"We see cyber insurance as a big growth market," said Hartmut Mai, board member at Allianz's AGCS unit for global corporate and special insurance risks.

Insuring against cyber threats is seen as a potentially lucrative market for Europe's insurers, particularly now that lawmakers are promising bigger fines for companies that lose data.

"If my production lines are silent because my cloud (computing) provider cannot make the data I have stored there available, then that could threaten the company's existence," Mai told a press briefing.

While cyber insurance products in the United States are already well developed, generating premiums of around $1.3 billion per year, they are drawing premiums of only around 150 million euros ($192 million) in continental Europe, including between 50 million and 70 million in Germany, Mai said.

That leaves room for the market outside the United States to grow by double-digit rates.

"We see the overall market in Europe at between 700 and 900 million euros in 2018," Mai said, adding that Allianz aimed to grow with the market and hold a share of around a fifth.

Allianz has brought several types of risk cover, including some existing insurance products, into a single package for its cyber offering, which it expects will be of interest to telecoms companies, software houses, online retailers and banks.

Annual premiums would range from roughly 50,000 euros to 90,000 and would offer between 10 and 50 million euros of protection, Mai said.

The insurer is rolling out the package in western Europe, Australia and New Zealand this year and will target several Asian countries in 2014. It does not plan to offer it to U.S.-based customers, where the liability rules make the market particularly tough. ($1 = 0.7821 euros)

(Reporting by Joern Poltz; Writing by Jonathan Gould; Editing by David Holmes)

The tally for "Lone Ranger," which included receipts starting on Tuesday night through Thursday's U.S. Independence Day holiday, put the film on pace to miss, by a long haul, industry forecasts for the holiday period.

The film about the masked man who fights injustice was likely to finish with about $45 million at domestic theaters through Sunday, Disney said. That was far below the $60 million to $70 million predicted ahead of the film's opening.

"If it does end up grossing less than $50 million" by Sunday, "it will most certainly go down as a misfire," said Jeff Bock, a senior analyst for Exhibitor Relations, which tracks movie box office prospects.

Disney spent an estimated $225 million to make "Lone Ranger" and more than $100 million to market the film, an action remake of a 1930s radio show and a 1950s TV series. Armie Hammer plays the masked man who fights injustice with help from Tonto, his Native American companion played by Depp.

The film's poor opening is a black eye for producer Jerry Bruckheimer, director Gore Verbinski and Depp, the trio behind Disney's ultra-successful "Pirates of the Caribbean" series.

"Despicable Me 2," produced for $76 million, pulled in family audiences to dominate ticket sales over one of the year's biggest movie-going periods, the days around the July Fourth holiday. The film also started screening on Tuesday night, with Wednesday its first full day in theaters.

The film from Comcast Corp's Universal Pictures features the voice of Steve Carell, reprising his role as Gru from the 2010 blockbuster "Despicable Me." The sequel gave Universal its biggest Wednesday opening ever and was the third-highest opening day for any animated film.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles and Chris Michaud in New York; Editing by Eric Beech)

(Reuters) - Two-year-old Hannah Warren, the first child to receive a windpipe grown from her own stem cells, has died three months after a rare operation, the Children's Hospital of Illinois in Peoria said.

The child was diagnosed with an uncommon congenital abnormality known as tracheal agenesis, which means her windpipe failed to develop. She could not talk, eat or swallow on her own, according to a website by her parents, Darryl and Young-Mi Warren.

Hannah had a trachea transplant in April but "was unable to overcome additional health issues that were identified as her care progressed," the hospital said in a statement on Monday.

The young girl, who would have turned three in August, died on Saturday, the hospital said.

In 2011 her parents learned that an Italian doctor had implanted an artificial windpipe in a 36-year-old man, but the delicate operation had never been attempted on a child.

Hannah, who was born in Seoul, South Korea, emerged at birth blue in the face and unable to breathe.

Dr. Mark Holterman of Children's Hospital learned of the child's condition while on a business trip to Seoul and worked with the family to fly her to the United States and enlist Dr. Paolo Macchiarini in the ground-breaking surgery.

Without an artificial windpipe, Hannah had no chance to survive, Darryl Warren told CBS News.

The medical team designed a tiny tube made of plastic fibers that acted as a scaffolding. The tube was then soaked in her own stem cells. A nine-hour surgery in April was successful, and the child was able to breathe on her own for the first time, according to the parents' website.

