But as inflation soars, central bank reserves drop and the economy slows, hamstrung by currency controls that make doing legal business more difficult, many Argentines are losing faith in the peso, and in her leadership as well.

A closely watched sign of the country's economic future is the illegal currency market, where Argentines are increasingly desperate to ditch their pesos as inflation climbs above 25 percent a year. Amid fears of a potential currency shock, they're now trading nearly 10 pesos for each dollar close to half the official value of 5.2.

This "blue dollar" trading remains marginal compared to the overall economy, but it's a free market, stubbornly beyond the government's control, and as such, it's increasingly being looked at by Argentines trying to protect their pocketbooks. The central bank periodically releases dollars to rein it in, but that's risky as well, now that Argentina's reserves have dropped by more than 20 percent, to $39.75 billion.

New polls suggest Fernandez has lost more than half the support she had when re-elected in October 2011, including a 10-point ratings drop in the days since a scandal broke on April 14 over allegations that Kirchner ally and businessman Lazaro Baez spirited millions in cash out of Argentina in private planes.

A survey by the Management & Fit agency shows only 29 percent approval of Fernandez's leadership, down from 64 percent when she was re-elected. That poll of 2,000 Argentines, taken just after the scandal broke, had an error margin of 2.3 percentage points.

A separate survey about her personal image showed 48 percent viewed it as positive after the scandal broke, down from 57 percent before. A total of 1,000 Argentines responded to that survey by the Ipsos-Mora firm, which had an error margin of 3 percentage points.

Fernandez waved away the trouble in a speech at the Casa Rosada government house Monday night.

"Those who want to make money at the cost of a devaluation that the people will have to pay for will have to wait for another government," she declared. History shows that devaluations have only hurt most Argentines, while enabling the financial sector to make huge gains "off the hunger, misery and de-industrialization of the country," she warned.

"They're raising this idea again because an election period is approaching," she added. "Every time there's an election, on side there's the economy and on the other, the scandals. It's typical of every election."

That brief reference to scandals was her first comment yet about allegations that Baez, a longtime ally of the Kirchners, had used his access to the presidential couple to make huge profits that he laundered by having aides fly the cash out of the country in mysterious trips on private planes.

The allegations, made by former Baez associates in televised interviews with investigative journalist Jorge Lanata, have made for sensational television in Argentina, and a judge agreed to open a formal investigation of Baez and his associates.

Lanata struck closer still to the president on Sunday night, interviewing Kirchner's former secretary, Miriam Quiroga, who described bags full of cash in the Casa Rosada. She said they were delivered to the southern province of Santa Cruz, where Baez based his business empire and the Kirchners have several homes. Quiroga also alleged that the Kirchners had vaults built to hold the cash.

Judge Julian Ercolini subpoenaed Quiroga to testify in the widening criminal investigation by prosecutor Guillermo Marijuan, and Attorney General Alejandra Gils Carbo ordered additional police protection for the prosecutor, who reported receiving at least two threats that his young daughters will be killed if he doesn't drop the probe.

Meanwhile, Fernandez faced a new challenge on her left flank: the launching Tuesday of a new political party by her former ally, union boss Hugo Moyano, who has become one of her toughest critics. Moyano plans to run lists of candidates under his "Culture, Education and Jobs" banner in October's midterm elections.

___

Associated Press Writer Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.

Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill also said he will seek to try the teen as an adult in the death of 46-year-old Ricardo Portillo.

The charge is less serious than manslaughter. It carries a possible sentence of up to five years in prison for adults, but penalties can be less for juveniles.

Gill said it became clear in looking at the facts that the teenager's actions didn't amount to murder or manslaughter.

"We did not believe we could demonstrate the premeditation or intent to justify those charges," Gill told The Associated Press. "Those other charges require another type of mental state. We did not believe that type of mental state was present."

The oldest of Portillo's three daughters, Johana Portillo, declined comment about the charges through family spokesman Tony Yapias.

She just wants to let the criminal justice system to run its course, Yapias said.

