NEW YORK (Reuters) - San Francisco and Houston were chosen on Tuesday as host cities for the 2016 and 2017 Super Bowls after National Football League (NFL) team owners voted for the two ahead of Miami.

The San Francisco Bay Area will host the 50th Super Bowl in early 2016 at Levi's Stadium, the brand new home of the 49ers, which is still under construction.

Then Houston will stage the 51st edition of the sport's championship game in early 2017 at Reliant Stadium, the home of the Texans.

Miami, which had already hosted the Super Bowl a record-tying 10 times, was the odd city out in a three-way contest.

The South Florida bid was doomed after Miami Dolphins owner Stephen Ross was unable to secure enough state funding to redevelop the team's 26-year-old stadium.

"(Tuesday's) decision doesn't dampen our enthusiasm to pursue Super Bowls in the future, since we are steadfast in our belief that those games are good for the South Florida community," Ross said in a statement.

The only previous time the Super Bowl was played in the Bay Area was in 1985, when the 49ers beat the Miami Dolphins at Stanford Stadium.

The 49ers, one of the NFL's most successful teams, won the last of their five championships in January 1995 but made the Super Bowl last season, losing to the Baltimore Ravens in New Orleans.

The northern California city is in the midst of a golden period in sport with the San Francisco Giants winning the Major League Baseball World Series two of the last three seasons.

The city's spectacular Bay is the host site for this year's America's Cup yachting series while the space-age Levi's Stadium is being built in Santa Clara, just south of San Francisco.

The stadium will seat nearly 70,000 people and will feature stadium-wide Wi-Fi, streaming video, mobile connectivity, in-seat tablet holders and huge high definition video boards measuring over 13,000 square feet.

The bid had the backing some of the biggest industry names in Silicon Valley, such as Apple, Google and Yahoo and a 2010 report estimated the Super Bowl would generate between $300 million and $500 million for the region.

"It's an awesome, awesome thing that they've allowed one of the biggest games, the golden anniversary, to be played in the golden state," 49ers chief executive Jed York said.

"We look forward to NFL fans from around the globe enjoying our region and our stadium, the likes of which cannot be found anywhere else in the world."

Houston will be hosting the game for the third time after 1974 and 2004.

"This is a worldwide stage that will be constructed in Houston and the world will be watching," Houston Texans owner Bob McNair said.

"It's an opportunity to showcase our wonderful city, the NFL and the Super Bowl all at the same time."

The next Super Bowl will be held in February 2014 in East Rutherford in New Jersey, the home of the New York Giants and New York Jets, while the 2015 game will be held at the University of Phoenix Stadium, the home ground for the Arizona Cardinals.

(Editing by Gene Cherry)

Kemp, who has a .251 batting average with two home runs and 17 runs batted in after 51 games this season, was injured while chasing a ball during the Dodgers' 4-3 loss to the Los Angeles Angels on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Frank Pingue in Toronto; Editing by Mark Lamport-Stokes)

And so there were lots of bare-shouldered, shivering ballet patrons clutching their long, silky trains and hurrying past the red-carpet cameras Monday night at American Ballet Theatre's annual spring gala, an event that ranks high on the city's social calendar.

The evening also kicks off the company's eight-week season, and Monday's program at the Metropolitan Opera House was a jam-packed run-through of ABT's big hits, most in brief excerpt form, to show off the company'sconsiderable stable of talent. This greatest-hits format is a staple of gala evenings, but it can feel quickly overwhelming like too much dessert with no main course.

The artistic highlights of the evening, though, turned out to be not the quick hits, with all their physical pyrotechnics, but the two full ballets on offer: a rousing rendition of George Balanchine's classic "Symphony in C," which hadn't been performed by ABT in a decade, and Alexei Ratmansky's "Symphony (hash)9," part of a trilogy of ballets by the popular Russian choreographer to the music of Dmitri Shostakovich (the other two parts will be unveiled later this month).

