After Thursday's play was scrubbed following lightning and torrential rain, Pressel led the morning wave with a four-under-par 68, taking advantage of soft greens for a one-shot lead over fellow American Brittany Lincicome.

Another stroke back were South Korean Hall of Famer Pak Se Ri and American Jessica Korda, who shot rounds of two-under 70.

Among the afternoon starters were defending champion Shanshan Feng of China and seven-times major winner Karrie Webb of Australia. The 38-year-old Webb is coming off a victory in last week's ShopRite Classic.

Despite 2.5 inches of rain dumped on the layout of the year's second major championship, groundskeepers were able to prepare the course for play after getting to work at 4 a.m. (0800 GMT)

Pressel said she was surprised to tee off as scheduled.

"I thought that we would probably tee off at about noon, having seen photos of what the golf course looked like," said Pressel. "And it didn't stop raining just about all night.

"But the ground staff here did an incredible job getting the course ready. I don't think the greens could be any more perfect. There's some casual out there but that's to be expected. We're just happy to get out on the golf course.

Three tees were moved forward in consideration of the conditions and hitting fairways became a key with the water-logged rough even more penal than usual.

"The rough is nasty," said Korda, who had five birdies and three bogeys.

The leaderboard demonstrated that short hitters like Pressel and bombers such as Korda and Lincicome all had a chance to score at Locust Hill.

"If you don't hit the fairway you can be as long or as short as you want, but it's still going to play at a disadvantage," Korda said about settling into the rough. "That ball sits down, you can't even get it out."

Organizers planned to stage the second round on Saturday and squeeze in 36 holes to finish up on Sunday.

Three shots off the pace at 71 were 2009 champion Anna Nordqvist of Sweden, 1994 and 1996 winner Laura Davies, Catriona Matthew of Briton, South Korean Amy Yang and 18-year-old American Lexi Thompson.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Frank Pingue)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Children born after being exposed to the flu during pregnancy may have a nearly four-fold higher risk of later developing bipolar disorder, according to a small new study.

The senior researcher said the results can't prove that a mother's bout of flu while pregnant causes her child to develop the mental disorder, but the association does suggest that some cases might be prevented.

"The idea is that if influenza is playing a causal role - and we can't say that from one study - there is a vaccine," Dr. Alan Brown, a professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at Columbia University in New York, told Reuters Health.

"It's affordable and also I would argue that there are other things that pregnant women could do. For example, hand washing and staying away from people with the flu," Brown said.

Previous studies had already established a link between a mother's flu infection while pregnant and her child's increased risk of developing schizophrenia, a severe mental disorder that often comes with hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

Bipolar disorder shares some traits of schizophrenia, but also differs because it includes alternate cycles of mania and depression - although one type of bipolar diagnosis involves mania alone.

Past research into the link between people's risk of bipolar disorder and their mother's flu has produced mixed results, Brown and his colleagues write in JAMA Psychiatry.

For the new study, Brown's group looked for a connection between flu exposure and children's bipolar diagnoses in data from a study that involved soon-to-be mothers living in Alameda County, California, between 1959 and 1966.

Using the mothers' medical records and follow up information about their children, the researchers had information on 92 kids who were exposed to the flu while in the womb, and on 722 who were not.

Of the children exposed to the flu, about 9 percent were later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. That compared to about 3 percent of the kids who were not exposed.

"What we found is that (schizophrenia and bipolar disorder) share at least this in common. Maternal influenza is related to bipolar disorder," Brown said.

He added, however, that they did not see an association between bipolar disorder and a mother's common cold or other upper respiratory infections.

And until more studies are done, Brown said he and his colleagues can only guess at what is behind the link between flu and bipolar disorder.

"We think there is an inflammation going on in the fetus due to this infection and it can alter key aspects of brain development and function," Brown said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/11YJ3oD JAMA Psychiatry, online May 8, 2013.

LONDON (Reuters) - Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver inspired home cooks across Britain with his "pukka tukka" or nutritious food recipes and now he wants to expand his profile internationally by opening up to 20 of his Italian restaurants around the world.

