Protesters set up barricades and plumes of tear gas rose in Istanbul's streets into the early hours after Turkish riot police rousted a group who had vowed to stay in Gezi Park despite Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warnings to leave.

As dusk fell Saturday, hundreds of white-helmeted riot police swept through the park and adjacent Taksim Square, firing canisters of the acrid, stinging gas. Thousands of peaceful protesters, choking on the fumes and stumbling among the tents, put up little physical resistance.

The protests began as an environmental sit-in to prevent a development project at Gezi Park, but have quickly spread to dozens of cities and spiraled into a broader expression of discontent about what many say is Erdogan's increasingly authoritarian decision-making. He vehemently denies the charge, pointing to the strong support base that helped him win third consecutive term with 50 percent of the vote in 2011.

As police cleared the square, many ran into nearby hotels for shelter. A stand-off developed at a luxury hotel on the edge of the park, where police opened up with water cannons against protesters and journalists outside before throwing tear gas at the entrance, filling the lobby with white smoke. At other hotels, plain-clothes policemen turned up outside, demanding the protesters come out.

Some protesters ran off into nearby streets, setting up makeshift barricades and running from water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets.

As news of the raid broke, thousands of people from other parts of Istanbul gathered and were attempting to reach Taksim. Television showed footage of riot police firing tear gas on a highway and bridge across the Bosphorus to prevent protesters from heading to the area.

As the tear gas settled, bulldozers moved into the park, scooping up debris and loading it into trucks. Crews of workmen in fluorescent yellow vests and plain-clothes police went through the abandoned belongings, opening bags and searching their contents before tearing down the tents, food centers and library the protesters had set up in what had become a bustling tent city.

Demonstrations also erupted in other cities. In Ankara, at least 3,000 people swarmed into John F. Kennedy street, where opposition party legislators sat down at the front of the crowd facing the riot police not far from Parliament. In Izmir, thousands converged at a seafront square.

Near Gezi, ambulances ferried the injured to hospitals as police set up cordons and roadblocks around the park, preventing anyone from getting close.

Tayfun Kahraman, a member of Taksim Solidarity, an umbrella group of protest movements, said an untold number of people in the park had been injured some from rubber bullets.

"Let them keep the park, we don't care anymore. Let it all be theirs. This crackdown has to stop. The people are in a terrible state," he told The Associated Press by phone.

Taksim Solidarity, on its Web site, called the incursion "atrocious" and counted hundreds of injured which it called a provisional estimate as well as an undetermined number of arrests. Istanbul governor's office said at least 44 people were taken to hospitals for treatment. None of them were in serious condition, it said in a statement.

Huseyin Celik, the spokesman for Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, told NTV that the sit-in had to end.

"They had made their voice heard ... Our government could not have allowed such an occupation to go on until the end," he said.

It was a violent police raid on May 31 against a small sit-in in Gezi Park that sparked the initial outrage and spiraled into a much broader protest. While those in the park have now fled, it was unclear whether they would take their movement to other places, or try to return to the park at a later time.

The protests, which left at least four people dead and more than 5,000 injured, have dented Erdogan's international reputation and infuriated him with a previously unseen defiance to his rule.

Saturday's raid came less than two hours after Erdogan threatened protesters in a boisterous speech in Sincan, an Ankara suburb that is a stronghold of his party.

"I say this very clearly: either Taksim Square is cleared, or if it isn't cleared then the security forces of this country will know how to clear it," he told tens of thousands of supporters at a political rally.

A second pro-government rally is planned in Istanbul on Sunday.

According to the government's redevelopment plan for Taksim Square that caused the sit-in, the park would be replaced with a replica Ottoman-era barracks. Under initial plans, the construction would have housed a shopping mall, though that has since been amended to the possibility of an opera house, a theater and a museum with cafes.

On Friday, Erdogan offered to defer to a court ruling on the legality of the government's contested park redevelopment plan, and floated the possibility of a referendum on it.

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Fraser reported from Ankara. Jamey Keaten in Ankara contributed to this report.

BRASILIA, June 14 (Reuters) - Neymar is an idol to Brazil fans who have pinned their hopes on the talented forward bringing success but manager Luis Felipe Scolari believes he still has to learn how to be a team player.

