BERLIN, May 22 (Reuters) - Puerto Rican banker Richard Carrion launched his bid for the presidency of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) on Wednesday, with his long financial experience a powerful pitch in his quest for the world's top sports job.

The 60-year-old Carrion, who is chairman of Puerto Rican lender Popular Inc, heads the IOC's finance commission and is a director of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, becomes the third official candidate in the race to be decided on Sept. 10.

"We have a lot at stake in this election," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"Our place in the world is not guaranteed. We must have a leader that knows how not just to manage the coming change, but also make it work for the IOC and the movement," said the soft-spoken Carrion.

"We must embrace this ever-changing reality and keep innovating and evolving, or risk becoming less relevant to this and future generations."

IOC Vice Presidents Thomas Bach from Germany and Singapore's Ng Ser Miang have already launched their campaigns while the head of the International Boxing Federation (AIBA) C.K. Wu is set to announce his bid on Thursday.

"There is a modest amount of data and reason to state that pet ownership may have some causal role in decreasing ," said Dr. Glenn Levine, professor at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and chairman of the committee that wrote the statement.

Enough studies have looked at the question over the last decade that the time was right for a thorough scientific review of the data, Levine said.

The statement explains the evidence surrounding the question of whether pet ownership is linked with heart disease risk factors such as high blood pressure, obesity and physical activity levels.

Some studies that have looked for a link between pet ownership and blood pressure have found that people with pets tend to have , and are less likely to have hypertension, than those who don't own a pet, the statement said. The only randomized controlled trial to look at the question included 30 participants, and found that when people adopted a dog, their blood pressure dropped.

Other evidence shows that people who own dogs are more likely than those who don't to reach recommended levels of physical activity, the statement said. It's likely that the benefit is seen because of the walking that some dog owners do. Owners who don't walk their dogs and owners of other pets were unlikely to see a benefit in physical activity levels in studies.

Walking a dog may also be linked with a lower risk of obesity, and may help with weight loss efforts in obese people, the statement said.

Among people without heart disease, owning a pet does not lengthen life, studies have shown, and among people with heart disease, findings are mixed.

Few studies have looked at whether owning a pet is linked with levels of triglycerides (fats) in the blood, but the evidence does show thathave lower levels.

The statement doesn't mean people should buy or adopt pets in hopes of improving their heart health, Levine said. "The primary reason to adopt, rescue or purchase a pet should be to give that pet a loving home, and to enjoy the relationship one has with a pet," he said.

People should not get a pet without implementing standard changes to lower their risk of heart disease, he said.

The American Heart Association recommends avoiding heart disease by eating foods low in saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol and sodium, being physically active, not smoking and watching your weight.

The statement is published online today (May 9) in the journal Circulation.

Pass it on: People with pets may have better heart health.

Follow Karen Rowan. Follow MyHealthNewsDaily, &. Originally published on MyHealthNewsDaily.

In the frequent, violent clashes that have occurred with police, two people have died, another is on life support, and about 1,000 have been wounded, medical services and rights groups say.

A NEW WORD EMERGES

The protests' focus remains Taksim Square and its Gezi Park in central Istanbul, which has been occupied by demonstrators of all walks of life for more than a week.

In the first days of the protests, Erdogan dismissed the demonstrators as "capulcu" (pronounced CHA-pul-dju) a Turkish word that translates as marauder, looter or plunderer. Protesters quickly turned the word to their advantage. They made it their own, creating a brand new verb "capulling" which means protesting, resisting the tear gas and shouting anti-Erdogan slogans.

The word has taken social networks by storm. Facebook users update their status: "I'm capulling today" and ask each other "Have you capulled?" It has appeared on banners, signs and handwritten slogans on T-shirts.

Social media users are exchanging links to a music video entitled "Everyday I'm Capulling" and to one of American left-wing philosopher Noam Chomsky sitting in front of a sign reading: "I am also a capulcu" and saying in Turkish: "Everywhere is Taksim, resistance is everywhere."

In protests in the Turkish capital, Ankara, one woman was walking around with a sign attached to her back: "Thank God we are capulcus." Other people distributed stickers in Ankara and Istanbul: "Beware Capulcu."

BURGEONING BARRICADES

Protesters want to make sure the police and their water cannon trucks and tear gas rounds can't reach Taksim Square and its occupied park. What better way to prevent entry than setting up barricades? Lots of them.