Oliver, 38, whose book, television, and restaurant empire has made him an estimated fortune of 225 million pounds ($334 million), on Tuesday unveiled plans to increase the number of his Jamie's Italian restaurants overseas to 20 from 4.

The international projects are in various stages but restaurants already announced this year include in Australia's capital Canberra, in Moscow and St. Petersburg in Russia, Istanbul in Turkey, Singapore and a second restaurant in Dubai.

He also has his sights set on restaurants in Rio de Janeiro, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

"In 2013 we will continue our international restaurant expansion and delivering outstanding products with real added value, great customer service and a range of delicious and nutritious meals," John Jackson, chairman of the Jamie Oliver Group of Companies, said in a statement.

Oliver's five-year-old restaurant chain has bolstered the wealth of the Essex-born chef, posting profits of 7.8 million pounds in 2012 on Tuesday, up 7.5 percent from a year ago.

In Britain, the chain boasts 34 restaurants.

Oliver's book and television work added another 2 million pounds to his profits in the year ending December 30, 2012 as popularity continued to grow for his "pukka tukka" food, his catchphrase to describe good or authentic food or tucker.

Overall revenue for Jamie Oliver Holdings Ltd rose 13.3 percent during the year to 35.3 million pounds aided by strong UK and international sales for his "15 Minute Meals" and "30 Minute Meals" cookbooks.

Oliver's love of Italian food stemmed from his first job at Antonio Carluccio's restaurant in London but it was London's River Cafe restaurant in 1997 that set the charismatic young chef on the path to fame after he made an unscripted appearance in the TV documentary "Christmas at the River Caf".

His first TV show "The Naked Chef" was released the next year.

But the chef hit global stardom on the back of his quest for healthy school meals in Britain that earned him an MBE award from the Queen in 2003 and was expanded to the United States with his TV program "Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution".

This September Oliver publishes his 15th cookery book, "Save with Jamie", focusing on low-cost meals, shopping techniques and using left-overs. A TV series will support the book.

(Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

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At a Q&A on Thursday night, the Avengers auteur/S.H.I.E.L.D creator/geek favorite explained his decision to center his latest TV series around Clark Gregg's Agent Phil Coulson, a character who seemed to have died in The Avengers. "Honestly, we just didn't want to do it without him," Whedon following a screening of his adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. The question then became, "could we do it honestly?" Whedon said. "I believe you will find that we did." 

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ABC is banking a lot on S.H.I.E.L.D., which the network  of their upfront presentation earlier this month. But the audience question about Coulson was borne out of some concern for the sanctity of Whedon's work. Whedon is known for killing off characters that fans have grown attached to. (R.I.P. .) Although he did bring Buffy back from the dead. Twice. 

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Whedon's comments on Coulson mirror what Clark Gregg, the actor who plays him and stars as Leonato in Much Ado, : "When they called, I said, 'We can't base the show on a cheat,'" he said. "Joss walked me through what he was thinking, and I thought, 'Wow. Wow. OK. That works for me.'" (If you're curious about more details on the resurrection, .) At the BAM Q&A, Whedon insisted that Cregg is the "human face of the Marvel universe." And S.H.I.E.L.D., Whedon explained, is all about "being ordinary." Though he added that the "ordinary" people in the show also happen to be "geniuses" and "surprisingly attractive." It is TV, after all. 

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Following the screening, Choire Sicha of the Awl asked Whedon about the honorary degree he had just received at Wesleyan, and someone yelled: "Is your Ph.D. in horribleness?" (It's a Dr. Horrible reference, obviously.) Wuestions ran the gamut of Whedon's projects—from his idea for a ballet set in a library to his more commercial work for Marvel. 

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So people who are afraid of  should perhaps take a breath and trust in Whedon. We'd add that he also seems to realize that the show's overly long title—Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.—is a bit awkward, subtly making fun of it by rambling on at moments with an even longer title, adding a Disney here and "the early years" there. Early on in the show's buzz cycle, though, it seems Marvel's new undead problem is a non-issue.

