KYOTO, Japan (Reuters) - Japanese author Haruki Murakami made his first public appearance in his homeland in 18 years on Monday, describing his newest novel, which was an instant-best seller, as a story that takes place in the real world, unlike many of his other novels.

"Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage" has attracted positive reviews, with readers spotting familiar Murakami themes such as people bonding through pain.

Publisher Bungeishunju made the rare decision to print 1 million copies within a week of its April release in Japan.

The novel is about a lonely 36-year-old engineer named Tsukuru Tazaki, who embarks on trips in Japan and Finland to overcome his most painful experience - broken friendships.

"Usually things are divided into the real and unreal, but I was wondering how it will be if I bring all of that into the stage of the real world," Murakami told an audience of about 500 fans in Kyoto.

"People get hurt and close their minds, but as time passes, they gradually open up, and they grow as they repeat that. This novel is about growth."

The fans who won a lottery to attend the event were surprised that the 64-year-old, whose fiction is often surreal and who has made a handful of speeches overseas in recent years but none in Japan, was actually speaking to the public.

"I am a fan of his novels but I have never seen him in person nor heard his voice. Is he a normal person?" Hiroko Yamada, 40, asked as she waited for the event to start.

Murakami said he decided to speak in public to honor his friend Hayao Kawai, a psychologist who died in 2007.

"It's not like I get purple dots all over myself when I am in front of many people. I like to go around on the bus and the subway and live a normal life," he joked.

"I want you to think of me like an endangered species - it's fine to look at me from far away, but be careful because I may bite if you come near and talk to me or touch me."

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

As severe weather rumbled through Friday night, meteorologists including 46-year-old Mark Britt noticed the radar showed a storm's tight rotation perilously close to their office in Weldon Spring, west of St. Louis.

The roughly 10 workers opted to bolt for a copy room with reinforced walls and hunker down, marking the first time in two decades that staffers chose to make a hasty retreat from their high-tech weather-watching tools, Britt said Saturday from the office that covers much of eastern Missouri and St. Louis' Illinois suburbs.

"We recognized immediately it was going to be an imminent threat," he said. "Since we were in the safe room, I wasn't overly worried. When we go in there, we know we're safe."

Leaving nothing to chance, the weather service has built-in redundancies for such an event: The Weldon Spring crew called upon their Kansas City-area colleagues to monitor the area and issue any public warnings for the region, Britt said. That proved "pretty seamless," Britt said, noting that severe weather alerts were issued while the St. Louis crew took cover.

Once clear of danger, "we knew we had to get back and do our job," Britt said from the office that ultimately escaped harm. "We had some damage close to the office, so it was pretty wise we took shelter."

Weather service crews on Saturday confirmed that the storm was nothing to mess with, classifying the damage as the work of an EF3 tornado, which has winds between 136 and 165 mph. No one was seriously injured.

The weather service post has had close calls before, most notably during what locals call "The Good Friday Tornado" of April 2011. That EF4 twister was the area's most powerful tornado in 44 years, packing winds of up to 200 mph that damaged or destroying hundreds of homes and pummeled Lambert International Airport.

"We almost took cover then, but we decided not to," Jayson Gosselin, Britt's fellow meteorologist, said of the 2011 storm, which came within a few miles of their office.

No one died in that tornado, and officials credited the local weather service with providing ample warning more than a half-hour's worth about the storm's approach, prompting warning sirens to blare at the airport where security officers and other workers herded people to stairwells and bathrooms.

"The bottom line is the 34-minute warning and the heeding of that warning by the citizens has saved countless lives," Gov. Jay Nixon said afterward.

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland is preparing to officially reject accusations by U.S. Senators this week that it acts as a tax haven for large multinationals and launch a diplomatic offensive to repair the damage done to its reputation abroad.

Ireland has been forced to defend its low corporate tax rate after the Senate said last week that iPhone and iPad maker Apple paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits channeled through Irish subsidiaries and that it had effectively negotiated a special corporate tax rate of less than 2 percent.

