Sales of the book, which sees the return of fictional symbologist Robert Langdon, have already reached the highest level of customer pre-orders at retailer Waterstones since the release of Harry Potter author JK Rowling's adult fiction "The Casual Vacancy" last year.

"We think it's going to be the fastest and biggest-selling book of the year because Dan Brown is in a league of his own," Waterstones spokesman Jon Howells told Reuters.

"The early word is that it's darker, which will whet the appetite for everyone because this is the fourth appearance of Robert Langdon and I think giving it that sort of twist, freshens it up for long-term readers," Howells added.

Brown, who is famous for his love of puzzling codes, conspiracies and other symbols, said the subject matter for the book was so vibrant and horrifying that it helped do a lot of the work for him.

"I'm not writing about the masons and ancient histories, which is kind of ethereal. I'm writing about Dante's vision of hell," he told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

"It wasn't until the 1300s and this version of Inferno that it became terrifying. Dante has had enormous influence on the Christian view of hell."

The author, who said he tries not to read reviews of his books, also spoke of his unique way of dealing with writer's block, by suspending himself upside down to help get his creative juices flowing.

"It does help. You've just got to relax and let go. The more you do it the more you let go. And then soon it's just, wow," he said.

Brown's religion-themed mystery novel "The Da Vinci Code," was published in 2003 and was made into a hit film starring Tom Hanks. It spent more than a year atop the New York Times bestseller list.

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

Scrumhalf Ben Youngs scored a first-half try and flyhalf Owen Farrell added 17 points in a perfect kicking night for the Lions, who had to weather a fierce second-half challenge in front of more than 50,000 fans at a heaving Lang Park.

Although shorn of seven capped Wallabies, the Quade Cooper-captained Reds led for much of the first half after a brilliant individual try by winger Luke Morahan and pulled within seven points when scrumhalf Nick Frisby touched down in the 64th minute.

But the Lions held on to record their third win from three tour matches after easy victories over the Barbarians in Hong Kong and Western Force in Perth.

They return to Lang Park to play the first of three test matches against the Wallabies on June 22.

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At issue is the renewed call for a federal media shield law. Forty-nine states have legal protections allowing the media to protect sources of information from requests for exposure by private citizens and the government. The Feds don't. Instead, the Department of Justice hasabout what is and isn't appropriate in investigating how a media outlet got a leak. That vagueness has recently given the administration trouble.

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Graham, who is leading the Republican effort to codify rules, explained the conundrum to . His question centers around the question of electronic media.

Interestingly, the "or" in that last question was only partially answered in the previous iteration of the bill. , introduced by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and championed by Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, is the one that the Obama administrationthat it would like to see resurrected. In its final version, it defined a "covered person" — that is, someone to whom the shield law could apply — with the following criteria. It is a person who:

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It also applies to that person's boss or employer — but not to that person if he is a terrorist.

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Under this definition, as , bloggers would have been covered. They regularly have been under state shield laws, too. In April, New Jerseyto the owner of a local government blog.

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But a lot has changed since the last time the Congress ruminated on the question. That was a time period in which Tumblr was young, Twitter saw a fraction of its current use, and Facebook had only 350 million users. Compare  on social media use with . Web publishing is common to the point of ubiquity — making the definitions used in 2009 even less pertinent. What, for example, counts as "regularly" gathering information? Does Tumblr count as one of the dissemination mechanisms? Does news require more than 140 characters?

Senator Dick Durbin of Illinois isn't sure Twitter should be included in such protection. Appearing on Fox News Sunday last month, Durbin asked the same question as Graham. As :

The problem is perhaps best illustrated by example. Let's say that a person regularly shares news stories over Twitter. He looks for interesting articles, composes a summary and a link, tweets it out. One day, a friend who works for the government sends him a classified document. The person puts that up on a file sharing site and tweets a link with a description of the file. Does that person deserve protection as a journalist? If he posted it to his blog where he comments on news items, would he then? What if he worked for Fox News, but not as a reporter?

Another example: A woman who doesn't usually tweet about the news shares a photo of the failure of a top secret weapon, sent to her by a friend in the military. Should she be protected? Is a person who stumbles onto something newsworthy a journalist?

There are clearly non-traditional media outlets that people would agree deserve protection.to Attorney General Eric Holder's off-then-on-the-record discussion about improving the government's rules around media investigations, for example. But in 2009, even the standard proposed in the Senate's legislation didn't pass muster in the House. Asfor the Nieman Journalism Lab at the time, the House version strictly limited protection to those employed by traditional outlets.

As I observed last week, the shield law obviously needs a definition that limits its scope, but the professional definition, which now seems inevitable, would exclude student journalists as well as bloggers with a day job.