For Nibali, an Italian with the Astana team, the title cemented his status in an elite group of current riders considered capable of winning Grand Tours, along with Alberto Contador, Chris Froome and Bradley Wiggins.

Nibali took the overall leader's pink jersey after the seventh stage, never gave it up, and padded his lead by winning the final two mountain stages in dominating fashion.

Wearing entirely pink, Nibali was celebrated by fans throughout the mostly ceremonial final stage.

''It was a really unique emotion hearing all the fans cheering for me,'' Nibali said. ''I really enjoyed this stage. It was unbelievable seeing all those people along the road. This victory crowns a life's dream.''

Rigoberto Uran of Colombia finished second overall and Cadel Evans of Australia, the 2011 Tour de France winner, was third, 4:43 and 5:52 behind Nibali, respectively.

It was Cavendish's 15th win in his Giro career and 41st in cycling's three Grand Tours - the Giro, Tour de France and Spanish Vuelta. He has a career total of 102 victories.

The British rider with the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team clocked 5 hours, 30 minutes, 8 seconds over the 128-mile leg from Riese Pio X to Brescia. The stage route was altered slightly due to avoid passing through a few towns where local elections were being held.

Italians Sacha Modolo and Elia Viviani finished second and third in the stage, respectively, with the same time as Cavendish.

The end of the stage was held entirely in Brescia, over a 2.6-mile circuit that was completed seven times. Part of the circuit took riders over cobblestones.

While much of the three-week race was characterized by wet and cold weather, including hard rain and even a snow blizzard in the penultimate stage Saturday, the final leg was held under clear skies.

Cavendish also secured the red points jersey by winning an intermediate sprint with 10 miles to go. It's the first time he has won the points jersey at the Giro, adding it to his jerseys from the 2010 Vuelta and the 2011 Tour.

After Cavendish's sprint, Nibali rode across the finish with his arms raised.

While Nibali is not planning to ride the Tour this year, he could attempt to win the Vuelta in August and September, and perhaps go for the world title in Florence, also in September.

It was his second Grand Tour victory, having also won the 2010 Vuelta. He finished third in last year's Tour behind the Team Sky duo of Wiggins and Froome.

Wiggins began the Giro as one of the pre-race favorites but the British rider withdrew before the 13th stage due to a chest infection. Defending champion Ryder Hesjedal also pulled out at the same stage, citing a ''deteriorating physical condition.''

A 28-year-old from Messina, Sicily, Nibali (prounounced NEE-ba-lee) is nicknamed the ''Shark of the Strait,'' after the Straight of Messina.

Giuseppe Martinelli, Nibali's team director at Astana, has now guided six different riders to a total of seven Grand Tour wins. His other wins came with Marco Pantani (who had two), Stefano Garzelli, Gilberto Simoni, Damiano Cunego and Alberto Contador.

Nibali has twice finished on the Giro podium previously, placing third in 2010 and second in 2011 after Contador was stripped of victory for doping.

Interior Secretary Miguel Osorio Chong and his national security team met with local officials in the state capital of Morelia at a time of escalating tensions in Michoacan, where communities mistrustful of state authorities have been creating their own vigilante forces for protection against the cartels.

But Osorio Chong provided few details or an explanation of how sending troops to Michoacan would work any better than it had in the past. Then President Felipe Calderon made the same move when he launched a nationwide offensive against drug cartels in late 2006.

"The difference is the strategy," Osorio Chong said. "There will be a central command, close coordination between state and federal security ... and a system of intelligence that will permit us to move forward."

He did not answer when a reporter asked for specific dollar amounts or new programs behind the effort.

Michoacan is the Mexican state most visibly dominated by a drug cartel.

Gunmen in vehicles marked only with the Knights Templar symbol, a red cross, roam the countryside, burning businesses and homes of anyone who refuses to pay them protection money.

The cartel has boldly marked its territory by building small roadside chapels to "Saint Nazario," a fallen leader of the quasi-religious drug cartel who was killed in a battle with police in 2010.

As convoys of soldiers rode into the steamy territory known as Tierra Caliente late Monday, they passed the remains of chapels destroyed by local self-defense groups that sprang up in February to fight the cartel.