Scolari said Brazil will start their Confederations Cup campaign against Japan on Saturday with the same side that beat France 3-0 in their final friendly in Porto Alegre on Sunday with Neymar aiming to fashion an opening win for the hosts.

Much of the focus will be on the 21-year-old who has moved from Santos to Barcelona for 57 million euros ($76.04 million).

However, Scolari said that while he is an outstanding player who can do anything with the ball, Neymar will improve even more when he learns to develop as a true team player.

"He is a 21-year-old player, he is an idol to the Brazilian fans and he is my idol too," Scolari told a packed news conference at the Mane Garrincha National Stadium where the opening game takes place.

"He is someone who can dictate the game, he can run, pass, he can get past opponents. But he will become even better when he plays as a team player, but this can take time.

"Right now I am very pleased with what he has done for the team, he has done everything asked of him, but he can and will get better as he gets older and more experienced."

Brazil, and their World Cup-winning coach Scolari, have come in for widespread criticism from the media after an average set of results since he replaced Mano Menezes last November.

Their win against France, described by local media as laboured, poor, erratic and disappointing, at least gave Scolari a second victory and a platform for the tournament.

Scolari said he wants the Brazilian supporters to get behind his side and put pressure on the players to succeed.

"The fans can make a difference, they can put pressure on us which motivates and helps us," he said.

"I am very confident we will do well. I have seen the attitude of the players, it is very positive.

"We get a lot of respect for our football outside Brazil, now it is time for us to get some respect at home and I think we will during this tournament." ($1 = 0.7496 euros) (Reporting by Mike Collett; editing by Ken Ferris)

Gordon Gee also took shots at schools in the Southeastern Conference and the University of Louisville, according to the recording of the December meeting of the school's Athletic Council that The Associated Press obtained under a public records request.

The university called the statements inappropriate and said Gee is undergoing a "remediation plan" because of the remarks.

Gee apologized in a statement released to the AP.

"The comments I made were just plain wrong, and in no way do they reflect what the university stands for," he said. "They were a poor attempt at humor and entirely inappropriate. There is no excuse for this and I am deeply sorry."

Gee, who has taken heat previously for uncouth remarks, told members of the council that he negotiated with Notre Dame officials during his first term at Ohio State, which began more than two decades ago.

"The fathers are holy on Sunday, and they're holy hell on the rest of the week," Gee said to laughter at the Dec. 5 meeting attended by Athletic Director Gene Smith and several other athletic department members, along with professors and students.

"You just can't trust those damn Catholics on a Thursday or a Friday, and so, literally, I can say that," said Gee, a Mormon.

The Big Ten had for years courted Notre Dame, but the school resisted as it sought to retain its independent status in college football. In September, the school announced that it would join the Atlantic Coast Conference in all sports except football. It also agreed to play five football games each year against ACC teams.

In the recording, Gee referred specifically to dealing with the Rev. Ned Joyce, Notre Dame's longtime executive vice president, who died in 2004.

"Father Joyce was one of those people who ran the university for many, many years," Gee said.

Gee said the Atlantic Coast Conference added Notre Dame at a time when it was feeling vulnerable.

"Notre Dame wanted to have its cake and eat it, too," Gee said, according to the recording and a copy of the meeting's minutes.

Notre Dame spokesman Dennis Brown called the remarks regrettable, especially the reference to Joyce, "who served Notre Dame and collegiate athletics so well and for so long."

Gee contacted Notre Dame's president, the Rev. John Jenkins, to offer an apology that was accepted, Brown said Thursday in an email.

The Athletic Council meets monthly during the fall, winter and spring and makes recommendations on athletic policy including ticket prices. December's meeting was at Ohio Stadium.

Gee was introduced by Athletic Council then-chairman Charlie Wilson, and Gee's name and introduction are included in written minutes of the meeting. Gee's comments drew laughter, at times loud, occasionally nervous, but no rebukes, according to the audio.

Ohio State trustees learned of "certain offensive statements" by Gee in January, met with the president at length and created the remediation plan for Gee to "address his behavior," board president Robert Schottenstein said in a statement.