Johana Portillo, 26, previously said the charge doesn't matter because it won't bring back her father.

Friends and family spent Wednesday remembering Ricardo Portillo at an afternoon wake that was to be followed by an evening religious service.

The 17-year-old has been in juvenile detention since April 27 when the incident occurred at a recreational-league soccer match in a Salt Lake City suburb.

The teenager, whose name is being withheld by The Associated Press because he's a minor, turns 18 in October. His first court appearance has not yet been scheduled.

His attorney, Monica Diaz Greene, was not immediately available for comment.

The teenager was playing goalie when Portillo called a penalty on him for pushing an opposing player. The teenager began arguing with Portillo and then struck him in the head, authorities said.

Charging documents show witnesses said the teenager threw one punch, hitting Portillo in the rear jaw area with a closed fist. Another witness said Portillo was writing notes on his notepad when he was hit.

Portillo was taken to a hospital in fair condition. Hours later, he went into a coma. He never regained consciousness and died Saturday.

Police say hospital staff members told them Portillo had hemorrhaging and a traumatic brain injury. The medical examiner's autopsy concluded he died from injuries related to the blow to the head. The death was ruled a homicide.

The fact that the teenager will soon turn 18, combined with the seriousness of what happened, led Gill to push to have him tried as an adult. The chance of the teen's rehabilitation is minimal, prosecutors said in court documents. A juvenile court judge will ultimately rule on that request.

Little is known about the teenager. His coach, James Yapias, has said he was playing his first game with the team but declined to elaborate any further about the young man or his family. League president, Mario Vasquez, said he didn't know the teenager.

Tony Yapias said Wednesday he knows people want to know more about the teenager, but urged them to allow the criminal justice system to run its course.

"We cannot bring Ricardo back no matter what we try to do," Tony Yapias said. "It's a sad day. We have to reflect on this we all have a passion for sports. Hopefully this will be something we all learn from."

Funeral services were being held Wednesday in Salt Lake City for Portillo, who leaves behind three daughters and four grandchildren. At a wake in a community center, a closed wooden casket was topped with large white flowers. Two other flower arrangements flanked the casket, with a large framed picture nearby of him wearing a blue shirt, his arms raised in victory.

The attendees wore white T-shirts with a drawing of an orange referee jersey in the middle with the words, "In loving memory of Ricky" around a soccer ball.

After the funeral, Portillo's remains will be returned to his hometown of Guadalajara, Mexico. He moved to Utah from there 17 years ago.

Family members said Portillo loved soccer, and had been working as a referee in different leagues for eight years. His oldest daughter, Johana Portillo, said he had been attacked before by players, even having his legs and ribs broken. Though his daughters begged him to quit, he said he couldn't give up his passion.

Portillo was a longtime referee. But he was not registered by the United States Soccer Federation or trained, evaluated or supervised by the Utah Soccer Referee Committee, which oversees those who referee games played by the Utah Youth Soccer Association.

The incident occurred in a game held by La Liga Continental de Futbol, an unaffiliated soccer league created in 2009.

Tony Yapias said Ricardo Portillo was well known in the community, and once said that he would someday be a famous soccer referee.

"How ironic," he said. "What has happened as a result of this is just that."

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Follow Brady McCombs at https://twitter.com/BradyMcCombs

Nadal, the defending French Open champion, has slipped to fifth in the world rankings after missing seven months of competition with a knee injury, and could be drawn in the same section as world number one Djokovic at next month's claycourt grand slam.

"Since we can see them meeting in the finals of the biggest events in the next weeks, it would be a shame to have them in a quarter-final in Roland Garros," Forget told Reuters in Monte Carlo on Sunday, where Djokovic ended Nadal's eight-year reign as champion with a 6-2, 7-6 victory.

"The rules state the grand slam events have the right to change the seeding regarding the situation of the players. Wimbledon have done that in the past," Forget added.

"I would not find it illogical to change the seeds."

Nadal trails world number four David Ferrer in the ATP standings, and has few chances to bridge the points gap before the French Open begins on May 26.

