Using the panda cams, zoo workers have been monitoring(may-SHONG) every day, all day, since Aug. 7. And then at 3:36 p.m. ET today her water broke and the giant panda began having contractions

"I'm glued to the new panda cams and thrilled to hear the squeals, which appear healthy, of our newborn cub," said Dennis Kelly, director of the Smithsonian's National Zoo. "Our expansive panda team has worked tirelessly analyzing hormones and behavior since March, and as a result of their expertise and our collaboration with scientists from around the world we are celebrating this birth." []

After natural breeding attempts between Mei Xiang and the zoo's male panda Tian Tian were unsuccessful,twice on March 30.

Determining whether Mei Xiang (or any female giant panda) was pregnant was nearly impossible, as females often experience ain which they show all the signs of a real pregnancy; their hormone levels surge, they build nests, lose their appetites and sleep more than usual. Indeed, Mei Xiang's appetite had been steadily decreasing and she was spending more time in her den, zookeepers said.

In addition, giant panda fetuses don't begin developing until the last few weeks of gestation. Zookeepers had confirmed a rise in Mei Xiang's progesterone levels on July 10, suggesting she would either give birth in the following 40 to 55 days or her pseudopregnancy would come to an end.

"The only definitive way tobefore she gives birth to a cub is to detect a fetus on an ultrasound," zookeepers wrote on the zoo's giant panda blog. "Mei Xiang's last ultrasound was August 5, during which veterinarians saw no evidence of a fetus."

The cub, whose sex has yet to be determined, will get its first health checkup in the next couple of days, with follow-up exams every few days during the next week.

Scientists will also perform a paternity test on the cub as not all of the semen came from Tian Tian. Whereas the first insemination involved fresh semen and frozen semen collected in 2003, all from Tian Tian, the second insemination used a mix of Tian Tian's frozen semen and frozen semen collected from Gao Gao, of the San Diego Zoo, in 2003.

Mei Xiang is not a first-time mom. She gave birth to Tai Shan in 2005 after artificial insemination. Tai Shan now lives at the Panda Base in BiFengxia in Ya'an, China. (All pandas officially belong to China under international law.) Mei Xiang's second cub didn't make it; the little one was born on Sept. 16, 2012 after artificial insemination, and six days later the giant panda baby died from liver damage due to underdeveloped lungs, zookeepers said.

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The United States suspended aid to Mali in April last year, after a coup prompted by an uprising by Islamists and Tuareg separatists.

Mali's constitutional court confirmed Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had won Mali's presidential election runoff on August 11 with 78 percent of the vote and he is expected to be sworn in by Mali's supreme court on September 4.

Once the new government is formally in place, the United States can begin lifting restrictions on aid.

"This election has helped restore Mali's democratic tradition," Obama said in a statement. "We look forward to working closely with the new government to broaden and deepen the ties between our two nations."

A senior State Department official said the United States was already reviewing its assistance program to Mali.

Some U.S. funding can resume once Secretary of State John Kerry "determines and certifies to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations that a democratically elected government has taken office," the official said.

"We intend to continue close coordination with our partners in the international donor community and with the newly elected Malian government to ensure that any renewed assistance addresses Mali's most pressing needs in an efficient and effective manner."

Once portrayed as a model democracy, Mali imploded when a military junta, frustrated by a lack of progress in tackling a Tuareg rebellion in the north, toppled President Amadou Toumani Toure in March last year.

The Tuareg rebels and their Islamist allies seized upon the turmoil in the capital, Bamako, to launch a rapid advance, capturing two-thirds of the country.

The al Qaeda-linked fighters were finally defeated following the intervention of thousands of French soldiers in January.

(Reporting by Roberta Rampton and Lesley Wroughton in Washington and Tiemoko Diallo in Bamako. Editing by Bill Trott and Christopher Wilson)

HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Bicycle salesman Bert Etheredge locked down the shop where he works and sent customers and co-workers into a back room when he saw a raucous mob moving up the main street of a California beach town after a popular surf contest.

Moments later, the wild crowd yanked out a stop sign and rammed it through the window of the Easyrider shop before stealing a bike.