Comments by a university leader about "particular groups, classes of people or individuals are wholly unacceptable," Schottenstein said. "These statements were inappropriate, were not presidential in nature and do not comport with the core values of the university."

Gee has gotten in trouble before for offhand remarks, most recently during a memorabilia-for-cash and tattoos scandal that cost football coach Jim Tressel his job. Tressel had known about allegations that players were trading game paraphernalia for money and tattoos but didn't tell the university.

Gee was asked in March 2011 whether he had considered firing Tressel. He responded: "No, are you kidding? Let me just be very clear: I'm just hopeful the coach doesn't dismiss me." Tressel stepped down three months later.

In November 2010, Gee boasted that Ohio State's football schedule didn't include teams on par with the "Little Sisters of the Poor." An apologetic Gee later sent a personal check to the real Little Sisters of the Poor in northwest Ohio and followed up with a visit to the nuns months later.

Last year, Gee apologized for comparing the problem of coordinating the school's many divisions to the Polish army, an off-the-cuff remark that a Polish-American group called a "slanderous" display of bigotry and ignorance.

In 1992, in a moment of frustration over higher education funding, Gee told a student newspaper reporter, "the governor's a damn dummy." Then-Gov. George Voinovich laughed it off and the two became allies in the push for more education dollars.

Gee has one of the highest-profile resumes of any college president in recent history. He has held the top job at West Virginia University, the University of Colorado, Brown University and Vanderbilt University. He was Ohio State president from 1990 to 1997, and returned in 2007. He earns about $1.9 million annually in base pay, deferred and performance compensation and retirement benefits.

He is a prolific fundraiser and is leading a $2.5 billion campaign at Ohio State. He is omnipresent on campus, attending everything from faculty awards events to dormitory pizza parties. He is known for his bow ties he has hundreds and his horn-rimmed glasses.

During his comments to the Athletic Council, Gee also questioned the academic integrity of schools in the Southeastern Conference, and the University of Louisville.

The top goal of Big Ten presidents is to "make certain that we have institutions of like-minded academic integrity," Gee said. "So you won't see us adding Louisville," a member of the Big East conference that is also joining the ACC.

After a pause followed by laughter from the audience, Gee added that the Big Ten wouldn't add the University of Kentucky, either.

During the meeting, Gee also said he thought it was a mistake not to include Missouri and Kansas in earlier Big Ten expansion plans. Missouri has since joined the SEC.

"You tell the SEC when they can learn to read and write, then they can figure out what we're doing," Gee said, when asked by a questioner how to respond to SEC fans who say the Big Ten can't count because it now has 14 members.

Gee noted he was chairman of the SEC during his time as Vanderbilt University chancellor. He also told his audience that speculation about the SEC "remains right here," according to the recording.

Gee took a swipe at Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany, one of the most powerful leaders in college athletics, when he answered a question about preserving Ohio State's financial interests in light of Big Ten revenue-sharing plans.

"No one admires Jim Delany more than I do I chaired the committee that brought him here," Gee said. "Jim is very aggressive, and we need to make certain he keeps his hands out of our pockets while we support him."

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Associated Press writer John Seewer in Toledo contributed to this report.

The decision comes a month after The Associated Press published an investigation that showed many cars built by the world's biggest automakers and sold in Brazil had significantly fewer safeguards than the same or similar models sold in the U.S. and Europe.

The AP found that Brazilians die at four times the rate as Americans in passenger car wrecks and that fatalities rose more than 70 percent in Brazil in the past decade while falling 40 percent in the U.S. Independent tests have been conducted in Germany on Brazil's most popular car models, and the results are bleak. Four of Brazil's five top selling cars failed their crash tests the fifth has yet to be tested.

Dr. Dirceu Alves at Abramet, a Brazilian association of doctors who specialize in treating traffic accident victims, said he thinks a crash-test center will improve safety.

"There is no doubt about the importance of this lab. We cannot believe in the quality controls of the automakers alone," he said. "We believe it will be one of the factors in reducing the number of traffic fatalities."

The Brazilian government has recently begun to implement tougher safety standards for its auto industry. But critics have pointed out that without its own crash test center, the government has no means of verifying automaker claims on impact safety.

