In pursuit of a maiden victory on the circuit, Reed fired a sizzling eight-under-par 63 on a day of low scoring at the TPC Deere Run to finish at 12-under 130, level with former major winners Zach Johnson (66) and Lucas Glover (62).

Australian Matt Jones carded a 65 to post an 11-under total, ending the day a stroke in front of Americans Kevin Streelman (66), Jerry Kelly (64), Daniel Summerhays (67) and Troy Matteson (64), and Canadian David Hearn (66).

"It was just one of those days," the 22-year-old Reed told reporters after mixing an eagle at the par-five 17th with seven birdies and a lone bogey to surge to the top of the leaderboard.

"I have been hitting the ball well this week and I am hitting a lot of good putts. Unfortunately I am still missing a couple of short ones but I am saving myself by making the putts that I need to and also by making some long ones.

"The driver is a little inconsistent right now ... but besides that I can't complain about any other part of my game," said Reed, who earned his PGA Tour card for this year by tying for 22nd at the 2012 qualifying school.

GRITTY DISPLAY

Johnson, the 2007 Masters champion who won last year's John Deere Classic in a sudden-death playoff with Matteson, maintained his bid for a 10th PGA Tour victory with a gritty and flawless display as he recorded five birdies.

"Today was a hard 66," said Johnson, co-leader overnight with Colombia's Camilo Villegas. "Yesterday was a much easier 64.

"I didn't drive it very well but the positive side is I know I can play here if I don't drive it. My short game was tremendous. I putted great and I chipped it even better."

Glover, who clinched his only major title at the 2009 U.S. Open, also went bogey-free as he piled up nine birdies to rocket into contention.

He was delighted to be in the hunt for his fourth PGA Tour title after missing five cuts in his last six starts on the circuit.

"I've been struggling," Glover said. "I was ecstatic to shoot three-under yesterday. You can imagine how I feel today."

Matteson sparked his move up the leaderboard with an ace at the par-three third and went on to mix six birdies with one bogey before ending the round two strokes off the pace.

The cut fell at four-under 138 with former major winners Louis Oosthuizen, Trevor Immelman and Shaun Micheel among those missing out. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Two IRS credit cards were used to buy online pornography, though the employees said the cards were stolen. One of the workers reported five agency credit cards lost or stolen.

IRS employees used agency credit cards to make more than 273,000 purchases totaling nearly $108 million in 2010 and 2011, according to the report by the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

The vast majority of those purchases were legitimate, the report said. However, the report said the IRS has inadequate controls to prevent inappropriate purchases.

For example, investigators found that one IRS employee spent $2,655 on diet pills, romance novels, steaks, a smartphone and baby-related items, including bottles, games and clothes. The case was referred to the IG's office that investigates employee misconduct, the report said.

Among other "improper" purchases identified by the inspector general:

$3,152 to rent a popcorn machine and to buy prizes for an employee event, including bandanas, stuffed animals, sunglasses and stovepipe hats.

$418 for novelty decorations and swag at managers' meetings, including kazoos, bathtub toys and "Thomas the Tank Engine" wristbands.

$119 for Nerf footballs that were never used and were found stored in a filing cabinet.

"Inadequate procedures to identify, report and address inappropriate use leaves the IRS purchase card program vulnerable to repeated violations of applicable laws and regulations," said J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration.

The report comes as the IRS faces intense scrutiny over agents targeting conservative groups for additional scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. Documents released Monday show that liberal and progressive groups were singled out, too.

Also, the inspector general released a report earlier this month that detailed lavish spending at employee conferences. In all, the agency spent nearly $50 million on employee conferences from 2010 through 2012.

"Clearly, any inappropriate card use impacts our bottom line and is cause for concern," said acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, who took over the agency last month. "Wasteful spending cannot be tolerated, and any employees found to be abusing the system will be held accountable. In fact, we are following up on several inappropriate incidents mentioned in the report, ranging from internal actions to criminal charges."

"That said, more than 99.75 percent of IRS purchases adhered to the rules," Werfel added. "The IRS has made important progress over the past two years in strengthening the controls in our purchase card program. We are committed to protecting taxpayer resources, and we will take quick action to implement all of TIGTA's recommendations."

The new report highlighted a 2010 conference in Washington for tax officials from other countries. At a luncheon, the IRS bought 28 bottles of wine for 41 guests, the report said. A dinner at the conference cost the agency $140 a person, four times the allowable government rate at the time.

In all, the agency spent more than $50,000 on meals, receptions and meetings at the five-day conference, the report said. Agency credit cards were used for about $12,500 of the purchases.

