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.

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Actor and activist Ian Somerhalder has joined the advisory board of interactive news website, RYOT, the actor's charity announced Tuesday.

RYOT, a media outlet encouraging readers to "become the news," bridges the gap between learning about things happening in the world and actually making a difference in it.

Each news story on the site is paired with a "RYOT note" explaining the social value of the story, while suggesting a charity or organization dedicated to a related cause.

If RYOT readers do not wish to give the organizations financial support, the site encourages them to simply stay informed, or better yet, volunteer their time to the charity.

"We started the Ian Somerhalder Foundation (ISF) because we didn't like the feeling of helplessness that came with environmental catastrophes such as the BP oil spill," Somerhalder said in a statement. "The news media serves a very useful purpose in communicating things that are happening in the world around us, but traditionally it doesn't allow the opportunity for people to really get involved and generate positive change. That's what is so appealing to me about RYOT. Every story gives you the option to get involved, to give, to reach down inside yourself and find what touches your heart and to react right that very second."

"RYOT is a disruptive, young news source that combines news with action. Ian is an inspiration to us, the way he uses his voice to continually push forward important social issues," RYOT's co-founder, Bryn Mooser, said. "He's bringing young people back to the news. Old news has made us depressed for so long, with RYOT we want to empower readers with every story. By taking action you can become part of the solution."

Defense lawyer Charles Kwaramba said state prosecutors used a contentious appeal law to stop a court order to free Solomon Madzore, head of the youth wing of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's party, on $100 bail.

Madzore, at an election rally, allegedly called President Robert Mugabe, 89, "a limping donkey" who should be put out to pasture.

He faces a fine or several months' imprisonment. Arrests for insulting Mugabe are common in Zimbabwe. At least 60 have been arrested and charged with insulting Mugabe since 2010, according to Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

Also Tuesday, Zimbabwean police took in for questioning two journalists from an independent newspaper on allegations of publishing "falsehoods" against state institutions involving reports that generals and security chiefs were willing to meet with Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai would like to speak to security chiefs about reforms in the armed forces he says are needed before the elections expected around September.

Dumisani Muleya, editor of The Independent, a business and political weekly newspaper, and chief reporter Owen Gagare were released later in the day after police said their investigations into the allegations were continuing.

Mugabe's two topmost generals have said publicly that they will not meet with Tsvangirai and the Independent's reports that other generals are willing to meet with Tsvangirai allegedly demoralized the ranks of the police and military and jeopardized state security.

Media freedom groups immediately warned of a renewed clampdown against journalists ahead of the upcoming elections.

"We still have all the apparatus of a police state," despite a referendum that overwhelmingly accepted a new constitution in March that envisages an end to sweeping media curbs, said the independent Zimbabwe National Editors' Forum.

The intimidation of the two senior journalists came days after the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, said the Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe.

"It is undemocratic for the state to seek and continue to criminalize the work of professional journalists," it said.

Rights groups say there has been an increase in arrests and intimidation of media staff and Mugabe's opponents as the nation prepares for elections to end the shaky coalition brokered by regional leaders in 2009 after violent and disputed elections in 2008 that made Tsvangirai, 60, the former opposition leader, the country's prime minister.

Sweeping security laws make it an offense to undermine the authority of the president.

"Obnoxious" security and media laws have been used by police loyal to Mugabe to stifle media freedom and political campaigning by his opponents, said the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.

"It is saddening to note Zimbabwe is still saddled with an arsenal of repressive media and criminal laws that are too broad or vague," the group said.

One of the women told a 911 dispatcher the person who had taken her was gone, and she pleaded for police officers to come and get her, saying, "I'm free now."

Cheering crowds gathered Monday night on the street near the home where police said Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight had been held since they went missing and were found earlier in the day.

Police didn't immediately provide any details of how the women were found but said they appeared to be in good health and had been taken to a hospital to be reunited with relatives and to be evaluated. They said a 6-year-old also was found in the home.

On a recorded 911 call Monday, Berry declared, "I'm Amanda Berry. I've been on the news for the last 10 years."

She said she had been taken by someone and begged for police officers to arrive at the home on Cleveland's west side before he returned.

"I've been kidnapped, and I've been missing for 10 years," she told the dispatcher. "And I'm here. I'm free now."

