GE Capital Retail Bank issues the CareCredit card and contracts with about 160,000 health care providers nationwide who offer it to patients to finance treatment.

State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said the agreement limits charges by dentists, doctors or other health care providers in advance and requires clearer disclosure of the higher interest rates that kick in if charges are not paid off at the ends of promotional periods. The settlement ended an investigation by the office's Health Care Bureau that followed consumer complaints.

"The explosion of medical credit card debt is a major concern for many New Yorkers, particularly low- and middle-income households and vulnerable seniors," Schneiderman said. "The problem is made even worse by those who encourage high-pressure sales tactics in our health care settings and companies who charge outlandishly high interest rates."

GE Capital said CareCredit has worked with the attorney general's office over the past three years to resolve its concerns.

"As it has for 26 years, CareCredit remains committed to providing credit and financing options to New York residents and millions of families across the U.S. that enable them to plan and pay for elective healthcare procedures," GE Capital communications vice president Dori Abel said in a written statement.

According to the settlement agreement, CareCredit is the largest issuer of consumer health care financing in the U.S.; dental practices comprise approximately 60 percent of its business and about 65 percent of the card consumers apply in their dental or medical offices. CareCredit has authorized about 7,800 health care providers in the state to accept the card, which has been issued to more than 535,000 New York residents.

The company offered two financing options: Consumers paid no interest if they paid off their balances in full within the deadline of six, 12, 18 or 24 months or paid a rate of 14.9 percent with fixed monthly payments.

While 90 percent of consumers chose the no-interest option, one-quarter of those failed to pay off their balances in time and were hit with the 27 percent interest rate, frequently because they didn't understand the terms, the agreement said, citing Schneiderman's findings.

"These problems are more acute when providers charge the entire treatment plan up front, even before starting treatment," the agreement said.

The agreement also said that CareCredit "will not give kickbacks, rebates, compensation, or in-kind services" to any health care provider in exchange for its success in generating card business.

The Obama administration said this week that it will give lethal aid to Syrian rebels in light of evidence that President Bashar Assad's forces used chemical weapons in the country's civil war.

In Moscow, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the material does not include guarantees that it meets the requirements of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. He said the organization specifies that samples taken from blood, urine and clothing can be considered reliable evidence only if supervised by organization experts from the time they are taken up to delivery to a laboratory.

The OPCW is the autonomous body for implementing the international Chemical Weapons Convention that went into effect in 1997. Its website says Syria is one of six countries that have not signed or acceded to the convention.

A spokesman for the organization, based in The Hague, Netherlands, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Lavrov, after meeting with his Italian counterpart Emma Bonino, scoffed at suggestions that Assad's regime would use chemical weapons now in light of its apparent growing advantage against the rebels.

"The regime doesn't have its back to the wall. What would be the sense of the regime using chemical weapons, moreover at such a small quantity?" he said.

Russia has blocked proposed U.N. sanctions against Assad's regime and acknowledged last month that it has contracted to supply advanced S-300 air-defense missiles to Syria. But President Vladimir Putin and other officials say the policies do not constitute overt support for Assad.

EAST HAMPTON, New York (Reuters) - Judging by early demand for everything from doggie daycare to Ferrari rentals and fine art, rich Americans are going to make this a strong summer in one of their favorite playgrounds - the beach towns on the eastern end of Long Island collectively known as the Hamptons.

With stock prices surging, home prices recovering, and borrowing costs low, there is a renewed sense of confidence among the wealthy and the merely well off. It may not be conspicuous consumption of "The Great Gatsby" kind but it could be the best season since the financial crisis slammed the U.S. economy in 2008.

It is "new" money coming in that is making the difference, since the "old" money in the Hamptons never really stopped flowing, at least in terms of the ultra-wealthy spending on things like food, wine and household staff.

But discretionary spending did slow down over the past few years, so it's making a noticeable comeback now for vendors like Mark Humphrey, who has owned a gallery on Main Street in Southampton for more than 30 years.

"We had a good winter, and that just never happens. We are usually barely open," he says.

Last summer, he had a lot of browsers, but they rarely opened up their wallets. Suddenly over the past few months, he has been contacted by some of those window shoppers who were finally ready to buy, and he has sold 10 paintings at $5,000 to $10,000 since December.

It is a similar story for American Bull Rentals, which is for the first time expanding into the Hamptons with its rentals of mechanical bulls to bring the rodeo experience to house parties and fundraisers.