"Until now, when it came to the auto industry there was nothing the government was testing," said a Brazilian government official, who agreed to discuss the situation only if not quoted by name because he wasn't authorized to talk about the crash-test center plans.

The official said the government hopes to have the $50 million crash test center operating by 2017. He noted it was a "politically sensitive" topic in a nation where the auto industry plays a big role in the economy. Brazil's government has repeatedly slashed consumer taxes on cars in recent years in an effort to bolster the nation's economic outlook.

A second official, from the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade, which will oversee the building and operation of the crash-test center, also confirmed plans for its construction.

A ministry document indicating plans for the center indicates that it will be built on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro and that automakers could provide part of the funding for its operation and even use the center, which led experts to raise concerns about whether the lab can truly be independent. Further details about the center were not given.

ANFAVEA, Brazil's national association of automakers, said it had no comment about plans for the center. In talking to the AP previously about Brazil's poor safety record, automakers said their cars meet the country's safety laws.

As one example, only next year will Brazil begin requiring frontal air bags and antilock braking systems on all cars safety features that have been standard in industrial countries for years.

Brazil, Latin America's biggest economy, will also have new impact regulations, on paper at least. But without a crash-test center, regulators cannot verify automakers' claims about vehicle performance. There are no independent labs in the nation, as there are in Europe, U.S. and other areas.

Auto engineers, some working for big automakers, have said the dangers of Brazilian cars come down to basics: the lack of body reinforcements, lower-quality steel in car bodies, weaker or fewer weld spots to hold the vehicles together and car platforms designed decades before modern safety advances.

Consumer advocates in Brazil have complained about what they say is a double standard in the treatment of carmakers. Manufacturers earn a 10 percent profit on Brazilian-made cars, compared with 3 percent in the U.S. and a global average of 5 percent, according to IHS Automotive, an industry consulting firm.

Despite those profits, cars like the Nissan March compact sold in Brazil received a two-star rating from the Latin New Car Assessment Program, which has carried out crash tests on cars made in Brazil. The version sold for about the same price in Europe, the Micra, scored four stars. Safety experts say that's the difference between dying in or surviving frontal-collision wrecks.

There is cautious hope the planned government crash-test center will begin improving autos, but some experts warned that it isn't a complete solution.

"It's a good thing that there will be an independent crash laboratory, but that doesn't mean that cars will be better or safer," said Alejandro Furas, technical director for the Global NCAP. "A crash laboratory is an incredible tool, but there have to be regulations regulations in Brazil are behind."

Most notably, Brazil's auto safety regulation lacks a "conformity of production" clause that requires automobile safety performance be spot checked for the entire time the model is produced. Without that rule, car models in Brazil only have to meet impact regulations once.

Further, Furas said that if automakers helped fund the Brazilian government's facility, then it won't be "really independent at all."

About 40 million Brazilians moved into the middle class during the past decade with more income than ever to buy their first car. But as auto sales boom in Brazil, so have the number of accidents and deaths.

An analysis of Health Ministry data shows that 9,059 car occupants died in vehicle crashes in Brazil in 2010. That same year, 12,435 people in the U.S. were killed in car crashes, although the U.S. passenger car fleet is five times larger than Brazil's. The result: Brazilian automobile crash victims died at four times the rate as those in the U.S.

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Associated Press writers Marco Sibaja in Brasilia and Jill Langlois in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

Larry Goodwin, 62, was driving a tractor near his home south of Waco when he disturbed a pile of wood that contained a hive of the notoriously aggressive bees; eight people have been killed by the bees since 1990, thereports.

"You can't believe how bad they are. They make me want to get out of this business," Allen Miller, owner of Bees Be Gone, who later destroyed the hive, told the Tribune. []

"They can get up under your clothes where no other insect can go," Miller said. "In a hive of ordinary European bees, about 10 percent will attack if the hive is threatened, but with African bees, all of them attack you."

Eight to 10 stings per pound of body weight are considered lethal, according to the Texas Agricultural Extension Service. Goodwin's family members toldthat there was no part of his body that was not covered in bee stings.

When science goofs

The introduction of Africanized honeybees into the Western Hemisphere was the result of a scientific experiment gone awry, according to a Texas A&M University report.

