The increase is the result of the government last year lowering the threshold for lead poisoning, so now more children are considered at risk.

Too much lead can harm developing brains and can mean a lower IQ. Lead poisoning used to be a much larger concern in the United States, but has declined significantly as lead was removed from paint and gasoline and other sources.

The new number translates to about 1 in 38 young children. That estimate suggests a need for more testing and preventive measures, some experts said, but budget cuts last year eliminated federal grant funding for such programs.

Those cuts represent "an abandonment of children," said David Rosner, a Columbia University public health historian who writes books about lead poisoning.

"We've been acting like the problem was solved and thiswas a thing ofthe past," he added.

Lead can harm a child's brain, kidneys and other organs. High levels in the blood can cause coma, convulsions and death. Lower levels can reduce intelligence, impair hearing and behavior and cause other problems.

Most cases of lead poisoning are handled by tracking and removing the lead source, and monitoring the children to make sure lead levels stay down. A special treatment to remove lead and other heavy metals is used only for extremely high levels.

Often, children who get lead poisoning live in old homes that are dilapidated or under renovation. They pick up paint chips or dust and put it in their mouth. Other sources include soil contaminated by old leaded gasoline, dust from industrial worksites and tainted drinking water

Lead has been banned in household paint since 1978 and was gone from gasoline by the late 1980s.

After lowering the standard, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention went back and looked at old blood tests from 1,653 children under 6 to determine how many would have lead poisoning under the new definition.

About 3 percent of them or about 50 kids had blood lead levels higher than the new threshold of 5 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood. Using that result, CDC officials calculated that an estimated 535,000 young children have lead poisoning.

A year ago, when the threshold was 10 micrograms, experts estimated that somewhere between 77,000 and 255,000 young kids had high levels of lead.

These estimates have focused on children younger than 6, who have been considered most at risk of neurological problems due to lead.

Overall, the new CDC study found lead counts were higher on average in children who were poor or African-American, said the CDC's Mary Jean Brown, an author of the study.

Those kids are more likely to live in old housing or in neighborhoods with greater exposure to lead, she added.

The good news: Even with the lower threshold, lead poisoning appears to still be declining. Years ago, some local health departments began tracking the number of kids with blood levels at 5 or greater, and they say those numbers have been dropping steadily.

However, it's likely that many children with lead poisoning have not been diagnosed. In the CDC study, elevated lead levels were discovered for a third of the children only when they were tested by researchers.

"When you look for it, you find it," Columbia's Rosner said.

Once lead poisoning is diagnosed, doctors often refer parents to local health departments to get their homes checked out to try to find the source of the problem. But as demand for investigations grows, there's less money to pay for them. Congress last year cut CDC lead program's budget from about $29 million to $2 million. That ended CDC grants to local health departments for their programs.

Detroit's lead program was all but eliminated because of the federal cut and state and local funding problems, said Bob Scott of Michigan's lead poisoning prevention program.

Other places are struggling to keep up with lead work at the same time they are cutting staff. The Cleveland area has been aggressive about lead poisoning prevention but the loss of CDC funding hurt those efforts.

For example, Cuyahoga County which includes Cleveland saw its staff for blood testing of children and public education drop from 2 1/2 positions to 1.

"It's unsustainable," said Terry Allan, the county's health commissioner.

____

Online:

CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr

* Nets expected more after upgrading roster (Adds details, recasts)

May 5 (Reuters) - The Brooklyn Nets will not offer a new contract to interim head coach P.J. Carlesimo, commencing the search for a new coach one day after being eliminated from the playoffs, General Manager Billy King said on Sunday.

After spending some $350 million to upgrade their roster for their debut season in Brooklyn, the Nets had loftier expectations than a first-round ouster by the injury-hit Chicago Bulls in a Game Seven on the Nets' new home court.

They re-signed starters Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace and traded with the Atlanta Hawks for All-Star Joe Johnson. Despite reaching the playoffs for the first time since 2007, the Nets did not go as far as they hoped.

"The Brooklyn Nets organization would like to thank P.J. for his efforts with the team in his roles as both head coach and assistant, and for his contributions to the team's success both on and off the court," King said in a statement.

