Carbon dioxide was measured at 400 parts per million at the oldest monitoring station which is in Hawaii sets the global benchmark. The last time the worldwide carbon level was probably that high was about 2 million years ago, said Pieter Tans of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

That was during the Pleistocene Era. "It was much warmer than it is today," Tans said. "There were forests in Greenland. Sea level was higher, between 10 and 20 meters (33 to 66 feet)."

Other scientists say it may have been 10 million years ago that Earth last encountered this much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The first modern humans only appeared in Africa about 200,000 years ago.

The measurement was recorded Thursday and it is only a daily figure, the monthly and yearly average will be smaller. The number 400 has been anticipated by climate scientists and environmental activists for years as a notable indicator, in part because it's a round number not because any changes in man-made global warming happen by reaching it.

"Physically, we are no worse off at 400 ppm than we were at 399 ppm," Princeton University climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer said. "But as a symbol of the painfully slow pace of measures to avoid a dangerous level of warming, it's somewhat unnerving."

Environmental activists, such as former Vice President Al Gore, seized on the milestone.

"This number is a reminder that for the last 150 years and especially over the last several decades we have been recklessly polluting the protective sheath of atmosphere that surrounds the Earth and protects the conditions that have fostered the flourishing of our civilization," Gore said in a statement. "We are altering the composition of our atmosphere at an unprecedented rate."

Carbon dioxide traps heat just like in a greenhouse and most of it stays in the air for a century; some lasts for thousands of years, scientists say. It accounts for three-quarters of the planet's heat-trapping gases. There are others, such as methane, which has a shorter life span but traps heat more effectively. Both trigger temperatures to rise over time, scientists say, which is causing sea levels to rise and some weather patterns to change.

When measurements of carbon dioxide were first taken in 1958, it measured 315 parts per million. Some scientists and environmental groups promote 350 parts per million as a safe level for CO2, but scientists acknowledge they don't really know what levels would stop the effects of global warming.

The level of carbon dioxide in the air is rising faster than in the past decades, despite international efforts by developed nations to curb it. On average the amount is growing by about 2 parts per million per year. That's 100 times faster than at the end of the Ice Age.

Back then, it took 7,000 years for carbon dioxide to reach 80 parts per million, Tans said. Because of the burning of fossil fuels, such as oil and coal, carbon dioxide levels have gone up by that amount in just 55 years.

Before the Industrial Revolution, carbon dioxide levels were around 280 ppm, and they were closer to 200 during the Ice Age, which is when sea levels shrank and polar places went from green to icy. There are natural ups and downs of this greenhouse gas, which comes from volcanoes and decomposing plants and animals. But that's not what has driven current levels so high, Tans said. He said the amount should be even higher, but the world's oceans are absorbing quite a bit, keeping it out of the air.

"What we see today is 100 percent due to human activity," said Tans, a NOAA senior scientist. The burning of fossil fuels, such as coal for electricity and oil for gasoline, has caused the overwhelming bulk of the man-made increase in carbon in the air, scientists say.

The world pumps on average 2.4 million pounds of carbon dioxide into the air every second for a total of 38.2 billion tons in 2011, according international calculations published in a scientific journal in December. China spews 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide into the air per year, leading all countries, and its emissions are growing about 10 percent annually. The U.S. at No. 2 is slowly cutting emissions and is down to 5.9 billion tons per year.

The speed of the change is the big worry, said Pennsylvania State University climate scientist Michael Mann. If carbon dioxide levels go up 100 parts per million over thousands or millions of years, plants and animals can adapt. But that can't be done at the speed it is now happening.

Last year, regional monitors briefly hit 400 ppm in the Arctic. But those monitoring stations aren't seen as a world mark like the one at Mauna Loa, Hawaii.

Generally carbon levels peak in May then fall slightly, so the yearly average is usually a few parts per million lower than May levels.