Irish ministers and officials have lined up to insist that their tax system is transparent and that other countries were responsible if Apple paid tax at such low rates. Finance Minister Michael Noonan said Ireland would not be the "whipping boy" for the Senate subcommittee.

The government will likely put its response on the record this week, two government sources said, and will tell the committee led by veteran tax sleuth Senator Carl Levin that Ireland is not a tax haven, nor did it cut Apple a special tax deal.

"Undoubtedly there's a risk of reputational damage if we don't defend our corner and set out the facts, so of course that's happening," Ireland's European Affairs Minister Lucinda Creighton told Reuters, referring to the response being drafted.

"I've no doubt there will be a strong response, and we will strongly defend Ireland as a safe, a legally sound and a good place to do business. What you see is what you get, and that is why so many global companies are headquartered in Ireland."

Creighton was speaking from Dublin airport ahead of a four-day trip to Washington and New York where she will meet business leaders and politicians and address the prestigious Columbia University.

While the trade mission was planned long before last week's revelations on Capitol Hill, Creighton said she and her fellow ministers would use every opportunity to put right the "misinformation" heard in the Senate last week.

Ireland has a network in place to quickly spread that message. After it took a financial bailout in late 2010, Dublin set up its Economic Messaging Unit to coordinate communications between all government agencies, departments and embassies.

Irish embassies from Beijing to Buenos Aires were issued rebuttal points last week, a normal practice for major stories, while Ireland's ambassador in Washington held a conference call with government departments and the state agency charged with attracting investment into Ireland to discuss the next steps.

DINNER JOKES IN BRUSSELS

Within weeks of coming to office in 2011, Prime Minister Enda Kenny summoned all the country's ambassadors to Dublin to brief them on how best to restore a reputation he said was in tatters.

The fresh assault will be similar, one diplomatic source said, adding that the key focus would be liaising with a strong network of contacts in the U.S. Administration and on Capitol Hill, where the leaders of Ireland and the United States traditionally meet for lunch to mark St. Patrick's Day.

While Dublin was able to call on ex-President Bill Clinton to tell U.S. companies last year that they would be "nuts" not to invest in Ireland, the task could be trickier this time with the criticism emanating from its normally friendly ally.

"That was a blindside for Ireland Inc. because we always thought we were on the same page as Anglo-American capitalism. We thought it would stick up for us," said Hugo Brady, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform in Brussels.

"The PR side of it is really bad for Ireland because Ireland and tax haven are going together in mainstream conversation in Brussels. It hasn't done our image much good when people start making dinner jokes about Apple being an Irish company."

While Ireland will concentrate its energy in the United States to keep attracting jobs from the likes of Apple, Google and Pfizer, it will also need to keep an eye out for any backlash in Europe where its low corporate tax rate of 12.5 percent has drawn criticism in the past.

One influential member of the European Parliament said that while Dublin should be given time to adjust, it should adopt a standardized European Union tax system and ultimately a minimum rate of corporation tax.

"Ireland should take its hands out of other countries' pockets. Ireland's tax system is designed to tax income other people have earned," Sven Giegold told Reuters, underscoring how emotive the issue will be in elections in his native Germany.

"If you want to heat up a room in an election meeting in Germany, you have to talk about tax avoidance. It has become one of the most emotional topics. People are outraged."

(Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels; Editing by Will Waterman)

"I think it's harder, there's no doubt about it," Obama told reporters on Tuesday. "It puts more of a burden on us."

The state-based exchanges, created under the 2010 healthcare law, were designed to offer individuals a centralized place to buy health insurance policies for 2014. But a number of mostly Republican-led states have opted out, pushing individuals to the back-up federally run exchange.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; editing by Jackie Frank)

(This story was refiled to add dropped words to quote in the second paragraph.)

We have been through a lot, including my struggle with various health issues. Throughout this he has become an insensitive person who treats me like garbage. There has been a lot of emotional abuse happening, and it has taken me quite a while to be able to see it.