Berry disappeared at age 16 on April 21, 2003, when she called her sister to say she was getting a ride home from her job at a Burger King. DeJesus went missing at age 14 on her way home from school about a year later. They were found just a few miles from where they had gone missing.

Police said Knight went missing in 2002 and is 32 now. They didn't provide current ages for the other two women.

Police said one of the brothers, a 52-year-old, lived at the home. They released no names and gave no details about the others arrested or what charges they might face.

Dozens of police officers and sheriff's deputies remained at the scene late Monday awaiting a warrant to search the building where the women and the child were found.

Loved ones said they hadn't given up hope of seeing the women again. Among them was Kayla Rogers, a childhood friend of DeJesus.

"I've been praying, never forgot about her, ever," Rogers told The Plain Dealer newspaper. "This is amazing. This is a celebration. I'm so happy. I just want to see her walk out of those doors so I can hug her."

Berry's cousin Tasheena Mitchell told the newspaper she couldn't wait to have Berry in her arms.

"I'm going to hold her, and I'm going to squeeze her and I probably won't let her go," she said.

Berry's mother, Louwana Miller, who had been hospitalized for months with pancreatitis and other ailments, died in March 2006. She had spent the previous three years looking for her daughter, whose disappearance took a toll as her health steadily deteriorated, family and friends said.

Mayor Frank Jackson expressed gratitude that the three women were found alive.

"We have many unanswered questions regarding this case, and the investigation will be ongoing," he said in a statement.

At Metro Health Medical Center, Dr. Gerald Maloney declined to go into details about the women's conditions.

"We're assessing their needs, and the appropriate specialists are evaluating them as well," he said at a news conference, which concluded with a round of applause from a large gathering of area residents.

In January, a prison inmate was sentenced to 4 1/2 years after admitting he provided a false burial tip in the disappearance of Berry, who had last been seen the day before her 17th birthday. A judge in Cleveland sentenced Robert Wolford on his guilty plea to obstruction of justice, making a false report and making a false alarm.

Last summer, Wolford tipped authorities to look for Berry's remains in a Cleveland lot. He was taken to the location, which was dug up with backhoes.

Two men arrested for questioning in the disappearance of DeJesus in 2004 were released from the city jail in 2006 after officers did not find her body during a search of the men's house.

One of the men was transferred to the Cuyahoga County Jail on unrelated charges, while the other was allowed to go free, police said.

In September 2006, police acting on a tip tore up the concrete floor of the garage and used a cadaver dog to search unsuccessfully for DeJesus' body. Investigators confiscated 19 pieces of evidence during their search but declined to comment on the significance of the items then.

No Amber Alert was issued the day DeJesus failed to return home from school in April 2004 because no one witnessed her abduction. The lack of an Amber Alert angered her father, Felix DeJesus, who said in 2006 he believed the public will listen even if the alerts become routine.

"The Amber Alert should work for any missing child," Felix DeJesus said then. "It doesn't have to be an abduction. Whether it's an abduction or a runaway, a child needs to be found. We need to change this law."

Cleveland police said then that the alerts must be reserved for cases in which danger is imminent and the public can be of help in locating the suspect and child.

___

Associated Press writer Kantele Franko in Columbus contributed to this report.

In recent years, various research teams have uncovered evidence that several kinds of biological and geological events occur in regular cycles of similar lengths.

For example, a prior study ofdiscovered the diversity of all these species over the past 540 million years apparently grew and shrank in cycles, one of which was about 62 million years and the other 140 million years long. Other research has uncovered signs of a 140-million-year cycle in long-term fluctuations in global climate, a 59-million-year cycle in sea-level changes and a 56-million-year cycle in how much sediment gets deposited in North America.

" seems to have a pulse," said Michael Rampino, a geologist at New York University who studied prior research to try to find a connection among these cycles.

Mantle plume cycles

If the 60-million- and 140-million-year biodiversity cycles are real, that makes them much longer than the well-known cycles of fluctuations in Earth's orbit and tilt, which are on the order of millennia. So instead of turning to space for the drivers behind the biodiversity cycles, Rampino and his colleagues looked within the planet itself. One phenomenon they're investigating is jets of magma that rise from Earth's depths to penetrate overlying material like a blowtorch. []

Past research suggests mantle plumes are powerful enough to cause the changes seen in these cycles. For instance, the plumes may play a role in the formation of island chains, such as the Hawaiian Islands. There are signs they also triggered episodes of even more massive volcanic activity, such as one that (1.5 million square kilometers) at the Deccan Plateau region (now part of modern-day India) about 65 million years ago, coinciding with the .