The barriers range from the elaborate battered, smashed-up or burned-out buses and cars, often decorated with graffiti to the simple. Piles upon piles of heavy bricks have been ripped up from sidewalks to form barriers, topped with metal railings, plastic ticket booths, overturned metal dumpsters and scaffolding taken from building sites.

One street leading from the square down toward the Bosporus Strait has more than a dozen barriers. Its sidewalks are now just sand paths, as all of their paving stones have been used to construct the barriers. On one recent night, a tourist bus unloaded a group of bemused or worried-looking tourists at one of the barricades, as a hotel employee guided them past it to their hotel on Taksim Square.

At night during clashes, protesters stand atop the barriers for a better vantage point, or use them as a rudimentary shield from the flying tear gas canisters shot by riot police. By day, the barricades become backdrops for commemorative photos, a good location to pin up artwork, a climbing frame for the more playful, and a location for impromptu soccer games.

CLEAN-UP CREWS

Protesters hundreds during the day, burgeoning into thousands or tens of thousands at night and clashes with police can generate an awful lot of trash. But those occupying the park and square seem determined to keep the place tidy.

In the cool morning air, volunteers wearing surgical gloves and dragging trash bags scour the park and the square, picking up the detritus of the previous night. Discarded surgical masks used to ward off the worst of the gas, empty plastic water bottles, food wrappers, even cigarette butts are all picked up. The trash is then collected together in an ever-increasing pile on the edge of the park.

YOGA IN THE PARK

Some protesters are doing yoga to relax and stay in shape. Earlier this week, the morning open-air yoga class in Gezi Park was a small affair an instructor leading about a dozen people stretching out on colored yoga mats on a grassy patch in the center of the park. By Thursday, the classes had swelled to about 80 people, and the instructor resorted to a loudspeaker to make herself heard.

PROTEST HUMOR

The reasons behind Turkey's eight days of protests are serious enough. But demonstrators have also reacted with humor, particularly on social media sites, often lampooning the prime minister.

In response to Erdogan branding those who drink alcohol as "alcoholics," a group of protesters in Ankara on Wednesday night chanted: "The alcoholic movement cannot be stopped!"

Turkish users of social media have also been sharing photos of ironic slogans spray-painted onto city walls in Istanbul and Ankara.

"This gas is fantastic my friend!"

"You banned alcohol, the people sobered up!"

"Help, Police! Oh never mind, you must be busy"

"Welcome to the gas festival"

"Tear gas works wonders on your complexion"

TENT CITY

With each passing day, more and more people have descended on Istanbul's Gezi Park with tents, blankets and sleeping bags. With thousands thronging the park during the daytime, some rudimentary self-organization was needed.

So the tents have been set up in neat rows mostly. A piece of cardboard with a hand-drawn map is pinned at the park's entrance, showing visitors and new residents alike what's where.

There's a medical station for those feeling unwell; a library with donated books doing a brisk trade; food stations of donated meals and sweets as well as stands selling everything from grilled meat to fish, steamed mussels to popcorn and bright pink cotton candy.

Pets are welcome too. And if they feel unwell, they can head to the "Capulcu Veterinary Clinic" in a blue tent in the center of the park. Meals can be provided too, and a huge bag of dog food stands outside.

A stage has also been built in the center of the park, with people making speeches and a rapt audience clapping and cheering. A generator has been brought in to power the microphones and speakers.

Throughout the park, parents stroll with their toddlers, students do their homework and people walk around holding tablets in the air to record video of the scenes.

____

Fraser reported from Ankara. Thanassis Stavrakis in Istanbul contributed.

If all had gone according to plan, Americans would have learned in 25 years that President Barack Obama once a liberal constitutional law professor authorized a top-secret National Security Agency program to monitor the logs of their phone calls.

The court order allowing the government to inspect all Verizon phone records was slated to be declassified on April 12, 2038, when todays political leaders had passed from the stage and were beyond political accountability. Until then, American citizens were supposed to have no way of knowing that the NSA knew when they were good (phoning Grandma for six minutes on her birthday) and when they were bad (arranging an adulterous rendezvous with a 19-minute call to an ex-girlfriend from the office).