The other night I was about to break up with him. Then he suddenly changed his tune. He said: "I'm listening. You're right. I need to change. I love you."

Abby, at this point I really don't care, but I gave him another chance. Was I wrong to do that? He has changed for now -- quite drastically -- but I know he could easily go back.

I no longer love him. I also no longer find him attractive, and I actually think he's immensely annoying. He's trying to get me to fall back in love with him, but I really don't want to. So do I stay or do I go? -- WAVERING IN CANADA

DEAR WAVERING: Re-read the last paragraph of your letter, and you will see in your own words why it's time for you to go. He may be trying, but frankly, it is too late. Pack your bags. There's nothing deader than a dead romance.

DEAR ABBY: A friend recently shared some great advice. Her mom is 86 and in poor health, so my friend put together an emergency information briefcase for the trunk of her car and another one by the front door.

If anyone needs to take her mother to the ER, all her important information is in two places. This includes medications, doctors, insurance cards, Living Will, power of attorney and family emergency numbers.

I took my friend's advice, and it turned out to be a godsend when I had to take my 79-year-old mother to the ER after a serious fall. The admitting clerks said they wished everyone would do this. (I also included $100 in cash in a small envelope.) I hope you think her idea is worth sharing. -- GLAD I DID IN ALABAMA

DEAR GLAD: If the admitting clerks said they wished everyone would do this, then it's worth a mention in my column. Readers, advance planning such as this could save precious minutes in an emergency.

DEAR ABBY: Due to an accident I had as a teenager, I can't father a child. How far into a relationship should I wait to tell a woman this? While I wouldn't mention it on the first date, I don't want someone to feel betrayed if she wasn't informed.

There's also the issue of finding a woman who's OK with it. So far, the ones I have dated ended the relationship because they couldn't accept being childless or adopting. -- GUY WHO NEEDS AN ANSWER

DEAR GUY: Mention it when the subject of children comes up. Not every woman wants children. It's nothing to be ashamed of.

P.S. If you include the fact that you can't father a child on your dating profile, it will filter out those women who do. I'm advising you to prepare for an avalanche.

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

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: "Abby's Favorite Recipes" and "More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year low stayed at 3.53 percent. That's near the 3.31 percent reached in November, which was the lowest on record going back to 1971.

The rate on the 15-year fixed mortgage stayed at 2.77 percent for a second week. The record low is 2.63 percent.

The one-year adjustable mortgage was the only rate to change this week. It averaged 2.61 percent, up from 2.53 percent last week.

Cheap mortgages are giving a boost to the slowly improving housing market.

Increased sales have helped to push home prices up, which makes consumers feel wealthier and helps to boost consumer spending. In addition, the increased housing demand is boosting new home construction.

Still, housing has a long way to go to achieve a full recovery. And many people are unable to take advantage of the low rates, either because they can't qualify under stricter lending rules or they lack the money to meet larger down payment requirements.

To calculate average mortgage rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average doesn't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year loans was 0.8 point, the same as last week. The fee for 15-year mortgages was 0.8 point, up from 0.7 point last week. The fee for one-year adjustable rate mortgages was 0.3 point, down from 0.4 point last week.

Freddie Mac said that the average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages edged up to 2.64 percent this week from 2.63 percent last week. The fee stayed the same at 0.6 point.

ABC's "This Week" David Plouffe, former adviser to President Barack Obama; Karl Rove, former adviser to President George W. Bush.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., and Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.; Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Jack Reed, D-R.I.

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CNN's "State of the Union" Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

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"Fox News Sunday" Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Websites that regularly report on Singapore including Yahoo News will have to get a license from June 1, putting them on par with newspapers and television news outlets, in a move seen by some as a bid to rein in free-wheeling Internet news.

"Online news sites that report regularly on issues relating to Singapore and have significant reach among readers here will require an individual license," Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA) said in a statement.

"This will place them on a more consistent regulatory framework with traditional news platforms which are already individually licensed," the media regulator said.

