Alonso's six years at the district's helm make him one of the longest-serving big-city superintendents in the country.

Under Alonso's leadership, student enrollment and graduation rates increased as suspension and dropout rates dropped.

He said Monday that he is retiring to return home to New Jersey to care for his parents and to assume a professorship at Harvard University.

His last day will be June 30. Chief of Staff Tisha Edwards will serve as an interim CEO through the next school year while the School Board searches for a permanent successor.

Reshma Begum was in such good shape she was able to walk, according to one rescuer. She said she survived on dried food and bottled water. She was discovered near a Muslim prayer room in the basement of the eight-story Rana Plaza building, where crews have been focused on recovering bodies, not rescuing survivors, since late April.

"I heard voices of the rescue workers for the past several days. I kept hitting the wreckage with sticks and rods just to attract their attention," she told the private Somoy TV from her hospital bed as doctors and nurses milled about, giving her saline and checking her condition.

"No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again," she said.

"There was some dried food around me. I ate the dried food for 15 days. The last two days I had nothing but water. I used to drink only a limited quantity of water to save it. I had some bottles of water around me," she said.

She finally got the crews' attention when she took a steel pipe and began banging it, said Abdur Razzak, a warrant officer with the military's engineering department who first spotted her in the wreckage. The workers ran into the dark rubble, eventually getting flashlights, to free her, he said.

They ordered the cranes and bulldozers to immediately stop and used handsaws and welding and drilling equipment to cut through the iron rod and debris still trapping her. They gave her water, oxygen and saline as they worked to free her.

When Begum was freed after 40 minutes, the crowd erupted in wild cheers. Soldiers and men in hard hats carried Begum, wearing a pink outfit with a violet scarf, on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance, which brought her to a military hospital. But her rescuers said she was in shockingly good condition, despite her ordeal. Razzak said she could even walk.

"She was fine, no injuries. She was just trapped. The space was wide," said Lt. Col. Moyeen, an army official at the scene who uses only one name.

Doctors at the hospital told Bangladeshi television that Begum was out of danger and her kidney and liver function were fine.

Begum told Somoy TV she was working in a factory on the second floor when the building began collapsing around her. She raced down a stairwell into the basement, where she became trapped by the wreckage in a pocket that allowed her to survive.

Begum told her rescuers there were no more survivors in her area. Workers began tearing through the nearby rubble anyway, hoping to find another person alive.

"Reshma told me there were three others with her. They died. She did not see anybody else alive there," said Maj. Gen. Chowdhury Hasan Suhrawardy, the head of the local military units. The bodies were eventually recovered from another section of the building not far from Begum, he said.

Begum's sister Asma said she and her mother kept a vigil for the seamstress, who is from the rural Dinajpur district, 270 kilometers (170 miles) north of Dhaka. She said they had been losing hope amid the endless string of grim days, when only scores of dead bodies were removed from the rubble.

"We got her back just when we had lost all our hope to find her alive," she told Somoy TV. "God is so merciful."

The women rushed to the hospital to see her.

Begum survived for more than two weeks in temperatures that touched the mid-30s C (mid-90s F). She scrounged for whatever food she could find, Suhrawardy said.

More than 2,500 people were rescued in the immediate aftermath of the April 24 disaster, but crews had recovered several hundred bodies without finding a survivor before Begum emerged.

The last survivor had been found April 28, and even her story ended tragically. As workers tried to free Shahin Akter, a fire broke out and she died of smoke inhalation.

Hundreds of people who had been engaged in the grim job of removing decomposing bodies from the site raised their hands together in prayer for her survival.

"God, you are the greatest, you can do anything. Please allow us all to rescue the survivor just found," said a man on a loudspeaker leading the supplicants. "We seek apology for our sins. Please pardon us, pardon the person found alive."

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, called Begum in the hospital, and the rescued woman began crying on the phone, Suhrawardy said. She told Hasina: "I am fine, please pray for me," he said.

Hasina, whose government has come under criticism for its lax oversight over the powerful garment industry, was racing to the hospital by helicopter to meet her, and congratulated the rescuers, officials said.

"This is an unbelievable feat," Hasina was quoted as saying by her assistant, Mahbubul Haque Shakil.

Begum lived in a rented house in this Dhaka suburb with her sister, who worked at a different garment factory

The death toll from the disaster soared past 1,000 Friday, with officials confirming that 1,045 bodies had been recovered from the rubble of the fallen building, which had housed five garment factories employing thousands of workers.

