Hogan joined the Swiss industrial group as CEO in September 2008, and has invested some $20 billion to strengthen the company since then, including the major acquisitions of U.S. groups Baldor and Thomas & Betts and, in April this year, solar energy company Power One .

Late last month the company said it would step up cost-cutting measures to boost profit in what it expects to be a tough second half of the year after first-quarter profit fell short of expectations.

ABB said Hogan would lead the company until a successor was named to ensure a smooth transition, and that the board would look both within the company and externally for a replacement.

"This has been a difficult decision as I leave behind a strong and talented Executive Committee and a cohesive Board whose support I could always count on," Hogan said in a statement.

(Reporting by Martin de Sa'Pinto; Editing by David Cowell)

"States are hoping that taxes from Internet sales will boost their coffers, like from the Marketplace Fairness Act pending in Congress that would require companies with sales of more than $1 million to begin collecting sales and localtaxes for purchases over the Internet," said Williams.

Williams added, "Lawmakers' focus on the hope of increased internet revenue is misplaced. States need to fix their spending problems now and stop hoping that the federal government will ride in like a knight in shining armor and fix all their problems. Hoping for more federal stimulus or hoping the feds will allow taxes on the Internet will not solve the budget crises the states currently face. The problem is spending, not revenue."

State Budget Solutions recommends performance based budgeting, which focuses on what taxpayers get for the money now being spent on services.

"It ensures that state government is serving its citizens as efficiently and effectively as possible," Williams said.

To read Bob Williams full bio .

About State Budget Solutions

The State Budget Solutions Project is non-partisan, positive, pro-reform, proactive and anchored in fundamental-systemic solutions. The goal is to successfully engage political journalists/bloggers, state officials and opinion leaders in a new way of thinking about state government and budgets, fundamental reforms, transparency and accountability. Sharing studies and articles, data sets, anecdotes, and compelling narrative about what is happening in state and local budgets, the State Budget Solutions Project presents and disseminates information about every aspect of coming fiscal and economic disasters and, more importantly, highlights fundamental reforms to avoid them.

Check outfor more information.

SOURCE State Budget Solutions

- - -

Orioles 5 Angels 4 (10)

Steve Pearce delivered a run-scoring single with two outs in the top of the 10th to lift visiting Baltimore over Los Angeles. Pearce had three of Baltimore's 12 hits while starting for injured first baseman Chris Davis.

Adam Jones singled to lead off the 10th against Garrett Richards (1-3) and scored from second on Pearce's two-out single into shallow right field.

Tommy Hunter (1-1) worked out of a jam in the ninth and Jim Johnson hurled a perfect 10th for his 11th save in 11 opportunities.

Manny Machado, J.J. Hardy and Nolan Reimold each hit solo homers for the Orioles.

- - -

Mariners 8 Blue Jays 1

Dustin Ackley hit his first career grand slam and Michael Saunders added a pair of solo homers as visiting Seattle extended Toronto's early-season misery.

Ackley turned on a 3-2 pitch from Blue Jays starter R.A. Dickey (2-5) and launched it over the wall in right-center in the fourth inning for his first home run of the season.

Saunders led off the game with a homer from the second pitch of the contest and added some insurance in the fifth as Seattle won for the seventh time in nine games.

The offensive outburst made a winner out of Hisashi Iwakuma (3-1), who limited Toronto to a run on five hits over seven strong innings.

Dickey was charged with seven runs on six hits over six innings as the Blue Jays fell for the eighth time in nine games.

- - -

Yankees 4 Athletics 2

Phil Hughes threw eight scoreless innings and Chris Stewart and Lyle Overbay belted solo home runs as host New York evened its series with Oakland.

Hughes (1-2) finally broke into the win column in his sixth start, scattering four hits and tying his season high with nine strikeouts as the Yankees improved to 7-2 on their 10-game homestand.

Hughes retired the final 10 batters he faced in his longest outing since last July 1.

Athletics right-hander Bartolo Colon (3-1) failed to make it through six innings for the first time in six starts, giving up three runs on six hits in 5 1/3 innings.

- - -

Indians 7 Twins 3

Scott Kazmir threw six sharp innings to pick up his first win since 2010 and Jason Kipnis fell a double shy of the cycle as host Cleveland ran its winning streak to six games.

