* Wins award for 4th time, seals place among the game's greats (Adds quotes, details)

May 5 (Reuters) - Miami Heat forward LeBron James was named the National Basketball Association's Most Valuable Player for the 2012-13 season on Sunday.

James received 120 first-place votes from the panel of 121 sports writers and broadcasters selected to choose the award. Oklahoma's Kevin Durant finished second overall and the New York Knicks' Carmelo Anthony, who received the other first-place vote, placed third.

It was the fourth time in five years that the 28-year-old James had won the game's most prestigious individual award, elevating him among the sport's greatest players.

"When people ask me, I tell them I just try to be the best player on the court every night I step on the floor," James said.

Only four other players - Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain - have won the trophy at least four times.

Abdul-Jabbar holds the record for six MVP wins, one ahead of Jordan and Russell and two in front of Chamberlain and now James.

James, who twice won the award with the Cleveland Cavaliers before moving to Miami, averaged 26.8 points, 8.0 rebounds and 7.3 assists during the 2012-13 regular season, where the Heat finished with the best record in the NBA.

James was the only player in the NBA to lead his team in all three categories during the season.

He shot a career-high from the field (.565) and from three-point range (.406). He produced a record streak of six straight games with at least 30 points and a .600-or-better field goal percentage.

He received his award at a special presentation on Sunday, attended by his team mates, family and friends, and broadcast live on national television.

In an emotional and heartfelt acceptance speech, James extended his thanks to everyone who had supported him both as a person and as a player.

He turned to his team mates, who were wearing shorts and t-shirts, and said they deserved the award as much as he did,

"Nothing I receive individually is possible without those 14 guys, and the sacrifices they make," he said.

"This really doesn't mean much to me. I'm humbled and I'm happy about it but I wish it was 15 of these up here because what a great group of guys that allows me to be the MVP." (Reporting by Julian Linden in New York; Editing by Gene Cherry)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Dow and S&P 500 advanced to all-time closing highs on Friday, with major indexes jumping 1 percent after an unexpectedly strong April jobs report eased concerns about an economic slowdown.

The S&P closed above 1,600 and the Dow briefly traded above 15,000 for the first time as stocks extended this year's rally. Bellwether companies, including Chevron Corp , Boeing Coand Johnson & Johnson , reached 52-week highs.

The Russell 2000stock index of mid- and small cap companies also hit a record, confirming the broadness of the rally. About 70 percent of stocks on both the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq ended in positive territory.

Non-farm payrolls rose by 165,000 last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.5 percent, a four-year low, from 7.6 percent, the government said. In addition, hiring was much stronger than previously thought in February and March.

Investors welcomed the gains after weeks of disappointing data, including tepid manufacturing reports, that suggested the economic recovery was losing steam.

"We were all wringing our hands over the past month but this alleviates fears about a sharp spring slowdown," said Brad Sorensen, director of market and sector analysis at Charles Schwab in Denver.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 140.61 points, or 0.95 percent, at 14,972.19. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 16.63 points, or 1.04 percent, at 1,614.22. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 38.01 points, or 1.14 percent, at 3,378.63.

Both the Dow and S&P ended at all-time closing highs. For the week, the Dow rose 1.8, the S&P gained 2 percent and the Nasdaq rose 3 percent in its biggest weekly climb since the first week of the year.

Sectors tied to the pace of economic growth and to commodity prices were among the strongest gainers. U.S. Steel Corp rose 6.3 percent to $18.14 while WPX Energy Incwas up 5 percent to $16.56. U.S. crude oil futures rose 1.5 percent to settle at $95.43 a barrel.

"Commodity stocks are outperforming with the jobs number alleviating fears over a slowdown," said Sorensen. "The group has pulled back over the past months and they got a bit overdone. There are still really good growth opportunities there."

Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold Incclosed up 2.6 percent at $31.13, after prices of copper posted the biggest daily gain since late October 2011.

General Electric , up 1.1 percent at $22.57, led gains among industrials after it won approval to buy oilfield pump maker Lufkin Industriesfor about $3 billion. The deal will allow GE to sharply increase its presence in the market to extract oil and natural gas from shale.

Gilead Sciencesshares rose 5.7 percent to $55.15 after reaching a record high of $56.35. The world's largest maker of branded HIV drugs reported a big rise in quarterly profit late on Thursday.

LinkedIn Corpshares fell 13 percent to $175.59 a day after the social network reported disappointing revenue forecasts.

Of the 404 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 68.3 percent have beaten earnings expectations, but only 46.3 percent have reported revenue above expectations. Over the past four quarters, 67 percent of companies beat on earnings and 52 percent beat revenue estimates.

In other economic reports on Friday, U.S. factory orders fell sharply in March while the pace of growth in the vast U.S. services sector eased in April to the slowest pace in nine months.

