across Mexico, including those in Sonora, also have incorporated into the curriculum textbooks that teach about the migrant experience.

Teachers and administrators can attend workshops, seminars, and training courses on multicultural classrooms, although not everyone is eager to participate, says Jess Eduardo Ramrez Cordoba, who heads international affairs for the SEC, a position created recently, in part to handle transnational educational affairs. The state entity oversees schools in Sonora.

"Some view it as an additional burden," Mr. Ramrez says.

Although migrating north of the border long has been a rite of passage for Mexicans, whose US remittances help strengthen Mexico's economy, those who leave the country and return are often viewed with suspicion. Ramrez acknowledges that more needs to be done for schools to embrace transnational students who often are misunderstood both by their peers and adults.

"It's a challenge that we face, being adequately prepared to offer these children an education that is truly inclusive," says Carmen Mara Sonoqui Jimnez, an elementary school teacher.

'WE HAD TO LEAVE'

The hope is that emerging programs will serve to teach tolerance and respect for diversity, says Mr. Gil from the SEC. Difficulties for these students spill out of the classroom, he adds.

"Many of them were suddenly deported, they were displaced and separated from loved ones," he says. "In a way, they are grieving. Many of them can't accept the fact that they are here."

Leonel was just 10 months old when his mother crossed the border on a visitor visa with her two children to join her husband, who had moved two years earlier. The visa didn't allow for a permanent stay in the country, but the family settled down anyway in thearea, where Leonel and his older sister, Beatriz, grew up.

Then in 2007 the US economy began to sour and Arizona later adopted the nation's toughest immigration law, known as , meant to discourage people from living in the state illegally. When Leonel's father lost his job and couldn't find another, the family returned to Mexico.

"We had to leave," says his mother, whose family is participating in the Sonora study. "We could no longer make ends meet."

Leonel's family moved to Hermosillo in time for the start of school last fall. He would often tell his mother he wanted to go back to his old school in Arizona, that he likes it better there.

"I miss my friends," says Leonel, in English, during recess one day. "They are far, far away."

Beatriz was about to enter eighth grade when the family left Arizona. "It took a while for me to get used to the way things are here," she says.

In the US, her teachers offered more individualized attention to students who needed it that's something she still misses. She also has to pack a lunch every day, or buy snacks at school, because there is no cafeteria. But what she yearns for the most are extra-curricular activities that were readily available in her previous school. And even though she can speak Spanish, she still struggles with the written language.

But, little by little, both she and her little brother are gradually adapting to their new life.

"This is where we are now," the teen says.

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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Thermo Fisher Scientific Incis emerging as the lead contender in an auction for Life Technologies Corp , a genetic testing maker with a market value of more than $11 billion, three people familiar with the matter said this week.

Thermo Fisher, the world's largest maker of laboratory equipment, is considering a bid of $65 to $70 per share for Life Tech and is interested in buying the entire company, two of the people said.

It can squeeze more cost savings than buyout firms can and is expected to have a leg up on private equity bidders, which do not believe they can still achieve desired returns at that price range, the three people said. Thermo also has an advantage over rival trade buyers, which may not want all of Life Tech or have not been as aggressive in their pursuit of the company so far, the sources said.

Bids are due next week and it is still too early to tell the outcome of the auction, all three sources said, asking not to be named because the matter is confidential.

Shares of Life Tech rose 1.8 percent to close at $65.75 on Tuesday, giving the company a market value of $11.2 billion. Thermo Fisher, whose shares rose 4 percent to $78.56, had a market cap of roughly $28 billion.

Carlsbad, California-based Life Tech, which has hired advisers to explore a sale, has also attracted interest from Danaher Corp , Roche Holdings AGand private equity firms, people familiar with the matter told Reuters previously.

A buyout consortium of Blackstone Group LP , Carlyle Group LPand Singapore's state investor, Temasek Holdings, remains in the process, but it is not expected to outbid Thermo, several people familiar with the matter said this week.

They said KKR & Co LPbriefly teamed up with Hellman & Friedman LLC to pursue a deal but is not expected to bid anymore. The position of Hellman & Friedman in the deal could not be learned.

Life Tech, Thermo Fisher, Roche, KKR, Blackstone and Carlyle declined to comment, while Danaher and Hellman & Friedman did not respond to requests for comment.

DEAL SEEN BOOSTING EARNINGS

If Thermo Fisher wins the auction, it would boost its presence in scientific research, genetic analysis and applied sciences and make it a major player in the genetic sequencing market. It would also create a healthcare technology giant with annual revenues of over $16 billion and some 50,000 employees.