Instead, in a major rebuke to Obamas reputation as a purported defender of civil liberties, the Guardian, the British newspaper, published aWednesday night that requires Verizon to provide the NSA with access to all of its phone logs. In one of the more chilling passages in the four-page document, Verizon is not allowed to disclose to any other person that the FBI or NSA has sought or obtained tangible things under this Order.

This was the ultimate expression of the doctrine of dont ask, dont tell.

Overnight, the Obama national security team toiled to write talking points for the press, because that damage control strategy worked so well with the news media after Benghazi. While no administration officials commenting on the Guardian story would allow their names to be used (ssshhh, top-secret operation), their responses followed a .

The administrations central argument is that this secret court order allows the NSA to vacuum up phone records but not to listen to the actual phone calls. That might be filed under the heading, We havent secretly shredded all your civil liberties yet.

The talking points also contend that everything is legal under the Patriot Act and other national-security statutes. This was the danger inherent in a panicked Congress overwhelmingly passing draconian legislation in the wake of 9/11.

The continuing veil of secrecy makes it impossible for outsiders to monitor if the Obama administration is overstepping its legal mandate. Democrat MarkUdall, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who had been limited to offeringabout the surveillance program (ssshhh, top-secret operation), said Thursday that this was the kind of government overreach Ive said Americans would find shocking.

The final administration argument is the familiar dont-you-know-theres-a-war-on response: Information of the sort described in the Guardian article has been a critical tool in protecting the nation from terrorist threats to the United States. That may well be true, but we dont know for certain (ssshhh, top-secret operation).

Yes, America was attacked in a horrible way nearly 12 years ago on Sept. 11, 2001. But Obama himself said just two weeks ago in hisat the National Defense University: This war like all wars must end. Thats what history advises. Thats what democracy demands.

As has so often been the case during the Obama presidency, especially in national security matters, there is a mismatch between the presidents words and his administrations deeds. Its almost as if the president talks like Rand Paul and governs like Dick Cheney.

Senators who had been briefed on the NSA phone surveillance program suggested Thursday that it is a continuation of policies that the George W. Bush administration adopted after 9/11. As USA Today reported in 2006, of tens of millions of Americans.

It is uplifting that at least one set of policies in Washington remains a bipartisan endeavor.

But that continuity from Bush to Obama brings with it a sense of helplessness for Americans who are frustrated with living perpetually in a fearful national security state. What does it take to turn off the extraordinary measures and supposedly temporary policies adopted after the Twin Towers toppled?

It may take years to know for sure what turned Obama into a national security hawk the moment he entered the Oval Office. But his presidential example is a cautionary lesson in the dangers of believing campaign rhetoric.

Something clearly happens to a newly elected president, regardless of party, the moment he receives his first full-fledged national security briefing. All those can-do national security professionals bristling with news of the latest terrorist threats. All the carefully crafted bureaucratic arguments not to dismantle a single program purportedly safeguarding national security.

The result: A nation of barefoot, beltless, patted-down citizens tromping through airports with the government monitoring their cell phone calls.

Every time there is a revelation like the Guardian story (which will probably trigger another invasive leak investigation), there is the hope that this will be the moment of collective outrage. This will be the moment when left and right unite to pressure the government to revert to the national security policies of the 1990s the approach that merely won the Cold War.

But, once again, nothing substantive is likely to change. Already, the defenders of the national-security status quo are trotting out claims of derailed plots. Mike Rogers, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, told reporters Thursday, Within the last few years, this program was used to stop a terrorist attack in the United States.

Of course, we will never know the details of the incident that Rogers is citing in trust-us fashion or whether the terrorists could have been thwarted by other means that would have protected the privacy of Americans. Because ssshhh, it was a top-secret operation.

Maybe, just maybe, things will change with a new president in 2017. And we can enter a new era when the only government that is secretly hacking our phone calls is the Chinese.

Weekley was one shot behind compatriot and overnight leader Matt Kuchar when play began at Colonial Country Club but used a string of birdies to top a crowded leaderboard that featured 22 players within five shots of the lead after the third round.

The 39-year-old Weekley offset two early birdies with bogeys at the par-four fifth and par-four seventh holes but recovered with birdies at four of his next six holes en route to a 14-under total of 266 that left him one shot ahead of Kuchar.

Kuchar (68) birdied the par-four 18th to finish alone in second place, one stroke ahead of fellow American and former Masters champion Zach Johnson (66).

Americans Scott Stallings (66), John Rollins (68) and Matt Every (69) were all a further shot back in a share of fourth place.