"We wish P.J. and his family only the best in the years to come."

Carlesimo, 63, went 35-19 in the regular season, winning 12 of his first 14 games, after taking over in December from the fired Avery Johnson, who had lost 10 of 13 games as the Nets slipped to 14-14.

Brooklyn finished 49-33 for second place in the Atlantic Division.

But after earning the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference, the Nets flopped in their first-round series, falling 99-93 to Chicago in their do-or-die Game Seven to the disappointment of home fans and ownership.

Carlesimo has an NBA career record of 239-315, also serving as a head coach with Portland, Golden State and Seattle/Oklahoma City. His record in the playoffs is 6-13.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Gene Cherry)

The 14-time All-Star ran, played catch and hit off a tee before signing autographs for around 40 fans, though he was not prepared to set a timetable for his major league return.

"I'm working 24/7 to get back on the field," Rodriguez told reporters after beginning a 30-day rehabilitation schedule put together by his doctors and team officials. "There's no surprise - the way the season ended last year was very embarrassing.

"It was very tough on me, and obviously, (for) our team, it was devastating, the sweep against Detroit. I have a lot of unfinished business. I'm looking forward to getting back and helping my team win," added Rodriguez who went 3-for-25 with no extra-base hits last postseason.

Asked if he was likely to return to the Yankees this season, the 37-year-old Rodriguez replied: "I really hope so. That's as specific as I'll get."

The injured third baseman linked up with several other banged-up Yankees players in Tampa, including Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis and Francisco Cervelli.

"We always talk about it, injuries are part of the game, but God dang, this is crazy," Rodriguez said of the large group of his injured team mates. "I've never seen anything like it. It's remarkable." (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

Themade its world premiere as a museum exhibit on Friday (May 3) at Space Center Houston, the privately-run, official visitor center for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Texas. While not a NASA mission, the Red Bull Stratos team included a number of the space agency's veterans, including former space shuttle flight surgeon Jonathan Clark, who served as the project's medical director.

On Oct. 14, 2012, Baumgartner lifted off inside the helium balloon-lofted capsule to an altitude of about 24 miles (39 kilometers) over New Mexico, where he then jumped to a parachute-assisted touchdown 10 minutes later. During his free fall, Baumgartner accelerated to a top speed of Mach 1.25 (844 mph or 1,358 km/h), making him the first person to break the speed of sound with only his body. []

Delayed several days by weather, the supersonic feat was achieved by coincidence on the 65th anniversary of test pilot Chuck Yeager first breaking the speed of sound aboard the Bell X-1 rocket-powered aircraft in 1947.

Baumgartner's so-called "jump from the edge of space" he was nearly 40 miles (64 km) shy of the actual edge of space broke two additional records: the highest manned balloon flight and the highest altitude jump, the latter previously set in 1960 by Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger. Kittinger, 84, served as Baumgartner's mentor and his Capcom, or capsule communicator, at the Red Bull Stratros Mission Control.

A replica of Kittinger's "Project Excelsior" unpressurized gondola is on display at thein Dayton, Ohio.

"Joe Kittinger's gondola in 1960 was like a Model T practical and very durable," Red Bull Stratos capsule crew chief Jon Wells said after Baumgartner's record-breaking flight. "With very sophisticated, sensitive equipment and all the 'luxuries' of cutting-edge technology, our Red Bull Stratos capsule was more like a modern supercar. From every standpoint, including a technical one, it really did its job."

includes the 2,900-pound (1,315 kg) Stratos capsule, which descended under its own parachute to a "soft" landing about 55 miles (88.5 km) due east from where it was launched. Visitors can look, but not go inside the 11-foot high (3.35 m) by 8-foot wide (2.4 m) capsule to see where Baumgartner rode during the ascent and where he exited to jump.

The pressure suit is the same one Baumgartner wore during the jump, one of only three that were produced. It was built by the David Clark Company, the same manufacturer which also made Kittinger's historic pressure suit and the spacesuits worn by NASA's Gemini astronauts. David Clark also produced the pressure suits worn aboard theand U-2 high altitude jets, as well as the launch and entry suits used by the astronauts on the space shuttle.