___

Online:

NOAA monitoring at Mauna Loa: http://www.esrl.noaa.gov/gmd/ccgg/trends/weekly.html

Seth Borenstein can be followed at http://twitter.com/borenbears

[More from BGR: ]

Among other things, Technology Review says that Facebook is adding a launcher that makes it easier to see your non-Facebook apps and doesnt reorganize them, a way to create folders of apps within the launcher and a dock at the bottom of the screen that gives you quick access to your most important apps.

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Facebook director of mobile engineering Cory Ondrejka tells the publication that the company wants users to be able to use Home and not feel like the apps youve spent time curating have been moved around.

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LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - After winning a Best Actor Oscar for playing a stuttering British royal in 2010 film "The King's Speech," Colin Firth is back on screen as a character who appears ordinary to the point of boring in indie drama "Arthur Newman."

Opening in select U.S. movie theaters on Friday, Firth plays an American man who is dissatisfied with his life and hits the road with a new identity. Things get derailed when he meets Mike (Emily Blunt) a troubled young woman fleeing from her own issues.

Firth, 52, sat down with Reuters to talk about the film and life after his first Oscar win, and the (dimming) prospects of a third "Bridget Jones' Diary" movie.

Q: What made you follow up an Academy Award win with a little indie like "Arthur Newman?"

A: At the time, the title of the film was "Arthur Newman Golf Pro" and I found it so off-putting, it perversely made me more intrigued. I thought by putting 'golf' in the title, the film wouldn't be exactly marketable.

Q: How's that?

A: If you don't like golf, you won't go to see the film. And if you like golf, you're going to be disappointed because it's not about golf. It was almost provocative in how willfully unmarketable it was, so I wanted to see what was inside.

Q: And what did you find?

A: A man who seemed steeped in ordinariness. In fact, he's pronounced to be boring by several characters in the movie. So yes, he really is incredibly boring and that intrigued me. It always has. What is actually going on? What are the dynamics behind somebody languishing in a disappointing suburban life? What heroism is possible?

Q: How do you play someone like that? Where do you look to find a common thread?

A: We trap ourselves in all sorts of ways, however unusual or extraordinary our existence might seem from the outside. There are all kinds of ways in which we find ourselves on a treadmill.

If people dare to test the boundaries and step outside, it's often characterized as running away from problems. But you can't look at it that way. In Arthur Newman's case, in some ways he was probably running in to something that was more awake and more authentic.

Q: You can't possibly have any hint of dissatisfaction after winning an Oscar, can you?

A: That's not true, because you've got the rest of your tasks ahead of you. Of course there's immense reassurance (in having an Oscar) and it does give you a license for a certain freedom to do what you want and not have to prove something.

Q: Did you find that things changed for you after you won?

A: Not quickly. In some ways it's happening now....An Oscar doesn't suddenly work the miracle that manufactures a plethora of great writers who are suddenly ready to come to you with fully financed films, with the right director attached, landing on your table, saying: Take your pick. It's not as coherent as that.

Q: Have you been able to use the Oscar to your advantage?

A: Yes. It definitely opens doors. There are ways in. If you want to reach somebody to get the collaboration on something, they'll talk to you. That's a very powerful difference I've noticed.

Q: Do you like that?

A: Yeah, I do. It's useful. I think that's probably the healthiest way to look at it, rather than have something that gets preserved on a shelf. Take it and use it as a tool. Then it has meaning rather than just something to look back on. You can't live on one moment. And you can't allow either a crisis or a triumph to be the only thing that defines you.

Q: You have a lot of films on your plate due this year and next: Atom Egoyan's "Devil's Knot" and two back-to-back films with Nicole Kidman. What's the status on the sequel to "Bridget Jones' Diary?"

A: We've been teasing people a little bit because there have been plans but they're on ice now.

Q: Are you disappointed?

A: Not in the abstract. I don't spend my life thinking, "I hope there's another 'Bridget Jones.'" I like the character and I like the story. I think (author-screenwriter) Helen Fielding is a wonderful writer. Where she began to take it in this next stage now that we're all older is actually more interesting than it was in some ways back then. So if there's a good story and a good script, I'll think about it on that basis.