Weekley's last triumph had come at the former Verizon Heritage, now known as the RBC Heritage, in 2008 during a period where he rose to popularity before injuries and poor form zapped his game.

Known for his Southern sensibilities and sense of humor, Weekley is a charming figure that helped the Unites States capture the Ryder Cup in 2008. (Writing by Jahmal Corner in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

The network says a full investigation is under way and use of the camera is suspended indefinitely. Earlier, NASCAR said it would wait for Fox Sports to conclude its review before deciding if such technology would be used in the future.

Charlotte Motor Speedway said 10 people were injured when part of the drive rope landed in the grandstand; three were taken to hospitals. All were checked out and released soon after.

In a statement, Fox said it was "relieved and thankful to know that the injuries to fans caused then CAMCAT malfunctioned at Charlotte Motor Speedway were minor."

The network again apologized for the disruption.

Several drivers, including then-leader Kyle Busch, reported damage to their cars from the rope.

NASCAR spokesman Kerry Tharp told The Associated Press on Monday that there were no plans to use the system at upcoming races "so we'll have ample time to review."

The network said the system was provided by Austrian company CAMCAT. The rope that failed was certified for a breaking strength of 9,300 pounds and was only bearing less than 900 pounds of force during the race, according to Fox Sports.

The network said it's reviewing with CAMCAT equipment maintenance records, history and installation information and plans to share its findings with NASCAR and Charlotte Motor Speedway.

The network said the system was used successfully at the Daytona 500 and was set up and working at last week's Sprint All-Star race in Charlotte. Fox's final NASCAR telecast this year comes Sunday at Dover International Speedway.

Tharp said NASCAR would let the network determine what went wrong.

"We'll sync up with them on what they have learned this week and go from there," he said.

The network explained how the drive rope moves the camera back and forth and failed near its turn one connection. The camera, it said in a statement, did not come down "because the guide ropes acted as designed."

The rope, Fox said, was made of Dyneema, which it described as "an ultra-strong synthetic that has the same approximate strength of a steel wire with the same diameter." It said the rope was less than a year old, had been factory-tested by its manufacturer and its breaking strength was certified before shipment. The rope was also inspected by CAMCAT when it was received last June.

According to OnlineRopes.com, Dyneema has the "highest strength-to-weight ratio of any manmade material in the world. On weight-to-weight base, it is up to 15 times stronger than steel."

The pictures such cameras provide can be extraordinary. But in this case, the failure brought confusion and chaos to the racers and the fans.

Coca-Cola 600 winner Kevin Harvick thought he was imagining things when he noticed the black rope on the track. He was among the lucky ones who escaped without damage. Busch said he heard a "thunk" when he ran over it and knew he'd have problems.

Busch used a cellphone to take a picture of the mangled metal around his front, right-side wheel so his team could figure out how to repair the damage.

Marcos Ambrose dragged a piece of the rope that got caught up in his car behind him on the track. Mark Martin also reported problems after driving over the rope.

NASCAR red-flagged the race for about 30 minutes and allowed teams back to their pits to get their cars back to race trim.

NASCAR first threw a caution flag before two red flags came out. It eventually allowed the cars to come into the pits, giving crews 15 minutes to work on their cars.

During the break, Busch's crew frantically worked to repair several problems to the right front wheel well. After completing repairs, the crew slapped high-fives as the car rolled back on the track.

Busch remained competitive and was running in the top five at the midpoint of the race. But his night ended in frustration when his engine blew up on lap 253. He said the engine problem was not related the rope damage. He thanked NASCAR for how it handled the unique stoppage.

"I commend NASCAR for taking the initiative and letting us repair our damaged cars from the issue we had," Busch said.

Busch said he never saw the nylon rope.

Ambrose wound up 10th behind Harvick, the second top-10 finish of the year for the Richard Petty Motorsports team.

Kasey Kahne led 156 laps, most of the night, and was second to Harvick. He was as bewildered as everyone else with the TV cable across the track.

"I've never seen anything like it," he said. "I came around turn four, saw it wrapped around Kyle's car, hit mine. I thought I was seeing things."

The camera hung in place over the large painted logo on the grass between the start-finish line and pit road.