Nadal, who will seek an eighth crown in Paris, won in Barcelona and the Rome Masters Series last season, meaning he cannot accrue additional ranking points in those events over the coming weeks. He can secure only 910 points in Madrid, where he lost in the last 16 in 2012.

(Reporting by Eric Salliot; Writing by Gregory Blachier; Editing by Stephen Wood)

Over the weekend, the Syrian Electronic Army, a mysterious collection of hackers who support embattled President Bashar al-Assad, took control of several Twitter accounts belonging to The Guardian and its staffers.

— The Guardian (@guardian)

"We will keep hacking #Twitter accounts and cause for you problems if you keep suspending our accounts #SEA," one tweet from a Guardian account, since deleted, .

The BBC, NPR, CBS, and the Associated Press have all been  in recent weeks. Most notably, the SAE claimed credit for sending alast week that claimed President Obama had been wounded in an attack on the White House. That tweet sent stock markets tumbling, albeit briefly, as investors scrambled to verify whether bombs had, in fact, erupted in the White House.

Formed in 2011, the SAE has a nebulous relationship with the Assad regime. The SAEas "a group of enthusiastic Syrian youths who could not stay passive towards the massive distortion of facts about the recent uprising in Syria."

However, there's little hard evidence to tie the group directly to Assad. One researcher who has followed the SAE since its inceptionit clearly seemed like the two had some link, though he cautioned that the relationship was mostly one of "tacit support." 

While social media has increasingly played a role as unrest continues in the Middle East, the SAE is unique in that it is working to defend the government, not to topple it.

From the :

But unlike Tunisia, Egypt and Libya — whose former regimes were caught badly off guard — Assad's government has been fighting back. It has created an increasingly rambunctious group of counter-revolutionary hackers. These hackers have a twin function: To punish western news organizations seen as critical of Syria's regime, and to spread Damascus's alternative narrative. This says that the war in Syria isn't a popular uprising against a brutal, despotic family-military dynasty but rather an attempt by Islamist terrorists to turn Syria into a crazy al Qaeda fiefdom. []

And as The Guardian itselfin acknowledging it had been hacked, reporters there have frequently covered alleged crimes committed by the Assad regime, and even published leaked e-mails from his close advisers.

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NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal judge displayed anger as she handed down a four-year prison sentence Thursday to a biotechnology financier who was once among the nation's wealthiest people.

U.S. District Judge Colleen McMahon repeatedly scolded David Blech while imposing the prison term and $1.3 million forfeiture. She called him a "serial stock manipulator" who had committed the same crime four times, including after he was granted leniency by a judge whom he promised he would never commit another crime.

When he asked for leniency again, McMahon raised her voice in response.

"I'm afraid you had all the mercy you're going to get. Now it's time for punishment," McMahon said. "No, not this time. No mercy!"

Blech, 57, who must report to prison in August, engaged in the same scheme in 2007 and 2008 as he had nearly two decades earlier. In the first instance, he cooperated with the government and received probation in 1999 rather than prison time, though the sentencing judge warned him that another offense would result in prison.

McMahon said Blech waited until his five years of probation had expired and the court had no power over him before committing crimes again.

"You waited 'til there was nobody looking over your shoulder and then you dived right back in," she said.

Blech pleaded guilty last year to two counts of securities fraud, admitting that he tried to manipulate the value of a biotech company, Pluristem Therapeutics Inc., after investing more than $1 million in it in late 2006. He said at the plea that he took his illegal actions after he was heavily in debt by May 2007 to family and others who had lent him money for the investment.

He said he did the same with money from relatives and friends when he was invested in Intellect Neurosciences Inc. between 2005 and early 2008.

Blech told McMahon that bipolar disorder and a gambling addiction had led him to crime and that he was finally making progress in an "effort to control my addictive behavior."

"I am profoundly sorry for this," he said. The judge told him that mental illness was no excuse and noted she had sent to prison plenty of drug dealers with addiction issues for doing less than Blech.