(Reporting By Zorianna Kit, editing by Jill Serjeant and Cynthia Osterman)

The national semifinals will air on TBS in 2014 and 2015, with the title game remaining on CBS, the companies said Tuesday.

Under the 14-year deal that CBS and Turner Sports signed with the NCAA in 2010, CBS and TBS were scheduled to start alternating broadcasts of the entire Final Four starting in 2016, but Turner had the option to move that up to 2014.

Network executives decided in recent months that the best approach for both companies was to split the coverage for the next two years before beginning to take turns. TBS will televise the entire Final Four in 2016 and CBS in 2017.

"It was a nice opportunity to have a transition," Turner Sports chief David Levy said during a conference call.

The two companies recently completed the third year of their contract, which televised every game in the tournament for the first time using CBS and three Turner channels TBS, TNT and truTV. The new model has drawn strong ratings and proved viewers are comfortable finding the games on cable.

That success made Turner eager to get in on the Final Four early. Sports fans have become increasingly accustomed to major events on cable, include college football's title game.

Basketball's NCAA final will stay on a traditional broadcast network for two more years before making its cable debut. Meanwhile, TBS will add more big games: The channel will also begin airing two of the four regional finals starting next season. They had all been on CBS.

"We both win in this scenario," CBS Sports Chairman Sean McManus said.

The original financial terms of the deal won't change under the new arrangement, McManus said.

Network executives have yet to decide which announcers will call the Final Four games next season. Steve Kerr of Turner had joined Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg of CBS in the booth for the semifinals and final in the first three years of the partnership.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore will host the glittering annual finale of the women's tennis season from 2014 until 2018, the WTA said on Wednesday.

The Southeast Asian city-state beat Tianjin in China and Mexico's Monterrey for the right to stage the WTA Championships after Turkey's Istanbul ends its three-year stint in October.

"Your sensational city, the amazing city of Singapore, has won the right to host the WTA Championships for the next five years from 2014," WTA chairman and chief executive Stacey Allaster told reporters.

Allaster called the agreement a record breaker and "the largest and most significant WTA partnership in our history", with prize money increased to a record $6.5 million.

The season-ender is the most prestigious women's tennis event outside the four grand slam tournaments - the Australian, French and U.S. Opens plus Wimbledon.

The top eight singles and doubles pairs over the season qualify for the event which was won last year by American world number one Serena Williams. Russian pair Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova took the doubles title.

The event was first staged in 1972 in the United States but has moved around the world since 2001 with Munich, Madrid and Doha joining New York and Los Angeles in staging it.

The hosting rights are a major coup for Singapore, which has not held a top level tennis event since the 1999 Heineken Cup on the men's ATP Tour. Lower ranked challenger events and exhibition tournaments have struggled to attract crowds.

The event will take place at the Sports Hub complex, which is due to be finished by the first quarter of 2014 at a cost of S$1.3 billion ($1.05 billion).

The impressive complex will feature a 55,000-seater stadium with retractable roof, a 13,000 indoor stadium, aquatics center and water sports center.

The indoor stadium will host the show court with the other facilities to be used in a entertainment filled "10 day fan fest."

The venue could be key for sports and entertainment businesses to tap into the lucrative southeast Asian market with Singapore's low crime rate and overall ease of doing business a rarity amongst nearby nations.

World Sports Group, the commercial partner of the Sports Hub, have talked previously about attracting a rugby 7s event and Indian Premier League Twenty20 matches. WSG Chief Executive Andrew Georgiou said the WTA Championships was just the start.

"It is also another feather in the cap for Singapore, which continues to prove itself as Asia's premier events destination. We are really excited about working towards the first event of 2014," the Australian told reporters.

"We are pretty proud, one of the first of many to be announced over the next couple of months to be hosted at the Singapore sports hub."

(Additional reporting by Ossian Shine; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

He joined a group of injured New York Yankees starters Monday at the team's minor league complex. The 37-year-old third baseman ran, played catch and hit off a tee.