Guests touring the "Mission to the Edge of Space" exhibit can learn more about Baumgartner and his dive through a series of display panels, including audio listening stations equipped with iPads and video screens that surround the capsule.

"Jump into an incredible behind-the-scenes exhibition revealing the passion, physics and scientific significance of this unprecedented event," Space Center Houston said on its website. "Red Bull Stratos is part of Space Center Houston's ongoing mission to inspire students to consider careers in the fields of math and science."

to see more photos from Space Center Houstons Mission to the Edge of Space Red Bull Stratos exhibit.

Follow collectSPACE.com onand on Twitter at @. Copyright 2013 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.

Turkey's largest cell phone operator filed a $4.2 billion lawsuit in Washington last year alleging the Johannesburg-based company used bribery to win a mobile license in Iran that was first awarded to Turkcell.

But the court delayed the case in October pending a U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Alien Tort Statute, the U.S. human rights law on which Turkcell's suit is based.

In April, the high court limited the ability of foreign plaintiffs to invoke the 200-year old law without a strong U.S. connection to the conduct.

In a Wednesday filing, lawyers for Turkcell asked to dismiss the case in light of the Supreme Court ruling.

(Reporting by Aruna Viswanatha; Editing by Carol Bishopric)

Abdur Razzak Khan worked as the Rana Plaza owner's consultant when the owner made the illegal addition atop his five-story building, police official Ohiduzzaman said Friday. Khan was arrested Thursday on a charge of negligence.

Owner Mohammed Sohel Rana called Khan to inspect the building after it developed cracks on April 23, local media reported. That night Khan appeared on a private television station saying that after his inspection he told Rana to evacuate the building because it was not safe.

Khan, a former engineer at Jahangirnagar University near Savar, said he drew attention of the government engineers for the building to be examined further.

Police ordered the building evacuated, but witnesses say Rana told people gathered outside the next morning that the building was safe and that garment factory managers told their workers to go inside. It collapsed hours later.

The elected mayor of Savar municipality, Mohammad Refatullah, also has been suspended for alleged negligence in approving the design and layout of the doomed building, said Abu Alam, a top official of the local government ministry.

Alam said an official investigation has found that the mayor ignored rules in approving the design and layout. The mayor is from main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and the opposition BNP has criticized the suspension as politically motivated.

The confirmed death toll reached 501 as workers continued to pull bodies from the wreckage. The building collapse was the deadliest disaster in Bangladesh's $20 billion-a-year garment industry, far surpassing a fire late last year that killed 112 workers at a garment factory that had locked doors and no fire escapes.

Workers were carefully using cranes to remove the concrete rubble Friday morning.

"We are still proceeding cautiously so that we get the bodies intact," said Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hassan Suhwardy, the commander of the area's army garrison supervising the rescue operation.

The official number of missing has been 149 since Wednesday, though unofficial estimates are higher.

Rana was arrested earlier and is expected to be charged with negligence, illegal construction and forcing workers to join work, which are punishable by a maximum of seven years in jail. Authorities have not said if more serious crimes will be added.

The Bangladesh High Court has ordered the government to confiscate Rana's property and freeze the assets of the owners of the factories in Rana Plaza so the money can be used to pay the salaries of their workers.

Among the garment makers in the building were Phantom Apparels, Phantom Tac, Ether Tex, New Wave Style and New Wave Bottoms.

The research, conducted bycompany Syncapse, studied more than 2,000 Facebook users who had liked a brand, taking into account such factors as product spending, loyalty, propensity to recommend, media value acquisition cost and brand affinity to determine the value of a Facebook fan.

Facebook fans spend more money not only on the brands they fan ($116 more per year than nonfans), but also within the brand's sector 43 percent more, despite not having a higher income than nonfans, the study found.

Those fans are also 18 percent more satisfied with their brands than nonfriends, and 11 percent more likely to continue using the brand than nonfriends.

Following the old maxim that 20 percent of customers represent 80 percent of revenues (also known as ), the study suggests that the better you can isolate key customer segments, the more relevant your messaging can be to drive loyalty and grow revenues through targeted offers.