Nick Swisher also homered and Asdrubal Cabrera had an RBI double for the Indians, who have scored 53 runs in the six straight wins.

Michael Brantley, Mark Reynolds and Ezequiel Carrera contributed to the 12-hit attack with an RBI single apiece.

Kazmir (1-1), whose last win was at Tampa Bay on Sept. 19, 2010, allowed two runs and five hits while striking out seven, his highest total in that category since May 1, 2010.

He struck out the side in the fourth and retired the final six men he faced after Aaron Hicks' solo homer leading off the fifth.

- - -

Nationals 5 Pirates 4

Tyler Moore drove in Ryan Zimmerman with a sacrifice fly in the ninth inning as visiting Washington downed Pittsburgh to collect its third win in the last four games.

Tony Watson (1-1) struck out Bryce Harper to open the ninth, but Zimmerman reached base after the reliever hit him with a pitch.

Adam LaRoche followed with a single and both runners moved up a base on a double steal, allowing Zimmerman to score on Washington's third sacrifice fly of the game.

Tyler Clippard (2-1) yielded Andrew McCutchen's single in the eighth, but escaped further damage when Garrett Jones lined into an inning-ending double play.

Rafael Soriano gave up a leadoff single in the ninth to Russell Martin, but Martin was thrown out trying to take second and Soriano nailed down his 10th save.

- - -

Cardinals 7 Brewers 6

Jon Jay clubbed a three-run homer and delivered the go-ahead run with an RBI single in the ninth to lift visiting St. Louis to victory over Milwaukee, their fifth on the trot.

Daniel Descalso belted a two-run homer and Allen Craig added a solo blast as the Cardinals overcame a rare poor start from ace Adam Wainwright to send Milwaukee to its fourth consecutive loss.

Seth Maness (1-0) retired two batters in the eighth for his first major-league win and Edward Mujica worked a perfect ninth inning for his eighth save. Brewers closer Jim Henderson (2-1) allowed one run on two hits to take the loss.

- - -

Reds 6 Cubs 4

Jack Hannahan's bases-loaded walk forced home the go-ahead run amidst a four-run eighth inning as visiting Cincinnati rallied to beat Chicago for the second straight day.

Alfonso Soriano blasted two-run homers to left in the first and third against rookie Tony Cingrani to give the Cubs a 4-2 lead, but the bullpen could not hold it.

Carlos Marmol (2-2) allowed all three batters he faced to reach base, hitting one batter and walking two, and all three came around to score after he left.

A day after nearly allowing Chicago to rally from a four-run deficit in the ninth, the Reds' bullpen was dominant this time, as Logan Ondrusek and Jonathan Broxton each pitched perfect innings before Aroldis Chapman worked around a one-out walk in the ninth for his seventh save.

- - - -

Mets at Braves, POSTPONED

The middle game of a three-game set between National League East rivals New York and Atlanta was postponed Saturday because of rain. (Editing by Ben Everill)

LONDON (Reuters) - King Edward VIII may be best known for giving up the throne to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson, but it wasn't the first time his love affairs posed a threat to the British monarchy.

A new book by British barrister and former judge Andrew Rose unearths a little-known affair with a French courtesan 20 years before Edward's abdication, which ended in a rigged trial at the behest of the British establishment trying to protect a future king's reputation.

"The Prince, The Princess, and The Perfect Murder" details how the then-Prince of Wales's first great love, French courtesan Maggie Meller, blackmailed him to avoid the gallows after murdering her playboy Egyptian prince husband.

Meller was acquitted in a high profile trial at London's Old Bailey in 1923 despite the evidence stacked against her.

Rose said the acquittal was a shock but his research has now revealed an extraordinary story involving the murder trial, a secret cache of vanished letters and a cover-up to save the reputation of the future king.

Six years before her trial, Meller had an affair with the British prince. She used evidence from that relationship to force the royal household to lean on the establishment in an effort to get her off the hook and cover up the scandal, Rose told Reuters.

"This affair had been carefully airbrushed from history so the connection between the murder and the Prince of Wales was never drawn," Rose told Reuters.