In 1992, Blech was listed on Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans, with a net worth of more than $300 million, but he turned toward crime after a large decline in the value of technology stocks in the spring of 1994 doomed his investments. His influence at the time in biotechnology securities was so great that at least a dozen stocks that his defunct company had underwritten lost nearly a quarter of their value when D. Blech and Co. abruptly closed its doors on Sept. 22, 1994, a day known on Wall Street as "Blech Thursday."

By 2001, Blech told The Seattle Times that he was already planning a comeback.

"I may have one more go at it in me," he said. "This time, I would try to do it in a more measured way, with only one or two biotech companies. I would not try to save the world."

At Thursday's sentencing, the judge noted that probation authorities said Blech now claims he has no assets and $9 million of debt.

The defendants said in court papers on Wednesday that before the IPO last May 18, Facebook had no obligation to publicly disclose internal projections on how increased mobile usage and product decisions might affect future revenue, even if it had provided the projections to its underwriters' analysts.

They said the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has "consistently" refused to require issuers to publicly disclose all "material nonpublic information" that they share with analysts before an IPO, because of its potential negative impact on a company's ability to raise money.

"Plaintiffs would have this court impose - retroactively - a rule which the SEC has for decades thoughtfully rejected," the defendants said in papers filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan. "This court should decline the invitation."

Among the defendants is Morgan Stanley, the lead underwriter of the IPO.

"There is no reasonable basis for dismissal," Max Berger, a partner at Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann representing pension fund and other investors that are collectively the lead plaintiffs, said in an email. "We will oppose the motion in due course."

The case before U.S. District Judge Robert Sweet consolidates 31 lawsuits over Facebook's IPO.

Sweet also oversees separate investor litigation against Nasdaq OMX Group Inc over allegations that orders to buy and sell Facebook shares were executed improperly on the first day of trading.

Facebook, based in Menlo Park, California, went public at $38 per share. Its share price rose as high as $45 on the first day, but quickly fell and remain below their offering price.

In Wednesday morning trading, Facebook shares were down 31 cents, or 1.1 percent, at $27.45 on the Nasdaq. Facebook is scheduled to report quarterly results after U.S. markets close on Wednesday.

The case is In re Facebook Inc IPO Securities and Derivative Litigation, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 12-md-02389.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Grant McCool)

If users choose to download Facebook's Home software starting on April 12, the social network will become the hub of their Android smartphones. A phone from HTC that comes pre-loaded with Home will also be available starting that day, with AT&T Inc. as the carrier.

The idea behind the software is to bring Facebook content right to the home screen, rather than requiring users to check apps. "Home" comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from phones and tablet computers. Of its 1.06 billion monthly users, 680 million log in to Facebook using a mobile gadget.

The service is part of Facebook's move to shift its users' focus from "apps and tasks" to people, said CEO Mark Zuckerberg during Home's unveiling at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters on Thursday.

The new product, which resides on the home screen of Android phones, is a family of apps designed to help people share things with their Facebook friends. Rather than seeing a set of apps for email, maps and other services when they first turn on their phones, users will be greeted with photos and updates from their Facebook feeds. There will be ads too, eventually.

"We think this is the best version of Facebook there is," Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg says users can have an experience on Android phones that they can't have on other platforms. That's because Google makes the software available on an open-source basis, allowing others to adapt it to their needs.

Recognizing that text messaging is one of the most important tasks on a mobile phone, Facebook also showed off a feature called "chat heads." This lets users communicate with their friends directly from their phone's home screen without opening a separate app.

The move that coincides with rapid growth among the number of users who access the social network from smartphones and tablet computers and Facebook's aim to evolve from its Web-based roots into a "mobile-first" company.

"What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers' experience," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.

The new Home service won't be available on Apple's iPhone and iPad devices. Apple's iOS and Mac operating systems include features that integrate Facebook's services, but Zuckerberg says doing something like Home would require a closer partnership.

Apple had no immediate comment.

The deeper mobile integration will likely help Facebook to attract more mobile advertisers. Though mobile ads were a big concern for Facebook's investors even before the company's initial public offering last May, some of the worry has subsided as the company muscles its way into the market.