In 1956, Warwick Kerr, a honeybee geneticist with the University of So Paulo, Brazil, imported African bees (Apis mellifera scutellata) to study. His intention was to selectively introduce traits such as disease resistance and faster reproductive rate into native honeybees.

But a handful of the African bees escaped into the wild, where they interbred with native bees to produce bees with traits primarily derived from their dominant African forbearers (traits of the more docile native bees tended to be recessive and therefore lost), leading to the term "Africanized honey bees." []

The bees spread rapidly from Brazil and are now found throughout South and Central America. Hives have been reported in the United States in Florida and across the South and Southwest into Southern California.

If attacked, run

Though the bees aren't predatory, they become very aggressive when defending their hive, and minor disturbances like a lawn mower or a moving car even as far away as 100 feet (30 meters) can trigger an attack.

And Africanized honeybees aren't picky about where they build a hive. Old tires, junk piles, building eaves, cement blocks, upturned flower pots and even empty soda cans have been occupied by the bees, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

In the event of a , victims are advised to run as fast as they can toward an enclosed area like a car or building; even though some bees will follow, most will be shut out.

Protect your face and head as much as possible from stings by covering your head with a shirt or jacket. And do not jump into water (such as a swimming pool) to escape the bees they will wait at the surface for their victim to come up for air, according to Texas A&M University.

Stings from Africanized honeybees aren't more venomous than stings from native honeybees, but victims tend to be stung dozens or hundreds of times.

Goodwin, who was reportedly stung more than 1,000 times, was pronounced dead at the scene. A woman and her daughter who tried to help were also hospitalized with dozens of stings, KCENTV.com reported; firefighters who responded to a 911 call were also attacked.

One redeeming quality

Researchers have noticed that Africanized honeybees seem to be isolated in their current range by temperature and rainfall, according to the USDA.

They cannot survive a cold winter, and they seem to dislike steady, year-long rainfall. "Rainfall over 55 inches, distributed evenly throughout the year, is almost a complete barrier to [Africanized honey bee] spread," entomologist Jos D. Villa of the Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology Research Unit in Baton Rouge, La., toldmagazine..

While attacks by the bees remain very rare, Miller told KCENTV.com that he's seen at least five cases of Africanized hives in the past month, more than he usually sees all year.

As loathed as they are, the Africanized bees might have one redeeming quality: They could hold the key to solving the problem of bee , a deadly syndrome that's wiping out native bee populations throughout North America and Europe.

Though the Africanized bees can carry thethat have been implicated in colony collapse disorder, they have considerable resistance to the mites, unlike native honeybees. If researchers could isolate the trait that gives the Africanized bees their resistance, they may be able to save native honeybee populations.

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TOKYO (Reuters) - Mystery shadows "A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea", a novel about a girl growing up in rural post-revolutionary Iran while dreaming about her identical twin sister and the wonderful life she must be leading in the United States - if she is alive at all.

Crowded security lines at Tehran's airport, shouting, a girl chasing her twin as a woman in a long coat holds her hand. That is the memory Saba Hafezi clings to after her mother and sister vanish in a haunting tale by Dina Nayeri.

Nayeri left Iran at the age of ten for the United States. She grew up in Oklahoma and worked as an investment banker before starting to write fiction, first collaborating with her brother on a series of young adult books. This is her first adult novel.

Nayeri, who said her book was sparked by a trip to Greece that brought many memories to the surface, spoke to Reuters about writing, exile and its impact on storytelling.

Q: Why twins and why tell the story from the point of view of the one left behind?

A: When I was first thinking of the idea, I was a little bit obsessed with the idea of what I would have been like if I'd stayed in Iran, what my life would have turned out to be. I started thinking about writing about two sisters, one of whom stayed in Iran and one who went to America, to have their lives be parallel, to have both of them be real and living their lives in the different ways.

I wanted there to be this magical realism where all the parallels in their lives would be happening through some kind of magic of twinness. Eventually, after several drafts and a couple of years working on it, I realized it would be much more powerful if it was the story of one of the sisters, about longing for the other life -- to have that element of loss and longing. Then I started thinking the story I really wanted to tell was the one in Iran.