"The royal household took steps to make sure that the prince's name did not come out in the trial to protect the reputation of the future king. It is amazing that she got away with it."

Rose's book, published by Coronet this week forms the basis of a TV documentary, "Edward VIII's Murderous Mistress", on Britain's Channel 4 later this month.

The latest book was a follow-on work from Rose's book about the trial, "Scandal at the Savoy", published in 1991.

He was intrigued by Marguerite Alibert, better known as Meller, who, dressed in a Chanel gown, shot her second husband, Egyptian Prince Fahmy Bey, at London's Savoy Hotel in 1923.

COVER UP FOR THE PRINCE

At the time her past reputation as a gold digger was brushed off and the focus was on her claim that she acted in self-defense to protect herself from her abusive husband.

But after his book was released, Meller's grandson contacted Rose, informing him of her affair with the prince, love letters between the two, and a memoir she wrote in 1934.

Rose said it took several years to trace the relationship, accessing unpublished documents in royal archives and private collections but also finding a trail of destroyed documents.

Rose said the prince's involvement came as a surprise but was in character as Edward, who abdicated in 1936 after less than a year on the throne, was a well-known womanizer.

"He was emotionally immature and feckless in his private life ... although he had enormous charm," said Rose.

"But you can be approachable and amusing and also neurotic, self-centered and unreliable. He spent his time chasing woman, had a string of love affairs and was always susceptible particularly to powerful women."

Rose said the prince's protectors were quick to move once Meller was arrested, negotiating with her to return the prince's letters that she had stored in Cairo.

The crucial part of the deal, however, was that she would not mention the prince in court and she stuck to that.

Her promiscuous past was never mentioned in court and the trial instead focused on the violent nature and perverted sexual tastes of her husband.

"Really this was a show trial," said Rose, "The authorities wanted Marguerite to be acquitted. A murder conviction would have been catastrophic for the Crown."

Meller was released and moved back to France where she lived the rest of her life in Paris, dying wealthy in 1971.

"This story really does show another side to Edward and how unsuitable he always was to be king," said Rose.

(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, editing by Paul Casciato)

The December 2009 fire broke out when a pyrotechnic show in the crowded club ignited plastic decorations on the ceiling.

Panicked customers tried to flee, but there was only a single exit, and many couldn't get out in time.

Club owner Anatoly Zak was convicted of creating conditions that violate safety regulations and sentenced to nine years and 10 months in prison.

The club's director and artistic director, the two fireworks technicians and two current or former safety inspectors were sentenced to lesser terms.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Twitter Inc and Peoplebrowsr Inc, a social media analytics firm, reached a settlement that would allow Peoplebrowsr to continue to buy Twitter's data until the end of 2013, the two companies announced Thursday.

Beginning next year, Peoplebrowsr will have to purchase access to the full "firehose" of 400 million daily tweets through one of Twitter's authorized data resellers, according to the settlement's terms.

Peoplebrowsr, based in San Francisco, sifts through Twitter and resells social media "intelligence" to clients that include media organizations and the U.S. Department of Defense.

The legal dispute between the two companies flared last late year, when Twitter, which has been ramping up its operations as it approaches a widely anticipated initial public offering, began to exercise greater control over its content.

Although Twitter contends that individual users retain intellectual ownership over their tweets, the company has moved aggressively to block some firms from profiting off of its data.

Peoplebrowsr had been purchasing data from Twitter directly, rather than through a reseller, on a month-to-month basis before Twitter sought to end the arrangement last July.

Peoplebrowsr Chief Executive Andrew Grill said the settlement gave Peoplebrowsr the eight months it needed to "technically and commercially" figure out how to continue providing the same kind of analytical services.

"We got out of this settlement what we needed," he said.

Financial details of the settlement were not disclosed.

Twitter said in a statement: "We're pleased to have this matter dismissed with prejudice, and look forward to PeopleBrowsr's transition by the end of the year off of the Firehose to join the ecosystem of developers utilizing Twitter data via our reseller partnerships."

(Reporting by Gerry Shih; Editing by Bob Burgdorfer)

In separate incidents in 1999 and 2001, soldiers in Nigeria shelled villages, opened fire on residents and tortured civilians. While the military has denied abuse allegations surrounding the recent killings in Baga, the West African nation has a history of security forces indiscriminately killing civilians since it became an uneasy democracy after years of military rule.

