Julien's Auctions said on Monday that it expects a signed white training robe, worn by Ali in November and December 1981 while he prepared for his final bout against Trevor Berbick, to sell for between $25,000 and $35,000 during a two-day auction starting May 31.

Ali, 71, shot to international recognition by winning the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics at age 18. He later won the world heavyweight championship in 1964 and became a socially conscious cultural icon by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Also on offer from Ali's early career is a "Most Outstanding Boxer" trophy from the 1960 American Athletic Union's boxing championships, which is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

A signed commemorative torch from the 1960 Rome Summer Games is estimated to sell for between $25,000 and $35,000.

The loquacious boxer signed the torch's light blue cannister as Cassius Clay, his birth name and Muhammad Ali, the name he adopted in 1964 after joining the Nation of Islam.

The items are from the collection of Harlan Werner, a longtime memorabilia dealer and former agent for the Ali family.

Other Ali items up for auction are autographed boxing trunks, globes and photos of the boxer with other American sports heroes, including long-time boxing rival Joe Frazier, baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio and basketball star Magic Johnson.

Other notable items in the auction include a baseball signed by Hall of Fame players Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig ($8,000-$10,000), and a signed match-used cricket bat of Indian Sachin Tendulkar ($8,000-$10,000).

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bill Trott)

The award committee said the Grammy Award-winner was "not just a singer, but a storyteller, poet, singer of praise, entertainer and verbal historian ... (who) has worked to reduce animosities between his own religion, Islam, and other religions".

N'Dour shares the 1 million Swedish crown ($153,200) prize with the Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho, who has written chamber music, orchestral works and operas and is known for combining acoustic instruments with electronic sounds.

"Saariaho is a modern maestro who opens up our ears and causes their anvils and stirrups to fall in love," the committee said.

The Polar Prize was founded in 1989 by Stig Anderson, publisher, lyricist and manager of ABBA.

($1 = 6.5286 Swedish crowns)

(Reporting by Alistair Scrutton; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

Julien's Auctions said on Monday that it expects a signed white training robe, worn by Ali in November and December 1981 while he prepared for his final bout against Trevor Berbick, to sell for between $25,000 and $35,000 during a two-day auction starting May 31.

Ali, 71, shot to international recognition by winning the gold medal in the light heavyweight division at the Rome Olympics at age 18. He later won the world heavyweight championship in 1964 and became a socially conscious cultural icon by refusing to fight in the Vietnam War in the 1960s.

Also on offer from Ali's early career is a "Most Outstanding Boxer" trophy from the 1960 American Athletic Union's boxing championships, which is expected to sell for $20,000 to $30,000.

A signed commemorative torch from the 1960 Rome Summer Games is estimated to sell for between $25,000 and $35,000.

The loquacious boxer signed the torch's light blue cannister as Cassius Clay, his birth name and Muhammad Ali, the name he adopted in 1964 after joining the Nation of Islam.

The items are from the collection of Harlan Werner, a longtime memorabilia dealer and former agent for the Ali family.

Other Ali items up for auction are autographed boxing trunks, globes and photos of the boxer with other American sports heroes, including long-time boxing rival Joe Frazier, baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio and basketball star Magic Johnson.

Other notable items in the auction include a baseball signed by Hall of Fame players Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig ($8,000-$10,000), and a signed match-used cricket bat of Indian Sachin Tendulkar ($8,000-$10,000).

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bill Trott)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks were little changed on Monday, pausing after a rally that pushed the Dow and S&P 500 to record highs last week on improving earnings and reassuring signs about the economy.

Apple shareswere among the top gainers, up 2 percent at $458.65 and giving the biggest boosts to the Nasdaq composite index and benchmark S&P.

Market watchers said there is more room for stocks to rise as investors use weakness in the market as an opportunity to add to positions.

"There were some negative sentiment heading into earnings and concerns about the spring slowdown or 'sell in May and go away,'" said Todd Salamone, director of research at Schaeffer's Investment Research in Cincinnati, Ohio.

"Also economic numbers were weak. We don't see that now. We've hit this sweet spot in economic data where numbers are better-than-expected. But on an absolute basis, they won't make the Fed unwind their support for stimulus."

Although weak economic data from the euro zone and China has caused concerns over the global growth outlook, Friday's stronger-than-expected U.S. payrolls report fueled the gains that took the indexes to record levels.