"It is important to note that the luncheon described in the report took place in 2010 for an international business meeting of tax officials from several of the world's largest countries. This meeting is an important forum for international leaders on major tax issues," Werfel said. "However, given the excessive purchases for the luncheon, I am directing the IRS business units to more closely review spending in advance for any similar events to ensure all spending is appropriate."

The IRS participates in the General Services Administration's SmartPay purchase card program. Under the program, agency employees can use purchase cards, which act like credit cards, to buy work-related items. The maximum amount for an individual purchase is $3,000.

More expensive items are subject to competitive pricing policies.

In 2010 and 2011, internal controls at the IRS found 327 cases in which employees divided their purchases to skirt the $3,000 limit. The inspector general's office found an additional 34 cases. In all, the purchases totaled $493,000, the report said.

The report said 94 employees were responsible for the purchases, including 22 workers who had done it more than once in a six-month period. However, the report said, none of the employees were disciplined.

As for the two IRS employees whose cards were used to buy pornography, the inspector general's report didn't determine who bought the material or whether their cards were actually stolen. One of the employees is no longer at the agency. The IG is continuing to investigate the other employee, the report said.

___

Follow Stephen Ohlemacher on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stephenatap

Nearly a decade ago, the nuclear tables were turned in the Senate when the two leaders at the center of this month's squabble over the so-called "nuclear option" sang entirely different tunes on the filibuster.

In 2005, then Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., threatened to invoke the "nuclear option" against Democrats filibustering President George W. Bush's judicial nominees.

Sen. Mitch McConnell, who was then a part of the majority leadership, was one of the Republicans hoping to stop the minority's use of the filibuster over judicial nominees. Then Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, defended his party's tactics and fought to prevent Republicans from changing the rules.

Democrats and Republicans eventually worked out a deal, saving the Senate from complete nuclear meltdown for the time being, but eight years later, the two leaders have reversed their positions on the nuclear option.

So this time around, as Reid readies the nukes in the Senate and McConnell is arming his own troops for retaliation, here is a comparison of each leader's statements on the nuclear option between the fight in 2005 and now. Times may change, but in Washington, it seems that hypocrisy is forever.

Harry Reid Then

"If there were ever an example of an abuse of power, this is it The filibuster is the last check we have against the abuse of power in Washington." -

"Republicans are in power today, Democrats tomorrow. A simple majority can change anything. Mr. President, this is the way it should be. You should not be able to come in here and change willy-nilly a rule of the Senate." - Harry Reid on Senate floor, May 23, 2005

"I just couldn't believe that Bill Frist was going to do this. The storm had been gathering all year, and word from conservative columnists and in conservative circles was that Senator Frist of Tennessee, who was the Majority Leader, had decided to pursue a rules change that would kill the filibuster for judicial nominations. And once you opened that Pandora's box, it was just a matter of time before a Senate leader who couldn't get his way on something moved to eliminate the filibuster for regular business as well. And that, simply put, would be the end of the United States Senate." - Harry Reid in his 2008 book "The Good Fight"

"As long as I am the leader, the answer's no. I think we should just forget that. That is a black chapter in the history of the Senate. I hope we never ever get to that again because I really do believe it will ruin our country." -

Harry Reid Now

"I'm going to go to the floor on Tuesday and do what I need to do so this doesn't happen anymore." -

"A consistent and unprecedented obstruction by this Republican Congress has turned advise and consent into deny and obstruct. Republicanism obstruction is to deny President Obama the ability to choose a team. Whether you're a Democrat or Republican or independent, we should all be able to agree that presidents deserve the team members they want, and their nomination be subject to simple up-or-down votes." - Harry Reid on Senate floor, July 11, 2013

"The American people know this dysfunction we have here. And all we're asking is, let the president have his team. We're not talking about changing the filibuster rules that relates to nominations or judges. We're saying we shouldn't be held up - we have 15 nominees who have been held up for an average of nine months. Does the place need to be changed? Yes." - Harry Reid on Senate floor, July 11, 2013

Mitch McConnell Then

"The majority in the Senate is prepared to restore the Senate's traditions and precedence to ensure that regardless of party, any president's judicial nominees, after full and fair debate, receive a simple up-or-down vote on the Senate floor. It's time to move away from advise and obstruct and get back to advise and consent." - Mitch McConnell on Senate floor, May 19, 2005