"It was like a flood of people," Etheredge said. "A running from the bulls kind of thing."

More than 100 police officers responded to quell the disturbance on Sunday night in Huntington Beach, the city that bills itself as "Surf City USA," after a fight broke out across from the beach where thousands of spectators had gathered for the popular nine day-U.S. Open of Surfing.

The raucous crowd toppled portable toilets, threw items from rooftops and smashed car windows along the popular downtown strip lined with restaurants, bars and surf and skate shops.

Police fired pepper balls and rubber projectiles to break up the melee.

One person was treated for injuries at a hospital after apparently being hit by a flying bottle and one of the rubber projectiles, Huntington Beach police Lt. Mitchell O'Brien said.

Seven people were booked into jail, one for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon after allegedly hitting an officer with a skateboard. Others were being investigated for drunken conduct and failure to disperse. Officers initially detained nine people, but two were later released.

"Any time you have thousands of people put together like this, you have the potential for things to go wrong," O'Brien said.

Property damage could reach tens of thousands of dollars, he added.

Police were sifting through photos and video of the melee posted online and expect to make more arrests.

At a news conference Monday afternoon, police Chief Ken Small defended the officers' actions.

They "used a great deal of restraint when facing a barrage of bottles, bricks, rocks" and other objects, he said.

The U.S. Open of Surfing draws thousands of people every year to Huntington Beach. The event that ended Sunday included surfing, skateboarding and live music.

"We're extremely disappointed and saddened by the disturbance," said a statement on the U.S. Open of Surfing website. "We work tirelessly with city staff, police, fire and other agencies to ensure a safe environment for all."

Shopkeepers say downtown known for its scenic beaches and crashing surf is often the scene of drunken bar brawls and rowdy behavior but not rioting. Locals say some of the worst offenses come during the U.S. Open of Surfing when young partiers descend on the strip and leave a mess

"The people who come here aren't here to shop. They're just here to cause trouble," said Michelle Hogan, manager of Island Cowgirl jewelry shop, which escaped the ruckus unscathed. "There's the drunkenness and the craziness but something like a riot is unheard of."

Police said one of the arrestees was from Huntington Beach. The other six were from other Southern California cities.

On Monday, there was little sign of the disturbance except for a boarded-up window at Easyrider and a handful of television news trucks parked on the main strip. Beachgoers wearing flip-flops cruised by on colorful bicycles as tourists shopped for trinkets and stopped for lunch on a typically sunny summer day.

Tracey Boyle, 45, said she wasn't fazed by the melee in the tourist town where she and her three children from Northern California had come to spend their vacation.

"It's just something that got out of hand," Boyle said. "You can't imagine what it would be at a surf event they seem too chill to get in that kind of confrontation, but they clearly did."

* Over 120 NHL players expected to compete in Olympics (Recasts with quotes and details)

By Steve Keating

July 19 (Reuters) - The National Hockey League (NHL) and International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) reached an agreement to free players for the 2014 Sochi Olympics on Friday after nearly four years of intense and sometimes bitter negotiations.

After the 2010 Vancouver Games unhappy NHL owners signaled through Commissioner Gary Bettman that they were prepared to end their Olympic participation, triggering years of talks followed by months of grinding negotiations before finally producing the long-awaited deal.

"The National Hockey League features the most international player population in professional sports, and our outstanding athletes take tremendous pride in representing their homelands on the global stage," Bettman said in a statement.

"The decision to participate in the XXII Olympic Winter Games in Sochi was in many ways a difficult one but one that we know will be well received by our players and, most importantly, by the vast majority of our fans and sports fans everywhere."

News of an agreement was welcomed by both players and hockey fans around the world, including Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper who tweeted, "I'm pleased to hear that @NHL players will be competing in #Sochi. Like all Canadians I can't wait to see how Team Canada takes shape!"

Pittsburgh Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who scored the overtime goal against the United States that gave Canada the gold medal in Vancouver, could not hide his delight about getting the chance to defend the country's Olympic title.

"I'm glad that we are going and obviously excited to kind of start the process," Crosby said on a conference call. "The biggest thing is just representing your country.

"Anybody who gets the chance to do that there is a lot of pride that comes with that and being Canadian and playing hockey that's a dream come true."