Rodriguez said it's "like being 8 years old again when I first grabbed a bat." He added it's "pretty exciting" and he's "really looking forward to getting back."

Rodriguez had surgery Jan. 16 and could return to the Yankees after the All-Star break. A surgeon repaired a torn labrum and impingement in the operation in New York.

"It feels good to be back out in uniform," Rodriguez said. "It's been a rough stretch with the rehab, obviously. It's small bites at a time."

Rodriguez is currently taking part in a 30-day rehab schedule setup by his doctors and team officials.

"We're taking it four weeks at a time," Rodriguez said. "Today is one of 30."

The upbeat A-Rod signed autographs and took photos with around 40 fans waiting for him outside the player's parking lot. Fans driving by stopped their car near the complex driveway and jumped out to have photos taken.

"I have a lot of unfinished business," said Rodriguez, who struggled offensively late last season. "I'm really looking forward to getting back on the field close to 100 percent and being who I am."

Outfielder Curtis Granderson (broken right forearm), first baseman Mark Teixeira (right wrist), corner infielder Kevin Youkilis (lumbar spine sprain), and catcher Francisco Cervelli (broken hand) are also rehabbing injuries in Florida.

"It's great seeing him," Teixeira said. "He's just happy to be back, doing some baseball activities. He's got a big smile on his face right now, which is great."

Shortstop Derek Jeter is also on the disabled list with a broken ankle, and is not expected back until after the All-Star break.

"We always talk about injuries are a part of the game, but this is crazy" Rodriguez said. "I've never seen anything like it. But I've got to tell you, the way those guys are playing up there, the job the front office has done putting these guys together at the last minute, hats off to everyone."

The Miami New Times reported this year that Rodriguez bought human growth hormone and other performance-enhancing substances in recent years from Biogenesis of America LLC, a now-closed clinic in Coral Cables, near the three-time AL MVP's offseason home.

Rodriguez has denied the allegations.

"I can only control what I can control," Rodriguez said. "I'm really focusing on all the great things that have happened in the game. I'm really focused on getting healthy, and just getting back and helping the Yankees win a championship."

A 14-time All-Star, Rodriguez had right hip surgery on March 9, 2009, and returned that May 8. He is due $114 million over the next five years as part of his $275 million, 10-year contract.

Jeter found out he fractured his left ankle for a second time in six months on April 18. At that time the Yankees said the team captain should be able to resume his rehabilitation when the new crack heals in about four to eight weeks.

Out since injuring his wrist with the U.S. on March 5 before the World Baseball Classic, Teixeira took batting practice in an indoor cage and hopes to start on-field BP in the next few days.

"I'm very, very happy with where I am right now," Teixeira said.

Granderson, who broke the arm Feb. 24 in his first at-bat of spring training when he was hit by a pitch from Toronto's J.A. Happ, is playing in extended spring training games and expected to rejoin the team this month.

Youkilis is eligible to come off the 15-day disabled list on May 13. Cervelli broken his hand April 26 and is expected to miss at least six weeks.

LONDON, May 8 (Reuters) - Alex Ferguson is a knight of the realm, rich beyond his dreams, revered and respected the world over yet his approach to life and work remain unchanged from when he first rolled up his sleeves in the Clydeside shipyards of the 1960s.

Hard graft, pride in your work, respect for your colleagues and a refusal to back down when you feel you are right were the values Ferguson learned as a boy in the tough streets of post-war Glasgow and which were honed as an apprentice tool-maker in one of the most unforgiving work environments imaginable.

Like many great managers, Ferguson is somewhat frustrated that his playing days are dismissed as an appendix to his career but he was no mean performer. Rangers were happy to pay a then-Scottish record fee of 65,000 pounds ($100,600) to take the scrawny but fearless striker from Dunfermline in 1966.

It should have been the glorious peak of his playing days with the club he supported as a boy but things did not go to plan and, after famously being blamed for a Scottish Cup final defeat, he eventually left, angry and unfulfilled as his playing career drifted to an end at Ayr United in 1974.