Last year, Facebook began showing ads to its mobile audience by shoehorning corporate-sponsored content into users' news feeds, which also include updates from friends and brands they follow. Facebook now faces the challenge of showing people mobile ads without annoying or alienating them.

The mobile advertising market is growing quickly, thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. Research firm eMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 percent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.

EMarketer said Wednesday that it expects Facebook Inc. to reap $965 million in U.S. mobile ad revenue in 2013. That's about 2.5 times the $391 million in 2012, the first year that Facebook started showing mobile ads. Clark Fredricksen, vice president at eMarketer, says "there are some clear reasons why a deeper integration with mobile operating systems and handsets make sense for Facebook. At the end of the day, the more deeply Facebook can engage consumers, no matter what device or operating system or handset," the better.

Facebook's stock rose 82 cents, or 3.1 percent, to close at $27.07 following the announcement. It's still 23 percent below its initial public offering price of $35.

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Barbara Ortutay reported from New York.

But that's still a big improvement over its previous showing at the worlds in La Molina, Spain, two years ago when the team returned home with a just one podium finish.

Robert Joncas, Canada's high performance director, says he's satisfied with the results.

Joncas says the team will be aiming for five medals again next year at the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

On the men's side, Spencer O'Brien and Mark McMorris won gold and silver, respectively, in the slopestyle event during the first weekend of competition.

For the women, Maelle Ricker won gold and Dominique Maltais took silver in the snowboard cross competition on Saturday.

Ricker, a 34-year-old from Squamish, B.C., is the only Canadian snowboarder guaranteed a spot in Sochi.

Joncas says there's room for improvement as the group gears up for the Olympics, but the building blocks are there.

"We're still very satisfied," he said.

On Sunday, the eight Canadians in the running in the parallel slalom finished off the podium.

In the women's competition, Russia's Ekaterina Zavialova won gold, beating out Patrizia Kummer of Switzerland in the final at the Stoneham Mountain Resort. Germany's Amelie Kober grabbed bronze.

In the men's, the Slovenian Rok Marguc won gold, Justin Reiter of the United States took silver and Roland Fischnaller of Italy got the bronze.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Growing up is hard to do, as countless coming-of-age movies have shown, some more affectingly than others.

With "Ginger & Rosa," British avant-garde filmmaker Sally Potter ("Orlando"), offers up a strong entry into the field with what is by far her most appealingly mainstream film to date.

An intimate character study, "Ginger & Rosa" is set in England in 1962. It's told mainly from the viewpoint of Ginger (Elle Fanning, younger sister of Dakota), a 16-year old budding poet growing up in post-WWII England alongside her best friend, Rosa (Alice Englert, the daughter of director Jane Campion). The two were born on the same day, in the same hospital, and have been BFFs ever since.

Now, though, they're 16 and their paths are beginning to diverge. Ginger is hyper-aware of growing up in the shadow of the mushroom cloud. She constantly frets over the possibility of imminent, worldwide nuclear destruction; she joins the Ban the Bomb movement and marches for disarmament. Rosa marches alongside Ginger at first, but her interests are fast heading towards boys, mascara and smoking. She is adopting a live-for-today philosophy.

The two reach a seemingly unbridgeable divide when Rosa becomes romantically involved with Ginger's father (Alessandro Nivola), a pacifist and academic. He has always lived outside of society's rules and it seems a no-brainer to him that his love life should follow suit.

"Ginger & Rosa" has several things going for it, most notably an achingly intense performance from Fanning, who was 13 when the movie was shot. She nails, in the most naturalistic way possible, the acute feelings and emotional whiplash that are the daily, nay, minute-to-minute reality of adolescence.

In the slightly smaller role of Rosa, newcomer Englert is equally effective. From the lost look in her black, heavily eyeliner-etched eyes, it's clear that her fatherless Rosa - the girl's dad walked out when she was small - is going to seek masculine affection and answers where ever she can.

