NEW YORK (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)

I think that Twitter has been useful because people, before Twitter, they just thought of me as Dwight. And they still pretty much think of me as Dwight, but they kinda get to know me as a person, as an actor. And thats been valuable.

But I also used Twitter to help launch , and you know frankly we couldnt have launched the website andwithout my Twitter following and my Twitter fans.

It started as a website, as a social networking website for exploring lifes big questions, and it was a passion project of mine, and some friends. We started it as a website and it just kept growing. We did an app and a . And now the YouTube channel is whats really taken off and put us on the map. We have a mission to uplift and challenge our audiences with a blend of philosophy and spirituality and especially creativity.

I would love to see a mash-up between Glee & The Walking Dead where the cast of The Walking Dead eats the cast of Glee.

I try not to do that. I havent done very many live tweets at all and I dont want to ruin it for my West Coast peeps. Or my East Coast peeps.

Which of your Office castmates is your favorite Twitter follow?

Boy, thats a good question. My former ones -- Mindy [Kaling] and BJ [Novak] -- are just brilliant on Twitter. And they really know how to use social networking. [Editor's note: Followandhere].

I think John is being John on Twitter and Im glad hes on it and using it as a force for good. Its like the Force -- you can use the Dark Side, or the Good Side. And I hope he uses it for good.

I would just say its consistency is one thing that Twitter fans have come to expect. They like regular tweets, and youve gotta tweet at least every day to kind and keep your presence known.

The bigger question in this whole Reese Witherspoon arrest is: SHE WAS DRIVING A FORD FUSION!?

Also they like to get to know more about you. You know, whether its photos or articles you like or what youre reading or what youre interested in. Fans of yours are choosing to follow you, they have to press a button to follow you and they can easily unfollow you. So they want to get to know you.

So, let's get to know more about you. What are you reading right now?

I am reading a book called about Haiti. Ive gone to Haiti a bunch of times and I like reading about it. Its about the kind of mess thats Haiti in after the earthquake. I find that interesting, and . I just find that world interesting, and the writers perspective interesting. I dont necessarily agree with all of it. Its just good to get different points of view.

What do you think about Google Glass? Have you had a chance to try it? Are you interested in trying it?

I dont understand how it works or what it is, so I would need to give it a test drive. But it doesnt make any sense to me at all.

Absolutely! I think thats the future. I think that the TV landscape is going to look completely different in five or ten years. Youre just going to have various screens. And youre going to have various ways of getting content on those screens. Some of which you pay for -- you pay for the movie or the show -- and some of which you have a monhtly subscription, some of which you have to sit through some commercials.

Waitress: 'Do u have any questions about the menu?'Me: 'What kind of font is this?'

Its kind of like that now. Your TV screen and your phone will get various content providers and I think Netflix is quickly rising to the top of all of those.

I could never go into outer space. Im far too terrified. Im scared when theres turbulence landing in Burbank. So Im not a space guy.

What about the Tesla? Are you a fan of his cars?

Absolutely. I demand my Tesla.

For the past few years, Republican lawmakers have sought to slash the. Reducing the agencys budget makes it more difficult for it to collect taxes and audit individuals. (Score one for Republicans who dislike high taxes).

But, more importantly, the IRS is also one of the key agencies that will implement the Affordable Care Act. Much of the funding stream for the incoming health care law, arguably the presidents signature legislative achievement, comes from: a 3.8 percent hike on investment income for wealthy individuals, estates, and trusts, as well as an additional Medicare tax.

By stripping the IRS of money, the Republicans are indirectly trying to attack the roll-out of the health care law that begins in 2014.

Now, the news that rogue, low-level IRS agents in Ohio investigated conservative groups improperly just adds fuel to the Republicans bashing. The agents investigated these organizations to see if they had miscast themselves as tax-exempt groups while actually doing political work. About 75 groups were targeted, according to the Associated Press.

An IRS official admitted that this was wrong and inappropriate at a Friday conference sponsored by the American Bar Association, in a speech that should reverberate throughout the political world for the next several days.