"This is not the first time a minority of senators has upset a Senate tradition or practice, and the current Senate majority intends to do what the majority in the Senate has often done-use its constitutional authority under article I, section 5, to reform Senate procedure by a simple majority vote. Despite the incredulous protestations of our Democratic colleagues, the Senate has repeatedly adjusted its rules as circumstances dictate." - Mitch McConnell on Senate floor, May 23, 2005

"The time has come to change the rules. I want to change them in an orderly fashion. I want a time agreement. But, barring that, if I have to be forced into a corner to try for majority vote I will do it because I am going to do my duty as I see my duty, whether I win or lose. If we can only change an abominable rule by majority vote, that is in the interests of the Senate and in the interests of the nation that the majority must work its will. And it will work its will." - Mitch McConnell on Senate floor, May 23, 2005

Mitch McConnell Now

"It would be naive to assume that you could break the rules of the Senate in order to change the rules for the Senate only for nominations, that there would be a widespread clamor across our conference, were we to be in the majority, to take that precedent and apply it to everything else. As Harry Reid, as Lamar pointed out in his book in 2007, using the nuclear option is the end of the Senate - I repeat, the end of the Senate. It turns the Senate into the House." - Mitch McConnell in news conference on Capitol Hill, June 18, 2013

"This is about trying to come up with excuses to break our commitments. What this is about is manufacturing a pretext for a power grab." - Mitch McConnell on Senate floor, July 11, 2013

"They're willing to irreparably damage the Senate to ensure that they get their way." - Mitch McConnell on Senate floor, July 11, 2013

"That would violate every protection of minority rights that have defined the United States Senate for as long as anyone can remember. Let me assure you, this Pandora's box, once opened, will be utilized again and again by future majorities. And it will make the meaningful consensus-building that has served our nation so well a relic - a relic of the past." - Mitch McConnell on Senate floor, July 11, 2013

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Mariano Rajoy is making a risky political bet in claiming recovery is close at hand as a recent economic upturn is fragile and even if it persists an austerity-weary public may not feel much benefit, analysts and sources say.

For weeks, the government has tried to move away from the gloomy picture it presented in April when it updated its economic strategy, pointing at encouraging trade, labor cost and deficit numbers instead.

Ministers and officials have hammered home the message that the worst of the crisis has passed, the adjustment after a 2008 property crash is close to ending and structural reforms implemented last year will soon deliver growth and jobs.

More recently prime minister Rajoy and his top aides have talked up the prospect of a quicker than expected recovery with growth expected in the third quarter instead of the fourth.

The country has been in or close to recession for the past five years and was forced last year to take a 42-billion-euro ($55 billion) bailout for its banks, brought low when a decade-long property bubble burst.

"Our economy has turned the corner and we are at the start of a change in trends which will allow us, with effort, to create jobs again. The foundations have been laid," Rajoy said at an event last Sunday.

In private, however, senior officials acknowledge the risk of a backlash as people may not see any improvement in their living conditions and job prospects for another two years while many factors may set back recovery.

"The car has been fixed, the driver is in good shape but you never know what may stand in your way. Yes, there is a risk of an accident," said a senior government source on condition of anonymity. "If that happens, we'll see how we deal with it."

Spaniards are unconvinced there is light at the end of the tunnel, an image often used by the government which echoes the former socialist administration's "green shoots", which never materialized.

In a June opinion poll, 93.4 percent of 2,500 people surveyed said the economy was in the same or worse shape than a year ago. Some 75 percent believed the situation would not improve in the next 12 months.

Senior members of the socialist government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero say Rajoy is making the same mistake as the former premier and will regret it sooner or later.

While any backlash may jeopardize Rajoy's bid for re-election in 2015, the socialist opposition still has to capitalize on the PP's falling popularity as it is still perceived as mainly responsible for Spain's slump.

Corruption scandals have also crushed faith in both of Spain's two major parties and angered Spaniards suffering high unemployment, spending cuts and tax hikes.

SLOW RECOVERY

The vast majority of analysts, while insisting Spain's economic imbalances are being corrected, also think more pain is to be expected.

Unit labor costs have fallen to pre-crisis levels, the trade deficit is shrinking and industrial production is recovering. At the same time, however, unemployment keeps rising, retail sales still have to bottom out, the public deficit remains high and debt is surging.

"The main problem of the Spanish economy is the massive damage suffered by the labor market and the businesses, which will weigh heavily on any recovery," said Santiago Sanchez Guiu, economist at the Carlos III university in Madrid.

"We can't rule out a new slump because these factors will weigh so much," he said.

At best, analysts say the adjustment will not be completed until next year at the earliest, when the country is expected to grow at a slow pace.