The challenge of gelling the competing egos of his current multi-millionaire playing staff might seem a light years from when he set out on his 39-year managerial adventure as part-time boss of minor Scottish club East Stirling but the values he established from the start remain in place now.

Known as a hard taskmaster, few have crossed him and stayed around long to tell the tale, but at the heart of his success is his pure and enduring love of the game.

At 71, with an army of staff at his disposal, Ferguson is still the first to arrive at United's training ground. He may not now have such a hands-on role in terms of coaching but his presence is everywhere.

He displays the same boyish enthusiasm whether watching the latest crop of 16-year-old hopefuls among a scattering of friends and family or overseeing the first team in a Champions League clash watched by hundreds of millions the world over.

Many of those viewers, and United fans whose memories begin with the advent of the Premier League in 1992, will probably never fully understand the depth of the fundamental and surely permanent transformation in the club's fortunes brought about Ferguson.

Today, United bestride the game on and off the pitch, their worldwide brand ensuring a torrent of income that enables an ever-changing playing staff to win trophy after trophy.

TOP TABLE

In a sport where managers, even successful ones, have a mayfly lifespan, Ferguson's reign of more than 26 years is nothing short of astonishing.

He has been knighted and honoured by people and institutions the world over and sits proudly at the top table of the most influential people ever to have had a hand in the sport that dominates every corner of the planet.

Ferguson will walk away from Old Trafford having won 25 major trophies and having established such a level of consistency that United have never finished outside the top three in the Premier League.

Yet when he arrived from Aberdeen to replace Ron Atkinson in November 1986, United were a very different animal.

Not only had they gone 19 years without winning the league, they had barely challenged for it. Only five top-three finishes, and of course the ignominy of relegation in 1974, underlined that decline.

Despite being the best-supported club in the country, and arguably the most famous in the world, they had only a handful of FA Cups to show for their efforts and were just not a powerful force.

Ferguson certainly had pedigree in breaking down the established order, having ended the dominance of Celtic and Rangers in Scottish football with his remarkable transformation of Aberdeen, which culminated in them beating Real Madrid to win the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1983.

England proved a tougher nut to crack, however, as Liverpool remained top dogs, ably supported by Everton and then Arsenal.

Finishing second in his first full season in charge in 1986/87 proved something of a false dawn as 11th and 13th in subsequent campaigns put him in danger of being sacked for the second time in his career following his dismissal by St Mirren in his fledgling days.

Ferguson was trying to build a base, shipping out some established and popular players in his bid to instil his values and remove the drinking and gambling culture that he knew was undermining the club's prospects, but United's patience was not bottomless.

Few fans will now admit to holding "Fergie Out" banners in those frustrating days, but they were there alright as the club hovered around the lower reaches of the top flight.

NO SENTIMENT

It has become accepted folk history that Mark Robins' winner against Nottingham Forest in a 1990 FA Cup third-round tie saved his job, and certainly United's triumph in the final, Ferguson's first trophy in four seasons, bought the Scot time.

He showed in that success too that there was no room for sentiment, dropping goalkeeper Jim Leighton, one of the stalwarts of his Aberdeen days who followed him south, for the replay of the final against Crystal Palace.

The Holy Grail of the league championship after a 26-year wait eventually arrived in 1993, buoyed by the signing of Eric Cantona, considered by many to be Ferguson's shrewdest-ever deal and the catalyst for much of the success that followed.

From then on it was a cascade of silverware, culminating in the 1999 treble of Premier League, FA Cup and Champions League.

Having finally achieved his stated ambition of knocking Liverpool "off their perch" and making United England's best team, Ferguson then proved adept at rebuilding his sides, unloading key names and bringing in ever-more costly replacements with deft moulding.

Nobody was too big to go, whether for past-their-best footballing reasons or if Ferguson felt they were getting too big for the boots, as the likes of Roy Keane, David Beckham and Ruud van Nistelrooy all discovered.

Ferguson's power extended beyond the dressing room.