The program began with a small section of "Onegin," by the choreographer John Cranko. The excerpt, while featuring the always stellar Diana Vishneva, was not nearly sufficient to give a sense of the ballet's dramatic power. More enjoyable was what followed: a spirited performance by young students of the ABT-affiliated Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, introduced by actress Sigourney Weaver.

In a short snippet of that gala standard, "Le Corsaire," the flamboyant Ivan Vasiliev entertained the crowd with his high leaps, though he was missing his usual partner, onstage and off, the injured Natalia Osipova. But the company's deep bench of talented dancers was really on full display in the next piece, "Symphony (hash)9," an intricate and challenging work that featured an especially notable performance from the elegant and buoyant Herman Cornejo.

Gillian Murphy made a too-brief appearance in Frederick Ashton's "Sylvia," and the veteran ballerina Julie Kent looked lovely performing in a short new piece with partner Roberto Bolle, "Apotheose," choreographed by dancer Marcelo Gomes to Beethoven's Symphony No. 7. (Gomes, who had danced earlier in the evening, came out in a dapper tux for the curtain call.)

After a quick highlight from "Sleeping Beauty," with David Hallberg and newly minted principal dancer Hee Seo, a cast of dozens performed all four movements of "Symphony in C," with a particularly lively rendition of the fast-paced third movement by Isabella Boylston and Daniil Simkin.

And then the crowd those in the shimmery ballgowns and tuxes, at least filed into a white tent to reach a gala dinner next door, shivering yet again, but ready to party.

Crabtree, San Francisco's leading receiver last season when they reached the Super Bowl before being beaten 34-31 by the Baltimore Ravens, injured his right Achilles during an organized team activity on Tuesday.

"(Coach) Jim Harbaugh tells media @KingCrab15 has torn Achilles tendon but has had successful surgery. Crabtree not expected to miss full season," the 49ers tweeted on Wednesday.

"We feel like someone is going to emerge there," Harbaugh later told reporters about the challenge facing the 49ers' younger receivers in Crabtree's absence.

Crabtree, 25, caught 20 passes for 285 yards and three touchdowns in last season's playoffs after setting career-best marks with 1,105 yards, nine touchdowns and 85 receptions during the regular season. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Gene Cherry)

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James Clancey is the man behind gMusic, the most popular Google Music app on iOS. Clancy sprung into action after hearing Googles announcement, determined to bring the subscription music streaming service to iPhone and iPad users. He submitted an updated version of his app to Apple on Monday, and it will hopefully be available shortly.

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For iOS users looking to access Googles new streaming music service, gMusic is available for $1.99 in the App Store for devices running iOS 5 or higher.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Delving into the controversial relationship between government and religion, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether a town in New York could allow members of the public, who in practice were nearly all Christian clergy, to open meetings with a prayer.

Two residents sued Greece, New York, in 2008, saying it was endorsing Christianity, a violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state.

Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens said the vast majority of prayer-givers since the practice started in 1999 were Christian ministers. Attendees would often be asked to join in or bow their heads, they alleged.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 1983 case, Marsh v. Chambers, that legislative sessions could begin with a prayer in most circumstances, citing the "unique history" of the practice throughout U.S. history.

The new case gives the nine justices the opportunity to outline "neutral principles" that would allow government entities to hold prayers without violating the Constitution, said Marci Hamilton, a First Amendment expert at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York.

"The hard part for the court is drawing the boundary lines," she added, predicting a close vote among the justices. "I have no doubt it will be a 5-4 decision."

Despite the 1983 precedent, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ruled against the town. A district court had previously supported the town's position by dismissing the lawsuit filed by Galloway and Stephens.

1989 PRECEDENT

The appeals court, in an opinion by Judge Guido Calabresi, cited another Supreme Court case from 1989, which he said, "suggested that legislative prayers invoking particular sectarian beliefs" could violate the Constitution.