About 6.33 billion shares changing hands on the New York Stock Exchange, the Nasdaq and NYSE MKT, below the daily average so far this year of about 6.36 billion shares.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry and Nick Zieminski)

Two senior officials from Nangarhar province where the clash took place told Reuters that fighting resumed after Pakistani troops attempted to repair a gate damaged in the previous clash.

The clash on Thursday, in the border district of Goshta, drew nationwide condemnation in Afghanistan, and saw protests in the east and in the capital, Kabul.

(Reporting by Rafiq Sherzad; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Amazon, which opened its Kindle e-book store in China in December, launched its Android app store over the weekend for China users to download both free and paid apps, Amazon China spokesman Billy Huang said on Monday.

Google's official app store only offers free apps in China. Google China declined to comment for this story. Android is Google's open source mobile operating system.

Amazon's app store must compete with hundreds of local rivals offering paid and free apps, some of them pirated, and users often worry about malware when downloading from these sites.

Amazon is the first Western technology company to offer a platform for paid Android apps in China and Huang said the company was working with software developers to increase the number of apps on offer.

Amazon China cornered less than three percent of China's booming 169 billion yuan ($27 billion) business-to-consumer e-commerce market in the fourth quarter last year.

The launch of the app store and the Kindle e-book store in China paves the way for Amazon to offer a range of devices including the standard Kindle e-reader and the Kindle Fire.

Huang declined to comment on the Kindle's release date in China. ($1 = 6.1556 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; editing by Miral Fahmy)

The poll, conducted in the wake of the allegations, found that Cain’s popularity among registered Republicans declined by 9 points since the days before the allegations of the scandal were published. Among Republicans polled last week, on October 27 and 28, 66 percent said they had a favorable opinion of Cain. But just 57 percent of those polled on November 4 and 5 said they had a favorable opinion of the former CEO of Godfather’s Pizza.

The drop off comes primarily from Cain’s less enthusiastic supporters. The percentage of Republicans who say they hold a ‘very favorable’ opinion of him has dropped by only 3 percentage points. The percentage of voters who say they hold a ‘somewhat favorable’ view of him has dropped by 6 points.

The sexual harassment allegations seem unlikely to go away: they have been widely reported, and 88 percent of Republicans say they have heard of them, as have 81 percent of Democrats and 64 percent of independents.

That said, Republicans remain somewhat uncertain on the whether or not there is any truth to the allegations. Thirty-two percent say they think it is likely that the allegations are true, while 27 percent they are likely untrue. Very few — 7 percent — say they strongly believe the allegations are true, and just 10 percent say they strongly believe the allegations are untrue. Twenty-four percent say they don’t know. Among independents who have an opinion, most believe the allegations to be likely true. However, over half of independents express no opinion.

Almost half of Republicans say the reported allegations have no bearing on how they feel about Cain. But 35 percent say it makes them feel less favorably about him, while just 14 percent say it improves their opinion of him.

The results suggest that while many Republicans are still giving Cain the benefit of the doubt, the longer the story stays in the news, the worse things will get for him.

An ABC/Washington Post poll conducted in the first three days after the story broke on Monday October 31 saw little change in Cain’s popularity. Most Republicans surveyed said the allegations were not serious, and Cain ran within 2 points of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney on the ballot.

Moreover, the Cain campaign reported a large outpouring of donations to the campaign in the days following the allegations, as many conservatives stood by him, calling the allegations a “high tech lynching.”

But the continuing decline suggests that the allegations are sinking into voters’ consciousness. The longer the story stays in the news and the more details that emerge, the more Cain is likely to see his support erode.

The Ipsos poll was conducted from November 4 to November 5, and surveyed 836 registered voters, including 343 Republicans.

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In an unusually short and good natured address, Mugabe told a capacity crowd of 60,000 at Harare's main sports stadium that Zimbabweans have an obligation to "uphold and promote peace before, during and after" upcoming polls that would end a shaky coalition with the former opposition.

"Go and vote your own way. No one should force you to vote for me," Mugabe said, speaking in the local Shona language during celebrations marking 33 years of independence from colonial rule.

Mugabe said he welcomes recent efforts by Western nations to reopen dialogue with Zimbabwe after years of isolation to protest political violence, rights abuses and alleged vote rigging.But Western leaders must let the nation's people "determine our own destiny" and defend the country's independence without interference, he said.

"Interference in our affairs will never be accepted," he said, while calling on Zimbabweans to conduct themselves honorably during the elections, which could be held anywhere from late June to September.

"We must reflect on the need for full commitment to Zimbabwe and gear ourselves toward holding peaceful elections this year. Please don't shame us. The world is watching," Mugabe said.