"I have a sliding scale, and for Hamptons calls, whatever amount I tell them, they say 'whatever, send the contract,'" says Mike Marrazzo, owner of Prestige Excursions, based in Bellmore, New York, which operates the service.

While rentals in other areas might run $1,400, he's getting $2,800 to $3,000 for his Hamptons bookings.

So far in 2013, luxury spending is correlating highly to the stock market. Both the latest study from the American Affluence Research Center and American Express's Survey of Affluence and Wealth in America, found that spending on second homes, vacation travel, dining in restaurants and new luxury cars is increasing.

BRING YOUR OWN STAFF

In the Hamptons, second homes can range from a cottage in East Hampton for $1.4 million to an 11,760-square foot mansion in Sagaponack for $13.5 million, with seven bedrooms, 10.5 baths, a swimming pool, tennis court, outdoor kitchen and lower-level entertainment center.

There are about 1,200 active sales listings right now. The Corcoran Market Report for the Hamptons for the first quarter of 2013 showed that the number of sales was up 20 percent over last year but average sale prices were down nearly 10 percent, because there haven't been a lot of high-priced sales so far this year. The next report comes out in July.

Prices may be heating up. With locals whispering about Jennifer Lopez scouting properties in the area - and the New York Post reporting that she dropped $10 million on an estate in Water Mill - the summer season is just getting going.

As for rentals, there are still some available, but owners are not negotiating and they are going fast, says real estate agent Tom Friedman.

Friedman says his busy season started early this year - he usually doesn't get calls about summer rentals until mid-January, but this year they started in November, right after Hurricane Sandy, which largely spared Hamptons beaches. It didn't trickle off until mid-April, and now he's getting last-minute callers. They don't mess around with seeing dozens of places and looking for bargains, but instead jump on whatever is available - whether it is $20,000 per month for a small cottage or $550,000 for a beach-front estate.

That price probably includes a driveway, but in the Hamptons, there is daycare for your Bentley instead so it doesn't get damaged by the salt air. Good luck finding a space, though. The Bridgehampton Motoring Club, which has slots for 45 vehicles at two locations, is at capacity for now, says co-owner Adam Bellin,

The same goes for renting a Ferrari 458 Italia over the coming Memorial Day weekend for around $2,500 a day from Imagine Lifestyles Luxury Rentals, which services the northeast. The company is sold out of their entire fleet of Ferraris, Bentleys, Porsches and BMWs for the weekend. "We're definitely up this year. People are spending money, and demand is outweighing supply," says co-CEO Ryan Safady, who is based in Pennsauken, New Jersey

Also at capacity: doggie daycares and domestic services. "Memorial Day is busier than usual for us," says April Cullum, manager of the Hampton Pet Club, which has daytime care and overnight "hotel-like" accommodations for up to 35 dogs. She has her usual standing reservations that she's had for the past few years - dog owners who have an annual party and send the dogs out for the night, weekend Hamptonites who board their pets during the week - but also a whole influx of new dogs.

Hampton Domestics owner Vincent Minuto is turning away callers. New summer folk, he says, should bring their own help with them.

The rich are also spending on others. Lavish benefits are a hallmark of the Hamptons social scene, and so far things are going phenomenally well, according to Ruth Appelhof, executive director of Guild Hall in East Hampton, the area's chief arts venue. Overall, her fundraising is up 56 percent since 2009, and the big rise has come in the last year.

In March, a fundraiser honoring the retirement of the chairman of the board of trustees, Melville "Mickey" Straus, raised $2.5 million in one evening, when previous spring fundraisers only made about $500,000. "Mickey wanted to make sure we paid off the mortgage before he left," says Appelhof, noting the special draw of the event. Guild Hall was able to use $1.5 million to close out the balance of a $17 million renovation that it had been fundraising for since 2001, years ahead of schedule.

"We're feeling flush these days, but that's not to say we don't struggle every day to fundraise to keep our programs going," Appelhof says.

(Follow us @ReutersMoney or at http://www.reuters.com/finance/personal-finance; Editing by Lauren Young, Martin Howell and Claudia Parsons)

The strategic partnership, announced on Thursday, means that WPP and its agencies such as GroupM and Kantar, will use Twitter's data trove to gain insight into customer behavior to pinpoint where to spend its ad dollars.

"Twitter's relevance continues to grow - not only as a social platform, but also as a window into consumer attitudes and behavior in real time," WPP CEO Martin Sorrell said in a statement.

With more than 200 million users, Twitter has made serious efforts in recent months to court Madison Avenue as a means to boost its revenue to better compete with rivals Facebook and Google.