At worst, unemployment will pick up after the tourist season, exports may suffer from lower growth in the euro zone and emerging countries and any flare up of the currency bloc's crisis - be it from a failure to move quickly towards a European banking union or renewed fears about Greece and Portugal - would hit Spain hard.

They also say Spain's tentative signs of recovery is partly due to central bank stimulus around the world and that an early tightening of monetary policy would spur market volatility and put the country back in the spotlight.

"If Spain is much less exposed than Germany to the idiosyncratic Chinese risk, it appears to be increasingly sensitive to emerging markets developments in general," Deutsche Bank economist Gilles Moec said in a note to clients.

"Any disruption in emerging markets as an asset class following Fed tapering would be felt in Spain," Moec said, given that Spanish exports to Latin America and elsewhere would suffer.

Emerging markets have taken a battering since the Federal Reserve announced its exit plan from money-printing, which it expects to wind up by mid-2014. Spanish 10-year bond yields have risen by more than half a point in response.

The International Monetary Fund trimmed its global growth forecast on Tuesday for the fifth time since early last year due to a slowdown in emerging economies and recessions in Europe.

Spain's growth forecast for 2014 was also revised down sharply for next year to zero, from 0.7 percent previously, casting more shadows on Rajoy's optimism drive.

($1 = 0.7668 euros)

(Additional reporting by Fiona Ortiz and Manuel Maria Ruiz, editing by Mike Peacock)

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey said on Wednesday it had asked Twitter to set up a representative office inside the country, which could give it a tighter rein over the microblogging site it has accused of helping stir weeks of anti-government protests.

While mainstream Turkish media largely ignored the protests during the early days of the unrest, social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook emerged as the main outlets for Turks opposed to the government.

Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim told reporters on Wednesday that without a corporate presence in the country, the Turkish government could not quickly reach Twitter officials with orders to take down content or with requests for user data.

"When information is requested, we want to see someone in Turkey who can provide this ... there needs to be an interlocutor we can put our grievance to and who can correct an error if there is one," he said.

"We have told all social media that ... if you operate in Turkey you must comply with Turkish law," Yildirim said.

Twitter declined to respond to the government request on Wednesday, but a person familiar with the company's thinking said it had no current plans to open an office in that country.

Turkey successfully pressured Google Inc into opening an office there last October after blocking YouTube, a Google subsidiary, from Turkish Internet users for two years.

While Ankara had no problems with Facebook, which had been working with Turkish authorities for a while and had representatives inside Turkey, Yildirim said it had not seen a "positive approach" from Twitter after Turkey issued the "necessary warnings" to the site.

"Twitter will probably comply, too. Otherwise this is a situation that cannot be sustained," he said, without elaborating, but he stressed the aim was not to limit social media.

An official at the ministry, who asked not to be named, said the government had asked Twitter to reveal the identities of users who posted messages deemed insulting to the government or prime minister, or that flouted people's personal rights.

It was not immediately clear whether Twitter had responded.

Facebook said in a statement that it had not provided user data to Turkish authorities in response to government requests over the protests and said it was concerned about proposals Internet companies may have to provide data more frequently.

"PROVOCATEURS"

In the midst of some of the country's worst political upheaval in years, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has described sites like Twitter as a "scourge," although senior members of his party are regular users. He has said such websites were used to spread lies about the government with the aim of terrorizing society.

Police detained several dozen people suspected of inciting unrest on social media during the protests, according to local reports.

Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D. C., Twitter's Chief Executive Dick Costolo said on Wednesday that he had been observing the developments in Turkey, but he emphasized that Twitter had played a hands-off role in the political debate.

"We don't say, Well, if you believe this, you can't use our platform for that,'" Costolo said. "You can use our platform to say what you believe, and that's what the people of Turkey ... are using the platform for. The platform itself doesn't have any perspective on these things."

Turkey's interior minister had previously said the government was working on new regulations that would target so-called "provocateurs" on social media but there have been few details on what the laws would entail.

One source with knowledge of the matter said the justice ministry had proposed a regulation whereby any Turk wishing to open a Twitter account would have to enter their national identification number, but this had been rejected by the transport ministry as being technically unfeasible.

Last year, Twitter introduced a feature called "Country Withheld Content" that allows it to narrowly censor tweets considered illegal in a specific country, and it caused some concern among users.

Twitter implemented the feature for the first time in October in response to a request by German authorities, blocking messages in Germany by a right-wing group banned by police.