In the town of Coalcoman, soldiers sped past the still-smoldering remains of at least three sawmills torched by the cartel's gunmen last week after that town rose up against them. They also passed burned-out hulks of two trucks and a passenger bus set afire by gunmen on the highway outside town as a warning to anyone who tried to bring supplies or reinforcements in.

Coalcoman was the latest of several communities to form an armed self-defense group to kick out the Knights Templar cartel and end their extortion racket.

"They demanded we pay 120 pesos (about $10) for every square meter of wood we sold," said one of the sawmill owners whose business was burned. Gunmen torched the mills that didn't pay, said the owner, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.

Local avocado growers were charged 2,000 pesos (about $175) for every hectare of orchards they owned.

"The man who charged you would say it was money for 'the company.' They didn't say the name of the cartel," recalled one resident of the town of Buenavista, who later battled the cartel. "But if you didn't pay, the trucks with the red crosses would show up and start killing people."

Like most cartel opponents, the man wouldn't give his name for fear of reprisals.

Government intervention until now has been against the community patrols. Some 40 members of vigilante patrols were arrested in April after the government accused them of having links to a rival drug cartel, Jalisco Nueva Generation. Townspeople deny that.

Still, residents of La Ruana lined up on the town's main street Monday to cheer the arrival of the soldiers.

Hipolito Mora, the leader of the self-defense forces in La Ruana, agreed to stop community patrols and let the army take over patrolling.

"We reached an agreement that we are going to return to our homes and work," Mora told the crowd of cheering townspeople. "But I told them (the army) that if they leave us alone for one day, we are going to return to duty again."

The secretary of defense, Gen. Salvador Cienfuegos, said the vigilante groups had disappeared when troops arrived.

"It's a very complex problem, because there are some who are taking up arms to protect their communities and others who are not, who are financed by other groups," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Gustavo Ruiz in Morelia contributed to this report.

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- South Korea's Supreme Court has upheld a ruling sentencing a man to a year and half in prison for exchanging emails with an alleged North Korean spy and praising Pyongyang on his website.

Spokesman Lee Hyun-bok said Tuesday the court cited the National Security Law in its ruling earlier this month against a 45-year-old South Korean identified only as Lee.

The law prohibits glorifying North Korea or contacting North Korean spies. Park could have received 10 years in prison.

The spokesman said the court deemed North Korea as a threat to South Korea. He provided no details about the alleged spy.

Lee's organization did not answer a call seeking comment.

Relations between Seoul and Pyongyang remain tense. They remain technically at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended with a truce.

The mortar killed one person and injured four in the Ndosho neighborhood inside Goma, said Madnodje Mounoubai, a spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Congo.

"We have no indication of who sent it," he said.

Rebels with the M23 movement continued fighting with government forces just north of Goma on Wednesday in a third day of fighting after a nearly six-month lull, a rebel spokesman said by telephone.

Congo, an enormous country the size of Western Europe, has endured decades of conflict, especially in its mineral-rich east, which borders the smaller, but militarily more powerful nation of Rwanda. An investigation by U.N. experts found that Rwanda has backed several of the rebel groups that have wreaked havoc in eastern Congo. Last November, Rwanda was accused of having sent battalions of soldiers across the porous border between the two nations in order to help the M23 rebels seize the city of Goma.

The rebels marched straight past the hundreds of U.N. peacekeepers stationed at the gates of the city, who didn't stop them because their mandate is to protect civilians and not to engage militarily. The U.N. was widely criticized for failing to stop the rebel advance and in the months since then, the Security Council voted to create a special intervention brigade in Congo whose mission it is to fight the M23. The rebels occupied the city of Goma for 10 days before agreeing to retreat under intense international pressure.

The M23 rebels are now stationed just north of the city and on Monday, they attacked government positions, a military spokesman said. The rebels continued fighting through Tuesday and on Wednesday, a rebel spokesman Lt. Col. Vianney Kazarama said that the rebels were fighting to defend the territory they control near the village of Kibati.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected to discuss the intervention brigade with Congolese President Joseph Kabila during their closed-door meeting on Wednesday in Kinshasa, Congo's capital, located hundreds of miles to the west of Goma.