Now, Rampino and his team suggest mantle plumes might generate these areas of massive volcanic eruptions known as large igneous provinces in regular patterns and, in turn, drive biological and geological cycles.

"Most people thought or think that mantle plumes would be sort of random in time," Rampino told OurAmazingPlanet. "This work suggests these plumes are coming up on a regular schedule."

Cycle causes

Other scientists at Carleton University in Ottawa analyzed eruptions from large igneous provinces over the past 250 million years. They found evidence of eruption cycles around the globe with lengths of 62 million and 140 million years, as well as one 35 million years long, especially in the last 135 million years. []

"I was quite surprised to find this very clear indication of these regular changes in geological data," Rampino said. "These regular pulsations are probably due to mantle plumes."

As to why these plumes might recur in a cyclical manner, the mantle-plume researchers suspect these jets arise from instabilities in the layer of rock just above the boundary between the Earth's core and mantle layer. These instabilities may reach critical thresholds and cause plumes every 50 million to 100 million years, depending on how long it takes buoyant rock to amass in the lower mantle and become unstable enough to rise.

The cycles might also be caused by the way thecan dive or subduct under one another. This leads to cold matter accumulating underground, potentially triggering regular avalanches of material from the upper mantle into the lower mantle which might, in turn, cause matter from the hot, deep mantle to flow upward and set off volcanic eruptions.

Another possibility is that these cycles are rooted in supercontinents such as Pangaea, in which all of Earth's continents were joined as one landmass. A number of different research teams have suggested that supercontinents can act like blankets over the mantle, causing heat to build up, thus leading to hotspots and massive eruptions to occur. This would suggest that supercontinents carry the seeds of their own destruction.

Future research needs to determine whether these volcanic cycles are, indeed, real or at least not find evidence to disprove them as well as model how mantle plumes are generated. "Scientists who model what's going on inside the Earth using computer models should see if they can produce the same pulsations we see in the geological record," Rampino said.

Rampino added that although sea level is currently rising and climate is getting warmer, "this has nothing to do with the Earth's internal cycles, which are on a much, much longer time scale."

Rampino and his colleague Andreas Prokoph, ofCarleton University in Ottawa, Canada, detailed their findings in the March 19 issue of the journal Eos.

Follow OurAmazingPlanet, and . Original article at LiveScience's OurAmazingPlanet.

While Israel says it has no interest getting involved in the Syrian civil war, it could find itself drawn into the conflict if Syrian leader Bashar Assad's Iranian patrons continue to use his territory to ship arms to Hezbollah.

Repeated Israeli strikes would almost certainly prompt Syrian retaliation, yielding a nightmare scenario in which Israel finds itself in a Syrian morass teeming with jihadi rebels, sectarian hatred and chemical weapons.

For the West, it offers another compelling argument that the Syrian war must somehow be brought to an end.

Since the uprising in Syria began in March 2011, Israel has carefully avoided taking sides.

At the same time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly declared a series of red lines that could trigger Israeli military intervention, including the delivery of "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah.

The first test of this policy came in January when an Israeli airstrike in Syria destroyed a shipment of advanced anti-aircraft missiles bound for Hezbollah, according to U.S. officials.

Israel and Hezbollah fought an inconclusive monthlong war in 2006 and are bitter enemies.

When Israeli intelligence determined last week that sophisticated Iranian-made Fateh-110 missiles had entered Syria, the military prepared to strike again.

Although Israel has not officially confirmed the operation, a senior official said a first airstrike at a Damascus airport early Friday destroyed most of the shipment, while a series of subsequent airstrikes on nearby locations Sunday took out the remnants of the missiles. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss a covert military mission.

Residents in Damascus said they felt and heard several huge blasts before dawn Sunday. Radwan Midani, a 25-year-old office assistant, said he "saw the sky light up."