Although the town did in theory allow anyone to volunteer, it "neither publicly solicited volunteers to invocation nor informed members of the general public that volunteers would be considered or accepted," Calabresi said.

He stressed that the court was not saying that government bodies can never open a session with prayer.

A total of 18 states and 49 members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined briefs asking the court to take the case.

The Alliance for Defending Freedom, a group that describes itself as an advocate for the rights of people to express their faith, is spearheading the town's legal fight.

The group's lawyers point out that the town has never regulated the content of prayers and did not discriminate in selecting prayer-givers.

"A few people should not be able to extinguish the traditions of our nation merely because they heard something they didn't like," Brett Harvey, one of the town's lawyers, said in a statement.

Galloway and Stephens have the support of another advocacy group, Americans United For Separation of Church and State.

Rev. Barry W. Lynn, the organization's executive director, said that a town council meeting "isn't a church service and it shouldn't seem like one."

Oral arguments and a decision are expected in the court's next term, which begins in October and ends in June 2014.

The case is Town of Greece v. Galloway, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-696.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller, Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman)

Orders for durable goods, items expected to last at least three years, rose 3.3 percent last month from March, the Commerce Department said Friday. That followed a 5.9 decline in March.

A measure of business investment plans increased 1.2 percent. And the government revised the March figure to show a 0.9 percent gain, instead of a slight decrease.

Companies ordered more machinery and electronic products last month, typically signs of confidence. More spending by businesses could ease fears that manufacturing could drag on the economy later this year.

Factories had been seeing fewer orders at the start of the year, in part because slower global growth had reduced demand for U.S. exports. Economists had also worried that across-the-board federal spending cuts and higher taxes might prompt businesses to cut back on orders.

Paul Ashworth, an economist with Capital Economics, said the April report suggests economic growth is holding up. He predicts growth in the April-June quarter will be at a rate of 2 percent to 2.5 percent. That's not much lower than the 2.5 percent rate reported for the January-March quarter.

Still, the payoff from the pickup in business investment may not come until the end of the quarter. That's because the government looks at shipments when it measures the gross domestic product, not orders. And shipments of goods that signal investment plans fell in April, reflecting weaker demand at the start of the year.

"Business investment appears to have started the second quarter on a weak note but should rebound over the final two months of the quarter," he said.

The April increase pushed total orders to $222.6 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis. That is 6.5 percent above the level of a year ago.

Orders for transportation goods gained 8.1 percent, reflecting a 16.1 percent jump in demand for commercial aircraft and a 53.3 percent increase in orders for military aircraft. Orders for motor vehicles increased 1.9 percent.

Excluding the volatile transportation category, orders rose 1.3 percent in April. That followed a 1.7 percent decline in March.

Still, other reports showed that factories continued to struggle in April.

The Institute for Supply Management reported factory activity barely expanded in April, held back by weaker hiring and less company stockpiling.

And manufacturing output dropped 0.4 percent last month, the Federal Reserve reported earlier this month. Auto companies cranked out fewer cars, factories made fewer consumer goods and most other industries reduced output.

One bright spot for the economy has been the American consumer, who has shown surprising resilience this year despite paying higher Social Security taxes.

Consumer spending rose from January through March at the fastest pace in more than two years. Auto sales have been rising over the past year. And Americans boosted their spending at retailers in April, from cars and clothes to electronics and appliances.

A better job market and a sustained recovery in housing have helped soften some of the impact of the tax increase. Since November, employers have added an average 208,000 jobs a month. That's up from just 138,000 jobs a month during the previous six months.

The overall economy grew at an annual rate of 2.5 percent in the January-March quarter, buoyed by the fastest rise in consumer spending in more than two years. Many economists believe growth is slowing to around 2 percent in the current April-June quarter and could stay near or slightly above that level for the rest of the year.

