Attenborough, 87, known for his wildlife documentaries, was due to visit Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Sydney and Melbourne on his "A Life On Earth Tour", speaking to audiences about his career and the evolution of filming techniques.

A spokesman for Lateral Events, promoter of the tour, said doctors were satisfied with Attenborough's progress following the operation, adding the broadcaster was his "lively self".

The BBC presenter, whose programs have included "Life on Earth", "The Living Planet" and "Frozen Planet", most recently narrated and presented the TV series "Africa".

Attenborough, who was knighted in 1985, expressed his "extreme disappointment" in a statement at having to cancel his tour of Australia, adding that he hoped to reschedule in the near future.

(Reporting by Victor Coupe, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States could decide as early as this week whether to arm Syrian rebels, U.S. officials said on Monday, as Secretary of State John Kerry put off a Middle East trip to attend meetings on the subject.

The battlefield has tilted against the rebels in the Syrian civil war as Lebanese Hezbollah has entered the fray on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, helping his forces retake the strategic town of Qusair last week.

However, the White House has debated for months whether to give arms to the rebels and a U.S. official stressed that while a decision was possible as early as this week, deliberations on the issue could easily take longer.

U.S. officials are adamant that Washington will not put "boots on the ground," which means deploying troops.

Fredrick Hof, a former senior U.S. official who worked on Syria policy, said the administration might decide to take charge of the distribution of weapons to the rebels, but not necessarily to provide U.S. arms.

Having withdrawn U.S. troops from Iraq and working to wind down the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan, President Barack Obama has sought to avoid deeper involvement in the Syrian civil war.

The shift in the military momentum toward Assad has made it less likely that a U.S. and Russian planned peace conference to bring the rebels and the government to the table for talks would yield a negotiated political transition to remove Assad from power.

With Assad's forces, backed by Hezbollah and Iran, gaining the upper hand, he has little incentive to give up power.

The renewed focus on Syria comes two years into the uprising against Assad that has seen at least 80,000 people killed and has sent hundreds of thousands of refugees into Turkey and Jordan and displaced millions within Syria.

CONSENSUS ELUSIVE

Kerry delayed plans to travel to Israel and the Palestinian Territories this week to attend what the State Department called "routine" meetings, including on the topic of Syria.

The United States and other governments are also weighing evidence that Assad's forces may have used chemical weapons, something Obama has said would cross a "red line."

This week's Syria meetings are not a sign that the Obama administration has received conclusive proof of chemical weapons use by Assad's forces or that it is ready to decide on a response, one U.S. official said.

Obama has set no timetable for a chemical weapons assessment from the U.S. intelligence community and the investigation is continuing, the official said.

A consensus on whether or not to arm the rebels remains elusive, with U.S. policymakers still wrestling with concerns that any American weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

Also, growing controversy at home over the government's sweeping surveillance programs are expected to occupy much of Obama and his national security team's time.

A Western diplomatic source said the decision to arm the rebels was fraught with risks and could backfire.

"If you arm the rebels, there is a risk they fall into the wrong hands, but if you don't then thousands more could get massacred and you're left with Hezbollah versus Nusrah. Which is the worst risk? That's the political decision the leaders will need to decide," the diplomatic source said.

Hof, now an analyst at the Atlantic Council, said the White House might decide to take charge of the distribution of weapons to the rebels but not necessarily to provide U.S. arms.

"If the president is going to make that decision this week ... I suspect it would be a decision for the United States to take charge of the process by which carefully vetted units of the Free Syrian Army get what they need, both in terms of lethal and in terms of non-lethal (aid)," Hof said.

He also suggested such aid could be funneled through General Salim Idriss of the Supreme Military Council, the military wing of the main civilian opposition group, helping the former Syrian military officer gain credibility with other fighters and perhaps greater control over the fractious anti-Assad fighters.

'AMERICAN LEADERSHIP'

Obama this year shifted policy by giving U.S. medical kits and military rations to the rebels. Arms, however, have been left to Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar to provide.

"What's been needed here is American leadership and management of a process which, if left in the hands of local actors, simply results in the accumulation of clients and a very uneven supply system in terms of effectiveness," Hof said.

By centralizing the delivery of arms - whatever their origin - it might become easier to get the rebels to work under a single command authority rather than as multiple militias with allegiances to various external powers.