Quickly, inboxes in D.C. filled with statement after statement from Republican lawmakers, expressing outrage at the agency and calls for more accountability and investigations.As several Senators and I wrote to the IRS last year, there can be no tolerance for the IRS being turned into a political weapon, Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said in a statement. The American people deserve to know who at the IRS learned about this unlawful activity, when they learned about it, and what they did, or did not, do when they did learned about it.

The former Republican head of the Office of Management and Budget, Sen. Rob Portman of Ohio, also chimed in: How were 'low-level workers in Cincinnati' able to initiate practices that completely undermine the IRSs promise to treat all groups with an even hand? he said in a statement. Even more, what were they hoping to do with the copious personal information they obtained from these groups?

The IRS Commissioner in 2012, Douglas Shulman, left the agency in November when his tenure ended. President Obama has not yet named a replacement.

President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi issued his warning during a closed session of the National Dialogue, which brings political, religious and other leaders together to decide on the country's political system before writing a constitution.

The official SABA news agency said Hadi held an "exceptional" meeting, but offered few details on the president's remarks about security in the county. However, three people at the session agreed to relay his comments to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the meeting.

They said Hadi told the participants that Yemen was at a crossroads, and pointed to a "very precarious" security situation in Yemen.One described Hadi's remarks as unusually frank.

The National Dialogue is part of a transfer of power deal that led to the ouster of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh after a yearlong mass uprising. During the turmoil, militant groups affiliated with al-Qaida took advantage of the military's preoccupation with the political unrest and took control of large areas of territory in the country's south.

According to the participants, Hadi said that although his government has been going after al-Qaida militants around the country, dealing them some setbacks, "the group is recuperating" and sleeper cells are waiting for the right time to carry out terrorist operations. One of the participants said Hadi told them that he was speaking "honestly" and that the security grip on the country was not as good as it should be. Hadi also told the gathering that al-Qaida was increasingly using modern technologies to facilitate communications and avoid being tracked.

Hadi said some political activities had been canceled in the south because of security concerns for those would be attending. He also said the government had told foreign missions to exercise caution while moving around Sanaa. Foreign missions already are required to get prior permission before traveling out of the capital.

Two Finns and one Austrian kidnapped in Yemen in December were released Thursday, according to Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja.

Hadi's comments about al-Qaida came on the same day that suspected al-Qaida militants killed an intelligence officer in southern Lahj province and a day after three Yemeni air force pilots were shot and killed near an air base in the south.

The participants said Hadi blamed some of the powerful tribes and members of the military and security, apparently in reference to loyalists to his predecessor, a common complaint since he came to office in February last year.

In comments published by SABA, Hadi urged social groups to "denounce" the presence of terrorist groups in their areas, and report them to authorities.

Hadi and his supporters have accused Saleh, the former president of Yemen, of obstructing the current U.S.-backed Yemeni government as it tries to reform and fight an active al-Qaida branch in the impoverished Arab nation.

Since he took office, Hadi has tried to remove former regime loyalists over concerns that Saleh was using them to further destabilize the nation. Last month, Hadi removed Saleh's son and nephews from powerful security posts, a move hailed by his supporters as the most dramatic yet to sideline figures from the previous regime.

Washington (Reuters) - Tanning beds and sunlamps will be required to carry stronger warning labels under new regulations proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which is also recommending the machines not be used by people under the age of 18.

The FDA said on Monday that it plans to reclassify sunbeds from low-risk to moderate-risk products, meaning they will need to be cleared by the agency before being allowed onto the market.

Faulty equipment has led to patients being burned or exposed to too much radiation, Jeffrey Shuren, director of the FDA's center for devices and radiological health, said in an interview.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Basal cell and squamous cell cancer, the two most common forms, are generally curable; but melanoma, the third most common type, is deadly.

In 2009, the most recent year numbers are available, 61,646 people in the United States were diagnosed with melanoma and 9,199 people died, according to the CDC.

The FDA's proposed regulations stop short of recommendations made by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, which in 2009 concluded that commercial tanning devices were more dangerous than previously thought and recommended people under 18 be banned from using them.

