Now, enter the goat cafe, which houses a pair of friendly goats for customers to pet, play with and even take for walks through Tokyo's concrete jungle.

Rena Kawaguchi and her staff brought the animals - named Sakura and Chocolat, or Cherry and Chocolate - three years ago, hoping to attract a new breed of animal-loving customers and spice up flagging weekend business.

"Back then animal cafes were booming, places where you could play with cats or dogs," Kawaguchi said. "But we reckoned a normal animal like that wouldn't have the wow factor of a goat."

Customers can pet the goats in their pen while drinking a coffee, or book a slot to take them for a walk through the crowded area surrounding Shibuya station, a hub for commuters and Tokyo's trend-conscious youth.

"When you live in the city like I do, places where you can meet animals are so far away and you rarely get the time to go there," said Kotaro Nakazato, a 21-year-old university student.

"Having them nearby like this makes it easy to commune with nature."

Keeping the goats has its challenges. Staff have to muck out their pen between serving customers, and the goats are fed special protein-rich pills to prevent foul-smelling droppings.

With the goats proving a hit, Kawaguchi says she's got even bigger plans. An elephant cafe is at the top of her list, although it was not clear what her pen-cleaning staff thought of the prospect.

(Reporting by Ruairidh Villar; Writing by Elaine Lies; Editing by Paul Tait)

TORONTO (Reuters) - Canada's main stock index rose on Friday as gains in energy and financial stocks offset weaker materials shares, with the U.S. Federal Reserve's support for monetary stimulus putting the index on track to post its biggest weekly gain in 19 months.

Investors also processed mixed U.S. earnings reports, with more robust results from top banks overshadowing a profit warning from UPS.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Wednesday that the U.S. central bank must keep a stimulative monetary policy in place due to weak to inflation levels and a high unemployment rate.

That sparked a rally in global equity markets and caused a 1.5 percent jump in Toronto stocks on Thursday.

"We're really seeing some positive follow-through from the response yesterday to Bernanke's comments," said Michael Sprung, president of Sprung Investment Management.

"It's a ying-yang scenario," he added. "If they have to hold interest rates down, it's signaling that the recovery is not strong enough to be self-sufficient."

"But investors are taking the view that as long as interest rates are held down, the recovery can continue to gather momentum," Sprung said.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite indexwas up 16.93 points, or 0.14 percent, at 12,510.19, after reaching and 12,519.65, its highest since June 5.

Six of the 10 main sectors on the index were higher.

Energy shares were up slightly, helped by a rise in the price of oil.

Financials, the index's most heavily weighted sector, gained 0.2 percent.

Royal Bank of Canada , the country's biggest lender, added 0.3 percent to C$61.80.

In company news, Bank of Nova Scotiawithdrew its application to acquire a nearly 20 percent stake in Bank of Guangzhou after Chinese authorities decided against proceeding with the C$719 million ($691.28 million) deal. Shares of Scotiabank gained 0.4 percent to C$57.16.

But the materials group, which includes mining stocks, gave back 1 percent. A lower bullion price took gold producers down 1.5 percent.

Barrick Gold Corpfell 1.4 percent to C$15.63, and Goldcorp was down 1.4 percent, at C$26.83.

"People are worried any further declines in commodity prices could have an effect on those companies and industries," Sprung said.

The valuations of material stocks are becoming more appealing, he added. Investors need to "find the ones that have the financial wherewithal to survive a prolonged period of low prices."

(Editing by W Simon)

Pittsburgh, Syracuse and Notre Dame became members of the ACC at 12:01 ET Monday, giving the conference 15 members.

To celebrate the league's northern expansion, Commissioner John Swofford, North Carolina basketball coach Roy Williams, Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher and Virginia Tech football coach Frank Beamer are among the ACC dignitaries scheduled to be in New York City on Monday afternoon. After holding a news conference at the NASDAQ stock exchange in Times Square, Swofford and company will take part in the closing bell ceremony.

July 1 is moving day for schools switching conferences all over the country, including those relocating to the newly named American Athletic Conference.

The beginning of the American means the end of the Big East football after 31 years and the beginning of the new Big East. The new basketball-centric conference comprised mostly of the Catholic schools that didn't have FBS football programs in the old Big East opens for business Monday as well.

All this is a culmination of sorts of shuffling that began the weekend of Sept. 17, 2010. Amid speculation about the Big 12 falling apart, news broke that the ACC had invited Pittsburgh and Syracuse to leave the Big East. The move sent the Big East into a spiral that ultimately tore it apart.

Meanwhile, the ACC has emerged stronger than ever its members having agreed earlier this year to hand over media rights to the league through the 2026-27 school year and looking to gain footing in the largest media market in the country.