Turkey said last year that it had won a long-running battle to persuade Google-owned YouTube to operate under a Turkish Internet domain, giving Ankara more control over the video-sharing website and requiring the company to pay Turkish taxes. In October, Google opened an office in Istanbul.

Turkey banned the popular website for more than two years in 2008 after users posted videos the government deemed insulting to the republic's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

Rights groups have long pressed Turkey to reform strict Internet laws and analysts have criticized the ease with which citizens and politicians can apply to have a website banned.

Turkey cites offences including child pornography and insulting Ataturk to justify blocking websites.

Turkish users have increasingly turned to encryption software to thwart any ramp up in censorship of the Internet.

(Additional reporting by Gerry Shih in San Francisco and Alina Selyukh in Washington; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Nick Tattersall, Ralph Boulton, Toni Reinhold)

Dennard's early-morning arrest in Lincoln, Neb., where he was a college star for the Cornhuskers, came 15 days after Aaron Hernandez was charged with murder and three days after Patriots owner Robert Kraft said the club will "be looking at our procedures and auditing how we do things" with regard to character reviews.

"The New England Patriots are extremely disappointed to learn of Alfonzo Dennard's arrest. We take this matter very seriously and are working to get more information on the incident," the team said in a statement.

Dennard's arrest is his second in 15 months. He hasn't served a 30-day jail sentence for the assault outside a Lincoln bar on Apr. 21, 2012. That is scheduled to begin next March. He also was sentenced to two years of probation.

Hernandez, a star tight end, was arrested on June 26 and charged with murder in the killing of Boston semi-pro football player Odin Lloyd. Hernandez has pleaded not guilty. The Patriots cut Hernandez after he was arrested and before the charges were announced.

Dennard and Hernandez both were highly-touted college prospects whose draft stock dropped because of character concerns.

Seven days after being charged with assault, Dennard was drafted in the seventh round last year out of Nebraska by the Patriots. They drafted Hernandez in the fourth round in 2010 after he violated the substance abuse policy at Florida.

"If this stuff is true, then I've been duped and our whole organization has been duped," Kraft said Monday of the case involving Hernandez.

The team did not respond to a request Thursday for Kraft's reaction to Dennard's arrest.

The legal issues are bound to hover over the opening of training camp on July 25. Coach Bill Belichick rarely comments on such matters and instructs his players to do the same.

Belichick has sometimes signed players who had troubles elsewhere if he felt they could help the team win, hoping his disciplined approach and leaders such as Tom Brady and Vince Wilfork and now-retired Patriots including Tedy Bruschi and Mike Vrabel could keep them in line.

Results have been mixed. Running back Corey Dillon and wide receiver Randy Moss, disgruntled on their previous teams, avoided off-field problems with the Patriots and were productive for several seasons. Chad Johnson, then known as Chad Ochocinco, caught just 15 passes in his only season with the Patriots in 2011 but caused no off-field distractions.

Dennard became a starter at cornerback in the seventh game of his rookie season. The other starter, Aqib Talib, was obtained from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers last Nov. 1 then signed a one-year contract on March 16. He missed his first game with the Patriots while completing a four-game suspension imposed by the NFL for violating its policy on performance-enhancing substances.

Talib had been suspended without pay for the 2010 opener and fined one additional game check for violating the NFL's personal-conduct policy. That followed an altercation with a St. Petersburg cab driver during training camp in 2009. He also had charges of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon in Texas dropped a week before he was due to be tried for allegedly firing a gun at his sister's boyfriend.

On Thursday, Dennard was pulled over while driving just before 2 a.m. and failed a field sobriety test, police said. A phone listing for Dennard couldn't be found.

Police spokeswoman Katie Flood said he was taken to a detoxification center but not jailed. He also was accused of refusing a chemical test and a driving infraction.

She said a final decision on the charges likely will be made by the Lincoln City Attorney's Office before the Aug. 12 court date assigned to Dennard. Assistant city prosecutor John McQuinn said his office had not yet received the citation against Dennard from police.

The Patriots' first preseason game is scheduled for Aug. 9 at the Philadelphia Eagles.

Terry Dougherty, Dennard's attorney in the assault case, said in April that he would ask Lancaster County District Judge Stephanie Stacy to suspend the 30-day sentence if Dennard complied with the terms of his probation over the subsequent 11 months. Stacy said then that she would consider such a motion.

It's unclear whether prosecutors will move to have Dennard's probation revoked. Lancaster County Attorney Joe Kelly didn't immediately return a message.