(The question of student journalists waslast month.)

In Turkey today, the government . It's not a great analogy to what the U.S. Congress is considering; the Turkish Twitter users weren't arrested for concealing the source of a photo, just for sharing it. But it demonstrates the increasing tension between organs of power and outlets of information.

Without the First Amendment, there would be no impetus for the government to make an attempt to provide protections for whistleblowers. As we've seen, the Department of Justice has been more than willing to test the boundaries of how and when it can conduct such investigations. So it's imperative that we get the new rules right, to — as Seward noted in 2009 — figure out where to draw the line between the needs of journalists and the needs of authority figures. Drawing it correctly requires answering Lindsey Graham's surprisingly complicated question.

Photo: A protestor in Turkey holds a police shield. (AP)

DETROIT/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Elon Musk, the chief executive of electric carmaker Tesla Motors Inc, criticized the traditional way of selling cars in the United States and indicated the model would hamper the 10-year-old U.S. automaker's growth prospects.

Tesla is pushing to sell its Model S electric sedan directly to consumers rather than relying on a network of independent dealers. These efforts have met stiff resistance from dealer groups around the country.

"The auto dealers association is definitely creating some problems for us, making it harder to get things done," Musk said during Tesla's annual meeting on Tuesday.

The annual meeting comes after a string of positive news in the last month for Tesla, including its first-ever quarterly profit and a near-perfect score for the Model S from the influential Consumer Reports magazine.

As a result, Tesla shares have nearly tripled this year. On Tuesday, Musk said the company's gross margins could approach those of sports-car maker Porsche AG "over time."

Tesla is now beefing up its sales operations in anticipation of growing Model S sales. The company expects to have 50 stores by the end of the year, up from 34 during the first quarter.

Musk has said that traditional dealers may not be the best advocate for electric cars because they rely largely on gas-powered vehicles for revenue. Musk said Tuesday that consumers were broadly supportive of direct-to-consumer sales.

He told shareholders that the traditional dealer model has not worked for other auto start-ups, including Fisker Automotive and Coda Holdings, which filed for bankruptcy last month.

"It didn't work for Fisker, didn't work for Coda. In the last 90 years, when did it work?" Musk said at the meeting in Mountain View, California that was also broadcast online. "We have to do this directly."

David Hyatt, vice president of public affairs for the National Automobile Dealers Association, disputed Musk's comments, saying the troubles facing Fisker and Coda did not stem from their sales models.

"Industry experts say Fisker failed because it rushed its product to market before engineering problems were resolved," Hyatt said in a statement. "Coda did not receive government loans and was under-capitalized.

"Thank goodness there are independent dealers left to try to help the customer," he added. "Manufacturers and brands may come and go, but the dealers are there for the long term."

Most U.S. states do not allow manufacturers to sell new cars directly to consumers. A pair of bills that would have allowed such sales in Texas failed to make it to a floor vote in the state legislature before its regular session ended on May 27.

"Honestly, it was a hard bill to pass anyway and I knew that when I filed it," said Democratic Representative Eddie Rodriguez, who proposed the bill in the House. A companion bill was introduced in the Senate by Republican Senator Craig Estes.

"It was very different than what the current system is. I knew it was going to be a challenge," Rodriguez said, adding "the dealers are a pretty strong lobby group."

(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Carol Bishopric, Dan Grebler and Matt Driskill)

The 23-man squad will also play the friendly against France in Montevideo Wednesday and a World Cup qualifier against Venezuela in Puerto Ordaz, June 11, reports Xinhua.

La Celeste's coach Oscar Tabarez Tuesday cut five names from his preliminary list announced last month.

Those to miss out were Carlos Valdez (Penarol), Alejandro Silva (Olimpia), Matias Cabrera (Cagliari), Gonzalo Castro (Real Sociedad) and Christian Stuani (Espanyol).

Uruguay will open their Confederations Cup campaign June 16 against Spain before matches against Nigeria and Tahiti in the group stage.

Uruguay squad:

Goalkeepers: Fernando Muslera (Galatasaray), Martin Silva (Olimpia), Juan Castillo (Danubio).

Defenders: Andres Scotti (Nacional), Maximiliano Pereira (Benfica), Diego Lugano (Malaga), Diego Godin (Atletico Madrid), Sebastian Coates (Liverpool), Martin Caceres (Juventus), Matias Aguirregaray (Penarol).

Midfielders: Alvaro Gonzalez (Lazio), Alvaro Pereira and Walter Gargano (both Inter Milan), Egidio Arevalo-Rios (Palermo), Diego Perez (Bologna), Cristian Rodriguez (Atletico Madrid), Gaston Ramirez (Southampton), Nicolas Lodeiro (Botafogo), Sebastian Eguren (Libertad).