The nascent brigade is expected to change the balance of power in eastern Congo, though only around 100 soldiers from Tanzania have arrived so far. Congo's army has proven to be no match for the rebels, who are believed to be getting high-end equipment including night vision goggles from Rwanda.

Rwanda has denied the accusations.

The M23 called the creation of the intervention brigade "a declaration of war" and have vowed to fight the U.N. should they try to enter M23 territory.

__

Associated Press reporter Saleh Mwanamilongo contributed to this report from Kinshasa, Congo.

Merkel spoke privately for 45 minutes with the pope at the Apostolic Palace, after exchanging cordial greetings in German.

Her Christian Democrat party depends heavily on support from Protestant and Catholic voters, and the chat and photo opportunity could be a welcome campaign boost for a leader largely identified by Europe's economically suffering citizens as a champion of debt reduction, including painful austerity across much of the continent.

For its part, the Vatican is eager for allies in its campaign to win over more Catholics.Francis was leading a sort of pep rally for the faith in St. Peter's Square Saturday evening, attended by about 150,000 people.

Most were from Europe but many came from the pope's native South America. They sang and prayed during an hours-long gathering ahead of the pope's appearance.

On Thursday, Francis blasted what he called a "cult of money" in a global financial system that ends up tyrannizing, not helping, the world's poor.

Asked whether they had also talked about the pope's recent criticism, Merkel said they spoke about the regulation of the financial markets.

"The regulation of the financial markets is our central problem, our central task," Merkel told reporters on the Vatican grounds. "We are moving ahead, but we are not yet where we want to be, where we could say that a derailment of the guard rails of social market won't happen again."

Merkel added:"It ought to be like this: the economy is there to serve the people. In the last few years, this hasn't been the case at all everywhere."

Italy, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and especially Greece have seen governments concentrate on debt reduction while slashing state spending. With growth stymied, unemployment, especially among young people, has soared. Businesses, many of them family-run in southern Europe, have failed as bank lending dried up.

The chancellor said the pope had stressed the world needs a strong and just Europe, and she described the overall conversation has encouraging.

Merkel is currently campaigning for re-election in September's general elections. Half of Germany's population is Catholic. In Bavaria especially there is a strong conservative and Catholic tradition.

According to a Vatican statement, Francis and Merkel discussed the socio-political, economic and religious situation in Europe and in the world, including "safeguarding human rights, the persecutions faced by Christians" and religious freedom.

Francis, who is Argentine, has picked up on campaigns by the two previous popes, the Polish John Paul II and German Benedict XVI, to reinvigorate what the Catholic church sees as flagging religious enthusiasm on a continent with Christian roots, including dwindling number of churchgoers in much of Western Europe.

"I see continuity in the missionary aspect, in becoming aware of the importance of Christianity for our Christian roots," said Merkel, adding that the "simple and touching words" of Francis, who was elected pontiff two months ago, are already reaching people.

The Vatican also uses papal visits with major leaders to seek allies in lobbying on behalf of Christians who face discrimination and in some cases physical violence in parts of the world.

Merkel said she has reflected on how she and Francis both had spent part of their lives in countries once under dictatorships her native East Germany under Soviet-influenced communist rule, and the pope's Argentine homeland, once ruled by a bloody military dictatorship.

___

AP correspondent Kirsten Grieshaber contributed from Berlin.

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By providing the most efficient next-generation mobile memory with a very large data capacity, we are now enabling OEMs to introduce even more innovative designs in the marketplace, said Young-Hyun Jun, executive vice president, memory sales & marketing for Samsung. Our 20nm-class four gigabit mobile DRAM provides another example of our ability to deliver well-differentiated, high-performance, high-density memory to customers in a timely manner.

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Compared to older 30-nanometer class low power DDR3 mobile RAM, the new memory chip improves performance by more than 30% and reduces power consumption by 20%.

Samsung said that it plans to increase production of its 20nm-class mobile memory chip later this year.

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