Midani and others in the Syrian capital said they were more concerned about random mortar attacks by the rebels on their areas than Israeli strikes.

The rebels' weapons are less accurate than Israeli missiles, said Fadi, a 29-year-old businessman who would not give his last name for fear of repercussions for talking to the foreign media.

While also less concerned about the Israeli strikes, "it's very disgusting to have the Israeli mess around with our country's sovereignty," he said in a phone interview.

Assad's regime has tried to portray the rebels as traitors engaged in a foreign-led conspiracy. Syrian officials stepped up those claims after Sunday's strikes, alleging the opposition is cooperating with Israel.

The Israeli attacks pose a problem for those trying to topple Assad because ordinary Syrians might be convinced that there is something to the regime claims, said Elizabeth O'Bagy of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank.

"The idea of the conspiracy of Israel working with the opposition becomes that more real," she said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an anti-regime group, said at least 42 Syrian soldiers were killed in Sunday's strike, citing information from military hospitals.

The Syrian government has not released a death toll, but Syrian state media have reported casualties in Sunday's strike, Israel's third into Syria this year.

Syria and Iran have hinted at retaliation, though they took no action Monday and the official rhetoric has been relatively mild. There also were no new reports of Israeli airstrikes in Syria.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi warned that Israel was "playing with fire" because of the weekend attacks, suggesting that its proxies such as Hezbollah could launch attacks in retaliation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov voiced concern Monday, speaking by telephone with his Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Moallem. Russia's Foreign Ministry said Lavrov called for restraint and emphasized the need to respect Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity

In launching the strikes, Israel took a gamble that Assad and his allies Iran and Hezbollah do not want to open a new front while preoccupied with the survival of his regime.

Israel moved quickly to reduce tensions. In a sign of "business as usual," Netanyahu traveled Monday to China for a previously scheduled trip.

Tzachi Hanegbi, a lawmaker in Netanyahu's Likud Party who is close to the prime minister, said Israel is trying to avoid "escalating tension with Syria."

"If there is activity, then it is only against Hezbollah, and not against the Syrian regime," he told Israel Radio.

During the 2006 war, sparked by a deadly Hezbollah cross-border raid, the militant group fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel.

Israel believes Hezbollah has restocked its arsenal with tens of thousands of rockets albeit unguided, but some putting Tel Aviv within range.

The rockets destroyed over the weekend could have posed a greater threat, Israeli officials say.

The Fateh-110s have advanced guidance systems that allow them to travel up to 300 kilometers (200 miles) with great precision. Their solid-fuel propellant allows them to be launched at short notice, making them hard to detect and neutralize.

Israel has identified several other weapons systems as game changers that it cannot allow to reach Hezbollah, including chemical weapons, Russian-made Yakhont missiles that can be fired from land and destroy ships at sea, and Russian SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. Israel's January airstrike is believed to have destroyed a shipment of the SA-17s.

Syria already possesses the SA-17s, and it is not clear whether Israel broke through Syria's air defenses in its recent airstrikes or fired missiles from Lebanese or Israeli airspace.

While Israel has tried to narrow the recent days' events to its conflict with Hezbollah, the airstrikes have shaken Israel's larger rivalry with arch-enemy Iran.

Alon Liel, a former Israeli diplomat involved in past back-channel talks with Syria, said the Israeli airstrikes were a message to Iran, not Syria. "We don't want to see Iran controlling the area," he said.

Yet all sides have strong reasons not to escalate.

Israel is already preoccupied with trying to halt Iran's alleged nuclear weapons program, while containing Hamas militants in Gaza, jihadists in Egypt's Sinai and Hezbollah to the north.

The Syrian army, while far weaker than Israel's, still possesses advanced missiles, an air force and chemical weapons. Various militant groups battling Assad, including al-Qaida-backed jihadists, might also enter the fray and turn their weapons toward Israel.

Aram Nerguizian, an analyst at Washington's Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he believes Hezbollah does not want to get involved in a war with Israel because that would undermine the militia's efforts to try to save the Syrian regime.

Assad's continued rule is seen as vital for Hezbollah's own survival, in part because Syria has been the conduit for Iranian weapons to Hezbollah.

Hezbollah is increasingly involved in the Syrian civil war, sending forces to fight Syrian rebels. However, if Hezbollah were to retaliate for the Israeli airstrike, it would have to divert some of its forces from Syria.