And as officials hope to woo extremists into possible peace talks, the deaths of civilians and harassment by soldiers could likely betray its efforts. The government often claims its force is used only to combat the extremists, or criminals.

"You and I know nowadays the 'Boko Haram syndrome:' Anybody put in the public space as allegedly being killed in the course of fire as suspected Boko Haram persons, most members of the public will not fear it much," said Kemi Okenyodo, the executive director of the CLEEN Foundation, which monitors police and security forces in Nigeria. "Any crime that the public is strongly against it, it is easy to be used as a fluke for extrajudicial killings."

Government officials could not offer a breakdown of civilian, soldier and extremist deaths from Friday's fighting. Many of the bodies had been burned beyond recognition in fires that razed whole sections of the town, residents said. Those killed were buried as soon as possible, following local Muslim tradition.

Authorities also provide contradictory explanations about what really happened, as the military bans access for outside observers to an area officials want to describe as an insurgent stronghold.

Boko Haram members used heavy machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades in the assault, which Brig. Gen. Austin Edokpaye said began after soldiers surrounded a mosque they believed was housing Boko Haram members. Extremists earlier had killed a military officer, officials said.

The fighting lasted for hours and the military said extremists used civilians as human shields implying that soldiers opened fire in neighborhoods where they knew civilians lived. However, local residents who spoke to an Associated Press journalist who accompanied the state officials said soldiers purposefully set the fires during the attack.

Brig. Gen. Chris Olukolade, a military spokesman, on Tuesday declined to immediately answer other questions about the military's conduct and other issues surrounding the killings.

By the time Borno state officials could reach the city Sunday, a local government official said at least 185 people were killed, something not disputed by Edokpaye who accompanied officials on the visit. A spokesman for the Nigerian Red Cross said Monday that at least 187 people had been killed, while another 77 were receiving medical treatment.

A statement issued Tuesday by Edokpaye said only six civilians died in the fighting Friday, as well as one soldier and some 30 extremists. The brigadier general also claimed extremist fighters used "anti-aircraft guns" in the attack, arms never seen used before in the three-year-old insurgency. The statement also said the fighting occurred on April 16 three days before the violence actually happened.

Nigeria's presidency has said the death toll "may be grossly exaggerated," but federal lawmakers have started their own investigations into the killings.

While Nigerian forces have served as peacekeepers in other African conflicts, many in the country remain fearful of soldiers. Nigerian media regularly reports on incidents where soldiers beat civilians in traffic or fight police officers in their own country.

"Fighting in a built-up area is a very difficult operation, but that notwithstanding, there must be standard rules of engagement," Senate President David Mark said Tuesday. "Those rules of engagement would not include mass killings, or extrajudicial killings, in any form."

But extrajudicial killings routinely occur in Nigeria, with police routinely shooting dead suspected "armed robbers," human rights activists say. That same mentality, a hangover from the military era when soldiers would routinely shoot dead prisoners on the then-swampy beaches of Victoria Island in Lagos, persists today.

Speaking Wednesday, President Goodluck Jonathan promised any soldier or security force member found committing such crimes would be "cautioned and treated in line with our own laws and regulations." But the nation's courts routinely drag out cases and such prosecutions remain rarer still.

"The problem of extrajudicial executions in Nigeria is closely linked to the remarkable inadequacies of almost all levels of the Nigerian criminal justice system," a United Nations report in 2006 on the killings said. The same report described how soldiers often operate without any rules of engagement when facing a civilian population.

There are several major cases in Nigeria's recent history of soldier abuses. In 2001, the military attacked some seven villages in Benue state following ethnic Tiv militants killing soldiers there. Witnesses said some 200 people died in the fighting that saw soldiers ransack villages, shell houses and gun down residents indiscriminately. In 1999, ethnic Ijaw activists claimed more than 200 civilians were killed by the military in Odi in Bayelsa state following the killings of police officers there.