As part of the agreement, the NHL will halt its 2013-14 regular season to allow about 120 players the chance to compete in the Feb. 12-23 tournament.

Few other details of the deal were immediately available, however, the list of NHL demands was long and well-known.

LOUDLY COMPLAINED

NHL owners had loudly complained about what they perceived as second class treatment by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and wanted some form of compensation for shutting down operations in the middle of the season and turning over their most important assets - the players.

The key issues standing in the way of an agreement were believed to centre on insurance, travel, access to players and hospitality for players' and owners' families.

The NHL also wanted to be treated more like a rights holder or top sponsor such as McDonald's, allowing the league greater access to video and other Games-related media material so it can trade on the Olympic brand to help sell and promote its product.

Negotiations were often contentious with Bettman arguing the league did not necessarily need the Olympics while IIHF chief Rene Fasel insisted they did, telling CBC in an interview earlier this year; "I think Gary has no other choice. He has to come to Sochi."

Since the 1998 Nagano Winter Games, when NHL players made their Olympic debut, owners insisted they have seen diminishing returns on their investment, particularly when the event is held outside North America and games cannot be aired in prime time.

But the NHL was under increasing pressure to get a deal done with many Russian players, including Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin, warning they would compete in Sochi no matter what the league decided.

Russian President Vladimir Putin also urged the NHL to get a deal done while NBC, which paid $775 million for the U.S. broadcast rights to the Sochi Games, would have expressed its hopes at having NHL players in Russia after inking a 10-year $2 billion television deal with the league.

"Although there were many details to discuss with our partners NHL and NHLPA, there was never any doubt in my mind that we would not continue the tradition from Nagano, Salt Lake City, Turin and Vancouver," said Fasel, who is also a member of the powerful IOC executive committee, in a statement. "The modern Olympic era is about sportive competition on the highest possible level.

"This is what fans around the world expect from a 100-metre race or downhill skiing and this is also what they are entitled to expect from our sport." (Reporting by Steve Keating in Toronto; Editing by Frank Pingue)

"Paulina Gretzky, she said yes!!!" Johnson tweeted, posting a picture of a diamond ring on his fiancee's hand.

Paulina Gretzky was in the gallery early this year at Kapalua, Hawaii, where Johnson won the US tour's Tournament of Champions.

Johnson, who has seven victories in his six years on the PGA Tour, paired up with Wayne Gretzky at the Pebble Beach National Pro-Am in February.

"Today's interruption in trading, while resolved before the end of the day, was nonetheless serious and should reinforce our collective commitment to addressing technological vulnerabilities of exchanges and other market participants," White said in a statement.

She added that she will also work toward finalizing rules proposed earlier this year that aim to bolster the security and soundness of exchanges, clearing agencies and certain large dark pool trading venues.

White did not provide any additional details about what went wrong at Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Sarah N. Lynch; Editing by Dan Grebler)

The chat was hosted by Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff. It followed Mr. Obamas Tuesday speech on housing issues, in which he outlined a number of specific proposals, including the winding down of government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

On Zillow Wednesday, Obama said hed like to get a package of housing measures through Congress as soon as possible, and that the government should not be in the business of underwriting and guaranteeing most US mortgages, as is now the case.

The private market can step in and do a good job, and government can be a backstop, said Obama.

Obama added that mortgage rates remain low by historical levels, and that he and first ladywould likely benefit from refinancing their South Sidehome.

I would save some money, said Obama in response an online question. When youre president you have to be a little careful about these transactions so we havent refinanced.

According to financial disclosure forms cited by the Associated Press, the Obamas currently have a 5.625 percent 30-year fixed loan on their Chicago domicile. Current market rate for a similar loan is 4.5 percent, according to the AP.

Obama complimented Zillow itself. The firm, among other things, uses open government data to produce home value estimates.

I think you guys have done a great job in helping to make consumers more empowered when they are buying a home, selling a home, and its a wonderful service, Obama said.

OK, so how did Zillow land this presidential publicity bonanza? As the tech website , The interview is a huge coup for Zillow, which ... is in the midst of a huge brand building campaign.