Brand managers should aim to interact with customers on Facebook to understand what they're passionate about, solicit their input and enable a feeling of ownership, the study advises.

There are two reasons brand managers should curry this crowd. Facebook users who like your brand are much more active in social media and are vocal about what they like and what they don't. They like to share good brand experiences, promotions and discounts, but are also likely to share a bad brand experience.

Your brand's Facebook users are your evangelists. The study recommends prioritizing yourinvestment to make sure they're happy: Ensure they feel appreciated and nurtured, and find ways to talk about your brand and share their opinion.

"The increase in average fan value is driven by fans' tendencies to be superconsumers," the report said. "Not only do they tend to be brand users first, they spend more, engage more, advocate more and are more loyal. The significant and increasing value of aaffirms past social marketing investment and mandates deeper commitment and accountability in the future."

Reach BusinessNewsDaily senior writer Ned Smith at . Follow him on Twitter @nedbsmith.Follow us @BNDarticles, Facebook or Google +.

This story was originally published on .

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Best-selling adventure author Clive Cussler, who published his first book 40 years ago, is still entertaining fans. His newest novel, "The Striker," released this month, has already sold thousands of copies.

"The Striker," Cussler's 55th book, follows detective Isaac Bell's investigation into union strikes in early 1900s coal country.

It contains many of the hallmarks of his earlier work. The story pits young Bell against another detective and his ruthless sponsor, both bent on fomenting violence between miners and industrialists. Bell does his best not to take sides as he has roughly a week to thwart a potentially bloody uprising.

Cussler, who writes with a co-author, said he will be producing more books, including one for The Fargo Adventure series, another for the underwater exploration series The NUMA Files, and a third for The Oregon Files about Juan Cabrillo and a special U.S. government sponsored group called the Corporation.

The 81-year-old author spoke to Reuters about the newest book, his method of writing and future plans.

Q: Your latest book, which is the sixth in the Isaac Bell character series, chronicles his early days as a detective at the Van Dorn agency. Why did you choose to go back in time for "The Striker"?

A: I had always wanted to do a western, just for fun. I didn't want to do one with stagecoaches, bandits and horses, and all that. So I moved it up to 1906 to get in old cars and old motorcycles, which I collect. The publisher asked me if I could continue the series because people quite like the hero Isaac Bell, which led me to write about railroads and mining for this book.

Q: The plot of the story includes great details about shipyards and coal mining. What inspired you to use this backdrop?

A: I wanted to get back to the early 1900s, when steamboats were still running on the various rivers pushing coal barges. This was an era that included the Rockefellers, Vanderbilts and Carnegies, who were heavily involved in coal. Coal was and remains a pretty big deal, and the more research I did on the subject, the more fascinating it became. I looked into the Pullman strikes and strikes around Telluride, which is where I also own a house. This is really the only series that takes place around that time.

Q: The conflict between unions and corporate owners has been longstanding. It seems that the main protagonist, Isaac Bell, who comes from a privileged background, appeared more partial to the plight of the working man. Was this intentional?

A: I thought we were probably closer to 50/50. There were crooks on both sides, and I guess there still are.

Q: Can you provide a preview of what comes next in the Isaac Bell series? Do you plan to focus more on his younger days or do you see yourself reverting back to the more established version of the character?

A: We have fun moving him around. In the next book, we are going to have him get involved in Prohibition and bootlegging. That era, of course, comes in a little later.

Q: You have four books coming out this year, including this one, that involve several of the ongoing characters. How did you conceive them and what are your plans for new characters? Any plans to slow down?

A: I should slow down since I am 81. Dirk Pitt was the series that started it all, and the publishers asked if I could develop other characters given the success of that series. The Oregon came from one of the Pitt books and we began developing a storyline around mercenaries that go around the world like Mission Impossible and the captain of that ship, Juan Cabrillo.

Isaac Bell came up because the original book, "The Chase," did very well. The publishers mentioned that there are very few husband-and-wife series out there, and so I came up with a couple that looks for treasure in The Fargo series. This is as far as I am going to go with new characters, though.