But depending on the final price, a deal could also stretch it financially.

At a range of $65 to $70 per share for Life Tech, Thermo Fisher believes the deal would add to its earnings, two of the people said.

Life Tech, however, may seek more than $70 per share, based on the view that potential synergies Thermo would be able to extract would make a deal accretive even at that price, the third source said.

Shares of Life Tech, which makes genetic testing equipment and products used in biotechnology development, have run up in expectation of a deal. They are trading at around $65, up 32 percent year to date, outperforming a 9.5 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 Indexover the same period. Thermo shares have risen more than 18 percent.

Life Tech is already trading in line with its peers, at about 9 times its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA).

Meanwhile, with its net debt equivalent to 2.4 times its EBITDA, Thermo Fisher's leverage is higher than the median of its peers, 1.6 times, according to Thomson Reuters data.

This could inform Thermo Fisher's decision on whether to fund its bid just with cash or also issue new equity.

Life Tech said on January 18 it had hired Deutsche Bankand Moelis & Co to assist in its "annual strategic review," opening the door to a possible sale.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis, Soyoung Kim and Paritosh Bansal in New York; Editing by Bernard Orr, Steve Orlofsky and Richard Chang)

Britain's most successful Olympian, who won two golds at the 2012 London Games to add to three from Beijing four years earlier and his first in Athens in 2004, said the time was right to quit the saddle having exhausted "every last ounce of effort and energy".

"I am officially announcing my retirement. It was not a decision I took easily or lightly, but I know it's the right decision," Hoy told a news conference in Edinburgh.

The 37-year-old had been deliberating for months whether to compete in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow in his native Scotland, and in the velodrome named after him, but said it would be one championship too far.

"Nothing would give me more pleasure than going to Glasgow, but I don't want to be there for the numbers.

"I feel I have got every last ounce of effort and energy out of myself. I made it to London and I was successful but maybe people don't realize just how much that took out of me.

"Trying to go on for another year would have been too much and I didn't want to just turn up and wave to the crowd and get the tracksuit."

Hoy won his first Olympic gold in the 1km time trial at the Athens Games and followed up by winning the team sprint, keirin and sprint in Beijing, the first Briton since 1908 to win three gold at one Games.

DEFINING MOMENT

Last year in London he secured two more golds in the team sprint, helping clock a world record time, and keirin to overtake rower Steve Redgrave as the Briton with the most gold medals.

Fellow British cyclist Bradley Wiggins has also won seven Olympic medals with Hoy ahead of the Tour de France winner on 'gold difference'.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said Hoy's tears of joy after clinching his sixth Games gold was the defining moment of London 2012.

Hoy, who also won a silver medal in the team sprint at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and 11 world titles, has been at the forefront of British cycling success in recent years.

Britain won seven of the 10 track cycling gold medals up for grabs in London, equaling their 2008 tally.

"I have been in the sport for 19 years and witnessed how the sport has changed out of all recognition. It has gone from a minority sport to a major sport and to have been part of the journey is a massive honour," he said.

"I don't want it to be a sad moment, I want to celebrate it and to be happy because I know it is the right decision.

"There is always a temptation to go on perhaps too long, it's not that I'm frightened of losing it's just I feel I can't ask for anymore."

Britain's multiple Tour de France stage winner Mark Cavendish led the tributes to Hoy, saying: "I could not have hoped for a better face to represent my sport through these growing years."

British Cycling team performance director Dave Brailsford added: "Chris's application, athleticism and dedication are second to none and I've said it many times but he is a true Olympic champion who embodies all of the Olympic values."

(Writing by Justin Palmer, editing by Mark Meadows)

The coast is now much less protected for the next storm, becauseand winds destroyed dunes, flood walls and other barriers, said Joe Vietri, director of coastal and storm risk management for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, at a news conference here today (April 17).

Although rebuilding efforts are moving forward in many areas, they won't come close to restoring the coast to its previous condition any time soon, according to officials from along the East Coast who gathered to discuss their communities' response to Sandy and their plans for , at an event organized by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group.

Counterproductive

Vietri said that some of the current rebuilding efforts inare counterproductive and a "subject of great frustration" to him. In certain places, for example, towns are rebuilding their boardwalks before remaking protective dunes or walls. Vietri said this doesn't make sense to him, since boardwalks are large and basically immovable and not as important as the features that protect them.

"You'd think you'd design your protection, and then put in your boardwalks, if you even should rebuild them," Vietri said at the news conference.