Well, connections, for one thing. As the right-leaning , Zillow co-founder Lloyd Frink has long been an Obama supporter, and joined a Tech Leaders for Obama coalition in November 2007.

And when it comes to campaign contributions, Zillow employees seem to have a Democratic tilt. A search on the political money databaseshows that individuals connected to Zillow donated $183,945 to political party committees and candidates in the 2012 election cycle. Virtually all that money went to Democrats.

Of the $183,945 total, $50,000 went to the DNC Services Corp., an arm of the Democratic National Committee. The top candidate recipient of Zillow-linked cash was Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) of Washington, who got $19,500. President Obama received $15,600.

But its important to put this in context: thats not really very much money, in political terms.

Zillow remains a gnat in terms of housing-related political spending. The(NAR) gave $4.1 million to party committees and candidates in the same time period.

Forty-four percent of this money went to Democrats, according to , and 56 percent went to Republicans.

The big Realtors group was defensive about Obamas Zillow chat, saying in anto members that it was not a serious public policy discussion.

Because NAR lobbies extensively on public policy issues, the White House could not realistically involve them in the online discussion. Zillow has no such conflicts, since they are a housing entertainment website, sniffed the NAR.

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BOSTON (Reuters) - A man who hacked into Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook page to expose a software bug is getting donations from hackers around the world after the company declined to pay him under a program that normally rewards people who report flaws.

Khalil Shreateh discovered and reported the flaw but was initially dismissed by the company's security team. He then posted a message on the billionaire's wall to prove the bug's existence.

Now, Marc Maiffret, chief technology officer of cybersecurity firm BeyondTrust, is trying to mobilize fellow hackers to raise a $10,000 reward for Shreateh after Facebook refused to compensate him.

Maiffret, a high school dropout and self-taught hacker, said on Tuesday he has raised about $9,000 so far, including the $2,000 he initially contributed.

He and other hackers say Facebook unfairly denied Shreateh, a Palestinian, a payment under its "Bug Bounty" program. It doles out at least $500 to individuals who bring software bugs to the company's attention.

"He is sitting there in Palestine doing this research on a five-year-old laptop that looks like it is half broken," Maiffret said. "It's something that might help him out in a big way."

Shreateh uncovered the flaw on the company's website that allows members to post messages on the wall of any other user, including Zuckerberg's. He tried to submit the bug for review but the website's security team did not accept his report.

He then posted a message to Zuckerberg himself on the chief executive officer's private account, saying he was having trouble getting his team's attention.

"Sorry for breaking your privacy," Shreateh said in the post.

The bug was quickly fixed and Facebook issued an apology on Monday for having been "too hasty and dismissive" with Shreateh's report. But it has not paid him a bounty.

"We will not change our practice of refusing to pay rewards to researchers who have tested vulnerabilities against real users," Chief Security Officer Joe Sullivan said in a blogpost.

He said Facebook has paid out more than $1 million under that program to researchers who followed its rules.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Xavier Briand)

FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - Bradley Manning, the U.S. soldier convicted of the biggest breach of classified data in the nation's history, will be told on Wednesday how much of his life will be spent in a military prison.

The 25-year-old private first class could face up to 90 years for turning over more than 700,000 classified files, battlefield videos and diplomatic cables to the pro-transparency website WikiLeaks, in a case that has commanded international attention since 2010.

The judge hearing Manning's court-martial, Colonel Denise Lind, is due to read his sentence at 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). Prosecutors have asked for 60 years, while defense attorneys this week pleaded with Lind not to "rob him of his youth."

Manning was working as a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad when he handed over the documents, catapulting WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, into the international spotlight.

In July, Lind found Manning guilty of 20 criminal counts including espionage and theft, but not of aiding the enemy, the most serious charge, which carried a possible sentence of life in prison without parole.

The classified material that shocked many around the world included a 2007 gunsight video of a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at suspected insurgents in Baghdad. Among the dozen fatalities were two Reuters news staff, and WikiLeaks dubbed the footage "Collateral Murder."

The case highlighted the difficulty of keeping secrets in the Internet age. It raised strong passions on the part of the U.S. government, which said Manning had put American lives at risk, and anti-secrecy advocates, who maintained Manning was justified in releasing the information.