In April, Twitter struck up a partnership worth hundreds of millions of dollars with the Publicis Groupe's Starcom MediaVest Group.

(Reporting by Jennifer Saba in New York; Editing by Maureen Bavdek)

DURBAN (Reuters) - Congo, Ivory Coast and Tunisia took giant leaps on Saturday towards winning their World Cup qualifying groups although they were all overshadowed by the exploits of a resurgent Ethiopia.

A 2-1 victory in Botswana for Ethiopia means they are also in line to secure a place in the final phase of the African preliminaries if they win again next weekend.

First-half goals from Getaneh Kebede and Saladin Seid, his fourth of the campaign, kept Ethiopia top of Group A with 10 points from four matches.

They are two points ahead of 2010 World Cup hosts South Africa, their next opponents.

Ethiopia qualified for the 2013 African Nations Cup after an absence of more than three decades and proved difficult opponents in the finals.

South Africa won 3-0 in the Central African Republic to keep alive their hopes in a match played in neutral Cameroon because of the precarious situation in Bangui where the government was recently overthrown by rebel fighters.

Congo and Tunisia lost their 100 percent records but away draws inched them closer to winning their respective groups.

Giant defender Christopher Samba withdrew on the eve of the game but Congo held neighbours Gabon to a 0-0 draw in Franceville to earn a six-point lead over their second-placed opponents in Group E.

Third-placed Burkina Faso, on three points, can close the gap when they play in Niger on Sunday.

A late equaliser from Fakhreddine Ben Youssef gave Tunisia a 2-2 draw at closest challengers Sierra Leone and a five-point lead in Group B.

The Tunisians can clinch top spot by winning in Equatorial Guinea next weekend.

TOURE GOAL

African Footballer of the Year Yaya Toure was among the scorers as Ivory Coast triumphed 3-0 in Gambia to take their points tally in Group C to 10 from four games.

Morocco also beat Tanzania 2-1, leaving the Ivorians four points clear with two matches to play.

Zambia retained their one-point lead over 2010 World Cup quarter-finalists Ghana in Group D after sinking Lesotho 4-0.

Ghana won 3-1 in Sudan on Friday with two goals from Asamoah Gyan.

Papiss Cisse put Senegal ahead in Angola in Group J but Guilherme Afonso equalised to earn a 1-1 draw, the fourth in as many matches for his team.

Senegal lead Uganda by one point with Angola and Liberia one point further back.

Six more qualifiers will be played on Sunday.

The 10 group winners go through to the playoffs in October and November to determine the five African qualifiers for Brazil 2014.

(Editing by Tony Jimenez)

Webb told The Associated Press that she's still dating AJ McCarron, but that's as far as it goes for now.

"We're doing great," she said.

As for a possible engagement, Webb said: "No, I promise you, you guys will know when that time comes."

Webb has been photographed wearing a big rock on her ring finger, sparking speculation the two were getting married. Webb was also wearing a ring during an appearance at the Regions Tradition golf tournament in Birmingham.

Webb, 24, gained fame during the BCS title game in January as she watched McCarron lead Alabama over Notre Dame. Cameras focused on her, and announcer Brent Musburger commented on her appearance.

"My life literally changed in a matter of 24 hours," she said.

Webb has subsequently made appearances on TV including the ABC reality show "Splash," in which she participated in a diving competition.

"Right now I'm really just focusing on doing more charity work," she said. "I have more of a platform to be able to do that."

Webb, a graduate of Auburn University, said she is particularly interested in working with young girls, "which is really dear to me."

Webb attended the tournament to pose for photos with fans to raise donations for Children's of Alabama, a Birmingham-based hospital.

The list, which measures an ecosystem's risk of collapse, will be similar to the group's authoritative , which created internationally accepted criteria for assessing extinction risk.

"The Red Lists for species and ecosystems will together provide a more comprehensive view of the status of the environment and its biodiversity than either can on its own," said lead study author David Keith, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Australia.

"Thefocuses on a high level of biodiversity, the habitats for species, as well as their interactions and dependencies, including food webs, Keith told OurAmazingPlanet in an email interview. These are difficult or impossible to address in Red List assessments of individual species, but very important for the functioning of ecosystems and the services that they provide to support our standards of living."

Through 20 case studies, Keith and an international team of biologists and conservationists designed criteria that could assess the health of all of Earth's varied , from spring-fed limestone caves to sparkling coral reefs.