Israel "took a calculated risk that Iran and Hezbollah are committed in Syria," Nerguizian said. Hezbollah has not commented on Israel's weekend airstrikes, another indication that the militia might be holding back.

The latest tension come as Washington considers how to respond to indications the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options.

The White House asserted Monday that it's highly likely the regime, not the rebel opposition, was behind any chemical weapons use in Syria.

White House spokesman Jay Carney spoke after a member of a U.N. panel investigating alleged war crimes and other abuses in Syria said there were indications the rebels, not the regime, used the nerve agent sarin.

The panel later distanced itself from the claims by Carla Del Ponte, saying it has no conclusive evidence about the alleged use of sarin.

The White House has not commented directly on Israel's airstrikes, but Carney said Israel has the right to defend itself.

A U.S. official said the Obama administration does not see a strike by Israel as upping the ante or forcing the president's hand.

No decisions have been made about arming rebel groups, and Israel's actions do not move up the timeline for making such a decision, said the official, who was not authorized to speak about security deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

___

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Josh Lederman in Washington contributed.

PARIS (AP) -- On the last day of Paris ready-to-wear shows, if Miuccia Prada was about fun and Elie Saab the familiar, then Louis Vuitton was about Kate Moss.

Marc Jacobs, Vuitton's creative director, delivered a no-expenses-spared production to cap fall-winter fashion season in five-star style.

The showman recreated an entire hotel floor inside the Louvre, replete with sprawling carpet, nostalgic lounge piano and do-not-disturb signs what he called "decadent glamor."

The glamor-factor was certainly there in the roll call of top actresses lining the front row, including Jessica Chastain, January Jones and Naomi Watts.

But somehow in just a two-minute cameo Moss possibly the world's most famous model managed to upstage not only an A-list front row but also an entire hotel.

The super-waif 39-year-old provoked instant applause as she appeared in a provocatively revealing organza slip dress from behind one of the closed hotel doors, and was mobbed by journalists backstage.

Trends this season included black and white with flashes of color, leather and fur, eighties and fifties silhouettes, and more ladylike styles with a combative edge.

LOUIS VUITTON

Louis Vuitton moved in a more feminine, sensual direction for fall-winter.

"It was about intimacy, the mystery of what's going on behind the door," Jacobs said. "It's Hollywood mixed with rive gauche."

Accordingly, models in '50s wigs slinked out of a dozen hotel doors wearing satin dresses resembling slips. A bathrobe made from a man's coat followed a crepe dress made with motifs of an undergarment.

The numerous long fur coats some of the most luxurious seen this season provided the glam-factor. Mink coats dyed in two tones and murky-colored astrakhan were stand outs as well as crocodile bags lined with sheared mink, lashings of marabou feathers and hand-curled goose feathers.

"All sorts of creatures were lying around in embroidered form," joked Jacobs, who may indeed be responsible for emptying a local zoo.

Menswear touches like a button-less tailored jacket or the pajama print reined in the more overtly feminine lingerie looks, ensuring a nice overall balance.

But the show was also about Kate Moss.

Jacobs, who conducted interviews backstage in red pajamas, said the show grew from his close friendship with Moss, and years of dressing her up in hotel rooms.

MIU MIU

Last season's boxy and printed looks were gone for Miu Miu's fall-winter 2013-14 show.

In their place was a more inventive collection that featured outerwear as dresses, large-sized buttons and giant handbags.

Flashes of color in '50s polka dot neckties, stripy tights and Belle Epoque boots in gold and silver gave the collection for Miuccia Prada's baby sister offshoot a great lift.

Dresses made with quilted coat fabric, sometimes with large buttons and long zippers, saw Prada putting her own quirky stamp on an outerwear-to-innerware trend that's on high rotation on the catwalk of late.

The piece de resistance was a one-meter (three-foot) handbag that had spectators gawking.

ELIE SAAB

As models appeared through autumnal mist, Elie Saab's daywear picked up a hint of androgyny this fall-winter.

It was a relatively experimental start that saw the Lebanese designer deliver some sexy looks that could almost have been worn to the office.

Menswear tailoring on a gray and blue dress carried on in several pared-down looks with a slimmer silhouette than last season, created with a more restrained color wheel.