A U.S. rights group has said Manning should be a candidate for this year's Nobel Peace Prize.

Manning's trial at Fort Meade, Maryland, home of the ultra-secret National Security Agency, is winding down as the United States continues to seek the return of Edward Snowden. The former NSA contractor who disclosed details of secret U.S. programs that included monitoring the telephone and Internet traffic of Americans, has been given temporary asylum in Russia.

The Guardian newspaper reported on Tuesday that British authorities had forced it to destroy the materials leaked by Snowden.

BROADER DEBATE

Manning's defense argued that his aim had been to spark a broader debate on the role of the U.S. military and make Americans aware of the nature of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to defense testimony, military supervisors ignored erratic behavior on the part of Manning which included trying to grab a gun during a counseling session.

Defense attorneys had argued that such actions demonstrated that the slightly built Manning, who is gay and was increasingly isolated while deployed to Iraq, had not been fit for duty overseas.

During a pretrial hearing, Lind reduced Manning's sentence by 112 days because of harsh treatment after his arrest in 2010. He likely will be imprisoned at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

Manning pleaded guilty to lesser charges earlier this year, but military prosecutors continued their efforts to convict him on more serious counts.

Last week, Manning apologized to the court for what he had done, saying: "I understand I must pay a price for my decisions."

The Bradley Manning Support Network, a group backing the soldier, said in a statement it plans to seek clemency from Army officials after sentencing. Manning's attorney David Coombs also will ask for a pardon from President Barack Obama, it said.

(Editing by Scott Malone and Gunna Dickson)

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Three teenage boys were charged on Tuesday in the killing of an Australian university student in Oklahoma, in what police said might have been a thrill killing.

Christopher Lane, 23, of Melbourne, was found dead of a gunshot wound on Friday, according to police in Duncan, Oklahoma, about 80 miles south of Oklahoma City.

Charged with first-degree murder are Chancey Allen Luna, 16, and James Francis Edwards Jr., 15, according to the Stephens County District Attorney's office. Michael Dewayne Jones, 17, who allegedly drove the vehicle carrying the other suspects, was charged with use of a vehicle in the discharge of a weapon and accessory to murder after the fact, the office said.

Lane was out jogging during a visit to his girlfriend and her family in Duncan on Friday, when he was shot in the back, police said. He attended East Central University in Ada, Oklahoma, where he was on a baseball scholarship.

According to police, Jones said that the teens decided to kill someone "for the fun of it."

Police said a witness called 911 when she saw Lane stagger across the road and fall.

According to police, Jones told them on Sunday that the three teenagers saw Lane jogging and decided he would be their target, and then followed him in their vehicle and shot Lane in the back.

Police used surveillance video from area businesses to identify the vehicle, which was found later at a church parking lot with the three suspects inside after a caller reported three youths with guns who were threatening to kill someone.

The vehicle's trunk contained a shotgun with the serial numbers sanded off, but the actual weapon used in the shooting has not been found, police said.

If convicted, Luna and Edwards face a possible sentence of life in prison without parole, according to court documents. Under a 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling, they cannot receive the death penalty because they were under 18 at the time of the alleged crime, according to David Slane, an Oklahoma City criminal defense attorney.

Lane's father, Peter Lane, called the killing "senseless" in an interview broadcast on CNN from Australia.

"There's not going to be any good coming out of this because it was so senseless," Lane said. "It happened, it's wrong and we're just trying to deal with it the best we can."

Duncan, the county seat of Stephens County, has a population of 23,287, according to the 2012 U.S. Census estimate.

In an interview on CNN television, Duncan Police Chief Danny Ford said the usually quiet "community is outraged. The community has some fear." Ford said. "I think they have some of the same questions that maybe folks in Australia have, and that's about how do these kids get guns. It's pretty simple, they steal them."

In a statement, ECU baseball coach Dino Rosato said Lane was a well-respected teammate.

"He was an absolute joy to coach," said Rosato. "He set a great example for all of his teammates, but more importantly for the younger players. He was a mature student-athlete who his teammates could look to for advice and support."

(Editing by Mary Wisniewski and Greg McCune; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)