Q: Can you discuss the creative process behind your books?

A: I usually sit down with my co-author, say Jack (Du Brul), for The Oregon Files and come up with the plot. When I start a book, I often have the ending in mind but not always the middle, and we work toward filling it out.

I love to do the research - it's one of my favorite things about writing. He'll start writing, say 100 pages, and I'll pump him the information. I get the pages back to do some re-writes, and that's the process. As he gets back to writing, I may start working on another book. I wish I could retire but they won't let me.

(Editing by Patricia Reaney and Philip Barbara)

Despite their respective injury concerns, they will meet for the 16th time in a championship. Nadal leads 8-7 in their finals.

"I am not the kind of player who is stupid and says, 'I want to play against the best,'" Nadal said joking, added he would rather face an easier opponent on Sunday.

Nadal can improve upon his formidable record on the Monte Carlo red clay winner of the last eight titles and 46 consecutive match victories. He defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the semifinals on Saturday to set up a rematch with Djokovic.

The Spaniard has reached five successive finals since returning from a seven-month layoff for a left knee injury. He will go for his fourth title of the season against Djokovic, who cruised past unseeded Fabio Fognini of Italy 6-2, 6-1.

The No. 1 player showed no sign his right ankle was bothering him, two weeks after twisting it during a Davis Cup match against the United States.

"At the start of the week, the way I felt in the first match, if somebody told me I'd be playing finals, I'd be very happy to hear that," Djokovic said. "I'm handling it much better than I was at the start of the week. It has been improving and the pain has been decreasing. It's much, much less than before."

Djokovic and Nadal have not played against each other since last year's French Open final, which Nadal won. He has won their last three encounters, after Djokovic took the previous seven all of which were tournament finals. Nadal leads their head-to-head contests 19-14.

"I need to have a very optimistic mindset," Djokovic said. "I'm not going out there to play my best; I'm going out there to win. That's how I'm going to feel tomorrow."

Nadal has been on a winning roll at Monte Carlo since 2005. His last loss here was to former French Open champ Guillermo Coria in 2003, and he missed the following year because of injury.

He insists he's still some way from full fitness, despite dropping only one set so far.

"I know I need time to be 100 percent fit," said Nadal, adding he thinks Djokovic's injury was tame by comparison. "He stopped for, what, a few days for his ankle?"

Their finals have gone in cycles: Nadal won the first five; Djokovic the next seven; Nadal the following three.

"I know what I need to do," Djokovic said. "Of course, it's easier said than done."

In Grand Slam finals, Djokovic leads 3-2.

The sixth-seeded Tsonga saved four match points and he rallied back from 5-1 down to force a second-set tiebreaker before Nadal clinched the victory with a forehand winner.

"My feeling was I played a solid first set without doing anything special, but with no mistakes," said Nadal, adding that he was hampered by the windy conditions. "It's true that for me it's better if we see a little bit more sunshine."

Tsonga started strong but missed three break chances in the fourth game including one which left him shaking his head in disbelief after Nadal scooped the ball off his ankles and whipped it back down the line. The flustered Frenchman made 17 unforced errors in the first set compared to four for Nadal.

"I always try to be aggressive when I play him. It's the only way for me. If I stay back, there's no way I can win," Tsonga said. "But I can't rush to the net either because otherwise he hits a passing shot, and 90 percent of the time I lose the point. So I have to have the right mix between patience and aggressiveness."

Fognini made 26 unforced errors against Djokovic and was jeered off the court after losing his first Masters semifinal in 52 minutes.

The Italian called for a trainer at 4-1.

But he looked demoralized and at the next changeover he called for the trainer again, pointing to his left shin as the trainer sprayed and taped it. He said he hurt it playing football tennis with his coach.

Sony spokesman Steve Elzer said Friday that the film's producers are heeding official requests to remain indoors as a massive manhunt Friday virtually shut down the city and some suburbs.

Authorities suspended mass transit and asked businesses not to open as thousands of officers swarmed the streets.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra also said it was postponing its Friday night concert for a week.

"American Hustle," about an FBI sting operation in the late '70s, features Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper both stars of Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" along with Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Amy Adams.