The whiff of masculinity soon faded, however, in a series of the Lebanese designer's popular bread-and-butter gowns with sequins, transparencies and broderie anglaise in primrose yellow, burgundy and dark green.

It was a collection of no great surprises, that's likely to please his core clientele base.

VIONNET

The late, great Madeline Vionnet was one of the 20th century's most influential fashion designers. Known as the "queen of the bias cut," she was famed for her draped Grecian column dresses.

Seven decades later, her house has been revamped and showed its ready-to-wear collection on Paris' official calendar Wednesday.

The problem with revamping old, storied houses is that the new designers can often feel strangled by the codes.

Wednesday's show saw creative director Goga Ashkenazi going in almost the opposite direction.

Though she fleetingly touched on some draped looks with Grecian columns for a set, Ashkenazi channeled the vivid colors of pop art's Roy Lichtenstein. It was a show with a distinct '80s vibe in severely folded coats and dresses.

"The history is tremendous. But we wanted to move it a step forward and see the modern interpretation," Ashkenazi said.

There were some neat looks, like a thick ribbed high-necked sweater in blue. However, some of the vaguely bias-cut shaped furs that were assembled together made the collection feel like it needed further developing.

___

Thomas Adamson can be followed at http://Twitter.com/ThomasAdamsonAP

The new image, unveiled today (May 2) by the , shows the cosmic wonder NGC 6559, gaseous nebula in the constellation Sagittarius. Hot, young stars are forming from the gas and dust inside the interstellar cloud.

ESO scientists used observations from a telescope atop Chile's high Atacama Desert to create a in addition to the new image.

"The gas in the clouds of NGC 6559, mainly hydrogen, is the raw material for star formation," ESO officials wrote in a statement "When a region inside this nebula gathers enough matter, it starts to collapse under its own gravity. The center of the cloud grows ever denser and hotter, until thermonuclear fusion begins and a star is born. The hydrogen atoms combine to form helium atoms, releasing energy that makes the star shine."

The two colors of the cloud represent a pair of . Once the young stars are born, they "energize" the hydrogen surrounding them, ESO officials said. The gas then creates the red wispy cloud known to astronomers as an "emission nebula" in the center of the image.

The blue section of the photo representing a "reflection nebula" shows light from the newly formed stars in the cosmic nursery being reflected in all directions by the particles of dust made of iron, carbon, silicon and other elements in the interstellar cloud.

The new photo of this star-forming region of the universe also hides other celestial surprises.

"In regions where it is very dense, the dust completely blocks the light behind it, as is the case for the dark isolated patches and sinuous lanes to the bottom left-hand side and right-hand side of the image," ESO officials wrote.

Astronomers used the 5-foot (1.54 meters) Danish Telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile to image the interstellar cloud.

Fifteen countries make up the European Southern Observatory project. It is considered the most productive ground-based astronomical observatory in the world, officials said.

Follow Miriam Kramer onand . Follow us on , and . Original article on .

HANGZHOU (Reuters) - Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, China's largest e-commerce platform, said it will commit "as many resources necessary" to stop the sale of pirated goods on its Taobao shopping portals, where transactions exceeded $161.7 billion last year.

The company said its incoming chief executive would join a task force to combat piracy on its platforms.

Alibaba has been clamping down on the sale of fake goods, but users of Alibaba's Taobao Marketplace, which is similar to Amazon.com's marketplace, can still find knockoff Chanel bags or Vera Wang dresses. Its Taobao Mall has storefronts where retail brands can sell to consumers.

Industry watchers widely expect Alibaba to seek an initial public offering as early as this year, and intellectual property protection concerns may turn off some potential investors. Addressing the issue now could help the company avoid some uncomfortable questions during an IPO road show.

The company said it will partner with government bureaus and ministries such as China's Ministry of Public Security to fight counterfeiting and intellectual property rights infringement.

"Counterfeits are the narcotics of the marketplace," said Alibaba founder and Chairman Jack Ma, who announced in January that he was stepping down as CEO. "We don't want Alibaba's name to be associated with counterfeiting."

Incoming CEO Jonathan Lu will head the IP task force, which will also include chief risk officer Polo Shao.