The ACC will send a team to the Pinstripe Bowl at Yankee Stadium for six years, starting in 2014. Part of the deal will be ACC signage at Yankee Stadium year-round. Swofford has openly talked about the possibility of playing the ACC men's basketball tournament in the New York area, maybe Madison Square Garden or the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Syracuse has been branding itself as New York's college team for several years, and Notre Dame has a huge following in the Big Apple, despite being located about 700 miles away in South Bend, Ind. The Fighting Irish, which agreed to leave the Big East last fall, are joining the ACC for all sports except football and hockey.

"We want to make sure that we're progressive and creative and doing things that take advantage of the opportunities that come with that," Swofford said last week after the Pinstripe Bowl announcement in the Bronx. "In a lot of ways, it's about meshing the history and tradition of the league and its past, with a progressive approach to what the league can be in the future based on our footprint."

The league that Syracuse, Pittsburgh and Notre Dame leave behind bears only some resemblance to the one they had been part of for decades.

The Big East officially becomes the American Athletic Conference on Monday, too, with Central Florida, Memphis, SMU and Houston joining.

The American's Twitter feed posted a link to its new website Sunday night with a message to visitors that ended with, "We are Proudly American. And we can't wait to get started."

Though it will get started with two lame duck members. Rutgers will leave for the Big Ten in 2014 and Louisville will be the latest departure to the ACC after this season, too. Louisville replaces Maryland, which will head to the Big Ten along with Rutgers.

As for the new Big East, it will look a lot like the old pre-football Big East: Villanova, Georgetown, Providence, Seton Hall, St. John's, DePaul, Marquette, Butler, Creighton and Xavier.

Legislator Odalis Monzon said the proposal would "prohibit all types of baby bottles" as a way to improve children's health.

"We want to increase the love (between mother and child) because this has been lost as a result of these transnational companies selling formula," Monzon said on state television on Thursday.

She said the Law for the Promotion and Support for Breast-Feeding, passed in 2007, did not establish any sanctions for using formula. However, she did not say what the sanctions might be if the proposed change to prohibit bottle feeding is passed by Congress, where the Socialist Party has a majority.

Monzon said, however, that exceptions would be allowed, such as in the case of the death of a mother, or for women with limited breast milk production, as determined by the health ministry.

She did not respond to phone calls seeking details, including how long babies would be breast-fed.

Such legislation would likely raise the ire of opposition sympathizers who say the government of the late President Hugo Chavez excessively extended the reach of the state into the lives of private citizens.

"People are free to feed their children as they see fit," said Ingrid Rivero, a 27-year-old mother in Caracas. "My daughter stopped breast feeding after seven months. What can I do? Force her?"

Chavez ally Nicolas Maduro, who was elected in April after his mentor's death from cancer, has vowed to extend his predecessor's 14-year self-styled revolution that enjoyed strong support among the country's poor.

(Reporting by Brian Ellsworth and Eyanir Chinea; Editing by Daniel Wallis and Jackie Frank)

Dubbed "Sony Smash Bros." by fans, after Nintendo's crossover brawler, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale features characters from Sony PlayStation games fighting each other in stages which mix their own titles. The characters featured include everyone from first-party favorites Nathan Drake (from Uncharted) and Sackboy (from Little Big Planet) to the armored Big Daddy from 2K Games' Bioshock.

None of the game's very few female characters have had their games featured.

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale

BioShock and BioShock 2

Sly Cooper

LittleBigPlanet

The PS Vita and PSP versions of LittleBigPlanet are also on sale, and neither are included with the PS3 games. The PSP version echoes the original platformer, while the PS Vita version is flexible enough to allow for more creative player-made games with touchscreen support. The less-well-received PS3 spinoff, LittleBigPlanet Karting, is the most expensive LBP title at $28 ($19.59 with PlayStation Plus).

Most of the God of War series (not the newest game), the entire inFAMOUS series, the Metal Gear Solid series minus Metal Gear Solid 4, the HD remakes of the PS2 Devil May Cry series, and several Twisted Metal games are all on sale as well.

Jared Spurbeck is an open-source software enthusiast, who uses an Android phone and an Ubuntu laptop PC. He has been writing about technology and electronics since 2008.

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - New Hampshire is set to become the final state in New England to allow medical marijuana after negotiators from the Republican-controlled Senate and Democratic-controlled House agreed Tuesday on a bill backed by Governor Maggie Hassan.

The law would allow up to four marijuana dispensaries to open as soon as 2015. Patients with cancer, HIV, glaucoma and other diseases would be eligible to purchase the drug with state-issued identity cards from a physician or nurse practitioner certifying that they need it to soothe pain.

"Allowing doctors to provide relief to patients through the use of appropriately regulated and dispensed medical marijuana is the compassionate and right policy for the State of New Hampshire," Hassan, a Democrat, said in a statement.