"This is really a unifying framework," said study co-author Richard Kingsford, also a professor at the University of New South Wales. "The most important thing here, from my point of view, is providing evidence that pushes governments to do things to protect these magnificent parts of the world."

Of the ecosystems examined in the case studies, the most endangered site was the . Drained by a massive irrigation project and further devastated by drought and pollution, the inland sea's ecosystem has collapsed the equivalent of species extinction, the study concludes.The rest of the ecosystem threat categories mirror those for species: critically endangered, endangered, vulnerable and least concern.

North American ecosystems appearing in the case studies included Alaska's giant kelp forests; the Great Lakes' rare Alvar beaches, a legacy of glaciers grinding across the landscape; and Caribbean coral reefs.

The IUCN group that developed the Red List of Ecosystems criteria plans to formally propose the framework to IUCN leadership this year. Funding is in place for listing ecosystems in the Americas, and the organization hopes to have a global list in place by 2025.

Development of ecosystem and speciesare also underway the carrot to the Red Lists' stick to help the IUCN promote conservation by rewarding successes.

Here are the 20 case studies published today, from most to least endangered, with the ecosystem type noted if available.

Emailor follow her . Follow us, & . Original article on .

A prominent expert called the work a landmark, but noted that a different, simpler technique now under development may prove more useful.

Stem cells can turn into any cell of the body, so scientists are interested in using them to create tissue for treating disease. Transplanting brain tissue might treat Parkinson's disorder, for example, and pancreatic tissue might be used for diabetes.

But transplants run the risk of rejection, so more than a decade ago, researchers proposed a way around that: Create tissue from stem cells that bear the patient's own DNA, obtained with a process called therapeutic cloning.

If DNA from a patient is put into a human egg, which is then grown into an early embryo, the stem cells from that embryo would provide a virtual genetic match. So in theory, tissues created from them would not be rejected by the patient.

That idea was met with some ethical objections because harvesting the stem cells involved destroying human embryos.

Scientists have tried to get stem cells from cloned human embryos for about a decade, but they've failed. Generally, that's because the embryos stopped developing before producing the cells. In 2004, a South Korean scientist claimed to have gotten stem cells from cloned human embryos, but that turned out to be a fraud.

In Wednesday's edition of the journal Cell, however, scientists in Oregon report harvesting stem cells from six embryos created from donated eggs. Two embryos had been given DNA from skin cells of a child with a genetic disorder, and the others had DNA from fetal skin cells.

Shoukhrat Mitalipov of the Oregon Health & Science University, who led the research, said the success came not from a single technical innovation, but from revising a series of steps in the process. He noted it had taken six years to reach the goal after doing it with monkey embryos.

Mitalipov also said that based on monkey work, he believes human embryos made with the technique could not develop into cloned babies, and he has no interest in trying to do that.Scientists have cloned more than a dozen kinds of mammals, starting with Dolly the sheep.

The new work was financed by the university and the Leducq Foundation in Paris.

Dr. George Daley, a stem cell expert at Children's Hospital Boston who didn't participate in the work, called the new results "one landmark step in a very long journey" toward creating DNA-matched transplant tissue.

Now, Daley said, scientists must compare the embryo-cloning approach with another technology that reprograms blood or skin cells directly into substitutes for embryonic stem cells. This reprogramming approach is technically simpler and doesn't involve embryos or require the donation of human eggs, and it was widely acclaimed when it was reported in 2007. Its Japanese developer shared a Nobel Prize last year.

But these substitute cells show some molecular differences compared to embryonic ones, which has led to questions about whether they can safely be used for treating patients. So it's essential to compare the cells from the two methods, Daley said.

The new results mean "we have another tool," he said. "We have to learn more about this tool."

Daley said he believed scientists will prefer using the reprogramming approach unless it can be proven "beyond a shadow of a doubt" that embryo cloning produces better cells for treating patients.

Mitalipov said he believed his technique would present a particular advantage for treating patients with a certain type of rare diseases. These are caused by mutations in genes of the mitochondria, the power plants of cells. He noted his technique, unlike the cell-reprogramming approach, would supply tissue with new mitochondrial genes that could replace defective ones. Those new genes would come from the egg.

The Rev. Tad Pacholczyk, director of education for National Catholic Bioethics Center, an independent think tank in Philadelphia, reiterated his opposition to embryo cloning, calling the approach unethical.

"It involves the decision to utilize early human beings as repositories for obtaining desired cells," he said. "You're creating them only to destroy them."