In past electioneering, Mugabe has been widely accused of fanning violence and intimidation against his political opponents by strident remarks that they mostly did not contribute to the fight for independence and were puppets of his Western critics. He frequently brandished his party's clenched fist salute and once famously declared: "See this fist, it can smash your face."

Mugabe insists he will not allow Western election observer delegations to monitor the new polls. Only regional African monitors will be accredited to oversee voting. In 2002, Mugabe expelled a European Union election observer mission after it recorded violence and irregularities in that year's national poll.

In Thursday's speech, he said Zimbabweans shunned "hate and violence" in a referendum on a new constitution in March. In that ballot, 95 percent of voters accepted the constitution that calls for strengthened human rights, a return to the rule of law and an end to impunity enjoyed by Mugabe militants since the often violent seizures of thousands of white owned farms began in 2000.

Western diplomats who have stayed away from several state functions in the past after Mugabe launched stinging attacks on their nations were at Thursday's celebrations. The festivities in this former British colony featured military parades and martial arts displays, local music bands and a soccer match.

Mugabe said foreign critics now "grudgingly" acknowledge the path the nation has chosen for itself.

After the last violent and disputed elections in 2008, regional leaders forged a coalition between Mugabe and Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, the former opposition leader.

Mugabe has called for new polls by the end of June but Tsvangirai says that's too soon and more time is needed to put in place democratic reforms called for in the new constitution and demanded by regional mediators. He has proposed mid-September as the earliest possible time for the watershed vote.

------

Associated Press reporter Gillian Gotora in Harare contributed to this report

International Business Machines Corp said on Thursday its quarterly non-GAAP income rose 3 percent to $3.4 billion, or $3.00, compared with analyst estimates of $3.05 a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

The deterioration in Yen currency since mid-January reduced EPS by $0.07, a spokesman said.

Quarterly revenue dropped 5 percent to $23.4 billion compared with estimates of $24.6 billion. Revenues fell 3 percent adjusted for currency.

In addition, a number of contracts did not close as expected in the first quarter and have moved into the second quarter, the company said.

"We had solid profit performance in January, but as the quarter ended, hundreds of millions of dollars of very profitable software and systems E main frame deals fell short of the goal line," said Mark Loughridge, IBM's chief financial officer.

"This impacted the first quarter close, but the rollover of these deals positions us for a strong start in our software and main frame business in the second quarter."

Some analysts were unhappy with the results and IBM shares lost 3.4 percent from a closing price of $207.15 in extended trading following results.

"It's disappointing results," said ISI group analyst Brian Marshall.

"Clearly the business model is somewhat over-optimized. It's the first quarter in many years they did not grow EPS double digits year-over-year."

He added that investors were very focused on that double-digit earnings growth.

(Reporting by Nicola Leske.; Additional reporting by Jennifer Saba. Editing by Andre Grenon)

His humor and down-to-earth manner captivated those filling St. Peter's Square in Rome to overflowing, and he worked the crowd in a way that had to give his security staff palpitations. Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno, in the square himself, estimated the crowd's size at 300,000.

"Brothers and sisters, 'Buon giorno,'" Francis said in Italian in his first welcome from the window of the papal residence, setting an informal tone that has become the defining spirit of his young papacy.

Earlier Sunday, he made an impromptu appearance before the public from a side gate of the Vatican that startled passers-by and prompted cheers as he shook hands and kissed babies. Francis had just finished celebrating Mass and delivering a six-minute homily brief by church standards in the Vatican's tiny parish church, St. Anna, when he walked outside to greet parishioners one by one, just as an ordinary pastor does after weekly services.

Francis started speaking at the window even before the stroke of noon the appointed time for the weekly papal address.The windows of the papal study in the Apostolic Palace were opened for the first time since Francis' predecessor, Benedict XVI, gave his last Sunday blessing on Feb. 24. Four days later, Benedict went into retirement, the first pontiff to do so in nearly 600 years.

Francis, the first pope from Latin America, was elected Wednesday and has been staying in a hotel on the Vatican's premises until the papal apartment is ready.

"The pope is down-to-earth. He is a people person and it is amazing," said Emanuel Anatsui from Britain. "He is going to do wonderfully for the church."

After Mass, Francis again put his security detail to the test as he waded into an intersection just outside St. Anna's Gate. Francis stepped up to the crowd, grasping outstretched hands. The atmosphere was so casual that several people even gripped Francis on the shoulder.

"Francesco! Francesco!" children shouted his name in Italian. As he patted one little boy on the head, he asked "Are you a good boy?" and the child nodded.

"Are you sure?" the pope quipped.

At one point he glanced at his watch and turned to an aide as if to ask "How much time do I have?"

The pope then ducked back inside the Vatican's boundaries to dash upstairs for the address to St. Peter's Square.