The compromise "addresses the concerns that I have heard and expressed throughout this session, and provides the level of regulation needed for the use of medical marijuana," she added.

Both legislative bodies must vote on the compromise language in the coming weeks, though that is seen as a formality given Hassan's support.

A provision in a version of the bill passed by the New Hampshire House that would have allowed patients to cultivate their own marijuana was stripped from the compromise bill, said Matt Simon, a New Hampshire-based legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project, which supported the bill.

The compromise bill also bars the use of medical marijuana for treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, and limits most caregivers - who can get marijuana prescriptions filled on a patient's behalf - to treating five medical marijuana patients at any one time.

"It's very restrictive in limiting access to only four points of distribution," said Simon. "We may find that's not sufficient access, but it's at least a start"

The move to legalize medical marijuana in New Hampshire advanced after Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, left office in January after eight years. He had repeatedly vetoed medical marijuana bills passed by the legislature. The state, known for a libertarian streak, is unusual in that such measures have repeatedly won support from large numbers of Republicans in the state's legislature.

Nationwide, 19 states plus the District of Columbia have passed medical marijuana laws, according to the pro-legalization National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

(Editing by Scott Malone and Leslie Adler)

(This story corrects seventh paragraph to show caregivers, not medical providers, limited to five medical marijuana patients at one time)

Analysts were hoping to see how BlackBerry's new touchscreen Z10 phone sold for a full quarter in the U.S. market. RIM only said it 6.8 million phones overall versus 7.8 million last year. That includes older models.

RIM's new Blackberry 10 operating system is widely seen as critical to the company's comeback.

Its shares dropped $2.57, or 17.8 percent, to $11.91 in premarket trading.

The Canadian company said Friday that it lost $84 million, or 16 cents a share, in the three months ended June 1 on revenue of $3.1 billion. It lost $518 million, or 99 cents per share, on revenue of $2.8 billion a year ago.

Analysts expected RIM to earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $3.37 billion

That network, now run by the U.S. Energy Department, still oversees the nations nuclear weapons program. But in the 21st century, its charged with researching breakthroughs in other fields, including energy, health care, and telecommunications, that have commercial applications--at a moment when innovative new technologies are potent weapons in the cutthroat competition to secure an advantage in the global economy.

But a  released on Wednesday that combines research from a top liberal think tank, a top conservative think tank, and a top policy shop focused on innovation and technology concludes that while the U.S. national labs remain in the global vanguard of critical research, they are mired in a Cold War-era bureaucracy that hinders them from producing the innovative commercial breakthroughs that could help invigorate the U.S. economy.  

The labs were born out of the single-minded focus on building the atomic bomb. ... Since the end of the Cold War, however, the nation has struggled to develop a new mission for the labs that effectively harnesses their unique capabilities or even justifies their existence, concludes the report, entitled Turning the Page: Reimagining the National Labs in the 21st Century Innovation Economy. Published by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, the report includes authors from the Heritage Foundation and the Center for American Progress. Those groups are generally at opposite ends of the partisan divide in Washington; this marks the first time they have coauthored a proposal on energy issues.

The sad truth is that the institutional management structures that govern the labs have not advanced far beyond the Cold War, and [are] outdated, inflexible and weakly connected to the marketplace, inhibiting U.S. innovation when we need it most, write the reports authors. While the labs have served the public well in the past, the status quo is ill-adapted for the needs of the 21st century. It wastes precious taxpayer dollars and denies society the benefit of scientific advances. Making the need for reform even greater, the United States finds itself at a time when technological and scientific innovation is becoming ever more important to economic success.

Fifty years ago, strategic research at national labs was focused on building a better weapon; the labs goals now include developing technologies such as carbon capture, which could allow coal-fired power plants to generate electricity without carbon pollution, and electric vehicle technology that could allow the nations transportation sector to prosper without depending on oil. 

But those innovative technologies require a far different and more sophisticated kind of deployment than a bomb. In order to give the nation a competitive edge against China and other global economies, the technologies must make it from the labs to the market. The report contends that an outdated management system at the national labs is keeping that from happening.

The reports authors say that a top-down management system, in which all new proposals must be stovepiped from the labs around the country and through to Washington, creates a slow, duplicative, micromanaged process that traps innovative ideas in the lab and prevents partnerships between government researchers and the private companies that could scale up their ideas.

They propose taking key decision-making authorities and moving them from Washington out to the national labs. Most of the national labs are headed by private contractors -- so the proposal will come at a moment of increased scrutiny on government contractors in the wake of Booz Allen Hamilton contractor Edward Snowdens leak of National Security Agency classified material.