A possible move by the United States to arm the rebels was first reported by the Associated Press late on Sunday.

Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said Washington was looking at what more it can do to help the opposition, including assisting it to keep ground it has seized and retake ground from the government.

"We are taking a closer look at what we can do to help the opposition," she said, without providing details.

Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council, said the Obama administration was continually looking at ways to strengthen the opposition but had nothing new to announce.

"We have prepared a wide range of options for the president's consideration, and internal meetings to discuss the situation in Syria are routine," Meehan said.

"The United States will continue to look for ways to strengthen the capabilities of the Syrian opposition, though we have no new announcements at this time."

(Additional reporting by Lesley Wroughton and by Susan Heavey; Editing by Xavier Briand and Christopher Wilson)

Protest messages still ricochet around social media despite Iran's cyber cops' attempts to control the Web. Angry graffiti pops up and then quickly painted over by authorities. Mourners at the funeral of a dissident cleric flashed V-for-victory gestures and chanted against the state.

But just a look at the sidewalks around Tehran's Mellat Park shows how far Iran's opposition has fallen as the country prepares for Friday's presidential election.

Four years ago, girls on rollerblades sped around the park delivering fliers for the reform camp's candidate-hero Mir Hossein Mousavi. Emerald-colored head scarves and wrist bands representing Mousavi's Green Movement were in such demand that bloggers would list shops with available fabric.

This time, there are just a few subdued election placards for candidates considered fully in sync with Iran's ruling clerics. Security forces and paramilitary volunteers are never far away.

Mousavi and other opposition leader, Mahdi Karroubi, are under house arrest and hundreds more activists, bloggers and journalists have faced detention as part of relentless crackdowns since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in 2009 brought accusations of vote rigging and something Iran has not seen since the 1979 Islamic Revolution: Huge crowds in the streets chanting against the leadership.

Iran's forces for reform are not so much crushed as now bottled up tightly. Now the election that marks the end of Ahmadinejad's eight-year era also brings another moment of political transition: Whether the loose affiliation of reformists, liberals and Western-leaning activists can somehow remain relevant in a time when the guardians of the Islamic establishment are consolidating their defenses.

"There is no shortage of people in Iran who would like to see a different way of being governed and a different world view from the leadership," said Theodore Karasik, a security and political affairs analyst at the Dubai-based Institute for Near East and Gulf Military Analysis. "Trouble for them is that they now fragmented and disorganized. This is exactly what Iranian authorities want to see."

The entire process has been derided by Western governments and rights groups as a farce after Iran's election overseers all loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blacklisted former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from the ballot despite his lofty status as one of the architects of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

For Iran's rulers, the relatively moderate Rafsanjani represents an unsettling force who could breathe some life into the battered opposition.

Any momentum toward a backlash over Rafsanjani's barring quickly dissipated. He grumbled over the rebuff and Iranian reformist websites buzzed with complaints. But there have been no major street protests, suggesting once again there are only remote chances for a revival of the 2009 mass demonstrations. His backers have retreated to election boycott calls or drifted to other candidates who have no apparent intention to shake up the system.

The only significant public show of dissent before the election came in a coincidence of timing. Some mourners at the funeral procession of dissident Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri, who died last Sunday in the central city of Isfahan, used the march to revive the opposition chants from 2009 such as "death to the dictator," according to video clips posted on the Internet. But the outburst did not seem to inspire other rallies around the country.

"There is significant opposition in Iran to a lot of things, international relations, crackdowns on the Internet, but its dispersed over all classes of society and without a real focus," said Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Strayer University in Virginia. "There is opposition, but I doubt you can call it a movement."

Opposition voters now face the choice of whether to boycott the polls or turn to whatever they see as the least objectionable candidate. So far, the top figures of the reform movement, like former President Mohammad Khatami, have not given an indication to their supporters which avenue to take meaning a unified strategy may only emerge at the last minute, if at all.

A likely major indicator in the final vote will be how many eligible voters stayed away, in comparison to a reported 85 percent turnout in 2009. It worries officials enough that Khamenei used one of the country's most somber occasions the memorial ceremony marking the death of Islamic Revolution founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to say that a low turnout will only help Iran's "enemies" such as the U.S. and Israel.

Most of the eight hopefuls cleared to run are bathed in pro-establishment credentials, including such insider figures as top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and Khamenei adviser Ali Akbar Velayati.