Often abandoning the prepared text in his hand, Francis told the crowd that he wanted to talk about mercy, saying he was inspired by a book about forgiveness that he was reading. Citing the author, an elderly German cardinal, and praising him as a "top-notch" theologian, Francis quipped: "Don't think I'm making publicity for my cardinals' books!" drawing a roar of laughter from the crowd.

Francis said mercy can "change the world" and make it "less cold and more just."

He spoke only in Italian ending with "Buon pranzo" (Have a good lunch) a wish that triggered nods of approval from the crowd in Rome, where a leisurely Sunday family lunch is a cherished tradition.

But Francis did tweet in English and other languages, saying: "Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me.'"

Past pontiffs have used the Sunday window greetings to offer brief reflections and wishes in several languages.

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said Francis would likely stick with Italian, a language he's comfortable with for spontaneous remarks. Lombardi left open the possibility the 76-year-old pope would use other languages in future public appearances.

During his window speech, Francis also talked about of his family's roots in Italy's northwestern Piedmont region. He told the crowd that by naming himself as pope after St. Francis of Assisi, an Italian patron saint, he was "strengthening my spiritual tie with this land, where, as you know, my family has its origins."

The crowd was cheering wildly when Francis appeared at the window, but fell into rapt silence when he began to speak. Some people's eyes welled up. Many people waved the blue-and-white flag of Argentina, the pope's homeland. Some people held their children aloft or on their shoulders to get a better look.

"We are so proud. He is Argentine, but also belongs to the rest of the world," said Ivana Cabello, 23, of Argentina.

Angela Carreon, a 41-year-old Rome resident originally from the Philippines, ventured that Francis "looks like John Paul II. "

"I hope he is like him," she said. "He has a heart."

The globe-trotting Polish-born John Paul II, who died in 2005, loved to charm the crowds.

Several hundred extra traffic police were deployed Sunday to control crowds and vehicles for Francis' first window speech as well as the annual Rome marathon. Bus routes were rerouted and many streets were closed off to channel the curious and the faithful up the main boulevard from the Tiber river to St. Peter's Square.

Giant video screens were set up so the huge crowd could get a close look at Francis, and dozens of medical teams were on hand for any emergencies. In the last hour before noon, a large backup formed of people trying to squeeze through three openings in the fence ringing the front of the square. But by the time Francis appeared, all had calmly found a viewing spot.

Among Francis' first formal meetings is an appointment Monday with Argentine President Cristina Fernandez. That will provide an opportunity to see if the new pope's easygoing manner still holds the two have been on opposite sides for many years. As Buenos Aires archbishop, Francis had lobbied hard against the government's move to legalize gay marriage and make contraceptives available for free.

On Tuesday, Fernandez will join other world leaders and senior international envoys, including U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and the president of Jesuit-run Georgetown University, for Francis' formal installation as pope.

__

Associated Press writers Daniela Petroff and Karl Ritter contributed to this report.

* Sara Volz was awarded the top prize for her research, which included artificial selection to establish populations of algae cells with high oil content that can be used as economically feasible biofuel.

* Volz's project was selected out of an initial 1,712 entries from high school seniors. The 300 semifinalists were announced in January and 40 of those individuals were chosen as finalists and invited to Washington, the foundation stated.

* Volz established a home lab underneath her loft bed and sleeps on the same light cycle as her algae, the foundation reported.

* According to the, Volz did some of her research with the help of Colorado State University and the Air Force Academy but found that it was more practical to keep all of her research in a single site: the same room where she slept.

* Thereported that the Cheyenne Mountain High School senior first became interested in science when, as a kindergarten student, she did a project to discover which liquid froze faster -- water, orange juice or milk.

* Volz plans to attend Massachusetts Institute of Technology, studying biochemistry, the Gazette reported.

*is field captain of her school's Science Olympiad team, captain of the Science Bowl team and debate captain of the speech and debate team. She also loves musical theater and has sung and acted in many plays.

* Volz stated that her long-term goal is to understand the universe.

* Elizabeth Marincola, the president of the competition co-sponsor, Society for Science & the Public, stated, "Society for Science & the Public is proud to join Intel in congratulating Sara Volz for her scientific accomplishments. Sara's work demonstrates how a young person who is fascinated by science, which she has been since a kindergarten science fair, can work with a few sophisticated resources and have a real impact on society."

* Intel assumed sponsorship of the Science Talent Search 15 years ago and has increased the annual awards by more than $1 million. This year, $1.25 million was awarded in the competition, the foundation stated.

* Past Science Talent Search winners have gone on to win seven Nobel Prizes, two Fields Medals, five National Medals of Science, 11 MacArthur Foundation Fellowships and even an Academy Award for Best Actress, the foundation stated.

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