"Her new trachea was performing well, but her lungs went from fairly good, to weak, to poor,'' the parents said.

"Our hearts are broken,'' they said. "She gave us over 34 months of ever-lasting memories."

(Reporting by Chris Francescani; Editing by Barbara Goldberg and Kenneth Barry)

"Small businesses are the engines of economic growth and our best hope for creating new jobs during tough economic times," Velazquez said. "By fostering an environment conducive to entrepreneurship, we can create good paying jobs and lead our nation back toward prosperity."

The credit market for small companies has improved since the financial crisis of 2007 and the ensuing recession.Large banks approved 17.3% of small business loans in May 2013, representing a 7.1% increase from one year ago, in May 2012. However, many companies continue struggling secure credit, especially those pursuing smaller loan sizes. Small Business Administration (SBA) data shows as recently as 5 years ago, small-dollar loans accounted for 80 percent of SBA-guaranteed lending. Today, that figure has dropped to less than 55 percent.

"Startups rely on small loans to get off the ground and create the jobs our economy so badly needs," Velazquez noted. "For our economy to truly recover, the small-loan market needs to be restored."

To create additional options for firms seeking credit, Velazquez has introduced he Strengthening Entrepreneurs' Economic Development (SEED) Act. By establishing a direct lending program at the Small Business Administration (SBA), the legislation would open additional channels of capital to small firms, enabling them to expand and hire.

"Even in good times, finding affordable capital is a challenge for small companies and today it is clear that many financial institutions are not lending to small businesses at the same pace as before the financial crisis," Velazquez noted. "By filling in gaps in the small business credit markets, the SBA can help small companies to enter new markets, develop new products, reinvest in their operations and, ultimately, bring on new employees."

In addition to creating new lending opportunities, Velazquez's second bill would help open the federal marketplace to female entrepreneurs, by creating greater fairness in the procurement process.The Women's Procurement Program Equalization Act would allow agencies to target certain federal contracts to women-owned firms, as is already done for other disadvantaged businesses. Velazquez is the author of the Women's Procurement Program, a recently implemented initiative that has helped federal agencies boost women's participation the federal marketplace.

"With participation in contracting among women-owned enterprises below 4 percent, it is clear that female entrepreneurs are not receiving their fair share of federal projects," Velazquez noted. "By expanding the role of women-owned businesses in the federal market, we can create greater economic opportunity for female entrepreneurs and broaden the pool of companies that do work for the federal government."

Both measures have been referred to the House Committee on Small Business for consideration.

CONTACT:Alex Haurek(202) 225-2361

SOURCE House Committee on Small Business Democrats

The first player taken in the 2009 NFL draft, Stafford already holds franchise single-season records for passing yards, touchdowns, completions and attempts.

Just 25 years old he could become the franchise's all-time passing leader this season if he tosses for at least 2,903 yards, which would surpass Bobby Layne's mark of 15,710.

"I just want to thank the Ford family and the Lions organization for entrusting me to lead this team into the future at least the next five years, hopefully more than that," Stafford told reporters after signing his deal. "I'm just happy that I'm going to be here for another five (years) getting this team going in the right direction.

"I promise you nobody's going to work harder than me to get this team going in the right direction winning games and going to the playoffs multiple years in a row. That's the plan."

While Stafford has demonstrated that he owns one of the NFL's best arms joining Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Dan Marino as the only quarterbacks to throw for 5,000 yards in a single campaign, he has yet to demonstrate he can take the Lions to the next level after going 4-12 last season.

Stafford threw for 41 touchdown passes and 5,038 yards in 2011, but took a step backwards last year, throwing for just 20 touchdowns while being intercepted 17 times.

Lions president Tom Lewand, however, is convinced Stafford is the franchise quarterback the team has long coveted.

"He (Stafford) has that work ethic, he's got the personality, he's got the leadership characteristics," said Lewand. "Those are the kinds of things that make him the worker that he is. He cares passionately about this football team, about his teammates, about winning, and he's come to care as passionately about this community."

(Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto, editing by Gene Cherry)

NEW YORKIts unclear if New Yorkers will be willing to grant Eliot Spitzer the political redemption he is seeking five years after a prostitution scandal forced him from office. But the former governors surprise announcement that hell run for New York City comptroller could potentially boost at least one candidate on the ballot this fall: mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn.