Equities have been strong so far this year, with the S&P 500 up more than 13 percent in 2013 on the back of strong corporate earnings and accommodating monetary policies that have kept interest rates low.

The Dow Jones industrial averagewas down 26.54 points, or 0.18 percent, at 14,947.42. The Standard & Poor's 500 Indexwas up 0.46 point, or 0.03 percent, at 1,614.88. The Nasdaq Composite Indexwas up 6.21 points, or 0.18 percent, at 3,384.85.

A number of bellwether names rallied on Monday, with Bank of America Corpup 2.3 percent to $12.52 and Apple Inc up 1.7 percent to $457.58. Humana Incjumped 3.4 percent to $76.45 as the S&P 500's biggest percentage gainer. JPMorgan upgraded the stock to "overweight."

But Johnson & Johnsonshares were down more than 1 percent at $84.79, weighing on the blue-chip Dow average.

BMC Software Incagreed to be acquired by a private equity group led by Bain Capital and Golden Gate Capital Corp for about $6.9 billion. Shares were up 0.2 percent to $45.50.

Tyson Foods Increported a steep drop in its second-quarter earnings, hurt as customers switched to chicken from beef to save money. The stock dropped 4.3 percent to $23.86, the biggest percentage decliner on the S&P 500.

Of the 404 companies in the S&P 500 that have reported earnings so far, 68.3 percent have beaten earnings expectations, according to Thomson Reuters data, though only 46.3 percent have reported revenue above expectations. Over the past four quarters, 67 percent of companies beat on earnings and 52 percent beat revenue estimates.

Warren Buffett said on Monday low interest rates have made bonds "terrible" investments, but stocks are "reasonably priced," and he continues to shy away from sectors such as media where he cannot predict which will thrive in the long run.

(Reporting By Angela Moon; Editing by Kenneth Barry)

Cooper has written an emotionally layered story about the frustrating effects of the disease on both patient and caregiver, which opened Tuesday night off-Broadway, in a well-done Transport Group production at the Duke on 42nd Street.

Joe Calarco's direction keeps the two actors moving naturally around the stage, and helps the audience figure out what year the Alzheimer's patient may think it is. Calarco also connects the audience to the dark humor that Cooper finds even in despairing moments.

The book and lyrics by Cooper are enveloped in moodily dissonant music by Zach Redler that reflects the mental confusion of dementia. That dissonance, combined with the way the lyrics are often spoken rather than sung, also mirrors how frequently upset the pair of characters can become with each other.Vadim Feichtner, who conducts a trio of musicians while playing the piano, provides subtle and effective musical direction.

The patient known only as Mother, (a brave performance by Catherine Cox) opens with a comical number about how annoying doctors can be, constantly asking her who the president is. Then Daughter (Leslie Kritzer) lists the contents of her suitcase for the audience mostly clothing but concludes with, "and a sense of impending doom." At age 31, she's put her life on hold to move back home to care for her mother, and soon they're arguing about who's made the greater sacrifice.

The characters are contentious, and both try to persuade the audience to take their side, when they're not arguing and getting on each other's nerves in the way that only family can.Cox is slightly manic as Mother, who knows she's forgetting things and often confused, but attributes it to "a calcium deficiency." Yet Cox wears a hint of melancholy behind her gleeful smile, creating a complex portrayal of a woman who's always been emotionally "difficult" and now finds her past disappearing during a very confusing present.

Kritzer is grounded and wry as the Daughter who patiently at first navigates the difficulties of caring for her confused yet combative mother. Kritzer becomes more openly irritable as her character wearies of her mother's impaired thought processes and prickly barbs.

Aside from a humorous but unnecessary number that Kritzer sings to the toilet she's cleaning, Cooper is strikingly accurate and sensitive in her depiction of words and actions that will be familiar to anyone who's seen the effects of Alzheimer's disease in a friend or relative. In the affecting song, "Memory Like an Elephant,"Cox sings "I can't remember half the things I know I used to know." At another time, Mother says reflectively, "It's full of emptiness, this place."

Brian Prather's scenic design and Chris Lee's lighting work harmoniously, especially when family photos lining a hallway light up, then fade away like Mother's disappearing memories. In the metaphor-laden number "Apple and Tree," Cooper provides a wrenching examination of how even a loving mother and daughter can remain embattled, with lines like, "The closer two are/The more unforgiving/So we fight and we spar/That's the cost of living."

___

Online: http://transportgroup.org

The X-51A WaveRider flew for more than three minutes under power from its exotic scramjet engine and hit a speed of Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound.