Some reformists have migrated toward former nuclear negotiator Hasan Rowhani as a sort of default, since he is closely aligned with Rafsanjani. Khatami's former vice president, Mohammad Reza Aref, has made a strong bid to draw reformist voters, speaking with the most passion about freedoms Wednesday during the second television debate among the eight candidates.

"An unprecedented security atmosphere has been imposed in recent years that caused lack of motivation among students," he said. "The solution is not confrontation, elimination or shutting down. We are living in the age of communications."

Others have gravitated to Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf in hopes his hands-on reputation could halt the downward slide of Iran's sanctions-wracked economy.

But there is little sense left of the unified Green Movement that poured onto the streets in 2009 over claims that vote rigging robbed Mousavi of victory and handed re-election to Ahmadinejad. The protests the worse domestic unrest since the Islamic Revolution momentarily stunned authorities with once-unthinkable acts of rebellion, such as burning portraits of Khamenei, a full 18 months before even the first hints of the Arab Spring uprisings.

Mousavi and fellow candidate Karroubi have been under house arrest since early 2011. Security forces and intelligence units have been bolstered to the point where any form of dissent in public or online risks arrest. Most recently, several people were detained at a Rowhani rally after calling for Mousavi's release.

Iranian police chief, Gen. Ismail Moghadam warned: "Police will confront individuals who have counter-revolutionary behavior."

Authorities have sharply limited visas for Western media to cover the election. Tehran-based journalists also face sweeping restrictions on street reporting and travel. On Thursday, the Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders accused Iranian officials of blocking coverage of the "government's suppression of fundamental freedoms, including freedom of information."

"The regime is showing its true colors," said Abdollah Mohtadi, a member of a London-based opposition group Unity for Democracy in Iran. "When Iranians cannot campaign or give voice to their political views without fear of persecution or prosecution, any claims the regime might make to democracy are shown to be a lie."

Farid Kia, 45, a university instructor in business administration who backed Mousavi four years ago, now says, "Voting is fruitless."

Hossein Yekkeh, a 30-year-old engineer who voted for Mousavi, said he doesn't plan to vote because "none of current candidates represent reformists."

Prominent U.S.-based Iranian blogger Mehdi Saharkhiz whose father Isa, a well-known journalist, has been jailed since 2009 has engaged in online debates with Iranians on the value of a mass boycott. Saharkhiz encourages voters to stay away after the rejection of Rafsanjani and in protest of the vote-rigging claims four years ago.

"So you think they won't do it again this time?" he wrote.

Another variable is the deepening Western sanctions over Iran's nuclear program, which may have the indirect consequence of boosting the vote.

Many former Green Movement backers have put ideology aside and have fallen behind candidates, such as Tehran Mayor Qalibaf, seen as capable fiscal managers as the economy reels under 30 percent unemployment and prices rising more than threefold on goods such as chicken and beef. The only sporadic protests in the past years, in fact, have been over pocketbook issues and not the squeeze on political freedoms.

"Is there still an organized Green Movement? No," said Scott Lucas, an Iranian affairs expert at Britain's Birmingham University. "Whatever was there, the authorities have been successful in breaking it up with detentions and crackdowns. But the issues the protesters raised accountability, political transparency, reforms, openness are still there and very much alive. They just have no cohesive expression."

___

Associated Press writer Nasser Karimi in Tehran contributed to this report.

This is the sixth story in an occasional series examining the June 14 Iranian election and the wider global and internal Iranian consequences at the end of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's era.

The unusual outpouring is in response to a recent spate of sex abuse cases, including that of a school principal who spent the night in a hotel room with four underage girls. Artists, activists, university students and police officers are photographing themselves some nude and provocatively posed, some angry and menacing with the message:

"Principal, get a room with me. Leave the young students alone."

The online campaign mixing performance art, satire and outrage has tapped into public anger over sexual abuse against children. It's a problem in China partly because of a lack of sex education and partly because Chinese society has become unmoored from traditional strictures after decades of rapid economic change and social change.

Attitudes toward sex have become more lax, especially noticeable among powerful officials, often found to be cavorting with very young mistresses and prostitutes. Children are prone to the abuse because they have not been adequately prepared, and can be easily intimidated by teachers and other authority figures.