Strikers: Luis Suarez (Liverpool), Edinson Cavani (Napoli), Diego Forlan (Internacional), Abel Hernandez (Palermo)

is an online personalized finance service that helps "consumers make better decisions about their personal finances, travel plans, or higher education." The company recentlythat named the best places for women in the workforce, and Washington, D.C., was No. 1 on the big city list.

The lists, divided into large, medium, and small cities, were based on an analysis of 366 metro areas and included data from the U.S. Census. Three criteria were examined: median salary for full-time female employees, women's pay as a percentage of men's for full-time employees, and the population growth of each city.

The Study

According to a February 2013 , "Women have made notable changes in their labor force activities." The number of full-time working women has increased considerably since 1970. According to the report, "In 1979, women working full-time earned 62 percent of what men did; in 2011, women's earnings were 82 percent of men's."

NerdWallet examined cities "with characteristics that support working women, including a growing economy, a small gender pay gap, and robust salaries" and divided their rankings based on metro area size.

In an interview with TIME,"We parsed the results because some people aren't looking for jobs in big cities. While many working women want to move to places like New York City, others want to live in smaller cities where they can raise families and send their children to quality public schools. We wanted to make sure we had results that catered to all women, not exclusively young, mobile women who are drawn to big cities."

Why Washington, D.C.?

NerdWallet says that women in D.C. "benefit from a high median salary and high population growth."

While the area offers several employment opportunities for the politically inclined, many women also work in research in area universities. With the-- Washington, D.C., had approximately 16.1 million domestic visitors in 2011 -- more prospects of work have also been added.

With such avenues, the median earnings for full-time, year-round female employees in D.C. is $55,688, and women's earnings in D.C. are 81.9 percent of men's earnings.

After Washington, D.C., NerdWallet listed San Francisco, San Jose, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Los Angeles, Denver, Raleigh, New York City, and Sacramento on the list of the top 10 big cities for working women.

Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina, took first in the list of the best medium-sized cities for women in the workforce, thanks to job opportunities at the metro area's universities. Women's pay is 93.5 percent of men's in Durham-Chapel Hill, and the median pay for full-time, year-round women is $41,736.

The small cities list is led by Napa, California, where NerdWallet reports women's earnings are 91.6 percent of men's and median women's pay is $46,949.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - FX's border-cop drama "The Bridge" will premiere on July 10, the cable network said on Thursday.

After its debut, the new 13-episode series will continue to air on Wednesdays during the 10 p.m. timeslot.

Oscar-nominee Demin Bichir ("A Better Life") and Diane Kruger ("National Treasure") star as two detectives, one from each side of the U.S.-Mexican border, trying to solve serial murders.

Executive Producers Meredith Stiehm and novelist and writer Elwood Reid adapted "The Bridge" for American television from the international hit series "Bron," which was set on the border of Denmark and Sweden.

"Bron" was produced by Shine Group's Filmlance and Denmark's Nimbus Film Production. Shine America's Carolyn G. Bernstein and Filmlance's Lars Blomgren are executive producing the American version.

Ted Levine, Annabeth Gish, and Thomas M. Wright, and Matthew Lillard guest star in the pilot episode directed by Gerardo Naranjo.

The new season of "America's Got Talent" starts Tuesday at 9 p.m. EDT. New judges include former Spice Girl Mel B. and supermodel/personality Heidi Klum, who are joining forces with Howie Mandel and Howard Stern. New York's Radio City Music Hall is the spectacular new venue.

Even so, the roots of this NBC variety competition are steeped in TV antiquity, reaching back to the medium's infancy.

It was on June 20, 1948, that "The Ed Sullivan Show" (then known as "The Toast of the Town") began its 24 seasons of jugglers, opera singers, comedians, animal acts and (of course) Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

It was also 65 years ago that "The Original Amateur Hour" moved to television after a successful run on radio (its final CBS telecast was in 1970).

The variety show was pronounced dead decades ago. And after "The Gong Show" in the 1970s and '80s, and "Star Search," which folded in 1995, talent competitions also seemed kaput.

But Simon Cowell has done his part to resurrect both genres.

He was, of course, the tart-tongued judge when "American Idol" began its epoch-changing run on Fox in 2002.

With his Syco Entertainment, he now serves as a creator, producer and judge on Fox's "The X Factor," which come fall starts its third season.

And off-camera, he is the driving force of "America's Got Talent," now starting its eighth season.

In a recent phone interview from his native London, the 53-year-old mega-impresario recalled enjoying talent shows like "Opportunity Knocks" and "New Faces" as a child.