The disaster has raised alarm about the often deadly working conditions in Bangladesh's $20 billion garment industry, which provides clothing for major retailers around the globe.

Brig. Gen. Mohammed Siddiqul Alam Shikder, an army official overseeing the recovery work, said the bodies being recovered were badly decomposed and identification was difficult.

"We are working carefully," he said. "If we get any ID card or mobile phone with them, we can still identify them. Our sincere effort is to at least hand over the bodies to the families."

Brig. Gen. Azmal Kabir, a top official of the military's engineering section, said more than half of the estimated 7,000 tons of debris have been removed from the site but he did not know when the work would be finished.

Officials say the owner of Rana Plaza illegally added three floors and allowed the garment factories to install heavy machines and generators, even though the structure was not designed to support such equipment.

The owner and eight other people, including the owners of the garment factories, have been detained.

The chairman of Enam Medical College and Hospital, which took in many survivors after the collapse, told Channel 24 station that of the more than 1,700 people treated there, 75 remained with serious injuries.

The chairman, Enamur Rahhman, said survivors, many who had limbs amputated, are suffering from trauma and depression.

LONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - The Scottish Premier League match between Kilmarnock and Hibernian was abandoned in the second half on Sunday after a fan collapsed and required emergency treatment.

A Police Scotland spokesman said the man later died in hospital, the BBC reported.

The game at Rugby Park was halted after 54 minutes with the score at 1-1.

"The referee, in consultation with SPL delegate Frank Coulston and the match commander at Rugby Park, decided to abandon the game," Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston told the BBC.

"The length of time the players were off the park was a problem but the overriding factor was respect for the fan and his family." (Writing by Justin Palmer, editing by Toby Davis)

The French agency has been involved in several rifts with the International Cycling Union, most recently when it refused to test riders at last month's Paris-Nice race.

In a statement Monday, UCI President Pat McQuaid says his organization is ''determined to ensure that cycling is a clean sport.'' He adds that his group wants to make sure that ''today's young riders in the peloton are not tarnished by issues that took place years in the past.''

The UCI and the independent Cycling Anti-Doping Foundation will also work with the French agency to test riders at the Criterium du Dauphine in June.

The Tour de France is June 29 to July 21.

After mulling throwing world number one singles player Novak Djokovic into the doubles, captain Bogdan Obradovic opted instead for Bozoljac, who had only won six tour level doubles matches in his career and had a singles ranking of 338.

But the tall Serbian responded brilliantly, clocking huge serves, groundstrokes and returns in partnership with the experienced Zimonjic to seal victory in four hours and 23 minutes.

"I know that I had that in myself," Bozoljac said. "Through the years, I struggled a lot with injuries and I couldn't really play consistent so that is the reason why I was not ranked higher.

"But I knew that if I give my 100 percent for one match, I can play on a really high level and I can match up with these good players."

While the Bryans had lost their last Davis Cup match in the United States victory over Brazil in February, they were favored to beat the Serbs as they came into the match with a 20-3 record in Davis Cup and had won a tour high four doubles titles this year, including their record 13th grand slam at the Australian Open.

HARD SERVES

But while they staged a furious comeback in third and fourth sets in front of their home crowd, they could not come up with enough clutch play in the deciding set to hold off the Serbs.

The Bryans were two points from winning the contest on three different occasions, but with their backs against the wall, the Serbians stood tall.

With the score at 11-12, 30-30 and former top-ranked doubles player Zimonjic serving, the big Serbian hit two hard serves that produced netted returns by the Bryans to hold.

Mike Bryan had not been broken in the entire contest, but serving at 13-13 on break point, Bozoljac hit a screaming crosscourt backhand winner for the break to 14-13.

The Bryans have two chances to break back in the final game, but Zimonjic shut the door with two booming aces, blasting a huge serve down the middle to seal the match.

He and Bozoljac then hugged and danced around while Djokovic bounced up and down on the sidelines chanting Serbian songs.

"If this isn't the best performance of all time from me, it certainly is in Davis Cup," said Zimonjic.

The Serbians ended up with 125 winners to just 80 from the Bryans.

"We've seen a lot of people in this competition rise up," said U.S. captain Jim Courier.

"You look at the numbers next to the (Bozoljac's) career, you see the performance today, something doesn't add up. You clearly see there was some inspiration, chemistry with Nenad on the court, and you say, 'too good'."