The man who used to happily answer the phone at United's training ground to chat to reporters developed a fear and distrust of the Press.

The Scot refused to speak to the BBC for seven years because he did not like a programme made about his son while he routinely banned reporters from news conferences if he took exception to their work.

Those external pressures appeared to have finally ground him down when he announced plans to retire at the end of the 2001/02 season but he opted to continue, reinvigorated and driven by the desire to make United a European Cup heavyweight to line up alongside multiple champions Real, Bayern Munich and AC Milan.

He did manage one further Champions League triumph, via a penalty shootout against Chelsea in the pouring rain of Moscow in 2008, but his tally of two following Matt Busby's first in 1968, when stood alongside his 13 Premier League titles, will remain the one relative blip on his otherwise glittering career.

($1 = 0.6464 British pounds) (Editing by Ken Ferris)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The biggest drama in soap operas these days isn't who's cheating, fighting amnesia, or waking up from a coma. It's whether the backstabbing and love triangles that hooked afternoon TV viewers will work on the Internet.

In a bold wager to revive canceled ABC soaps "All My Children" and "One Life to Live," a pair of Hollywood veterans are taking the 40-year-old dramas online, remaking them for lifelong fans and a younger, Internet-savvy audience.

Starting Monday, new 30-minute episodes will appear each Monday through Thursday on the free Hulu.com website and the paid monthly subscription service Hulu Plus. Fans can also buy episodes in Apple Inc's iTunes store.

The producers, former Walt Disney Co TV chairman Rich Frank and talent management veteran Jeff Kwatinetz, hope to ride a wave of interest in first-run series online, highlighted by the recent buzz for Netflix original drama "House of Cards" and its coming revival of one-time Fox comedy "Arrested Development."

The trick will be to entice the soaps' older and not always Internet-savvy viewers while luring a younger crowd with faster-paced storylines, modern music and contemporary actors next to the shows' longtime stars.

"The challenge and opportunity for them," says Stephanie Stopulos, digital director for media buying firm Starcom USA, "is how to continue to engage the people that are so passionate about it, and also use it as an opportunity to grow."

To beckon new viewers, the producers cast "Jersey Shore" star Jenni "Jwoww" Farley as a bartender on "One Life to Live." Paula Garces from the wacky "Harold & Kumar" movie franchise has joined "All My Children." Snoop Lion, previously known as rapper Snoop Dogg, wrote and sings on the theme song for "One Life to Live," and will play himself in some episodes. He made cameo appearances when the show was on ABC.

The soaps' rebirth will test whether older-skewing audiences will migrate online, and reverse a trend that has seen viewership decline by more than one-third since 2000. When it ended its TV run, "All My Children" attracted an average audience of 2.5 million viewers with a median age of 57, according to Nielsen data provided by Horizon Media.

To appeal to both older and younger viewers, the online soaps will have the same suspense, heartbreak and betrayal, though plots will move quickly and avoid the more outlandish storylines from the soap operas of the past, Kwatinetz says.

The shows "won't be bringing people back from the dead," he says. "There won't be people rescued from aliens. The stories are grounded, the storytelling is quicker paced. It's more relevant."

The online soaps need to attract new generations to survive long term, says syndicated columnist Lynda Hirsch, who has written about soaps for more than 30 years. "You can't have your base die off," she says. "You've got to get younger people."

"All My Children" and "One Life to Live," once hour-long afternoon dramas, were stalwarts in what Time magazine once called "TV's richest market." The big advertising dollars from the daytime soaps supported prime time schedules during their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s, when Luke and Laura's 1981 wedding on "General Hospital" attracted a massive 30 million viewers on ABC.

Soaps thrived because they had a lock on one of TV's most sought-after demographics, stay-at-home moms, who couldn't get enough of the hunky doctors, evil twins and juicy cliffhangers. As the numbers of women in the workforce increased, soap operas' popularity faded, the audience aged, and network executives had trouble making the economics work.