And he described how a few years ago, amid the boom of singing competitions, he hatched the idea for the broader-based talent show "America's Got Talent" emerged as. He was watching a singing show in Britain when a contestant warbled a too-familiar song, and very badly, "and I remember thinking: 'I'd actually rather watch a dancing dog than listen to her.'

"Then I said to myself, 'I used to LOVE that kind of show! Why don't we bring back that type of show again?'"

So he did. "America's Got Talent" (the first in Cowell's global "Got Talent" franchise, with original versions of the format now produced in 56 territories) premiered in 2006. And last year (fittingly) a dog act, Olate Dogs, won the $1 million prize.

Cowell is expectedly bullish about the season ahead.

"The new panel has jelled very well. There's really good chemistry with the judges and the host (Nick Cannon)," he said. He also sang the praises of the series' new producer, Sam Donnelly. "She's totally revitalized the American show. It's by far the best we've done."

Of course, "AGT" is hardly Cowell's only project, even in the U.S.

Come fall, "The X Factor" returns on Fox after two seasons of conspicuously falling short of what the audience was led to expect.

Will its third be the charm?

"If you'd asked me that question even a month ago," Cowell replied, "I would have said I honestly don't know." But recent auditions in Charleston, S.C., were "by far the best two days we've shot" since the series began, he declared.

"It suddenly just clicked. And there's one audition in particular that's probably one of my favorites that I've ever been involved in a one-in-10-million audition. I can't stop thinking about it.

"I think we may have got it right," he summed up.

The talent-show derby has been dominated in recent months by the hearty performance of NBC's "The Voice" (whose producers include reality mogul Mark Burnett) and the ratings erosion of "American Idol," whose judging panel Cowell exited three years ago.

"Not my problem anymore," he chuckled when asked to diagnose what is plaguing "Idol."

"It's so much in my past now," he said. "I deliberately this year didn't watch a single second of the show."

Maybe publicized clashes between its judges (only one of whom maybe will be back next season) upstaged the performers. Maybe the show is getting old in the tooth. Or maybe, with all the rival talent shows (including ABC's "Dancing With the Stars," Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance" and even AMC's new docureality series, "Showville"), the genre is glutted.

"There is no question about it, there are too many," Cowell said. "But funnily enough, that doesn't bother me. It makes you more focused."

Asked the most important thing he focuses on, Cowell didn't pause before replying, "relevancy. Somebody once said to me, 'Disco died in the '70s.' Those words haunt me. You have to stay relevant in EACH decade."

But how? "I listen. I listen to people who've had more experience than me. And I listen to 16- and 17-year-olds. I'm not threatened by someone who knows more than me. I just want them to TELL me!

"I love learning new things," said the man world-famous for his on-the-air outspokenness. "I'd rather listen than talk."

___

Online:

http://www.nbc.com

___

EDITOR'S NOTE Frazier Moore is a national television columnist for The Associated Press. He can be reached at fmoore(at)ap.org and at http://www.twitter.com/tvfrazier

stated, last week's positions in brackets):

1. (1) Tiger Woods 13.40 average points

2. (2) Rory McIlroy (Northern Ireland) 10.03

3. (3) Adam Scott (Australia) 7.62

4. (4) Justin Rose (England) 6.40

5. (5) Brandt Snedeker 6.35

6. (6) Luke Donald (England) 6.10

7. (7) Graeme McDowell (Northern Ireland) 5.82

8. (8) Louis Oosthuizen (South Africa) 5.56

9. (13) Matt Kuchar 5.52

10. (12) Lee Westwood (England) 5.18

11. (9) Phil Mickelson 5.17

12. (10) Steve Stricker 5.12

13. (11) Keegan Bradley 5.07

14. (14) Sergio Garcia (Spain) 4.91

15. (15) Charl Schwartzel (South Africa) 4.81

16. (17) Ian Poulter (England) 4.59

17. (16) Webb Simpson 4.58

18. (18) Bubba Watson 4.56

19. (19) Dustin Johnson 4.32

20. (20) Jason Dufner 4.20

(Editing by Ed Osmond)

Moore's fate may transform into a grim awakening in the world of extreme sports, where the X Games have proved a catalyst for the evolution of dangerous, Evil Knievel-style activity invented almost on the fly, with new terrains and new expectations leaving us with this — potentially the first death in the 20-year history of ESPN's competition, all because of a kid on a giant machine who knew exactly what he was getting into.

On Thursday night, Moore didn't have enough speed when he attempted his flip, so his snowmobile under-rotated and instead of bailing on the trick he stayed committed. The skis on the front of the vehicle dug into the snow, throwing Moore forward onto the snow. The snowmobile flipped and came down directly on top of him:

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