"Schools and parents have failed to instill in our children the sense of rights and to teach them how to protect themselves," Xiong Bingqi, a deputy director of the Beijing-based education think tank 21st Century Education Research Institute. "If the children know about their rights, know they can call police if they are sexually assaulted and have the assaulters punished, it will sure deter the criminals."

Recent sex abuse cases against children that have become public should be a wake-up call for Chinese families and schools, Xiong said, noting they may only be a tip of the iceberg.

"The students may not know they have been sexually abused," Xiong said. "Or if they know, they don't tell their parents. Sometimes, schools settle those cases without telling the police."

In a recent survey by Beijing News, 37.4 percent of the respondents said they do not know how to teach their children to protect themselves from sexual abuse.

The national debate on the problem began in early May, when a primary school principal was caught spending a night with four schoolgirls all under the age of 14 in a hotel room in southern China's Hainan province. Chen Zaipeng, the principal, has been fired and charged with rape.

Members of the public reacted with astonishment to the high-profile case, and have been reading with fury as at least seven more cases of sexual abuse by school teachers or employees against young girls have come to light over the past three weeks from different parts of China. Some victims were as young as 8.

In the past several years, there have been occasional reports of government officials hiring young girls as prostitutes. The cases are typically handled as prostitution, even when the girls are underage. Critics have demanded such culprits be prosecuted with the crime of raping children, which can carry harsher punishments.

China's Supreme People's Court this week vowed to crack down on crimes against children. The Education Ministry has demanded that sex criminals must be "firmly" cleaned out from the teaching staff and that those who help with cover-ups must be prosecuted. And the All-China Women's Federation has called for severe punishment in all crimes against girls.

The public, however, has found an unconventional way of speaking up.

Late last month, Ye Haiyan, a feminist and advocate for the rights of sex workers, went to Chen's former elementary school to lend support to his alleged victims. There, she held up a large piece of paper offering to "get a room" with Chen and telling him to leave the students alone, and gave a contact number, which was for China's rights hotline for women and children.

Her offer prompted many others to follow suit. One is Beijing-based poet Wang Zang, who last Wednesday uploaded naked photos of himself with his back scribbled with the offer. In one photo, Wang holds a children's toy in one hand and a liquor bottle in the other.

"I am protesting the frequent criminal acts of school sex abuse against young students," Wang said. "And I also want to raise the public awareness in protecting the girls."

Wang said he believes the recent cases are only a small part of the problem because many cases have been covered up by powerful people. Corruption in the education system has put unfit teachers in classrooms, and China's laws have failed to adequately prosecute sexual crimes against children, Wang said.

Sociologist Li Yinhe sees the offers as a public statement. "I think it's a way for people to express their anger," she said. "It is also a kind of black humor."

An editorial in Beijing News said the ridicule has a serious message: "In each and every 'get a room with me' call, you should hear the public anxiety of saving our children."

The politically volatile debate reflects a reality that's difficult for parents, including the president, to swallow: Quite a number of teenagers have sex. So how easily should they be able to get a pill that prevents pregnancy if taken soon enough after sex?

On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration made it a little easier, saying anyone 15 or older could begin buying one brand, Plan B One-Step, without a prescription two years younger than the current age limit of 17 and that the pill no longer has to be locked behind pharmacy counters.

But it's far from clear whether that will happen. U.S. District Judge Edward Korman of New York had given the FDA until Monday to lift all age limits on Plan B and a cheaper generic, mandating that emergency contraception be sold just like aspirin. Instead, by requiring that buyers prove their age at the cash register, the FDA decided to treat it like beer.

The Justice Department hasn't said whether it will appeal Korman's order and thus back FDA's new approach, and that leaves the whole issue in limbo.

"This is a truly bizarre and unprecedented situation," said American University law professor Lewis A. Grossman, a specialist in food and drug law.

On Wednesday, doctors' groups, led by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, urged the Obama administration not to let the FDA action be the last word.

Any over-the-counter access marks a long-awaited change, but it's not enough, said Dr. Cora Breuner of the American Academy of Pediatrics, which supports nonprescription sale of the morning-after pill for all ages.

"We still have the major issue, which is our teen pregnancy rate is still too high," Breuner said.

Even though few young girls likely would use Plan B, which costs about $50 for a single pill, "we know that it is safe for those under 15," she said.