In April 2011, Disney-owned ABC announced it was canceling "All My Children" and "One Life to Live." At the time, producers Frank and Kwatinetz were building a studio called Prospect Park with cable TV hits "Royal Pains" and "Wilfred," and taking note of online video's growing popularity.

Internet distribution offered a direct route to younger viewers in the 18-to-34 demographic, a group that watches video whenever they choose on cell phones and tablets. Having episodes on demand also meant viewers didn't need to be home during the day, or to even be near a television, to catch up.

Prospect Park is backed by funding from private equity firm ABRY Partners. The studio will receive a majority of the ad revenue collected from episodes on Hulu, a person familiar with the arrangement said, and a percentage of the sales from iTunes. Content providers typically keep 70 percent of iTunes sales.

Each soap has its own Facebook page splashed with glitzy, Vanity Fair-style cast photos, and they have already registered more than 1 million "likes" combined. Stars tweet and field questions via video chats. The studio is also running print, television and radio promotions, including an ad in Parade magazine, a weekly that draws readers over age 50.

Soap expert Hirsch believes fans will embrace the shows, if they understand the new platform. Some longtime viewers don't realize they can watch for free on Hulu.com, she said. "There is so much confusion. No matter how many times you write this, they are not getting it." (Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Claudia Parsons)

"The Galaxy is still a beautiful, high-horsepower Android phone," New York Times' columnist David Pogue wrote.

"But basically, it's an updated Galaxy S3. If this were Apple, who adds the letter S to denote a slightly upgraded model ("iPhone 4S," for example), Samsung might have called this phone the Galaxy S3S," he wrote. (http://r.reuters.com/cef67t)

Samsung unveiled S4 in March in New York. It sports a 5-inch screen, 1.9 GHz quad-core processor and a 13 megapixel camera. It runs on Google Inc's Android platform.

The S3 comes with a 4.8 inch screen, a 1.4 GHz quad core processor and an 8 megapixel camera.

Samsung has so far sold more than 40 million S3 smartphones, rivaling that of Apple Inc's iPhones.

"(The S4) looks for all the world like the Galaxy S III despite having a bigger screen and more horsepower, at 7.9mm and 4.6 ounces it's actually imperceptibly thinner and lighter than the S III. But copying the S III wasn't a good idea." Verge's David Pierce said. (http://r.reuters.com/taf67t)

AllThingsD's Walt Mossberg said the S4 is a good phone, just not a great one and urged readers to consider the more polished-looking, and quite capable, HTC One, rather than defaulting to the latest Samsung offering.

"It's an evolution of the prior model and despite some improvements, it still is especially weak in the software Samsung adds to basic Android. I found Samsung's software often gimmicky, duplicative of standard Android apps, or, in some cases, only intermittently functional," he said.

Galaxy S4 will roll out over the next week on the AT&T and T-Mobile networks in the United States.

"This isn't a phone that's going to convert an iPhone user, and current Galaxy S III owners aren't going to miss out on a whole lot as far as features go," CNN's Adrian Covert said. (http://r.reuters.com/kaf67t)

"I don't like holding this phone, and I can't overstate how much that informs the experience of using it. It makes an awful first impression, slippery and slimy and simply unpleasant in your hand," Covert said.

The Galaxy S4 is so complicated that Samsung has given it an "Easy Mode" for the less mobile savvy users, Dan Rowinski at technology blog ReadWriteWeb wrote. (http://r.reuters.com/kef67t)

However, Mashable's Christina Warren gave the new phone a big thumbs up.

"After spending about a week with the Galaxy S4, I feel it is not only the best Galaxy product to date it's one of my favorite Android smartphones ever," she said. (http://r.reuters.com/pef67t)

(Reporting by Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Rodney Joyce)

Unable to ignore the travelers' anger, Congress overwhelmingly approved legislation Friday to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to withdraw the furloughs. The vote underscored a shift by Democrats who had insisted on erasing all of this year's $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts, not just the most publicly painful ones, for fear of losing leverage to restore money for Head Start and other programs with less lobbying clout and popular support.