The test on Wednesday marked the fourth and final flight of an X-51A by the Air Force, which has spent $300 million studying scramjet technology that it hopes can be used to deliver strikes around the globe within minutes.

The previous three flights ended in failure or didn't reach the intended speed.

Though the WaveRider was designed to reach Mach 6, or six times the speed of sound, program officials were satisfied with its performance in the latest test.

"It was a full mission success," program manager Charlie Brink of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base said in a statement.

The sleek, missile-shaped WaveRider was released from a B-52 bomber 50,000 feet above the Pacific and was initially accelerated by a rocket before the scramjet kicked in.

It reached Mach 4.8 in less than half a minute powered by a solid rocket booster. After separating from the booster, the scramjet engine was ignited, accelerating the aircraft to Mach 5.1 at 60,000 feet.

The flight ended with a planned plunge into the ocean.

The WaveRider traveled more than 230 miles in six minutes, making it the longest hypersonic flight of its kind. Engineers gathered data before it splashed down.

Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, which built the WaveRider, called the test "a historic achievement that has been years in the making."

"This test proves the technology has matured to the point that it opens the door to practical applications," Davis said in a statement.

While the Air Force did not have immediate plans for a successor to the X-51A, it said it will continue hypersonic flight research.

The Toronto Stock Exchange's S&P/TSX composite indexunofficially closed up 58.35 points, or 0.47 percent, at 12,379.64.

(Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by James Dalgleish)

The latest in a string of celebrities to put their stamp on a prepaid card, Orman will likely avoid the criticism about high fees lobbed at earlier offerings, such as those of hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons and reality show stars the Kardashians. Orman's card costs $3 to obtain, and then just $3 a month, rivaling the hugely popular Walmart MoneyCard.

Although some will question how Orman will recoup the more than $1 million she has invested in the card when charging that little, the real twist isn't the low fee structure. Orman is working with credit reporting agency TransUnion to create a new kind of credit score for users of "The Approved" prepaid MasterCard, one that's based on their spending habits.

Right now, using debit cards both the prepaid kind and those tied to bank accounts does not influence an individual's credit score, which is calculated with data related to borrowing. If Orman's experiment is successful, this new type of score could be a game-changer for the estimated 60 million Americans who do most or all of their personal business in cash or with cash alternatives like prepaid cards.

The TV adviser said she approached several companies, urging them to agree to develop such a score, and TransUnion ultimately agreed to gather spending data for 18 to 24 months. It will use that data to try to come up with a formula that works as a way to predict whether the user is a good risk for lenders.

"This is truthfully a work in progress," said Orman.

Banks and other lenders are interested in creating ways to measure how prepaid cards are used, because of the huge market they represent. Consumers loaded an estimated $70.7 billion onto prepaid cards in 2011, up from $2.7 billion in 2005, according to consultancy Mercator Advisory Group.

Mercator projects the market will top $120 billion this year if adoption continues at the same pace.

In general, users can be divided into three groups. The first subset is those caught up in the economy people who had good credit until it was damaged by events like unemployment or foreclosure. Second are those who have not yet built credit histories, mainly the young and recent immigrants. The third group avoids banks, often because of negative experiences, such as racking up high overdraft fees.

"Wouldn't it be fabulous if, for the first time in history, people are literally rewarded for spending cash, versus penalized, in my opinion, for doing so?" Orman said.

The problem with traditional credit scores from FICO Inc. and its competitors is that they measure how well individuals keep up with their payments, but don't pay any attention to their overall financial health, she said. "Scoring doesn't question where the money is coming from to make payments."

Prepaid cards have already filled some of the void for those who don't use banks, especially because they can be used to receive paychecks via direct deposit. But because they don't contribute to credit scores, the cards can't help users get a mortgage, a car loan or a credit card.

Not having a credit score, or having a low one, also drives up the cost of living in other ways. Lower scores can mean higher car insurance rates, higher rent, difficulty getting a job and paying higher interest rates for any credit available. People with little credit history known as a "thin file" in the industry are also the most likely to use alternative services like payday lenders, check cashing stores and bill pay services. These are expensive options when compared with credit cards and banks.

FICO Inc. and other companies use data tied to borrowing to determine a score meant to measure the likelihood an individual will pay back future loans. FICO's 300-to-850 scale is based on an individual's history making payments on loans, the percentage of available credit that is being used and how long the individual has used credit, among other data.