Potter, who both wrote and directed the film, surrounds her adolescent protagonist with a handful of adults, some of whom are more helpful to Ginger than others. These include her mother ("Mad Men's" Christina Hendricks, in a strong turn), her father (Nivola, in an marvelously ambivalent performance), her seemingly gay godfathers (Timothy Spall and Oliver Platt, an amusingly improbable pairing) and an American feminist poet friend (Annette Bening, who makes the most of her few scenes).

"Ginger & Rosa" offers a nuanced portrait of a girl uneasily on the verge. Adolescence is always scary; Ginger's apprehension about the future - the Cuban missile crisis occurs near the end of the movie - makes hers even scarier, at least to her.

In one scene, after she vehemently expresses her anxiety over everyone getting nuked, one of her godfathers pleads, "Can't you be a girl for a moment or two longer?"

It's a marker of the film's success that we wish the same for her even as we know that she's indeed going to grow up and get past all this.

If we're lucky, we all do.

* Chinese teenager Guan opens with a level-par 72 (Updates at end of round)

April 25 (Reuters) - Long-hitting American Ricky Barnes made a welcome return to form after two months of struggle as he charged into a one-shot lead in Thursday's opening round of the Zurich Classic of New Orleans in Avondale, Louisiana.

The 32-year-old, who is bidding for his first victory on the PGA Tour, took advantage of receptive, rain-softened conditions at the TPC Louisiana to fire a sizzling eight-under-par 64.

With players permitted to lift, clean and replace golf balls on the fairway after more than an inch of rain had saturated the layout on Wednesday, Barnes birdied six of his last eight holes to tie the course record.

Boo Weekley and former U.S. Open champion Lucas Glover also made the most of the low-scoring conditions with opening 65s, finishing a stroke in front of fellow Americans D.A. Points and PGA Tour rookie Morgan Hoffmann.

Four-times major winner Ernie Els was among a group of 10 players on 67, while defending champion Jason Dufner, who clinched last year's title in a playoff with South African Els, launched his defence with a level-par 70.

China's 14-year-old prodigy Guan Tianlang also flourished in the opening round, upstaging several big names as he rebounded from two early bogeys to card a level-par 72.

Competing this week on a sponsor's exemption, Guan has been one of the biggest talking points in golf after becoming the youngest player to make the cut in a major championship at the Masters earlier this month.

Barnes, however, commanded most of the early spotlight as he shrugged off memories of seven missed cuts in his last eight starts on the PGA Tour after beginning the season in reasonably good form.

STORMED HOME

He eagled the par-five second before reaching the turn in two-under 34, then stormed home in six-under 30 to surge to the top of the leaderboard.

"It was good today," Barnes told Golf Channel after piling up seven birdies along with his eagle and a lone bogey at the sixth. "It has been a long past two months, especially after starting off so well in Hawaii and Palm Springs.

"I was really hitting the ball pretty well early on on the West Coast (swing)."

Barnes, whose best PGA Tour finish was joint second at the 2009 U.S. Open, tied for 20th at the Sony Open in Hawaii and shared 16th place at the Humana Challenge before his 2013 campaign unravelled.

"I started working on stuff and it just wasn't clicking for me," he said. "I knew I was going in the right direction with what I was working on. I just wasn't grasping it and the results weren't giving me any confidence as well.

"Good shots usually lead to confidence and I wasn't really hitting it good and I wasn't swinging good. And the short game wasn't very good.

"I have been working pretty hard on all aspects of the game for the past two months, especially on the short game ... and today it kind of proved that is starting to pay off."

Weekley, who won the most recent of his two PGA Tour titles at the 2008 Verizon Heritage, was in an upbeat mood after recording three birdies in his last five holes.

"It was good, it could have got real good if some of them putts would have fell early in the round," said the laid-back Floridian, who is known for his love of shooting and fishing. "I just felt good over it today."

World number four Justin Rose, the highest-ranked player in the field, opened with a 68 while last year's Masters champion Bubba Watson, who clinched the New Orleans title in 2011, battled to a three-bogey 73. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue and Greg Stutchbury)