Prosperous and orderly Singapore, a regional base for many multinationals and fund managers, is one of the world's most wired-up cities with most people having broadband access.

It has long maintained strict controls on the media, saying that was necessary to maintain stability in a small, multi-racial country and that media must be held accountable for what they publish.

Lobby group Reporters Without Borders, in its latest report, ranked Singapore 149th globally in terms of press freedom, down 14 places from 2012 and below many of its neighbors.

In 2011, the city-state's tiny opposition made big gains against the long-ruling People's Action Party in parliamentary elections, partly by using the Internet to reach voters.

A survey by the Straits Times newspaper shortly before the vote found 36.3 percent of people between the ages of 21 and 34 cited the Internet as their top source of domestic political news compared with 35.3 percent who preferred newspapers.

"WILL FIND A WAY"

The MDA identified sg.news.yahoo.com, a service run by Internet giant Yahoo Inc, as among 10 sites that would be affected by the new requirement, based on criteria such as having 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore a month over a period of two months.

Yahoo declined to comment when contacted by Reuters.

"We are not in a position to respond until we receive the actual license conditions for review," the head of its Singapore news service, Alan Soon, said.

Of the remaining nine sites, seven are run by Singapore Press Holdings Ltd, whose publications tend to maintain a pro-government stance. The other two are operated by state-owned broadcaster Mediacorp.

Conditions for the sites that require individual licenses, which have to be reviewed annually, include a performance bond of S$50,000 ($39,700) and a requirement that objectionable content be removed within 24 hours when directed by the MDA.

The MDA said the new regulation did not apply to blogs, though adding: "If they take on the nature of news sites, we will take a closer look and evaluate them accordingly".

The regulation drew criticism from some Internet users who saw it as an attempt to stifle online news not affiliated with the government.

On state-owned Channel NewsAsia's Facebook page, a person named Jeremy Tan likened the development to what goes on in China or North Korea.

"You can try to shut us up. We will find a way around it," another internet user, Sushikin Ky, said on the Facebook page.

(Editing by Robert Birsel)

"I think it's harder, there's no doubt about it," Obama told reporters on Tuesday. "It puts more of a burden on us."

The state-based exchanges, created under the 2010 healthcare law, were designed to offer individuals a centralized place to buy health insurance policies for 2014. But a number of mostly Republican-led states have opted out, pushing individuals to the back-up federally run exchange.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey; editing by Jackie Frank)

(This story was refiled to add dropped words to quote in the second paragraph.)

NEW YORK, April 29 (Reuters) - The boxer who pummeled opponents with his words as well as with his fast fists rarely talks these days, and his dazzling footwork is a memory frozen on video tape and in the minds of millions of admirers.

But the spirit and sparkle in 71-year-old Muhammad Ali's eyes live on through a 30-year struggle against the effects of Parkinson's disease, which has stricken about one million in the United States and six million worldwide.

His daughter, Maryum (May May) Ali, said the man who famously dubbed himself "The Greatest" gets a big kick from watching old footage of himself.

"That's his favorite pastime. He loves to watch himself. He loves it," May May told Reuters in an interview on the eve of the annual Parkinson's Unity Walk to advance awareness and education that drew thousands to Central Park on Saturday.

"It brings him joy, because he's not that person any more but he can live through his old self. He loves to watch his fights. I love to watch him watching."

Ali was ranked among the 20 most influential Americans ever last year by Time Magazine for his humanitarianism and the inspiration he provided to people around the globe.

While he has battled Parkinson's, a progressive disorder in which dopamine levels in the brain decline affecting messages to nerves controlling movement and coordination, May May champions efforts to help educate and promote research into the disease.

24-HOUR CARE

"He has 24-hour care and he needs assistance," May May, at 45 the oldest of his nine children, said noting that his condition had worsened over the last three years. "His speech isn't that great.

"But my father chills out. He watches the Super Bowl, and he gets massages. When I go visit him it's like a little sabbatical with him. I'm like chilling out with him."