Dennard's arrest is the latest off-field incident involving a Patriots player while he was with them or before they obtained him. Among the others:

Brandon Meriweather, a safety drafted in the first round in 2007 from Miami, fired a gun at an assailant who had shot Dolphins backup safety Willie Cooper outside the house the two players shared with another teammate, police said. Meriweather wasn't charged and police said he used the gun legally.

Willie Andrews, a defensive back drafted in the seventh round in 2006 from Baylor, was cut by the Patriots after being arrested twice following the 2007 season. The first arrest was for possession of marijuana with intent to distribute two days after the Patriots lost the Super Bowl to the New York Giants.

Nick Kaczur, an offensive tackle drafted in the third round in 2005 from Toledo, pleaded guilty in July 2008 to speeding in a deal with prosecutors and was ordered to pay $355 in fines and fees. He originally was charged with seventh-degree criminal possession of a controlled substance, a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in jail, after being pulled over by state troopers near Utica, N.Y.

Albert Haynesworth, a defensive tackle obtained in a trade on July 29, 2011, pleaded no contest the following month to a charge of simple assault in a case in which he was accused of touching a waitress' breast at a Washington, D.C., hotel.

___

Associated Press writer Nelson Lampe in Omaha, Neb., contributed to this report.

(Reuters) - Despite two failed late-stage trials of its experimental Alzheimer's drug solanezumab, Eli Lilly and Co said on Friday it plans to run yet another study, this time focusing only on mild patients who appeared to respond to the treatment.

And the company will take extra steps to ensure it is testing actual Alzheimer's patients by pre-screening them with its imaging agent Amyvid to ensure they have deposits of the protein beta amyloid that is linked with the disease.

Solanezumab, which patients take by infusion, works by blocking the beta-amyloid protein that forms plaques in the brain signaling the onset of the disease. Bapineuzumab, a similar drug developed by Pfizer Inc, failed its main trial goals last year.

Lilly's two earlier trials of solanezumab had involved patients with mild to moderate symptoms. Combined data from those trials last summer showed the drug slowed cognitive decline by 34 percent in patients who started out with only mild symptoms, but without slowing declines in their ability to perform everyday tasks.

Lilly said the new Phase III trial will consist of 2,100 people, considerably more than the total of about 1,300 with mild Alzheimer's in the earlier two Phase III studies.

"Since Lilly saw a signal of benefit in the mild patients in the completed trials, it makes a lot of sense for them to simply zoom in on that group in this new trial," said Steven Ferris, director of the Alzheimer's Disease Center at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York. "It's a roll of the dice again, but they'll get a definitive answer."

Ferris said Lilly's decision to forge ahead with another trial was a bold move, but one worth taking because no current treatments slow progression of the disease.

"That's what we need."

The Indianapolis company plans to begin enrolling patients in the new study, called Expedition 3, before the end of September, and noted that patients would be treated for 18 months. But Lilly declined to speculate when it will have final data from the high-profile study.

An estimated 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's, the most common cause of dementia. More than 38 million people worldwide are believed to have dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, and those numbers are expected to rise as more people live longer.

WRONG PATIENTS SCREENED

Eric Siemers, senior medical director of Lilly's Alzheimer's program, said an estimated 25 percent of patients in the two earlier Expedition trials might not actually have had beta-amyloid deposits or Alzheimer's disease, so solanezumab could not have helped them.

He said many patients were enrolled in those trials on the basis of symptoms, without undergoing sophisticated diagnostic procedures now available to confirm the presence of beta-amyloid deposits.

In addition to using Amyvid, its new radioactive imaging agent, Siemers said the company will also look at biochemical measures in the spinal fluid can also help assess whether patients have Alzheimer's.

"This pre-screening will take Lilly longer to enroll patients, but is a wise move," Sanford Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson said in a research note. He said the earliest the drug is likely to reach the market, assuming the trial succeeds, is late 2017.

Maria Carrillo, vice president of scientific and medical affairs for the Alzheimer's Association, said the tighter screening will "strengthen" the new study. "When you're using an amyloid-based approach you want to make sure amyloid is there."

Lilly's renewed push behind solanezumab comes amid other recent setbacks for its Alzheimer's program.

Last month Lilly halted a mid-stage study of a different type of Alzheimer's treatment, from a class known as beta secretase, or BACE, inhibitors, after signs of potential liver toxicity. But the company said it remains interested in developing other BACE inhibitors.

Earlier this month, the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services proposed guidelines that would deny reimbursement for Amyvid unless patients are taking part in one of several clinical trials in which the $3,000 test is being used.

In the meantime, two independent studies of solanezumab are just getting off the ground, and could shed further light on the drug's potential.