Those with thin credit files have a better chance of having their creditworthiness reflected by FICO's "expansion score," which factors in data like utility bill payments and rent payments. FICO CEO Mark Greene said the expansion scores have shown that the population without traditional scores mirrors to the larger population in terms of credit risk. Other credit score providers are beginning to provide measures based on utility payments and other nontraditional data.

One big difference for developing a prepaid score, however, is that these alternatives still measure how well individuals meet obligations, not how they spend the rest of their income.

"Spending is not actually a great indicator of the thing that we're trying to measure, which is the likelihood you're going to pay your bill," Greene said. "We need to be careful about how we approach that issue."

Another issue a prepaid-linked score must address is the fact that the typical reloadable card is used for just three to four months, said Brian Riley, who analyzes the card market for the consultant The Tower Group.

That timeframe is likely to expand, however, because more users are beginning to have their paychecks deposited to reload prepaid cards. Adding rewards and services, and cutting fees, may also increase customer loyalty.

Orman is adamant that her card will carry only a $3-per-month fee for users who load at least $20 per month onto it. Fees will rise only if the user uses ATMs outside the network it is linked to when withdrawing cash. Consumers who use The Approved Card will also get daily text messages updating their balance, along with one after each purchase, and other free services like ID theft monitoring, credit monitoring and free credit reports from TransUnion.

The media star, whose new show on the Oprah Winfrey Network premieres Monday, said she knows creating the score will be an uphill battle, but believes that if successful, it will help both lenders and borrowers. "You've got to start it somewhere, and this is the beginning of that process."

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders are treating the 82-year-old investor like a rock star at Saturday's annual meeting.

Admirers are holding their cell phones and iPads in the air as they surround Buffett in an exhibit hall. A pack of security guards has created a buffer around Buffett as he visits displays selling Berkshire's See's Candy and explaining BNSF railroad's virtues.

At the See's booth, Buffett got a lesson in making hand-dipped bonbons. See's manufacturing manager Steve Powell got Buffett to autograph his white uniform coat.

Later, Buffett will take the stage alongside Berkshire's Vice Chairman Charlie Munger to answer questions from shareholders, journalists and financial analysts for six hours.

The outlook for European banks as a whole remains shaky, with France's biggest bank BNP Paribasexpected to post a slump in earnings in its own results on Friday.

RBS is seen showing a pretax profit of 800 million pounds ($1.2 billion) but unlike another bailed out bank, Lloyds, its share price is still far below what it was when the last UK government pumped 45 billion pounds into the bank in 2008.

Analysts say the recovery from a 1.4 billion pound loss in the first quarter a year ago will show the bank benefitting from reduced losses on bad loans and a decline in the cost of compensating customers for mis-sold loan insurance.

Chief Executive Stephen Hester has overseen the shedding of around 900 billion pounds in assets and is focusing on lending to British households and small businesses. But he still has major hurdles to overcome.

Britain's financial regulator said in March UK banks must raise 25 billion pounds of extra capital by the end of the year to absorb any future losses on loans. Although the regulator has not yet given specific guidance to individual banks, analysts expect the biggest shortfall to be at RBS.

RBS must also ask European regulators to extend an end-2013 deadline it set for the bank to sell 315 branches as a condition of receiving state aid. A deal to sell the branches to Santandercollapsed and RBS is now targeting a stock market flotation in 2014.

Fellow UK lender Lloyds , also the subject of a public rescue, on Tuesday reported a jump in first-quarter profit, sending shares to a near two-year high and close to the price at which the state could break even if it sold its stake.

But the euro zone's troubles and poor growth across Europe continues to weigh on the financial sector. BNPhas been hit by the stagnation of the French economy and renewed concerns over the government debt with which most banks are still loaded after new shocks from Cyprus and Italy.

French banks are mulling staff cuts and branch closures at their retail networks as fee income dries up.

Analysts on average forecast BNP's net income to fall to 1.53 billion euros ($2.02 billion), compared with 2.87 billion a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S data.

BNP may give more details on its drive to cut costs and grow in non-euro markets to help rebuild investor confidence. Its shares are down 0.7 percent year-to-date, worse than a 5.1 percent gain for the STOXX Europe 600 banks indexbut better than rival Societe Generale's2.6 percent drop.

The bank's shareholder structure is also in focus after sovereign shareholders Belgium and Luxembourg said they were open to selling equity stakes held in the bank.

(Reporting by Matt Scuffham and Lionel Laurent; editing by Patrick Graham)