With President Barack Obama's promised signature, the measure will erase one of the most stinging and publicly visible consequences of the budget-wide cuts known as the sequester.

Friday's House approval was 361-41 and followed the previous evening's passage by the Senate, which didn't even bother with a roll call. Lawmakers then streamed toward the exits and airports for a weeklong spring recess.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Obama would sign the bill, but Carney complained that the measure left the rest of the sequester intact.

"This is a Band-Aid solution. It does not solve the bigger problem," he said. Using the same Band-Aid comparison, Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., said that "the sequester needs triple bypass surgery."

The FAA and Transportation Department did not respond to repeated questions about when the controllers' furloughs would end. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who helped craft the measure, was told by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood Friday that the agency is "doing everything they can to get things back on track as quickly as possible," said Collins spokesman Kevin Kelley.

In the week since the furloughs began, news accounts have prominently featured nightmarish tales of delayed flights and stranded air passengers. Republicans have used the situation to accuse the Obama administration of purposely forcing the controllers to take unpaid days off to dial up public pressure on Congress to roll back the sequester.

"The president has an obligation to implement these cuts in a way that respects the American people, rather than using them for political leverage," House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a written statement.

"Unfortunately for this administration, the term 'sequester' has become synonymous with fear," Rep. Richard Hudson, R-N.C., said during the debate.

Halting the furloughs was the latest example of lawmakers easing parts of the sequester that became too painful.

They previously used a separate, wide-ranging spending bill to provide more money for meat and poultry inspectors. Attorney General Eric Holder cited extra funds in that same bill as the reason the Justice Department would be able to avoid furloughs. Transportation Security Administration employees also have gotten relief.

The Obama administration and congressional Democrats backed by many fiscal experts say the sequester law gives agencies little maneuverability, requiring them to spread cuts evenly among most budget accounts. The Federal Aviation Administration was achieving about a third of its required $637 million in cuts by furloughing nearly all its workers including the 15,000 air traffic controllers one day every two weeks.

Obama and his Democratic allies want to roll back the entire sequester, with the White House proposing a substitute mix of spending cuts and tax increases that Republicans have rejected. The GOP has proposed replacing the across-the-board spending cuts with others, many of them aimed at programs Democrats defend.

That has left many Democrats reluctant to ease across-the-board cuts for individual programs that cause a public outcry because they worry that would relieve pressure on Republicans to undo the entire sequester.

"While there is a little bit of leverage and pressure, let's broaden it to the sequester as a whole," Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., told reporters before voting against the bill.

Said House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.: "How can we sit there and say, 'Four million Meals on Wheels for seniors gone? But that's not important.Over 70,000 children off Head Start.But that's not important.' What is important is for Republicans to hold a hard line" on budget cuts.

Even so, the complaints about flying delays became too intense, and in the end only 29 Democrats and 12 Republicans voted against the measure Friday in the House. The FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday attributed to the furloughs, with hundreds of others daily since the furloughs began last Sunday.

The bill would let the FAA use up to $253 million from an airport improvement program and other accounts to halt the furloughs through the Sept. 30 end of the government's fiscal year. The money can be used for other FAA operations, too, including keeping open small airport towers around the country that the agency said it would shut to satisfy the spending cuts.

But Democrats were bitter Friday that cuts in many federal programs remain. Besides the Head Start pre-school program, they complained about ongoing cuts for health research, feeding programs for poor women, children and the elderly and jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed and about furloughs of civilian Pentagon workers.

"Let's get a big deal. Let's deal with all the adverse consequences of the sequester," said No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer, whose Maryland district has many civil servants and who voted no.

Congressional approval was hailed by groups representing the airline industry and the union representing controllers.

"The winners here are the customers who will be spared from lengthy and needless delays," said Nicholas E. Calio, president of Airlines for America, representing major carriers.

The National Air Traffic Controllers Association said the week of problems showed that a "fully staffed air traffic control workforce is necessary for our national airspace system to operate at full capacity."

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Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Joan Lowy and Nedra Pickler contributed to this report.