"We are committed to put as many resources as necessary to tackle the problem," Shao said in a speech at Alibaba's headquarters in Hangzhou, about an hour from Shanghai by high-speed train.

The task force will cooperate with government bureaus to report stores that infringe on intellectual property rights, to share information and to help trace the source of fake goods.

In December, the United States dropped Taobao from its annual list of the world's most "notorious markets" for sales of pirated and counterfeit goods because the company had "undertaken notable efforts" to clean up its shopping sites.

In September, Taobao Marketplace signed a pact with the Motion Picture Association (MPA), an affiliate of the Motion Picture Association of America, to curb the sale of counterfeit and copyright-infringing products on the platform.

Alibaba Group said in December the value of transactions on its Taobao platforms exceeded 1 trillion yuan ($161.74 billion)for the first time in January-November last year.

"The protection of IPR and fighting against counterfeit goods, if we don't do it well, will be something I'll regret," Ma said.

In 2012, Alibaba said it provided information to law enforcement officers involving 72 brands, and 170 million yuan worth of merchandise was taken down from its shopping sites.

($1 = 6.1826 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Emily Kaiser)

WELLINGTON, April 29 (Reuters) - A galvanised New Zealand head to Britain on Monday determined to finish off a job they came so close to completing in a thrilling climax to their drawn test series against Alastair Cook's England at home last month.

Brendon McCullum's underdogs had the entire Eden Park crowd on the edge of their seats as they got to within one wicket of achieving a remarkable 1-0 series victory over the world's second ranked side late on the final day.

Poor weather undoubtedly played a part in the series, though as McCullum said after England's final pair survived 19 nerve-jangling deliveries in Auckland, the hosts could have won it 2-1 had rain not intervened in Dunedin and Wellington.

Coach Mike Hesson echoed those sentiments on Monday as his side gathered in Auckland for their flight to England, with their first game of the tour, a three-day match against Derbyshire beginning on Saturday.

"The term 'unfinished business' reflects how we felt after that final day of the third test at Eden Park last month," Hesson wrote in his tour diary on the New Zealand Cricket website (www.blackcaps.co.nz).

"Being so close to victory over the second-best test nation in the world was hard to swallow and I've never seen the guys so disappointed in the shed afterwards.

"I couldn't have been prouder of their efforts but that was certainly little consolation at the time."

TEST DEVELOPMENT

The two-test tour also includes three one-dayers before the International Cricket Council's one-day Champions Trophy tournament. The trip ends with two Twenty20 internationals.

While the development of the one-day side is of importance for New Zealand Cricket given the format's pre-eminence in focus ahead of the 2015 World Cup the country is co-hosting with Australia, the test results will be critically monitored.

The team lifted their standard of play in the longest form of the game at home against England and their fighting spirit diminished memories of the side that limped home from South Africa having been thrashed 2-0 by the Proteas, which included being bowled out for 45 in the first innings of the first test.

The top three of Peter Fulton, Hamish Rutherford and Kane Williamson blossomed as they gave the rest of the order a solid foundation to build on, while McCullum's decision to drop down to six solidified the lower middle order.

Trent Boult appeared to have realised his potential as a test-class paceman while Neil Wagner was a tireless and tough competitor.

The decision to stick with the same starting side throughout the England series has also meant that regular test players like batsman Martin Guptill and pace bowler Doug Bracewell, who were injured, may find it difficult to force their way back into the team now they have recovered.

Hesson was also well aware that conditions in England would be vastly different to those the teams encountered at home.

There was some criticism of the benign-nature of the pitches in New Zealand, though as McCullum pointed out, every game could have ended in a result, and the wickets at Lord's for the first test from May 16 and at Headingley in Leeds are likely to be more lively.

The fickle English weather is also expected to play a part and Hesson gave all of his pace bowlers Duke balls, which will be used in England instead of the Kookaburra ones used in New Zealand, to practice with in the interceding five weeks.

Another important factor that now appears to be behind them was the controversy over the dumping of captain Ross Taylor as claim and counter-claim from players, former players and interested parties that punctuated the entire domestic summer.

The issue, however, may have been put to bed last week after legal action from McCullum and Hesson against former New Zealand player John Parker was dropped after the latter apologised for comments he made about the sacking. (Editing by John O'Brien)