A military raid in Nigeria's oil-rich Delta state in 2010 against militants there killed some 150 people, activists said, though soldiers blocked AP journalists from reaching the area at the time. And in October 2012, when extremists killed a military officer in Maiduguri, soldiers killed at least 30 civilians and set fires across a neighborhood in retaliation. The military later denied committing the abuses.

"In such incidents it is assumed by officials that the armed forces acted in 'self-defense' or were otherwise justified in carrying out retaliatory executions of civilians," the 2006 U.N. report reads. "Thus, although the intentional killing of unarmed civilians, whether in situations of armed conflict or otherwise, is a clear violation of both international and Nigerian law, impunity is the reality."

And despite Nigeria's presidency promising an investigation into the Baga killings, the same may continue to happen today.

"There is a consistent pattern in responding to these incidents," the U.N. said. "Major human rights violations are alleged; the authorities announce an inquiry; and either the resulting reports are not published, or the recommendations are ignored."

___

Associated Press writer Haruna Umar in Maiduguri, Nigeria, and Bashir Adigun in Abuja, Nigeria, contributed to this report.

___

Jon Gambrell can be reached at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP .

The Chief Executive Officers, Chief Medical Officers and other senior executives of the seven PRIDE Consortium plans met in New York City on April 8-9 to discuss common issues and identify Consortium priorities for the coming months.

The Consortium members are CareSource (OH), Commonwealth Care Alliance (MA), Health Plan of San Mateo (CA), ICare (WI), Together4Health (IL), UCare (MN), and VNSNY CHOICE (NY) (see contact information below). Together they will engage in collaborative problem-solving, extract and share lessons about their key challenges and success factors, delineate strategies and best practices for achieving high performance and disseminate these widely to other health plans, consumer groups and federal and state policy makers.

The Consortium members were selected from seven states that are moving forward either under state-specific demonstrations or as part of the federal "Financial Alignment" demonstration administered by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services under the authority of the Affordable Care Act of 2010. Under these demonstrations, the federal government and the states are rapidly pursuing policies to promote integrated care for individuals dually eligible for Medicare and Medicaid services, who account for $300 billion a year of Medicare and Medicaid expenditures.

The Consortium plans serve many high-needs, high-cost populations, including individuals with multiple chronic illnesses, physical disability, mental illness, frailty and/or dementia especially those who are dually eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid services due to their poor health, advanced age and poverty. Among the issues the Consortium will address are effective models for expanding service and support networks, ways to better integrate and improve care coordination between medical and long term services and supports, best practices for effectively engaging consumers, measures to continuously monitor and improve quality while managing costs efficiently, and strategies for expanding enrollment and retaining members.

The project efforts are being led by Penny Hollander Feldman, PhD, Senior Vice President of Research and Evaluation at VNSNY and Director of the Center for Home Care Policy and Research, who will work in tandem with Carol Raphael, Advanced Leadership Fellow at Harvard University, Kathryn Haslanger, Chief Executive Officer of the JASA in New York City, and Eliot Fishman, Principal, Health Management Associates.

Established in 1993 by the Visiting Nurse Service of New York, the Center for Home Care Policy & Research has become recognized as the pre-eminent research center for home and community-based care and is the only one of its kind in the nation. The Center conducts scientifically rigorous research to promote the delivery of high-quality, cost-effective care in the home and community and supports informed decision making by policy makers, payers, managers, practitioners, and consumers of home-and community-based services. For more information, please visit .

CONTACT INFORMATION

Promoting Integrated Care for Dual Eligibles - Consortium

State

California

Plan

Health Plan of San Mateo

CEO

Maya Altman;