Q: People have always said being away from a place allows you to write about it more clearly. Did this help you come to terms with having left Iran, is that part of it?

A: Yes and no. I definitely unearthed that longing inside myself but I also found all the ways I could fulfill that here. I found a lot of Iranian communities, really exiled Iranians, and compared their experiences to mine. I discovered music and food and all these wonderful things. In that sense, I came to terms with the results of this. On the other hand, it does make me want to go back more. I interviewed people with just beautiful stories and I have so many friends who every summer go back. It makes me sad that I don't quite feel safe going back yet. I think one day I will and that's where it's all headed.

Q: What was the hardest part of writing this and what was the easiest, the most fun?

A: The hardest part -- there are two different aspects of it. The first was just trusting myself as a writer, because all my education and adulthood was in the business world and I didn't know what it would take to be a good writer. There was a lot of studying on my own. At one point I went on Amazon and ordered 50 prize-winning novels of the last five years. It was fun, but it was hard to get that confidence in my voice and discover the voice of the novel.

I don't know that any part of it was easy but the most fun part was all of the interviews and all of the details and stories I was gathering from people. I'm a natural extrovert and so I don't like solitude as much as most writers, I love to be around people. So calling up dozens and dozens of people and getting them to tell me stories, making sense of it and writing up little scenes and sending it back to them, seeing if they'd be okay using it, that was the most delightful part.

Q: Every family has stories they tell - how does the whole idea of exile affect the stories that are told?

A: Obviously storytelling is a very human thing and it's universal, but in my family, we were such huge storytellers even beyond that. There was never any time when somebody wasn't telling a story or begging for a story. I think what happened as a result of exile is that some of those became mythologized.

I remember that stories from home dried up because we were no longer at home and having that kind of access. Suddenly that pool of stories kept getting repeated over and over again until they took on this mythic element in my mind. I really believe there are some stories in my family history that are just full of lies now because they've taken on a magic quality that can't possibly be ... There are things that just become more storybook as years pass and you have no more access to those people, particularly people that have passed on in the 25 years since I've been away - for example, my grandfather.

He would tell stories constantly. He would sit in the little town square in the village with the other old men and smoke the hookah and they would talk and talk. Some of the things he said and did, and some of the things from his youth, might as well be from a storybook now, they can't possibly be real.

(Reporting by Elaine Lies; editing by Patricia Reaney)

Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg's death Monday presents the state's popular Republican governor with a series of decisions that carry consequences beyond who will serve as New Jersey's next U.S. senator. While Republicans and Democrats alike will be watching Christie's next moves closely, there's no telling what the governor who has staked out a reputation for going his own way will do.

"I give him praise on a life well-lived," Christie said of the Democratic senator with whom he frequently tangled. The governor made the comment during an appearance at a women's conference and then canceled the rest of his public schedule Monday, clearly mindful of the high stakes involved in choosing Lautenberg's successor.

Christie has wide latitude to choose Lautenberg's successor but it would be unusual for him to select a Democrat. Four states require the governor to choose a member of the outgoing senator's political party but New Jersey is not among them. With Lautenberg's death, the Senate now has 52 Democrats, 45 Republicans and two independents who often side with the Democrats.

For Christie, who has enjoyed strong approval ratings, picking the wrong successor might reflect poorly on him as he looks to win by a large margin against Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono, who is considered an underdog against the well-known governor. Choosing a conservative might help him with national Republicans but could undercut his moderate bona fides, which have helped him connect with independents and Democrats in his state.

In the longer term, the wrong person could irk Republican leaders in Washington and activists in early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. If Christie selects a Republican with views that are out of step with the GOP base someone who supports abortion rights or gun control, for instance it might hurt Christie with party stalwarts. The appointee's vote could tip the balance on issues like immigration reform, which the Senate is expected to begin debating in the weeks ahead.

Christie's appointee also could offer a window into the governor's own thinking on issues and thrust Christie into an ongoing fight between establishment Republicans and the GOP's tea party wing.

The governor, who has brought a blunt-speaking independent streak to the Republican Party, took flak from fellow Republicans when he appeared alongside President Barack Obama on the Jersey Shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which struck the state about a week before the 2012 election. He appeared again with Obama last week to promote the Jersey Shore's recovery and repeatedly has spoken of the need for politics to be set aside for the good of his state.

Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the U.S. Senate Republicans' campaign committee, said the governor has "demonstrated time and again that he will do what he believes is best" for his home state.

Picking a Democrat to carry the torch from Lautenberg however unlikely might win him bipartisan love in liberal-leaning New Jersey but would enrage Republicans already suspicious of Christie's chummy relations with Obama after Sandy. Christie has maintained good relations with Newark's Democratic mayor, Cory Booker, who decided to run for Senate instead of challenging Christie, but appointing the media-savvy Booker might be viewed as treasonous to Republicans.

"I don't envy the governor on his decision," said Julie Roginsky, a New Jersey-based Democratic strategist.

If Christie is looking for a well-regarded placeholder, he could turn to former Republican Gov. Tom Kean, who served two terms as governor from 1982 to 1990 and served as chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

Other Republican possibilities include Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, likely viewed as Christie's heir apparent if the governor runs for president; Kean's son, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., who was defeated by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez in 2006; state Sen. Joe Kyrillos, a Christie ally who was defeated by Menendez last year; former Gov. Christie Whitman; state Sen. Kevin O'Toole; or Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., has also been mentioned.

Roginsky said appointing a caretaker Republican like Kean, the moderate former governor, would not be viewed favorably by Republican leaders or party activists in early presidential voting states. But appointing a hard-core conservative "would definitely hurt him at home" as he runs for re-election.

While Christie appoints a senator to fill Lautenberg's seat, it's unclear when that new senator would face an election. Even that process carries risks for Christie.

He could decide to hold a special election in November, but the presence on the ballot of Booker, the likely Democratic Senate nominee, might drive more Democratic turnout and affect Christie's ability to win big against Buono. If Christie says the next Senate election should wait until 2014, the governor runs the risk of a hand-picked Republican getting trounced by Booker only months before launching a presidential bid.

Dayspring said a 2013 contest could mean a "potentially ugly and quick" primary between Booker, who already had announced a Senate bid, and potential challengers like Reps. Frank Pallone and Rob Andrews. A 2014 race, he said, would allow a Republican appointee to "build trust and name identification with voters."

The state's laws on choosing a successor appear to be contradictory. One provision says that if a vacancy occurs more than 70 days before a regularly scheduled statewide general election, the vacancy would be filled on the next statewide general election Nov. 5, 2013 when Christie will be on the ballot. But another law says the election would be held during the next general election only if the vacancy occurs 70 days before the state's primary, which was being held Tuesday. In that case, the Senate election would be held in November 2014, when Lautenberg's seat was scheduled to be considered by voters. The late senator had said he would not run for re-election.

National Republicans say they want the Senate election to be held in 2014 and hope Christie appoints a GOP official who will run for the seat outright. The thinking: It would give the appointee more than a year to serve in the Senate and build a record that might help the person in the Democratic-tilting state.

New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972. The last Republican to serve in the Senate was Nicholas Brady, who was appointed by Kean in 1982 to finish the term of Democrat Harrison Williams, who resigned amid scandal in the last year of his term. Lautenberg won the seat later that year and remained in the Senate until his death, except for a brief retirement in 2001 and 2002.

Many governors have taken the placeholder route in recent years: Ted Kaufman, a longtime aide to Joe Biden, was appointed to the Senate when Biden became Obama's vice president; Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick chose his former chief of staff, William "Mo" Cowan, to fill Secretary of State John Kerry's Senate seat on an interim basis until after a special election.

Other appointments have turned into political liabilities. Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, withstood criticism from Latinos for appointing then-Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to a Senate seat in January 2009 to replace Ken Salazar, who became Obama's interior secretary.

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Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Follow Geoff Mulvihill on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

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Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield. Angela Delli Santi contributed from Trenton.

The audio released by the Los Angeles County Fire Department casts new light on the June 5 incident at the Jackson's family residence in Calabasas, California, which prompted a judge who oversees her guardianship case to order an investigation into her "health, education and welfare."

The call between emergency dispatchers indicated that Paris took 20 Motrin tablets, an over-the-counter pain medication, and cut her arm with a kitchen knife.