Most 17- to 19-year-olds are sexually active, and 30 percent of 15- and 16-year-olds have had sex, according to a study published last month by the journal Pediatrics. Sex is much rarer among younger teens. Likewise, older teens have a higher pregnancy rate, but that study also counted more than 110,000 pregnancies among 15- and 16-year-olds in 2008 alone.

The White House sought Wednesday to put much as much distance as possible between President Barack Obama and this political hot potato.

"The president, the White House, did not weigh in on this decision," White House spokesman Jay Carney said of the FDA's move.

Obama must balance his own instincts as the father of two school-age daughters with the wishes of numerous political constituencies, including women's groups whose influence runs deep within the Democratic Party. It was just last week that Obama became the first president to address Planned Parenthood in person, telling the abortion rights group that as long as women must fight to make their own health choices, "you've also got a president who's going to be right there with you fighting every step of the way."

Contraception advocates see a double standard. No one is carded when buying a condom, but under the FDA's decision they would have to prove their age when buying a pill to prevent pregnancy if that condom breaks.

"This isn't a compromise. This is wrong," said Cynthia Pearson of the National Women's Health Network.

Likewise, social conservatives were outraged by the FDA's move, saying it was important for parents and medical professionals to be involved in such decisions involving teens.

"This decision undermines the right of parents to make important health decisions for their young daughters," said Anna Higgins of the Family Research Council. She added that removing the prescription requirement meant "teens and women will avoid necessary medical screenings" that could detect serious problems.

The FDA had been poised to lift all age limits and let Plan B sell over the counter in late 2011, when Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, in an unprecedented move, overruled her own scientists. Sebelius said some girls as young as 11 were physically capable of bearing children but shouldn't be able to buy the pregnancy-preventing pill on their own.

Ruling earlier this month in a lawsuit challenging that decision, Korman blasted the Obama administration for letting election-year politics trump science. The judge called the morning-after pill "among the safest drugs sold over the counter," and gave the government 30 days to lift all age limits.

Obama aides bristled at the suggestion that the FDA decision was an attempt at political compromise, insisting the FDA merely responded to an application filed by Plan B's manufacturer which sought the 15 age limit and over-the-counter sales.

At the same time, Carney signaled that a policy allowing 15-year-olds to buy the pill off the shelf would be more palatable to Obama than the prospect of 11-year-olds having unfettered access. Pointing to Obama's comments in support of Sebelius back in 2011, Carney said, "he referred to younger girls, and I believe so did Secretary Sebelius."

If a woman already is pregnant, the morning-after pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg. According to the medical definition, pregnancy doesn't begin until a fertilized egg implants itself into the wall of the uterus. Still, some critics say Plan B is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it may also be able to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus, a contention that many scientists and Korman, in his ruling said has been discredited.

Critics said the dark mysteries, mind-bending codes and history-laced tourism in "Inferno" will thrill Brown devotees, but panned the U.S. author for passages they said were more suited to a Hollywood film script than a novel.

Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon returns in this latest sequel to the blockbuster book and film franchise to follow a trail of clues about 14th century Italian poet Dante Alighieri across Florence, Venice and Istanbul in a race to save the world from a deadly artificial plague.

New York Times reviewer Janet Maslin said the novel has a shaky opening that appears to put Brown's "brainiac franchise" in trouble, but recovers swiftly.

"To the great relief of anyone who enjoys him, Mr. Brown winds up not only laying a breadcrumb trail of clues about Dante (this is "Inferno," after all) but also playing games with time, gender, identity, famous tourist attractions and futuristic medicine," she wrote.

Sales of the book 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.

The Independent newspaper's Boyd Tonkin called the novel "clunky but clever" in a review that asks whether Brown can make a go of one of the oldest plots in fiction - mad scientist threatens world with doom machine.

"Can Brown re-engineer these over-familiar devices of outbreak, pestilence and contagion into a viable organism? However clunkily, he can," Tonkin writes.

But Financial Times reviewer AN Wilson panned "Inferno" as a "nonsensical story" loaded with "scientific gobbledygook" and pointing out Brown's repetitive reliance on the fame of every historical site Langdon comes across.

"The prof and his doctor race past 'Florence's famed Cathedral', and Vasari's 'famed Studiolo', not forgetting the 'world-famous Uffizi Gallery'," Wilson wrote.