On Sunday, Djokovic will face top American Sam Querrey in the first match, which will be followed by the final rubber between Serbian Viktor Troicki and John Isner.

(Editing by Ian Ransom)

The lava that erupted from the Cook Islands volcano, called Mangaia, contains a few tiny grains of sulfide, a mineral, with a peculiar ratio of sulfur isotopes, according to research published in today's (April 24) issue of the journal Nature. The unusual ratio could only have formed beforeappeared on Earth 2.45 billion years ago. Isotopes are versions of elements with different numbers of neutrons, giving them differing weights.

The study researchers think the sulfide formed at Earth's surface ages ago in ancient oceanic crust, and then sank deep into , likely all the way to the core-mantle boundary, 1,865 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface. Some billions of years later, a plume of hot material rising from above the core ferried the sulfide skyward, until it escaped through Mangaia about 20 million years ago.

"We have identified material that was actually at the surface 2.45 billion years ago," said Rita Cabral, lead study author and a geochemistry graduate student at Boston University. []

Reduce, reuse, recycle

The findings are direct evidence that oceanic crust was recycled in the mantle, Cabral said. Scientists are pretty confident that over millions of years, giant convection cells churned the stiff rock inside the mantle, the layer between Earth's thin crust and iron core. Convection could also recycle crust that disappears into the mantle via , the plate boundaries where one tectonic plate dives underneath another. Images derived from seismic waves, which change speed when passing through cold or hot materials, have revealed .

"The fact we have a time constraint is great for figuring out exactly how vigorous convection is in the mantle, and how extensive it is, " Cabral told OurAmazingPlanet. "It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what models come out of it. If there are areas where this material can sit around for a couple billion years, that's something really important."

The sulfur isotopes pin a minimum age on the source of Mangaia's lava, so the lava could be even older than 2.45 billion years. Before that time, there was no protective ozone layer on Earth, because there was little oxygen in the atmosphere. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun strongly influenced sulfur chemistry in the atmosphere, leaving a distinctive chemical signature in the rocks. When oxygen-breathing life appeared, sulfur chemistry shifted dramatically.

"I think this is another really strong piece of evidence that material from the surface of the Earth gets subducted and transported to the mantle and ultimately returns in these mantle plumes," said William White, a geochemist at Cornell University who wasn't involved in the study. "My suspicion is that this has been tucked away at the base of the mantle for 2.5 billion years or so."

Mangaia is part of a chain of volcanic islands that rose from the sea over a similar to Hawaii's volcanoes.

"Stuff from the very deepest mantle is forming these ocean island volcanoes, and I think the real takeaway is the fact that there's an intimate connection between surface material and the deep mantle," White said. "Some of the things down there were once at the surface of the Earth."

Time capsule

Cabral explained that volcanic islands each have unique chemical signatures think of them as having flavors. Scientists are still sorting out the reasons for the different flavors. Some islands may come from subducted oceanic crust, while others could be sediments, or even . But there are odd geochemical signals, such as the sulfur isotopes Cabral and her co-authors found, that hint at

stranger stuff going on in the mantle.

"Some of the chemistry in these mantle-derived lavas some of the things we don't understand might reflect some of the surface history of the Earth," White told OurAmazingPlanet.

The findings help confirm that the mantle can store very old crust for billions of years. In this case, it gave geochemists a window into Earth's early history. Other odd rock chemistry has led scientists to conclude that there , from before 4 billion years ago, said Steve Shirey, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study. (The Earth is 4.54 billion years old.)

"We don't know how we go from what we see on the ocean floor to what we see at the depths, Shirey said. At this stage, a lot of things are possible.

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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 fourth-seeded Wolverines (31-7) are back in the final for the first time in 20 years, when a brash group better known as the Fab Five was the talk of college basketball.

Top-seeded Louisville (34-5) is trying to bring its first title back to the state of Kentucky's "other" school since 1986. Sitting on the bench with the Cardinals is sophomore guard Kevin Ware, the team's inspiration since snapping his tibia in the regional final last weekend.

Cardinals coach Rick Pitino is working the sideline hours after being named to the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame.

Pitino is trying to become the first coach to lead two programs to national championships. He took Kentucky to the title in 1996.

Smith, the Louisville team leader who Pitino has nicknamed "Russdiculous" for some of his wild and wildly effective antics on the court, scores 18.9 points a game for the Cardinals during the season but has picked up the scoring in the tournament, averaging 25 in the five Louisville wins.