Fox broadcaster Chris Myers apologized during the telecast several times to fans, drivers and race teams for the disruption. The network's statement offered "a sincere 'thank you' to the staff at CMS for attending to the injuries and keep us informed on this developing situation."

Busch wasn't sure anybody had seen that happen before and offered a solution: "Maybe now we can get rid of that thing."

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Led Zeppelin, that band that wrote the book on heavy rock, is now helping to rewrite the book on digital publications.

Acclaimed rock photographer Neal Preston's new e-book breaks ground for the genre with interactive video, 80 contact sheets and photos never previously published.

Preston followed the band throughout the '70s and opened up his vast archive to create a rich, intimate experience with the world of Jimmy Page and Robert Plant.

Sharon Waxman grilled Preston on "Led Zeppelin: Sound and Fury," which was published on Monday and available on iTunes. You've had this archive forever, but you only published many of these photos now. Were you just waiting for the iPad to be born?

No. I wasn't even waiting for computers to be born. This is the direction that book publishing is taking. It's a little leap of faith, we're in uncharted territory here.

How so?

It differs exponentially from a traditional coffee-table book. The photos look killer on the new iPad with the retina display. It was a way to really give the fans even more of what they so crave - all that behind-the-scenes stuff. In this kind of book you can include so much more -- audio captions, video interviews.

You shot that famous photo of Jimmy Page drinking from a Jack Daniels bottle backstage. Do you tell that story?

There's audio caption of taking that photo. Sometimes you remember shooting a picture, sometimes you don't. I remember that photo. I happened to be sitting to his right in the dressing room; I had a Nikon with a 24mm lens on my lap, and I was going to say something to Jimmy and I saw the bottle move toward his mouth and I picked up the camera, shot one frame, and I don't know if he even realized I was there shooting it.

Was he upset that you published it?

I don't believe we released that photo initially. I was brought in to work for them. In 1970 I was 18 and I ended up at press conference to announce that Led Zeppelin had supplanted the Beatles as No. 1 band in the world in a MelodyMaker poll.

The reason I was hired was they were notoriously cloistered. Not secretive but with very small inner circle unlike the Stones, when Mick Jagger had 100 people getting his laundry. It was pretty amazing they let any photographer come in and have the run of the store. I was that guy.

How did that come about?

Danny Goldberg, their publicist, hired me. I'd done work for the band through Atlantic Records. He called me up and said: "Pack your bags if you want to go on tour with us." I got that call in November 1974. January 1975 I was working for them.

What's so great about these images is you really feel like you're on stage with those guys.

In one of those, Jimmy's looking right at me, there's dry ice, you see Robert - during song called "No Quarter." Right after I shot that he came up to me and started talking to me. Reason I love that photo is that it feels like being on stage with Led Zeppelin. It sucks you right in.

Access is the currency I have to trade in. Night after night, day after day, week after week, as a photojournalist, you become invisible. When you become invisible, that's when you can capture the magic.

Did the band approve the photos in book?

No, the band was not part of this book, though they received it and I understand they like it very much. This was a different platform, and a new one, and one that hasn't really been exploited in terms of this kind of book, this kind of band.

This book is $9.99 - it's inexpensive compared to a coffee-table book. Is this the world photographers live in now? It's a digital book. You can't have tactile experience with it. However, this is the way publishing is going. There are two things that I hope people get out of this book. One is for the fans, it's a total wet dream. It's right up the vein.

To get the contact proof sheet - you start to see photographically how I think. They can hear the stories they wouldn't hear unless they were up in my house having dinner. And I hope fans get a sense of how much of myself I've put into this book.

I'm very proud of my writing. Stevie Nicks did my intro, because back in the day, she was the first person who sat and looked at a stack of my prints, and said, "You've got to do a book."

With at least 10in one night this week leveling neighborhoods, killing six and injuring dozens it might be tempting to call the twisters yet another instance of climate-fueled weather. But not so fast.

While most climate scientists agree that global warming is driving record heat waves, widespread drought, heavy rain and floods, intense hurricanes, and even monster snowstorms, tornadoes at least for now are a different story.

"With tornadoes, what we don't know is as much as what we do know,'' said Michael Wehner, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Global warming is making wet places wetter and dry places drier, and creating moisture-laden air that fuels hurricanes and snowstorms, making them much worse than they otherwise would be in a climate unchanged by human behaviors. []

But we can't necessarily say the same the same about tornadoes, at least not yet. The tornado connection to global warming is tenuous, and for several reasons. Chief among them is the fact that climate change apparently affects the two major factors influencing tornadoes energy and wind shear in completely opposite ways.