Quinn, who is speaker of the City Council, had been the frontrunner to replace Mayor Michael Bloomberg in November, but she has seen heramid a last-minute bid by former Rep. Anthony Weiner, who, like Spitzer, has asked the public for a second chance after a sexting scandal forced him out of Congress.

For weeks, Quinn has danced around the question of whether Weiners lapse should be an issue in the race--even as polls show it is one of his clear political liabilities. But Spitzers surprise entrance back into the political arena has apparently given Quinn the pass she was looking for to bring up Weiners personal drama and imply that it disqualifies him to be the citys top elected leader.

Twice in the last two days, Quinn has linked Weiner with Spitzermost recently in a Tuesday afternoon news conference at City Hall, where, standing with several female City Council members, she linked Weiner to Spitzer and argued that neither man has merited another chance.

Running for office is really serious and important, and I, as much as anybody else, believe in second chances. None of us are perfect. But in every way, particularly in elected life, you need to earn a second chance, Quinn told reporters. So the question is what have Anthony Weiner and Eliot Spitzer done to earn that second chance? What have they done with their time since their fall from grace that would earn this second chance? I would say not very much.

Asked what she believed they could have done, Quinn replied that it was about how you spend your time both in elected office and in your time since your fall from grace.

Have you been engaged in efforts to make peoples lives better? Have you been of service to the city? When you were in elected office, did you pass legislation that helped people? Quinn said. Did you deliver in real ways that made peoples lives better? Thats the question. And I dont think the record before or after shows that.

A spokeswoman for Weiner did not respond to a request for comment.

But Quinn has tried to have it both ways, suggesting that debate over Weiners personal shortcomings was less important than talking about the future of New York City which she described as the key issue of the mayoral race.

Yet at the same time, her press conference was clearly aimed at sending the message that shes the candidate for womenespecially women who remain incensed at what Weiner and Spitzer did. Again and again, Quinn beamed as her female City Council colleagues came forward to announce they were supporting her campaign, in part, because of how much she had done for women in the cityan issue the mayoral hopeful herself raised when speaking to reporters and later in a fundraising email to supporters, in which her campaign cited Spitzer and Weiner and urged women to get behind Quinn's campaign.

Women deserve elected officials who have dedicated their lives to serving them, making their lives better, who have conducted themselves in honest selfless ways, Quinn declared. So I go back to my point before, what have these two men done since their fall from grace to make it clear to womenand men, for that matter-- that their selfish dishonest ways are behind them?

Her record, Quinn insisted, was unmatched upon her mayoral rivals. And as she ticked off the bills she had helped pass in the City Councilincluding bills protecting abortion rights and efforts to curb domestic violenceher female colleagues cheered.

Anthony Weiner in Congress passed one bill at the request of a campaign supporter, Quinn said. Thats not delivering results for New Yorkers. My record is delivering results.

At a school honors event for our daughter for which most of the attendees dressed for the occasion, he arrived in dirty shorts and a T-shirt. I sat next to him to be polite, until I realized he also smelled awful. When I tried to excuse myself saying I needed a "better seat for my camera," he got up, too! It was an unpleasant two hours. I felt bad for the others in our vicinity.

I have tried to suggest that he may suffer from depression in the past, but he denies it. Is there anything I can say that won't be resented (with him possibly showing up even more disheveled the next time just out of spite)? -- UNPLEASANT SITUATION, GETTYSBURG, PA.

DEAR UNPLEASANT SITUATION: While you may have ended your marriage 15 years ago, it doesn't appear you have truly divorced yourself from your ex. Rather than having pussy-footed around the reason you wanted to change your seat, you should have told him it was because he smelled like a goat and showed he lacked enough respect for those around him and his daughter to shower and put on clean clothes.

He may -- or may not -- suffer from depression. Because he denies it, there is no way you can force him into treatment. You are no longer responsible for his attire or his welfare.

Because you're concerned that he may show up looking more disheveled "out of spite," you have my permission to distance yourself if it happens. And if your daughter is embarrassed by his attire, she has every right to talk to her father about it.

DEAR ABBY: I'm a small-business owner. I have an educational supply and toy store. Business has been pretty good, even through the hard times.

My problem is my customers' children are about to put me out of business. They are out of control. They climb on shelving, open products, tear things apart and throw screaming tantrums.

Their parents let them run through the store like it's a playground. I have signs posted at the entrance and around the store reminding parents to attend to their children.