According to The New York Times, "the culture of hacking in China is not confined to top-secret military compounds where hackers carry out orders to pilfer data from foreign governments and corporations." Instead, the practice is commonplace, openly discussed "at trade shows, inside university classrooms and on internet forums."

The Ministry of Education and Chinese universities, for instance, join companies in sponsoring hacking competitions that army talent scouts attend, though "the standards can be mediocre," said a cyber-security expert who works for a government institute and handed out awards at a 2010 competition.

Corporations employ freelance hackers to spy on competitors. In an interview, a former hacker confirmed recent official news reports that one of China's largest makers of construction equipment had committed cyber-espionage against a rival. []

Yet China's relaxed attitude toward cyber-espionage could partially explain why U.S. companies have been the targets of a growing number of hacks from overseas. Earlier this year, , which security experts traced back to Shanghai and the People's Liberation Army, which was purportedly gathering intel regarding a Times story set to be published about top-ranking Chinese officials.

Indeed, the threat of cyber-warfare is a growing concern domestically. Out of fear of an imminent, serious cyber-attack — or perhaps one that's already underway — The Vergethat a former group of government officials and private executives are calling on Congress to "consider passing laws allowing U.S. companies to 'counterattack' against such hackers, whoever they may be."

The controversial idea of giving U.S. companies legal protections to "hack back" against intruders on their networks has been proposed before by some legal experts and companies, and some companies are even alleged to already be engaging in the practice, despite the fact that there is no legal framework in the U.S. permitting it. But the new recommendations from Huntsman's group may be the highest-profile yet, as they come from former Obama Administration officials. []

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The Republican-controlled House has been trying to force President Obama to approve a permit for the pipeline since he put the project on hold a year before the 2012 election, saying it needed further review. That pleased his environmental supporters, who see the project as a serious blow to efforts to deal with climate change.

Obama even denied a permit for the project requested by Canadian builder TransCanada after Republicans pushed through a bill giving him just two months to decide on it. TransCanada has since submitted a new permit application, but despite the seven House votes to approve the project, its status is exactly where it was two years ago: pending a decision from the State Department, which has jurisdiction because the pipeline crosses the U.S.-Canadian border.

Even the projects most ardent supporters in the Senate see little hope of getting Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., to move the bill to the floor and put the Senate in a position to force the presidents hand.

I think we need to keep pressure on the administration, said Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Whether its through what the House is doing with their vote, what were doing on the Senate side, sending letters, teeing things up, trying to insert amendments. Its been difficult because the leadership in the Senate has pushed back on us.

One of the few outspoken Democrats for the project in the Senate is confident of floor action, but it may be a case of freshman navete. I think were all waiting and all very hopeful that what were going to see is a presidential approval, said Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D. If we dont see it, I think you can expect there will be some unilateral action taken by the Senate.

But what exactly that unilateral action would be is an open question. Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., have introduced legislation that would automatically approve the pipeline. While Reid wont bring up the bill on his own accord, proponents could seek to force a vote on the measure by attaching it to another bill. The options are limited, however.

Hoeven and Heitkamp, a cosponsor, are unlikely to try to add the bill as an amendment to the farm bill the Senate is now considering, given that they both want to see that measure pass. Next up after the Memorial Day recess is the immigration bill, which is already controversial enough without being entangled with the Keystone pipeline.

The looming fight over the debt-ceiling limit is an option Republicans could pursue if they deem it a high enough priority. But Reid would likely do all he could to keep Keystone and other controversial issues out of the mix.

I have no doubt he [Reid] will take the necessary steps to prevent something like Keystone from being attached, said Chris Miller, who until January was the Democratic leaders top aide on energy and climate issues.

If the Senate does vote on the Hoeven-Baucus bill, its unlikely to get the necessary 60 votes to overcome a filibuster. Republicans note that a 62-37 vote for a resolution on the pipeline in March had support from 17 Democrats, but some of them say it was merely a resolution stating the project would have a positive impact on the budget.