They involve a study of elderly patients who do not yet have symptoms of Alzheimer's but who have deposits of amyloid in their brains, and a study of patients with an inherited high risk of developing Alzheimer's.

(Reporting by Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn, Julie Steenhuysen and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

* 77 year wait ended (Adds details)

LONDON, July 8 (Reuters) - Britain's ecstatic media trumpeted the end of the 'longest yearning in British sport' on Monday by celebrating Andy Murray's Wimbledon success on the front and back pages of newspapers and much of the rest as well.

"And of Hope and Glory," declared the best-selling Sun tabloid, next to a picture of the Scot kissing the gilded trophy on a sunlit afternoon in south London after beating Novak Djokovic 6-4 7-5 6-4.

"Finally, after 77 years, 15 PMs, three monarchs...Brit man wins Wimbo".

The paper devoted the first five pages to the first British winner of the men's title since 1936, along with an eight page 'Born to Wim' souvenir pullout and six more in the sports section.

Such unrestrained joy was the norm, with the more up-market Times and Telegraph throwing gravitas out of the window with page after page chronicling every detail of Murray's epic victory and back story.

"The History Boy," declared the Times, dedicating the first eight pages of the paper to 'Murray-mania" in another souvenir edition with a wraparound picture of Murray clambering through the stands to embrace friends and family as the crowd reached out to him.

"Heaviest of burdens is finally lifted to an entire nations' relief," added a headline in a further nine sports pages devoted to the first British winner since Fred Perry - and the first to win the title in shorts.

"At Last' read the front page of the Daily Telegraph sports section, which included a 12 page Wimbledon special, and the Daily Mail tabloid which offered readers a 12 page souvenir section and victory poster.

"After 77 years, the wait is over," was the Telegraph's main headline, with the 26-year-old Scot hailed as a "Colossus of the court who faced up to failures".

The Mirror declared Murray to be in 'Seventh Heaven', highlighting not only the 77 year gap but also the seven day age gap between Murray and Djokovic, Murray breaking the Serb in the seventh game of each set and winning his seventh grand slam final on the seventh day of the seventh month.

"It's magic as Andy exorcises all those demons of British tennis," it added.

On a great weekend of British sport, with the Lions triumphant on the rugby field in Australia, the Daily Mail focused on what might lie in store for the nation's 'Golden Boy' who also won the Olympic title on the grass courts of Wimbledon last year.

"Now it'll be arise, Sir Andy," declared the tabloid.

The Guardian joined in the celebrations with the single word 'Champion' on its front page over a picture of Murray, eyes closed, kissing the trophy.

"Scottish, British, who cares? Today he belongs to us all," declared another headline inside.

The Independent delighted in "A triumph never to be forgotten, an inspiration to everyone who watched."

Murray, added the paper, had secured his lifetime's ambition after a game "of nerve shredding drama...that summed up an unforgettable Wimbledon final, full of stunning tennis and with more plot twists than an Alfred Hitchcock thriller." (Writing by Alan Baldwin/Ken Ferris; Editing by Toby Davis)

A team of international astronomers has detected four explosive events, known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), above the plane of our. Lasting only a few thousandths of a second, these sources send powerful signals across the universe, traveling billions of light-years through space.

"These bursts gave off more energy in a millisecond than the sun does in 300,000 years," said principal investigator Dan Thornton of the University of Manchester in England. []

Mysterious origins

Studying observations by the CSIRO Parkes radio telescope in Australia, Thornton and his team spotted four new point sources across the sky. The bursts ranged from 5.5 to 10 billion light-years away, meaning it took the light from some of them 10 billion years to reach Earth. (Thethat created our universe occurred 13.8 billion years ago.).

These newfound objects allowed the researchers to calculate that an FRB should occur once every 10 seconds.

After the astronomers verified that the objects weren't Earth-based, they questioned whether the new signals came from . To do so, they studied how the radio waves were affected by the material they pass through a technique that could allow these new objects to shed light on the components of space.

As radio waves travel in space, they are stretched and slowed by the ionized material through which they move. Using models, the team concluded that the FRBs traveled billions oflight-years much farther than the edge of Earth's galaxy.

"These are extragalactic in origin not from the Milky Way but the source is likely located in anothergalaxy," Thornton said.

Although the explosions are brief, the astronomers can pinpoint the bursts' locations pretty accurately.

"They are so bright and narrow that we can limit the size of the emission region at the source to just a few hundred kilometers," Thornton said.

No corresponding object could be observed in optical, gamma or X-ray wavelengths, so the explosions' origins remain unknown to scientists.