Marcy Darnovsky, executive director of the Center for Genetics and Society in Berkeley, Calif., said she was glad that Mitalipov doubted the embryos could be used to clone babies. She said the report still provides a good opportunity for the federal government to ban the use of cloning for reproduction.

___

Online:

Journal Cell: http://www.cell.com/

___ Malcolm Ritter can be followed at http://www.twitter.com/malcolmritter

The 27-year-old aced the 11th and seventh as he shot a seven-under-par 65 to finish with a two-under-par total of 142, 11 behind leader Matteo Manassero of Italy.

Manassero, 20, winner of last week's PGA Championship at Wentworth, also carded a 65 for 131.

"The shot at the 11th, my second hole, kick-started things," Dodt told reporters. "I made a few more birdies in between, then a couple of bogeys and I was heading the wrong way when I got to the seventh.

"That was an eight-iron, it felt a little bit heavy at the start but it was right on line and went in. I can't get my head around it - I'm pretty proud to be the first one to do it.

"I didn't putt very well today so I'm glad I was able to hole with a long club."

Dodt has one previous European Tour victory to his credit, the 2010 Avantha Masters in India.

(Writing by Tony Jimenez; Editing by Ken Ferris)

PARIS (Reuters) - A battle between French luxury handbag makers spilled out into the public eye on Friday with market regulators seeking the maximum fine for Louis Vuitton owner LVMHfor failing to disclose moves to build a stake in rival Hermes .

The row centers around deals, first disclosed in late 2010, by LVMH owner and France's wealthiest man Bernard Arnault that have left the firm with a roughly one fifth stake in its biggest rival, the producer of the iconic Kelly and Birkin handbags.

Arnault, who has built LVMH by steadily acquiring other brands over the last decade, says he is happy to remain a long-term shareholder while some industry observers say he may be playing a long game in the hope of someday convincing Hermes' family owners to sell out.

Hermes owners have fought tooth and nail against Arnault, however, since discovering LVMH had built up an initial 14 percent stake.

Regulator AMF said on Friday that LVMH's dealings regarding its stake building in Hermes were opaque and represented grave misconduct which could even be regarded as "fraudulent behavior".

LVMH, which now owns 22.6 percent of Hermes, surprised the stock market in October 2010 when it announced it had a 14 percent stake, gained partly via derivatives that allowed it to not declare its holding.

The AMF said LVMH should have disclosed in its accounts the size of its exposure to Hermes shares through equity derivatives acquired in 2008 as well as the fact it had a Hermes stake of just under 5 percent acquired in 2001 and 2002.

In France, companies are required to disclose when they take a stake worth more than 5, 10 and 15 percent of a another company's capital if the target is listed on the stock market.

Hermes is also challenging LVMH's stake building in a separate court procedure. The AMF finding will not have any impact on the court case, but still represents a boost to Hermes' case.

The amount of the fine, 10 million euros ($13.05 million), is small change for a group whose market value is around 70 billion euros but the regulator's decision is a public relations setback for Arnault, who owns some 60 luxury brands.

HERMES ATTRACTION

Arnault owns Louis Vuitton, the world's biggest luxury brand in terms of revenues, together with a string of fine wine and spirits makers including Hennessy cognac and Moet & Chandon champagne.

He has built the group into a global powerhouse in the space of 15 years by acquiring brands including Guerlain and Chateau d'Yquem. Hermes' own spectacular growth into a brand worth over 3 billion euros in annual sales has wetted his appetite.

The hearing revealed that the world's biggest luxury group had as early as 2007 and 2008 mandated Lazard and Rothschild bankers to look into the possibility of acquiring control of Hermes and strike an alliance with some family shareholders.

Since making public its Hermes holding, LVMH has consistently denied seeking control of Hermes and denied any wrongdoing in terms of financial disclosure and transparency.

Hermes is controlled by three families, the Puech, the Dumas and Guerrand who together represent more than 75 descendents of Emile Hermes who founded the company in 1837 as a harness and saddle maker.

They responded to LVMH's stake build-up by creating a holding that controls 51 percent of the company though the AMF's inquiry also disclosed that the biggest Hermes family shareholder Nicolas Puech had sold some of his shares to LMVH.

That puts into question Hermes' public assertion that the family was united in the battle against LVMH.

Earlier on Friday, the AMF said it would look into LVMH's call for the judicial process to be made invalid but it would not halt the process. The AMF's sanctions committee is due to respond within a matter of weeks to the regulator's findings and proposed fine.

(Reporting by Astrid Wendlandt and Pascale Denis; Editing by Christian Plumb and Patrick Graham)