A former rapper and comedian, an author and social activist, May May bears a strong resemblance to her father with her bright eyes, round face, pronounced cheekbones and spirit to match.

She sounds just like the great man himself when she lapses into some of his familiar patter, before reminiscing about his difficult times after first showing symptoms.

"I tell you what was hard for him. It was hard to go out and hear people talking about him," she said. "Because he was proud and he didn't want people feeling sorry for him, because I think he felt better than what they thought he looked like."

Maintaining family life was important, she said, which led her sister, Rasheda Ali, to write a book called 'I'll Hold Your Hand So You Won't Fall'. "It's actually a children's book for parents to know how to teach their kids about Parkinson's."

"My father's grandchildren thought my dad was sad or depressed, or didn't like them or didn't want to play, but it was just his face," May May said.

"It's called the Parkinson's mask, where the muscles in the face droop in a stoic look where you don't look like you have any emotion.

"His grandkids had watched old footage of him talking, acting crazy, rhyming, bragging...now they see him and they think 'he's mad at us'. She (Rasheda) told them, 'look at his eyes, see how much fun he's having'."

FIRST SIGNS

"We saw slurring of the speech and slowness while he was (still) boxing," said May May. "So there's a really good chance that he had it much earlier than when he was diagnosed (in 1984).

"We were thinking that whatever he had was from boxing because other boxers have slurred speech."

She said her father was never in denial over his condition.

"He was like 'something's happening' and he was trying to figure it out. He was dealing with it.

"The optimism he had, predicting rounds and calling the knockout and saying he was beautiful and standing up for his faith... he was always confident and optimistic. That was kind of how he was with his disease, too.

"He's the kind of guy that pushed his body to the limit. If boxing and what he went through in his career didn't put him down, he was not letting shaky hands stop him from going out. That's just his make-up."

Ali continued to travel the world for decades.

"He still travels," she said. "He has three homes - in his hometown of Louisville, in Michigan and in Arizona in the winter. You still see him at baseball games sometimes.

"He lives," she said. "His spirit is still the same."

May May said Ali communicates with his eyes, with his arms, and by "knocking", illustrating by clicking the roof of her mouth with her tongue. "I guess that's from his African roots.

"It hasn't been super sad for me until maybe the past three years because we have the education and understanding of it. That's everything, because you're able to enjoy them the way they are."

SPIRITUAL LIFE

May May said her father never looked back after finally leaving the ring. "He always felt boxing was a means to an end. And that end was to help and serve others."

She said Ali, who refused to fight in the Vietnam War as a conscientious objector following his conversion to Islam, grew more and more spiritual.

Ali had his world championship title taken away and his boxing licenses revoked before the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his conviction for his refusing induction.

"I think if he hadn't got Parkinson's he would be an Imam," May May said, projecting her father as a Muslim spiritual leader.

"He would have been one of the main people on TV defending true Islam and in the time we're living in right now, it would have been exceptional because people would have listened to him."

"He used to propagate Islam with pamphlets. Every time he would sign an autograph he would sign it on a Muslim pamphlet. That was his life. He spent all his time doing that. People don't know that."

May May said he was humbled by the response he engendered.

"'I met the prime minister of Pakistan. I was at the White House'," she recalled him saying. "'A little old boy from Louisville, Kentucky. Anything can happen, anything can come true'."

Despite being a world figure, Ali got giddy himself around some of his early idols.

"He would get excited when he saw Little Richard. He loved Little Richard," May May said. "He was tickled, tickled, tickled by James Brown. I would never see my Dad get excited, but if he saw one of them...he loved his music, his oldies."

Asked about his legacy, May May said: "Depends on who you are. If you are Aryan nation you're going to hate him for being a draft dodger.

"I used to ask him, 'how did you have the guts to stand up against the government?' He said, 'I learned who I truly was as a black man'.

"He knew he was an equal human being and no one was going to take that away from him. And that was more important to him than a boxing career.

"I'm a lot like my dad, and I'm proud to say it." (Editing by Alison Wildey)