"Inferno reads less like a novel than a 'treatment' for a thriller film."

Back in America, USA Today's Brian Truitt offers Brown's novel three and a half stars out of four in a review that calls the book "one hell of a good read".

"Brown has a definite formula in place for putting Langdon through his paces, but watching him go through hell is about as close as a book can come to a summertime cinematic blockbuster," Truitt wrote.

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 at the top the New York Times bestseller list.

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang; Writing by Paul Casciato; Editing by Raissa Kasolowsky)

The bank, controlled by Standard Chartered Plc, said total operating expenses increased by about 400 million shillings, driven by higher staff costs and loan-loss provisions.

Basic earnings per share fell to 6.06 shillings from 7.79 shillings a year ago, the bank said, adding that the outlook for the rest of the year was positive.

"We remain confident in the outlook for the business as we expect ... momentum to pick (up) pace, especially as the uncertainties around the elections are now behind us," Chief Executive Richard Etemesi said in a statement.

Optimism about east Africa's biggest economy has risen since the country held a peaceful presidential poll in March, in contrast with the violence-riddled poll of five years ago when more than 1,200 people died.

Standard Chartered Bank of Kenya's net interest income edged up 2 percent to 3.7 billion shillings, while non-interest income fell 9 percent to 1.7 billion shillings, due to the absence of last year's income from the sale of government securities.

IOC medical commission chairman Arne Ljungqvist said researchers have made significant advances in devising a test, leaving officials hopeful a method can be approved soon for use at the Olympics and other events.

"Quite some progress has been made in terms of outlining the scientific basis for analysis of gene doping," Ljungqvist told The Associated Press. "We are moving. It's promising."

Up to 40 experts from around the world will meet in Beijing on June 5-6 to discuss recent findings and how to move forward in combatting the threat of athletes manipulating their genes to boost sports performance.

The meeting is being organized by the World Anti-Doping Agency in conjunction with China's national anti-doping agency. It will be the Olympic movement's fourth symposium on gene doping, following previous conferences in Cold Spring Harbor, New York, in 2002; Stockholm in 2005; and St. Petersburg, Russia, in 2008.

"There have been scientific studies which are quite promising," said Ljungqvist, also a WADA vice president. "We feel it's time to review this within the context of a small symposium of specialists."

Gene doping, which is prohibited by the IOC and WADA, involves transferring genes directly into human cells to blend into an athlete's own DNA to enhance muscle growth and increase strength or endurance. It is an illegal offshoot of gene therapy, which typically alters a person's DNA to fight diseases like muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis.

"We want to continue the momentum that we've got so we can get to a scenario where the detection methods can be approved," WADA director general David Howman told the AP. "It's close."

In 2010, two groups of scientists one in Germany and a U.S.-French research team said they developed gene doping tests in what WADA described at the time as a major breakthrough. One was a blood test that would detect doping as far back as 56 days, while the other was for detecting genetic doping in muscles.

However, the tests have not been validated and hopes they could be used at the 2012 London Olympics were not realized.

"When you have a scientific method, that is one thing, but you need to develop a technique and make good use of it," Ljungqvist said. "We have a reasonably good scientific basis and we'll have to discuss how to develop this further now."

How soon could a test be ready for use?

"You can never predict when," Ljungqvist said. "Science is full of surprises and obstacles."

The IOC and WADA say there is no evidence that athletes are gene doping, but warn that it may be only a matter of time. Scientists working on potential genetic cures for muscle diseases and blood disorders have been contacted by sports figures asking about enhancing performance.

"We know that those who wish to take a chance and cheat are ready to do anything," Ljungqvist said. "We've had people who are researching into this and they have been approached by coaches and the like. But we don't have any evidence suggesting this is yet in place."

Howman said WADA has received information about people looking on the black market for access to gene doping methods.

"Nothing has amounted that is sufficient to be able to put together a case," he said. "We don't discount the fact that people are fiddling around with it. Certainly, that possibility exists."

The prospect of genetic manipulation comes as drug cheats continue to turn to more traditional forms of doping, including steroids, EPO and blood transfusions.

Ljungqvist said the Lance Armstrong scandal, in which the American cyclist acknowledged doping during his seven Tour de France victories, shows that cheaters may not be as far ahead of the scientists as feared.