Tornadoes, violently rotating columns of air spawned by thunderstorms, occur when available energy warm, moist air at low levels and cold, drier air above meets vertical wind shear, which provides the source of the rotation. Climate change enhances the former, also known as "convective available potential energy,'' or CAPE, and diminishes the latter.

As the planet warms, "the energy goes up, and the shear goes down,'' said Harold Brooks, a scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Severe Storms Laboratory. "Thus, we have one ingredient expected to become more favorable and another expected to become less favorable.''

Furthermore, the enormous natural variability in tornadoes makes it difficult to sort out any viable climate trends. Also, what seems like an increase in excessive violent tornado activity in recent years may in fact be the result of other factors. []

"Tornadoes are small, and the observational record shows increases that are simply due to more people in more places seeing them,'' said Kevin Trenberth, distinguished senior scientist in the climate analysis section at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR).

There also is a dearth of information about what happens to tornadoes over time. Tornado reporting and record-keeping practices have been fraught with problems. "Our database for evaluating long-term changes in tornadoes is pretty awful, so we really don't know how tornadoes might be changing,'' said Jeff Masters, director of meteorology for the Weather Underground.

Brooks agreed. "Tornado data collection has never been intended as a climate data set,'' he said. "Large changes have taken place in reporting procedures that make interpretation of the past very difficult.''

Tornadoes can be terrifying and destructive, causing about 70 deaths and 1,500 injuries in the United States annually, according to NOAA. The strongest ones feature rotating winds of more than 250 miles per hour; they can be as wide as 1 mile and stay on the ground for distances as far as 50 miles. The year 2011 brought an onslaught of vicious tornadoes, including a catastrophic twister that struck Joplin, Mo., in May, killing 161 people and destroying a third of the city.

They can happen anywhere there is enough moist air at low levels, cold dry air aloft and strong vertical wind shear. "Tornadoes are spawned in particular environments that occur more in the United States than anywhere else,'' Trenberth said. "It relates to the Rockies running north-south and the Gulf of Mexico being where it is. "Tornadoes are small in scale and not modeled in global models,'' he added, explaining why it is so difficult to link them to climate change. "Meteorologists can find two storms that look almost identical and in similar environments, and one spawns a tornado and one doesn't, so there is a large element of chance, evidently.''

Tornadoes are further complicated by the fact that certain small-scale processes friction at the ground, and where and how much rain evaporates within the parent thunderstorm also are critical. "Those are beyond our large-scale observational capabilities or predictions,'' Brooks said. []

No one knows whether tornadoes have increased in number or intensity, since the aforementioned changes in reporting practices "make the intensity question harder to answer,'' Brooks said, adding, "If you take the dataset of reports at face value, it appears intensity has decreased over the years, but there are a number of things that have led to lower ratings for the strongest tornadoes.''

There always have been strong tornadoes, but the intensity picture has become further muddled because "warnings are so much better now and houses are constructed better," Trenberth said.

Most climate scientists believe that clearer answers will be forthcoming with better climate modeling tools and patience.

"Better understanding of the relationships between the large-scale environments and tornadoes would help, but the big thing is waiting long enough to get better trend estimates,'' Brooks said.

Wehner agreed. "We need bigger computers, and better models,'' he said. "But what we really need is time. We don't yet have an answer. But, that doesn't mean we aren't thinking about it.''

Read Cimons' most recent Op-Ed:

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. This article was originally published on.

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Humor may not always translate well, but Jon Stewart is picking up millions of fans in China, where his gloves-off political satire is refreshing for many in a country where such criticism is a rarity - especially when directed at their own leaders.

A recent segment on North Korea scored over 4 million views on microblogger Sina Weibo, and even stodgy state broadcaster CCTV has used Stewart's "The Daily Show" in a report, though they wouldn't let a Chinese version of him near their cameras.

Recent popular sequences have included one in which Stewart lampooned the Chinese hackers who hacked into the New York Times computer system earlier this year, wondering if that was the best they could do.

But far from squelching Stewart, CCTV even used one of his sequences on Guantanamo Bay to criticize Obama in a regular broadcast - a move widely derided by netizens.