"Other variable extragalactic radio sources vary on timescales of days to months," Thornton said. "FRBs happen in just a few milliseconds."

Possible sources include intersecting magnetic fields from two neutron stars, extremely dense city-size bodies packing the mass of the sun. A special kind oforbited by a neutron star could potentially produce radio bursts as the star's magnetic field interacts with the explosion of the supernova, though such combinations would be rare, researchers said.

"Our favorite explanation is a giant burst from a, a highly magnetized type of neutron star," Thornton said.

These bursts of radiation can produce an enormous amount of energy, similar to that seen in the FRBs.

Hard to spot

Although frequent, an FRB's short signal duration makes it difficult to spot.

"The problem with searching for FRBs is that we don't know where or when they will go off," Thornton said.

A , leaving scientists puzzled about its source, and even its existence. For the last four years, Thornton and his team have used the High Time Resolution Survey to search for similar bursts. Powered by the 210-foot (64 meters) CSIRO Parkes radio telescope, the survey was designed to search above and below the plane of the Milky Way for objects such as rotating neutron stars known as pulsars.

The Parkes telescope essentially "stares" at a region of the sky for a set amount of time, making it ideal to capture FRBs.

"At some point, one will go off in the field of view of the telescope," Thornton said.

The four new sources appeared above the plane of the galaxy. Follow-up observations, performed approximately a year after the FRBs were first spotted, looked at whether the objects continued to produce emission, but the signals appear to be nonrepeating.

"It is, of course, possible that repetitions were missed, particularly if they happened soon after the original FRB," Thornton said.

"Efforts are ongoing at the moment to detect FRBs in close to real time, such that they can be followed up quickly," he added. Ideally, such follow-up observations would be performed at a multitude of wavelengths, providing further insight into what drives these powerful explosions.

The research, along with a companion Perspectives article by James Cordes of Cornell University in New York, was published online Thursday (July 4) in the journal Science.

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We do not want to keep this a secret from our children. We want them to eventually know, understand and be proud of the journey it took to bring them into this world. However, my husband and I are very private people. We understand that once the dialogue with our children begins, others will naturally find out.

My husband still feels very uncomfortable discussing his condition. How do we explain to our children, friends and family without becoming the focus of gossip and whispers? -- PROUD PARENTS

DEAR PROUD PARENTS: Infertility among couples is no longer a deep, dark or shameful secret, and the fact that you needed help to have your children shouldn't generate gossip or whispers because, frankly, it isn't shocking or titillating anymore.

When your children are old enough to be told the facts of life, they can be told that they were conceived through in vitro fertilization. They do not have to be told every detail all at once. When they are older, they may ask questions about why it was necessary -- and when they do, their questions should be answered honestly and in an age-appropriate manner.

DEAR ABBY: Last year I started dating the man I thought I would someday marry. We connected instantly and had a deep love for each other. We argued during most of our relationship, but strangely, never stopped feeling the way we did at the start. Our connection was undeniable and our love endless.

One night we got into a heated argument over "inappropriate" emails between him and an ex. The argument escalated and I was arrested. Worse than being in trouble with the law for the first time in my life was losing my other half.

Most people would say, "Walk away; you never belonged together." But I don't agree. I have never been in a relationship that had such highs and lows. I miss him and miss sharing my life with him. -- CONFUSED AND HEARTBROKEN

DEAR CONFUSED AND HEARTBROKEN: Whether you agree with "most people" or not, the most important person -- the man you were involved with -- no longer wants to be involved with you. As much as you cared for him, if he was sending "inappropriate" emails to an ex, it appears he was not equally devoted to you. The coup de grace was when you became so violent you were jailed.

You may miss what you thought you had with him, but what you need now is a therapist who can help you understand what a healthy relationship is all about, because this wasn't one. It's time to accept that this drama is over, because unless you do, you could be labeled a stalker and find yourself in even more trouble.

DEAR ABBY: I met this guy recently and I guess he's good-looking enough, but the thing is I really like his teeth. Like really, really like them for some reason. They're just so perfect, and I like the shape and everything.

The thing is, I've never actually paid that much attention to anyone else's teeth, just his. So does this count as a fetish or not? -- AM I WEIRD?

DEAR AM I: No. If the only thing that attracted you about every man you met was his teeth, you might have a tooth fetish. But because it's only this one set of choppers that turn you on, I wouldn't call that a fetish.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

To receive a collection of Abby's most memorable -- and most frequently requested -- poems and essays, send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $7 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby -- Keepers Booklet, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. Shipping and handling are included in the price.