Other officials agree that lessons should be learned from Sandy in how to better protect vulnerable beaches and other coastal areas. []

"We need to use the opportunity of these crises and the timeliness of Sandy to work toward better protection for our coasts," said Phil Prete, the senior environmental planner for the city of Wilmington, N.C.

One of the prime methods to do this is called , which involves piling sand onto beaches, often to make artificial dunes. This method is proceeding in some places, but is held up elsewhere by a lack of funds. Typically, the federal government may provide 65 percent of the money for beach nourishment, with the state and local governments kicking in the rest.

But that may be changing. In Broward County, Fla., for example, the federal and state governments have withdrawn funding for beach nourishment, said Kristin Jacobs, the mayor of Broward County. And it looks like funds are becoming less available elsewhere.

Relocate?

This lack of funding for beach nourishment and other projects is especially frustrating since every $1 spent to create protective dunes saves $9 in prevented damage, Jacobs said.

Some have questioned the wisdom of continually rebuilding beaches and dunes, and suggest that a more permanent move away from the ocean makes sense in the face ofon the East Coast.

The Army Corps of Engineers is currently in the midst of a study examining the likely impact of sea level rise over the next century, and will make recommendations later this year that could impact how communities go about protecting their coasts from future storms, Vietri said. Besides dunes, protective measures could include elevating houses to avoid flooding. It's also possible that certain low-lying areas should consider relocating residents away from the water, he added.

"Sea level rise and climate change are here now, and it's safe to assume it'll get worse," Vietri said.

Email or follow him . Follow us, or . Original article on LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

Plenty.

Let me start with the drunks and new parents. Monday night I boarded a very delayed flight fromto . Behind me were four 20/30-somethings boisterously swigging from "coffee" cups. (Our gate was across from a Cantina and you could practically smell the tequila in their paper cups.)

As the boarding continued they grew increasingly animated. Their frenetic energy seemed to wind up not just each other but everyone around them. Fellow passengers were visibly agitated.

Just before the plane doors closed, a young couple came on with a sleeping baby. The last two open seats were amongst this motley crew.

Suddenly, everything changed.

The presence of the earnest and exhausted parents had an immediate calming effect on both the inebriated passengers and those around them. It was as if a mirror had been placed in the center of the plane to remind us all of our humanity.

Enter, Jo Piazza's delicious new book, .

To me, this book is the figurative version of the newborn's parents getting on the plane. It serves as a mirror reflecting back the reality what's in the "coffee" cups of the celebrity scene.

That got me wondering what other financial lessons the author of Celebrity, Inc. might have stumbled across while writing this fascinating book. Thankfully, Jo Piazza was willing to share with us...

Q: Of the celebrities you profile in Celebrity, Inc. whose money attitude were you most impressed with and why?

(2) What surprised you the most about the money habits you observed during your Celebrity, Inc. research?

(3) What personal finance lessons do you think the rest of us can take away from the way famous people live their lives?

In many ways our celebrity culture is like a group of chaotic drunk people. It lurches rapidly from one topic and fad to the next. In the heat of the excitement money can feel like no object. But the financial hangover of being, or trying to emulate, that lifestyle can result in a serious financial crash.

So pick up a copy of Celebrity, Inc. and tell me what you think. Does our national obsession with the lifestyles of the rich and famous ever cause you to do things with your money that you later regret?

[This post originally appeared at .] For more MoneyZen in your life, follow Manisha on Twitter aton Facebook ator sign up to receive Manisha's MoneyZen blog via email .

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Shazaf Fatima Haider was always interested in how it happened. How strangers met in contrived settings, were expected to like each other and get married.

Eventually, the 30-year-old teacher from Karachi saw the funny side of arranged marriages and cultural backgrounds in Pakistan and decided it was the perfect subject for her debut novel, "How It Happened."

The book, recently launched in India and Pakistan, is the story of Dadi, the matriarch of the Bandian family in Karachi, and her quest to find the perfect Shia Muslim groom for her granddaughter Zeba. Told from the point of view of Zeba's younger sibling Saleha, the novel explores how negotiating ancient marriage traditions in the 21st century could stretch a family to the end of its tether.

Haider spoke with Reuters about her book, Pakistani culture and writing.

Q: How much of "How It Happened" is inspired by real life?

A: Well, some of it was inspired by what I saw around me. I grew up listening to stories of my mother's home town in India and so the fictional town of "Bhakuraj" was born as this vital, bizarre place full of eccentric people. My grandparents died before I was born and I yearned to have a grandmother to be the kind of force that Dadi in "How It Happened" was to Saleha, so I think the yearning gave birth to the narrator and the grandmother, who are my two favourite characters in the novel. Soon after, the Bandians were born and they are quite unlike my actual family. After that, the story took shape and the rest is what is in the pages before you.