The Cardinals are playing without their main reserve, Ware, who broke his leg in the regional final against Duke. Needing a pickup without Ware, reserve swingman Luke Hancock scored 20 points in the 72-68 win over Wichita State. And rarely used walk-on Tim Henderson made two key 3-pointers during the comeback.

"The other night, we were not going to play in the championship game unless a walk-on steps up and makes a play to give us momentum," Pitino said in a pregame interview.

Chris Webber, who infamously called a timeout the Wolverines didn't have at the end of Michigan's 77-71 loss to North Carolina in the 1993 final, has had very little to do with his alma mater in recent years, but was on hand at the Georgia Dome to watch Monday's game.

In the program's first Final Four game since then, Michigan topped Syracuse 61-56 on Saturday despite an off night from Burke, who finished with only seven points on 1-for-8 shooting.

Burke, a sophomore, seriously considered leaving for the NBA after last season but decided he had unfinished business left in Ann Arbor. He picked up the AP Player of the Year award, among others, and is now one victory away from the ultimate prize in college hoops.

Before leaving the locker room, Michigan coach John Beilein gave his team a pep talk: "You play with poise, play with confidence, you do all those things today and we're going to have one heck of a celebration," he said.

Monday night's game is the final act in what has been an ugly season overall in college hoops, with scoring at its lowest (67.49 points per team) since 1951-52 and shooting at its worst (43.3 percent) since 1964-65. The 131.2-points-per-game average during March Madness is the lowest since the 3-point line was brought to the game in 1987.

LONDON (Reuters) - Chinese scientists have confirmed for the first time that a new strain of bird flu that has killed 23 people in China has been transmitted to humans from chickens.

In a study published online in the Lancet medical journal, the scientists echoed previous statements from the World Health Organization (WHO) and Chinese officials that there is as yet no evidence of human-to-human transmission of this virus.

The H7N9 strain has infected 109 people in China since it was first detected in March. The WHO warned on Wednesday that this strain is "one of the most lethal" flu viruses and is transmitted more easily than the H5N1 strain of bird flu, which has killed hundreds around the world since 2003.

Kwok-Yung Yuen of the University of Hong Kong, who led the study, said its findings that chickens in poultry markets were a source of human infections meant that controlling the disease in these places and in these birds should be a priority.

"Aggressive intervention to block further animal-to-person transmission in live poultry markets, as has previously been done in Hong Kong, should be considered," he told the Lancet.

He added that temporary closure of live bird markets and comprehensive programmes of surveillance, culling, biosecurity and segregation of different poultry species may also be needed "to halt evolution of the virus into a pandemic agent".

"The evidence ... suggests it is a pure poultry-to-human transmission and that controlling (infections in people) will therefore depend on controlling the epidemic in poultry," he said.

Yuen's findings do not mean all cases of human H7N9 infection come from chickens, or from poultry, but they do confirm chickens as one source.

The WHO has said 40 percent of people infected with H7N9 appear to have had no contact with poultry.

Other so called "reservoirs" of the flu virus may be circulating in other types of birds or mammals, and investigators in China are working hard to try find out.

CASE STUDIES

Yuen's team conducted detailed cases studies on four H7N9 flu patients from Zhejiang, an eastern coastal province south of the commercial hub Shanghai.

All four patients had been exposed to poultry, either through their work or through visiting poultry markets.

To find out whether there was transmission of the virus from poultry to humans, the researchers took swabs from 20 chickens, four quails, five pigeons and 57 ducks, all from six markets likely to have been visited by the patients.

Two of the five pigeons and four of the 20 chickens tested positive for H7N9, but none of the ducks or quails.

After analysing the genetic makeup of H7N9 virus in a sample isolated from one patient and comparing it to a sample from one of the chickens, the researchers said similarities suggest the virus is being transmitted directly to humans from poultry.

The team also checked more than 300 people who had had close contact with the four patients and found that none showed any symptoms of H7N9 infection within 14 days from the beginning of surveillance. This suggests the virus is not currently able to transmit between people, they said.

But they noted that previous genetic analysis shows H7N9 has already acquired some gene mutations that adapt it specifically to being more able to infect mammals - raising the risk that it could one day cause a human pandemic.

"Further adaptation of the virus could lead to infections with less severe symptoms and more efficient person-to-person transmission," the scientists wrote. (Editing by Kevin Liffey)