"The Armstrong case is very informative, that such an advanced doping cheat was using usual stuff," Ljungqvist said. "The wonder drugs are not there. It is still the same ones. That is interesting to us."

___

Follow Stephen Wilson on Twitter: http://twitter.com/stevewilsonap

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which hears all patent appeals, upheld a lower court decision which found that Newegg and Overstock did not infringe on a software patent that allows computers to adapt the shopping web sites to their own screen size rather than having a server do the work.

The lower court had invalidated the patent as obvious, a decision that the federal circuit also upheld.

Newegg's chief legal officer, Lee Cheng, said the ruling vindicated a decision made about six years ago to fight infringement lawsuits that Newegg found frivolous.

"Patent trolling is a scam. We didn't do anything wrong," he said, using the derisive industry term for companies that file large numbers of patent infringement lawsuits.

Cheng said that fewer infringement lawsuits were being filed against his company because they have been aggressive about fighting them and about recouping legal fees.

The strategy works for Newegg, which sells electronics and computer parts, because of its size, he said.

"We are a patent troll's worst nightmare. We're large enough to defend ourselves but we're not large enough to be viewed as (having) deep pockets," he said.

Mark Griffin, the general counsel at Overstock, said that he had begun to consider Alcatel-Lucent a "patent troll." "They took an old cell phone patent and tried to say that it applied to the Internet," he said. "We're very pleased."

Griffin also said that he disagreed with companies like Sears Holdings and Amazon.com, which settled.

"There's the classic risk management strategy which only in my estimation engenders more litigation. The general counsels of publicly traded companies have started to wake up. We don't feed trolls," he said.

In January, Newegg won a victory with Soverain Software. In that case, the Federal Circuit also invalidated Soverain patents. Newegg won a similar fight with Kelora in 2012.

Paris-based Alcatel-Lucent did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The case is Alcatel-Lucent USA Inc v. Overstock.com, Inc and Newegg, Inc. It was originally filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, case No. 09-CV-0422. At the Federal Circuit, the case number is 2012-1629.

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

May 21 (Reuters) - Golf club makers Ping and Cobra Puma Golf hit back on Tuesday at a rules change that will ban the anchoring of putters.

The ban, announced on Tuesday, will take effect on Jan. 1, 2016. It does not apply to equipment and golfers will be able to use belly and broomstick putters. They will not, however, be allowed to anchor the club against their body for their putting stroke.

Ping chairman John Solheim and Bob Philion, head of Cobra Golf, had lined up with the U.S. PGA Tour and the PGA of America in opposing the ban, which golf's rules makers decided was needed to preserve the free swing of the club traditional to the game.

"Golf lost today," Cobra president Philion said in a statement. "This is not the direction we should be going; it will only continue to alienate people from golf.

"Cobra Puma Golf has been stressing the importance of game enjoyment since we formed in 2010; game enjoyment is how we are going to bring people back to golf. This decision is a giant leap back on that front."

Solheim also said he did not believe the ban was good for growing the game.

"I appreciate this was an open process," Solheim said. "I also recognize the importance of a single rule book. However, I believe the rulemaking bodies need to better address how we need to make the game more welcoming. I will continue to focus my efforts on that goal."

Nike said the controversial decision by the United States Golf Association (USGA) and the Royal and Ancient (R&A) on a product that has legitimately been in play for many years will have an impact on both manufacturers and golfers.

"Despite this, Nike always manages to adapt to the changes and deliver innovative products within the redefined rules. The USGA and the R&A have the right to make these changes for competitive play," the company said in a statement.

"Beyond this decision, we believe that the best interests of the sport of golf are better served by focusing on providing experiences that inspire golfers to play more...better connecting to the golfer in a world where alternative recreational choices are increasing."

USGA officials said they estimated that only two to four percent of golfers worldwide used extra long putters, although four of the last six major championships have been won by players anchoring their long putters.

The PGA Tour and the PGA of America both said they would open high level discussions to decide their position on the ban, leaving the possibility they could decide to operate by their own rules.

The Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) said it would play by the official rules and honor the ban.

Cobra chief Philion said he hoped the PGA Tour would consider using their own rules, in what has been referred to as bifurcation.

"With this decision, bifurcation needs to be front and center in golf's conversations and we should be focusing on adapting the rules and the game to be inclusive and fun," said Philion.

(Editing by Gene Cherry)