In China, however, such criticism tends not to be welcomed by the government. Dissident artist Ai Weiwei, who regularly criticizes the government for what he sees as its flouting of the rule of law and human rights, was detained for 81 days in 2011, sparking an international outcry.

"There's nothing like political satire here," said David Moses, who studies and writes about Chinese humor.

Though the exact timing of Stewart's entrance to China is unclear, many have been watching him for four or five years, mainly through the Internet and Weibo.

"Being a journalist, you have to find out the truth," said Mao Moyu, a Shanghai journalism student who got hooked on Stewart four years ago.

"If there's ... something that hurts the public interest you have to stand out, no matter how sharp the thing is. You have to stand out and say that's not right."

Part of Stewart's popularity is that he seems cool to young people in love with all things foreign, but a thirst for satire that is not afraid to show its face contributes too, Moses said.

The closest thing that exists in China is coded references and puns that tweak official pronouncements or sound like obscenities.

"That's just shooting a finger at the government. But this is full-fledged jokes and routines about North Korea or about China and trade...It's just what they wish they could do here," Moses said.

Free translations into Chinese by Stewart's fans have boosted his popularity. In fact, one - known as Gu Da Bai Hua - now even has his own fan base.

China's thirst for foreign satire is so great that Stewart is not the only popular U.S. comic. Some Chinese say they prefer rival television satirist Stephen Colbert - although humor may not be the only issue at stake.

"I think I like Stephen Colbert's pronunciation more because it's much clearer for me," said Shanghai student Peng Cheng.

(Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Supreme Court justices appeared divided on Monday as they considered a challenge to a law requiring non-profit organizations to adopt an anti-prostitution policy in order to obtain federal funding for HIV/AIDS programs abroad.

Several justices voiced concerns that the law imposes unconstitutional limits on freedom of speech, but others indicated the government had a right to direct how its money should be spent.

The 2003 law bars funding for non-governmental organizations that work on HIV/AIDS prevention but do not have a policy opposing prostitution and sex trafficking.

The Alliance for Open Society International and Pathfinder International - NGOs that receive funding for overseas HIV/AIDS prevention - sued in 2005, citing the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech.

The organizations challenging the provision do not want to take a stand on prostitution. They say the law interferes with their work providing advice and counseling to prostitutes about the risks of HIV infection.

The non-profit world is divided, with 46 groups, many of which focus on women's rights, supporting the law.

The groups obtained an injunction in 2006 that has prevented the policy from being enforced ever since.

Justice Elena Kagan is recused, most likely due to her previous role as solicitor general in the Obama administration, meaning only eight justices are presiding over the case.

At least three indicated they had concerns about the law, with Justice Samuel Alito the most outspoken.

He signaled discomfort with the general concept of the government having a broad right to direct groups it is funding on what they can and cannot say.

"It seems to me like quite a dangerous proposition," he said. Alito questioned whether, for example, the government could impose similar conditions to funding for higher education.

FIRST AMENDMENT QUESTIONS

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg focused on a move made by the Bush administration, later amended by the Obama administration, to resolve some of the First Amendment questions. The government has said that NGOs could set up affiliate groups to receive the funding without the parent organization having to announce a position on prostitution.

Ginsburg said that approach may not solve the problem because it's "no simple thing" for an NGO to set up a new organization in another country. She said that requiring this extra step is "quite an arduous" burden to place on NGOs.

Taking another line of attack, Justice Sonia Sotomayor questioned whether the law restricted an NGO's ability to "stay true to its own beliefs."

Other justices, while not wholeheartedly endorsing the government's argument in defense of the law, did not appear to feel that there was a problem in general with Congress attaching conditions on funding.

Justice Stephen Breyer said there were "dozens and dozens" of examples in which the government gave funding to groups because they shared the same goals. "Otherwise, they wouldn't be in the program," he said.

Chief Justice John Roberts said the government is "just picking out who is an appropriate partner."

Under a barrage of questioning from the justices, David Bowker, the NGOs' attorney, seemed momentarily stumped by one of Roberts' questions.

The chief justice asked whether, during the period in which South Africa was racially segregated, the U.S. government could have limited funding for public health programs to NGOs that were opposed to the policy, known as apartheid.

After a lengthy pause, Bowker conceded the question was tougher than the one posed in his case, but that it would still be impermissible for the government to make decisions on that basis.

The case is Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-19.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Bill Trott)