Q: Tell us a bit about your research for the novel.

A: No research, what you read is what popped up in my head. I was always very interested in what men and women went through in the process of arranged marriages and had been at the listening end of many a rant by an irate person of eligible age and status. I also had a few suitors grace my drawing room with their presence and I witnessed their discomfort with considerable amusement. And then, one day my friend called me and told me that a prospective mum-in-law had told her that she was interested in my friend because she was an American citizen (her son wanted a passport-holder) I thought, what a perfect subject-matter for satire. So off I went to write and out came "How It Happened".

Q: Did your family know that you were writing the novel?

A: It was a secret. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to finish it, or that it wouldn't be good enough. One of my closest friends, Sameer Khan, was my only reader and critic - he was a med student but he still read each chapter I wrote and gave detailed feedback. The book wouldn't have been written without his constant encouragement.

Q: Sectarian violence is threatening Pakistan's stability at the moment. The Shia-Sunni rivalry is also a dominant thread in the novel. Do you see things changing any time soon?

A: Oh things are changing, of course, but it's different for different families. Never make the mistake that what is happening on the political scene is a representative of what the ordinary citizen thinks or wants -- people desire unity, peace and stability, not violence and bloodshed. In my family specifically, the Shia-Sunni thing isn't such a big deal any more -- many Zebas have come before us. But I know that some other families would like to stick together with the same religious flock.

Q: Through this novel, what is it that you wanted to say about marriages and cultural backgrounds in Pakistan? Was a humorous novel your first choice?

A: I didn't want to write a didactic novel and I hope I haven't. Humour was the natural choice because it's such a bizarre arrangement, getting strangers to meet in contrived settings and expecting them to like each other. Even animals have difficulty with breeding in captivity! I hope people will read the book and have a good laugh. Because to survive this system with grace, a good sense of humour is vital.

Q: Which is your favourite compliment yet for "How It Happened"?

A: I was very happy to learn that my male readers were enjoying it as much as my female readers. The cover seems to imply that women are the primary audience for this novel, but don't men suffer the rigours of the arranged marriage? One of them tweeted to me and said that he had loved it and that I rocked. And I think he rocked for saying that."

Q: What next after "How It Happened"? Is there scope for a sequel or a novel about education in Pakistan?

A: I am half-way through my second novel but I realize that I'm going to have to change the tone of the story completely which involves a complete re-write. It has nothing to do with "How It Happened". There is certainly scope for a sequel, though I'm not sure I want to visit the world of the Bandians any further. I've lived with them intimately and enjoyed my time with them. It's time for them to go their way and for me to go mine.

Q: Any advice for aspiring writers?

A: Submit as much as you write. Don't reject your own work when there are a thousand other people, agents and publishing houses to do that for you. And don't think your words are sacred - they are not - be open to changing tone or voice or anything such to serve the cause of your story telling. Don't show your work to everyone because everyone will have a different idea of what constitutes good writing. Find that one person whose opinion you trust and show your work to them.

(Reporting by Tony Tharakan; Editing by)

Tony Award-winning designer Derek McLane, much sought-after for his use of unlikely materials in sublime patterns, has been tapped to put together the set for the 85th Academy Awards telecast.

"This is the first time I've ever designed any kind of awards show and certainly this is the biggest viewership of anything I've ever done," he said by phone from inside the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. "This is new territory for me and it's very exciting."

Neil Meron and Craig Zadan, producers of the Oscars, asked McLane if he'd lend his expertise after impressing them with his work on "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying" with Daniel Radcliffe, a show they also produced.

"One of the things they said about the Oscars is that they really hoped that I would design something that looked completely unique and completely new and did not look like any other Oscar show they'd ever seen," McLane said.

McLane's other credits include the recent revival of "The Heiress" with Jessica Chastain, the current "Nice Work If You Can Get It" with Matthew Broderick, the last revivals of "Gore Vidal's The Best Man" and "Follies," the show "Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo" with Robin Williams, and the Tony winning revival of "Anything Goes," which is currently on a national tour.

"We think he's one of the most inventive designers there is and we wanted to give him an opportunity to really strut his stuff," said Meron. "I don't think there's any better place than the Oscar stage."

One of McLane's biggest triumphs was the set for "33 Variations," a play about a terminally ill musicologist that starred Jane Fonda. The show earned McLane a Tony for one of his trademarks: the use of ordinary objects clustered in stunning ways. The set had thousands of small cardboard boxes and hundreds of pages of sheet music, all lit sublimely.