Press Contact: Russell Hoyle, Director of Marketing

russell.hoyle@hpsm.org; 650-616-2020

www.hpsm.org

State

Illinois

Plan

Together4Health - Heartland Alliance

CEO

Karen Batia

Press Contact: Emily Blum, Director of Communications

eblum@heartlandalliance.org; 312-660-1313

www.T4HIllinois.com in progress

State

Massachusetts

Plan

Commonwealth Care Alliance

CEOPresident

Robert J Master

Lois Simon

Press Contact: Beth Richards, Sr. Director of Marketing and Communications

brichards@commonwealthcare.org

www.commonwealthcare.org/

State

Minnesota

Plan

Ucare

CEO

Nancy Feldman

Press Contact: Wendy Wicks, Communications Manager

wwicks@ucare.org, 612-676-3567

www.ucare.org

State

New York

Plan

VNSNY CHOICE

VNSNY CEOCHOICE President

Mary Ann Christopher

Christopher Palmieri

Press Contact: Richard Rothstein

Richard.Rothstein@vnsny.org; 212-609-1605

www.vnsnychoice.org/

State

Ohio

Plan

CareSource

CEO

Pamela Morris

Press Contact: Anthony Evans, VP of Integrated Care

Anthony.Evans@caresource.com; 937-224-3300 ext 3472

https://www.caresource.com

State

Wisconsin

Plan

ICare

CEO

Tom Lutzow

Press Contact: Bill Jensen, Vice President

bjensen@icare-wi.org; 414-231-1181

www.icare-wi.org

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - All-Stars Chris Paul and Blake Griffin usually command the spotlight for the Clippers but if the Los Angeles team goes deep into this season's playoffs, it will be because of the high-octane energy of their bench.

Spearheaded by former Sixth Man-of-the-Year Jamal Crawford, the Clippers reserves are arguably the best in the NBA, time and again giving their first unit welcome relief as they explode into action with their up-tempo style.

While most teams limit the on-court minutes spent by their back-up players in the post-season, the Clippers buck that trend by sticking to their usual rotation, confident that Crawford, Eric Bledsoe and company will at the very least maintain a lead, if not extend it.

"This is the deepest team I have ever been involved with," back-up forward Matt Barnes told Reuters after the Clippers outmuscled the Memphis Grizzlies 112-91 in their playoff opener on Saturday.

"We have got 13 guys that can play, and we played 12 against the Grizzlies. We just want to keep bringing that energy out on to the court.

"We are more of an up-tempo, running team, passing lanes and getting on fast breaks. We try to change the tempo from the starting unit and we did a good job on that (against Memphis)."

Asked what made the Clippers bench players so effective, Barnes replied: "We have a lot of depth and our coach (Vinny Del Negro) gives us a chance.

"Usually in the playoffs the rotation tightens a little bit but he is still going with our normal rotation and we are able to be effective. We've got a very deep team and we play hard."

Barnes, a nine-year league veteran who has played for eight different teams, was one of three Clippers reserves who got into double figures against fifth-seeded Memphis on Saturday, contributing 10 points.

Crawford, the 2010 Sixth Man-of-the-Year when he was playing for the Atlanta Hawks, added 13 points while speedy guard Bledsoe weighed in with 15 on seven-of-seven shooting from the field, along with six rebounds and four assists.

Back-up forward and former Lakers player Lamar Odom, who pulled in seven rebounds against the Grizzlies, has long admired his fellow reserves.

"With Jamal and other players who can come off the bench and get you double-doubles, double digits in assists or rebounds, this is one of the strongest benches that I've ever seen," Odom told Reuters.

However the 33-year-old, who has played 13 seasons in the NBA, would prefer to pass judgment until the Clippers have completed their post-season.

"For me, this team is going to be rated on how we finish the season, and that's when we can kind of rate where we stand," said Odom, who was awarded the NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award in 2011, becoming the first Lakers player to land the honor.

"It's going to be important for us to finish at the top of the mountain if we're going to give ourselves some credit, especially at this time of the year when it's all about how you finish the season."

The fourth-seeded Clippers never trailed on Saturday and, though the Grizzlies cut the deficit to just one point early in the fourth quarter, the home team pulled away as reserves Crawford, Bledsoe, Odom, Barnes and Ronny Turiaf got to work.

Clippers coach Del Negro was suitably impressed that his back-up men had, once again, justified their extended minutes on court.

"The bench has been so productive for us all season," Del Negro smiled. "It's a unique thing to have the depth that we have so why not use it? They deserve the right to be out there and they have been producing for us."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Gene Cherry)

But those days may be numbered. For the first time in the areas history,are raising money to hold their first-ever racially inclusive promyes, its very firstin 2013.

One of the high schoolers spearheading the effort is Keela Bloodworth, who reported to local news station, , Its embarrassing to know Im from the county that still does this.