We have lost a lot of inventory due to these brats, and my time is consumed trying to keep them in line instead of working with my customers. I don't go to their homes and wreck them. I wish they'd show the same respect for my business. Thanks for any advice you can offer. -- HAD IT WITH OVERINDULGED KIDS

DEAR HAD IT: If possible, designate a small area of your store where kids can go to play while their parents are shopping. Also, post a sign at the cash register that reads: "Customers Will Be Charged for Broken or Damaged Items."

The problem you are experiencing is one that is shared by many other retailers. If any of them are reading this column, I'd love to know how they resolved this problem.

DEAR ABBY: Since my mother passed away, I feel awkward when my parents' anniversary comes up. I don't want to ignore this important date for my father (we are very close), but I don't feel saying "Happy Anniversary" is appropriate either. What do you suggest? -- REMEMBERING IN ORANGE COUNTY, CALIF.

DEAR REMEMBERING: Your father already knows what the date means. Pick up the phone, say, "Dad, I'm thinking about you and I love you," and if he lives close by, invite him to dinner if he doesn't have plans.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

For everything you need to know about wedding planning, order "How to Have a Lovely Wedding." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Wedding Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

LAMPEDUSA, Italy (Reuters) - Pope Francis celebrated mass on the tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa on Monday to commemorate thousands of migrants who have died crossing the sea from North Africa, underlining his drive to put the poor at the heart of his papacy.

The choice of Lampedusa for his first official trip outside Rome was highly symbolic for the pontiff, who said news reports of the deaths of desperate people trying to reach a better life that had been like "a thorn in the heart".

Thousands of islanders waving caps and banners in the Vatican's yellow colors welcomed Francis at the fishing port where he arrived aboard a coastguard vessel accompanied by a flotilla of fishing boats and cast a wreath into the water.

He spoke to young African migrants before celebrating mass in a sports field that served as a reception center for tens of thousands of mainly Muslim migrants who fled Arab Spring unrest in North Africa in 2011, greatly increasing an exodus that has gone on for years.

His trip came at the start of the summer months when the island, one of the main points of entry into the European Union and just 113 km (70 miles) from Tunisia, sees a steady flow of rickety and unsafe boats arriving on its shores.

He saluted the migrants, many of whom are preparing to fast during Ramadan, and thanked the people of Lampedusa for taking them in and setting an example of solidarity to a selfish society sliding into "the globalization of indifference".

"We have become used to other people's suffering, it doesn't concern us, it doesn't interest us, it's none of our business!" he said during his homily from an altar built from an old fishing boat painted in Italy's red, green and white colors.

With the Church struggling to get to grips with financial shenanigans at the Vatican bank and memories of the pedophile priests scandal still fresh, the visit to Lampedusa was an opportunity to turn away from internal upheaval.

He had harsh words for people smugglers who he said profited from the misery of others as well and asked pardon for "those, whose decisions at a global level have created the conditions which have led us to this drama".

During the mass he used a wooden chalice carved from the wood of a migrant vessel by a local carpenter.

THOUSANDS ARRIVING

At the height of migrant influx in 2011, when over 62,000 arrived in Italy, dozens of boats carrying hundreds and even thousands of people were arriving in Lampedusa every day and although the numbers have declined, arrivals have continued.

Shortly before the pope arrived, a boat carrying 165 migrants from Mali pulled into port, while on Sunday, 120 people, including four pregnant women, were rescued at sea after the motors in their boat broke down 7 miles off the coast.

According to U.N. figures, almost 8,000 migrants and asylum seekers landed on the coasts of southern Italy in the first half of the year, the vast majority of them from North Africa, mainly Libya, which has been in turmoil since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

So far, the United Nations said 40 people were known to have died crossing from Tunisia to Italy this year, down from 2012 when almost 500 were reported dead or missing. The improvement follows better coordination between Italy and nearby Malta.

The islanders have sometimes seen their home transformed into a refugee center, with improvised campsites dotting the hills above the port but they have largely welcomed the migrants and there have been few tensions or problems.

Normally a sleepy island that lives mainly from tourism and fishing, Lampedusa's normal population of some 5,000 has been outnumbered on several occasions by migrants waiting at the portside or in the main reception center to be transferred to Sicily and mainland Italy.

Reminders of the crisis are everywhere on the island, notably in the portside scrapyard of old fishing boats, normally chosen by migrant smugglers in the knowledge that they would have only one voyage to make.

(Writing By James Mackenzie; Editing by Barry Moody and Alison Williams)