"I like the ability to create that kind of magic out of the ordinary," he said.

For the Oscars, McLane was tasked with honoring the grandeur and splendor of the event but also injecting a bit of his wit, too. "It needs to be glamorous and it needs to be beautiful, but their hope was that I could do that in a way that seemed unexpected," he said.

This year, the Oscars are paying tribute to the music of the movies scores, songs and musicals so McLane went backward. "I really looked to the golden age of movie musicals in this country, which is the 1930s and '40s," he said.

While much of the Oscar set is still under wraps, an image of McLane's proscenium has been released and shows some typical touches: More than a thousand 1,051, to be precise replica Oscar statuettes, each a little larger than the real award. Each is nestled in its own cubbyhole and can be lit separately or in sections as needed. The show curtain is inspired by Busby Berkeley movie musicals.

While McLane wouldn't reveal any more, he did mention taking inspiration from his own apartment, where on one wall he has installed 35 industrial lamps all facing the same direction and up against an antique mirror.

"I like the fact that when you look at each one of these individual lamps, they just look like a sort of ordinary, industrial lamp that is, quite frankly, the last thing in the world that you would think of as warm. And yet, together as a pattern, they create something that I think is magical and beautiful."

McLane has had to adjust to the size of the 3,400-seat Dolby Theatre much larger than the biggest Broadway theater and the need for his set to be both pleasing from far away and in TV close-ups. He and a team in November tested how the set would look by making partial replicas and training video cameras on them.

He said he's been enjoying his LA visit and the Oscar challenge, but he promises his head won't be turned by Hollywood. The day after the telecast, McLane is due back in New York to work on his set for the upcoming play "Breakfast at Tiffany's."

"I love Broadway and I love doing this," he said. "I'd love to be able to do more of this, but I feel like Broadway's my home and I wouldn't leave it for the world."

___

Follow Mark Kennedy on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KennedyTwits

A ground-breaking study issued in 2010 indicated a vaginal gel containing an HIV drug can sharply reduce infections in women who use it before and after sex.

However, a test of the gel and two types of anti-HIV pills among more than 5,000 women in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda showed that, based on blood tests, more than 70 percent did not use the medication as instructed.

"We are obviously disappointed in the results. We were very hopeful that these products, which we know have been effective in other studies and clearly have a lot of promise, would work," Jeanne Marrazzo, a researcher on the project for the University of Washington, told reporters in a teleconference.

"Women did not use consistently any of the products. Adherence was very low," said Marrazzo, part of the project known as the Vaginal and Oral Interventions to Control the Epidemic (VOICE).

HIV/AIDS experts said the results showed how important a factor human behavior is when devising ways to prevent HIV.

"HIV prevention is never just biomedical - behavior is key. What we've learned from VOICE and other trials is that adherence to the prescribed dose - the behavioral component - is the variable that determines effectiveness," said Mitchell Warren, director of the HIV prevention advocacy group AVAC.

East and southern Africa are the areas most heavily affected by the HIV epidemic. Out of the total number of people worldwide in 2009 living with HIV, 34 percent were in 10 countries of southern Africa, according to the U.N. Programme on HIV/AIDS.

Experts have been searching for years for inexpensive, safe and simple medications to decrease the risk of transmission among a population that is largely destitute and with little access to quality health care.

The study also found the group most likely to contract HIV - unmarried women under 25 - was also the most likely not to use any of the medicines. The results were presented at a Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Atlanta.

The three-year study that started in September 2009 tested a daily tablet called Truvada, which was approved for HIV prevention in July 2012 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after it was shown to significantly reduce the risk of HIV infection when used as a preventative measure.

The gel with a drug called tenofovir, which a previous study showed reduced HIV infections in women by 39 percent over two and a half years, and an oral tenofovir tablet were also tested.

Researchers have been trying for years to formulate a microbicide - a gel, cream, ring or tablet inserted into the vagina or rectum before sex to prevent transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.

"We need to rethink the design of these intervention trials ... in healthy people because it is difficult for anybody to take a pill or anything every day, particularly when you are healthy and do not feel that you need a drug," said Marrazzo.

Truvada is made by Gilead Sciences, which also developed tenofovir. In 2006, Gilead assigned a royalty-free license for tenofovir gel to CONRAD.

Jonathan Mermin, an HIV/AIDS prevention expert at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said these trial results underscored the complexities of getting healthy people to use preventative measures against HIV.

"Clinicians and public health professionals will have to further assess and better understand how to promote and support the high levels of adherence necessary," he said.

(Additional reporting by Kate Kelland in London; Editing by Louise Ireland and Michael Roddy)