The minute-long audio clip also described the teenager as awake and breathing before being rushed to a local hospital.

Paris and her two brothers Prince Michael and Prince Michael II, also known as Blanket, live under the court-ordered custody of their 83-year-old grandmother, Katherine Jackson, and cousin, T.J. Jackson, the son of Jackson's older brother Tito.

Michael Jackson died in 2009 at age 50 from a lethal dose of the surgical anesthetic propofol.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff ordered an investigator to "address the status of the minor child, Paris Michael Katherine Jackson, and recent media reports concerning her welfare," according to court documents filed after the she entered a hospital last week.

Katherine Jackson's attorney, Perry Sanders, said last week that Paris was "physically fine."

Sanders' office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Jackson has recently rekindled her relationship with her biological mother, Debbie Rowe, who was married to Michael Jackson from 1996 to 1999 and turned over custody of her two children with him as part of their divorce.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; editing by Patricia Reaney and Christopher Wilson)

Shortly after our divorce, he married a woman he had been carrying on an affair with while married to me. Since their wedding she has not allowed him to enter my home beyond the front door, be alone with me for any reason regardless of what we need to discuss, and he rarely calls to talk with our son anymore -- all at her "request."

He has also informed me that she's "not comfortable" with the idea of us communicating unless she is part of the conversation. I think she is being silly and immature, and he claims to agree, but he wants to keep the peace.

I explained to him that even though he may allow her to dictate his life, she will not be dictating mine. If I feel I need to speak with him about something, I do not have to include her. Am I wrong? I am in no way trying to cause a problem in their marriage. I have decided that whatever answer you give I will abide by as I respect your opinion greatly. -- NEEDS AN ANSWER IN TEXAS

DEAR NEEDS AN ANSWER: The current "Mrs." is acting more like a jailer than a wife, but then, she knows what your ex is capable of if he gets past the front door or has private conversations with another woman.

This is happening because she perceives you as still a threat. That your former husband allows her to exert this amount of control is unfortunate. The distancing from his son is happening because he is permitting it, and the loser here is the little boy.

You're not wrong, but if the only way your son can have a relationship with his dad is for this woman to be ever-present, then bite your tongue and go along with it for as long as this marriage lasts or your ex summons up enough backbone to set his No. 2 straight.

DEAR ABBY: My sisters and I look out for our "Aunt Lil," who is in her late 70s and never had children. Physically and mentally she's fine right now. She quit driving a few years ago, but that had more to do with the price of gas than her driving ability. We run errands for her, take her to appointments, etc.

Our question: For most of her life, Aunt Lil has kept up a steady correspondence with many people all over the world. When I say she has pen pals everywhere, I'm not exaggerating. When the time comes and she is gone, how should we notify her friends?

I think a simple form letter would be fine, but my sisters think each person should be notified individually, either with a phone call or a personal letter. Abby, there are 100 people she writes to and those are just the ones we're aware of! Your thoughts would be appreciated. -- AUNT LIL'S GIRLS

DEAR GIRLS: Considering that people live longer these days, I wouldn't write off Aunt Lil too quickly. Because she still has all her faculties, ask her how she wants it handled. She may prefer to write her own farewell note to be mailed after her death. ("By the time this reaches you, I will have gone to that great stationery store in the sky ...")

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

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: "Abby's Favorite Recipes" and "More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

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Hundreds of different device models produced by many manufacturers run the Android operating system, the firm wrote on its website. App developers not only need to ensure that their apps display and function well on all of those devices, but they also need to contend with the fact that most devices are running an old version of Android because the processes for pushing Android updates out to the installed base of Android devices are not nearly as efficient as those for pushing iOS updates to iOS device owners.

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Not only is Apple winning the race in device usage, but it is also winning when it comes to profits and developer attention. Android has managed to capture the attention of emerging markets with its lower priced devices, however, something .

There are multiple contests for mobile market share occurring simultaneously, Flurry explains. That raises a question about whether that is a temporary state that will eventually give way to a clear overall winner or if there can be multiple long-term winners. For the moment it seems as though the consumer is winning in that they are able to choose devices from two dominant ecosystems as well as several smaller ecosystems.

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