Decisions should be made at lower points in the chain of command, said report coauthor Sean Pool, who recently concluded his tenure as science innovation policy analyst at the Center for American Progress. Currently, the labs have to run up the whole bureaucratic chain to the Energy Department for every industry agreement they want to do. It should be that lab managers and researchers and not bureaucrats in Washington make those decisions.

The report also recommends that labs open up their research facilities to private companies, which would pay to use the government resources. In addition, outside companies could hire national labs to perform research in specific areas in which a breakthrough might have commercial applications.

This allows labs to have more impact on the economy, said Jack Spencer, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundations Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies. It creates an environment where the research thats being done in the labs that can have a commercial function -- the companies will be able to pull it out and apply it.

The reforms would require that Congress enact legislation reducing its own and the administrations direct control over how the labs annual budget -- which comes to about $18 billion -- is allocated. Right now, Congress tells [the labs] exactly what they can spend and where. Lets get rid of those restrictions. These are barriers from Congress and the Energy Department to the labs collaborating with industry partners, said Matthew Stepp, an energy policy analyst with the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. Stepp said hes optimistic that even todays partisan Congress may be willing to enact such legislation -- in part because the proposals have come from the chief idea-drivers of each party, think tanks that generally put forth proposals in direct opposition to each other.                                 

Energy policy in particular has been locked in partisan deadlock in Washington recent years. But in the wake of the 2012 election, there are  that the two parties are managing to find agreement on reforming small slices of energy policy, such as energy efficiency and managing nuclear waste. While reforming the national labs management structure wont overhaul U.S. energy policy, it could be another rare point in the energy debate on which both parties might agree.

CHICAGO, June 28 (Reuters) - Ice hockey fans thronged Chicago on Friday to celebrate the Blackhawks' Stanley Cup championship with a parade to a boisterous rally at the lakeside park where President Barack Obama marked his historic election victory in 2008.

A sea of red-clad fans stretched through Grant Park from Lake Michigan, with the gleaming city skyline as the backdrop on a bright summer day. Fans lined the route as the players paraded on double-decker buses from their home arena at the United Center to the rally.

The Blackhawks won their second Stanley Cup in four seasons by defeating the Boston Bruins 4-2 in a best-of-seven series, capping a National Hockey League season shortened by a labor dispute between players and owners.

There was a stepped up police presence at the rally and parade, and fans were discouraged from bringing backpacks and other bulky items after bombs left in backpacks along the crowded route of the Boston Marathon were detonated in April, leaving three people dead and hundreds injured.

A police spokesman said the rally was peaceful with no incidents or arrests reported. The size of the crowd was not immediately known although authorities had said they expected up to two million people.

The Blackhawks are led by a pair of young skating stars - Patrick Kane, 24, a speedy sniper who won the Most Valuable Player award in the championship series, and Jonathan Toews, 25, the skilled and steady team captain.

Fans chanted "M-V-P" and "Kaner" as a smiling Kane briefly spoke to the crowd. The Buffalo, New York native, who likes to wear his hair in a mullet and has been reprimanded by team management in the past for offseason partying, thanked the fans for "making hockey fun."

He then presented a team award to goalie Corey Crawford, who Kane said was the real MVP of the Stanley Cup playoffs. Crawford was not even the team's starting goalie for part of the season.

FRANCHISE REVIVAL

Only six years ago the Blackhawks franchise, one of the six founding members of the NHL, was floundering with a losing record, poor home attendance and little exposure on television.

In 2007, the death of longtime Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz - reviled in Chicago as a penny-pincher who refused to broadcast the team's games on local television - opened the way for his son Rocky Wirtz to revive the franchise.

The team drafted Kane and Toews, who immediately shined. The Blackhawks gradually improved and won the 2010 Stanley Cup, defeating the Philadelphia Flyers.

Smoking a cigar and dressed in a red T-shirt emblazoned with "2013 Stanley Cup Champions," fan Brad Smeele, 25, said he did not even know the rules of hockey well until two years ago when he started watching the Blackhawks regularly with a friend.

"They are fun to watch. They are energetic. The fans are energetic. Everybody is into it now," said Smeele, who took a train to the parade from the suburbs, where he is a high school teacher and football coach.

The team swept through the regular season, setting an NHL record of 24 regular season games without a regulation loss to start the year, but very nearly bombed out of the playoffs by falling behind the rival Detroit Red Wings before rallying to win in seven games.

The Stanley Cup finals with the Bruins were a bruising series that left numerous players injured.

The Blackhawks organization took out a full page ad in the Boston Globe newspaper on Friday complimenting Boston's hospitality and sportsmanship during the series, which drew the highest television audience for a Stanley Cup final since Nielsen began tracking ratings in 1994. (Reporting By Greg McCune; Editing by David Bailey)