The FDA's regulations also stop short of new rules being developed by some U.S. states.

More than 30 states regulate the use of tanning facilities to differing degrees. Delaware, New Hampshire and North Dakota, for example, ban the use of indoor tanning by anyone under age 14 unless medically necessary and they require parental consent for those between the ages of 14 and 18.

Some states, including Georgia, Illinois and Maine, ban tanning beds for children under the age of 14, and eighteen states require tanning bed operators to limit exposure time to a manufacturers' recommendations and provide eye protection.

In January 2012, California became the first state to ban tanning beds for all people under 18.

The Indoor Tanning Association argues vigorously that the decision on whether a teen is allowed to suntan is one for parents, not government, and it supports parental consent. But it is fighting the growing number of states issuing bans.

"Is the next step to ban teens from sun bathing at public beaches and pools?" the association asked in a statement last year in opposition to New Jersey's proposal to ban tanning bed use for those under 17.

"You also have to consider the health risks associated with banning teenagers from using tanning salons," it said. "They will just go outside with no adult supervision and no trained staff where they are much more likely to get sunburned."

The FDA's actions follow a 2010 meeting of a federal advisory panel which unanimously recommended that the agency reclassify tanning devices. Panelists had mixed views on whether to implement a ban on minors.

An estimated 5.6 percent of U.S. adults reported indoor tanning at least once in 2010, with the highest rates among white, female 18 to 25-year-olds, according to the CDC, which notes that frequent exposure to UV rays for people under the age of 35 increases the risk of developing melanoma by 75 percent.

"For right now our proposal tries to focus on providing better information for consumers," Shuren said, "including a warning on the tanning beds themselves that they shouldn't be used in people under 18," he said.

Depending on the feedback the agency receives to its proposal, it may make changes to the final order, he said.

(Reporting By Toni Clarke in Washington; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state court on Thursday ruled that two towns should be able to choose whether or not they can ban a controversial oil and gas drilling technique known as "fracking."

In a decision that could set precedent in the state and create a major setback to oil and gas drilling firms, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, upheld zoning laws that allowed the towns of Dryden and Middlefield to ban oil and gas exploration and production.

A ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, has been in place in New York since 2008, amid concerns that the process, which involves pumping chemical-laced water and sand deep below the surface to extract oil and gas, can contaminate water supplies.

Proponents of oil and gas drilling say it would mean more tax revenue and income for New York residents.

Norse Energy in Dryden and landowner Cooperstown Holstein Corp in Middlefield, sought approval by the court to declare that the zoning laws were preempted by the state Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law.

The court ruled that the law does not trump municipalities when it comes to deciding zoning rules related to oil and gas drilling activities.

Attorneys representing energy companies and landowners in favor of drilling in the towns plan to appeal the ruling.

Tom West, founder of The West Firm, which represents Norse Energy and is co-counsel for Cooperstown Holstein, said they will appeal the decision.

"Sometime in the next month we will be making an application for leave to appeal," West said.

Norway's Norse Energy Corp had invested $100 million in New York, including leasing on more than 100,000 acres. But its U.S. subsidiary filed for bankruptcy last year after the 2008 ban on fracking meant it was unable to drill on that acreage.

In February New York Governor Andrew Cuomo missed a deadline for completing a report on the environmental impact of fracking that was to form the basis of new drilling rules for the state.

Meanwhile, the state Department of Health has requested more time to complete a parallel health impact study that the state wants completed before any decision on drilling is taken.

(Editing by Xavier Briand)

Humans are increasingly exposed toin their daily lives, but little is known about how these lifelike machines influence human emotions.

Feeling bad for bots

In two new studies, researchers sought to measure how people responded to robots on an emotional and neurological level. In the first study, volunteers were shownbeing treated affectionately or violently. In the affectionate video, humans hugged and tickled the robot, and in the violent video, they hit or dropped him. []

Scientists assessed people's levels of physiological excitation after watching the videos by recording their skin conductance, a measure of how well the skin conducts electricity. When a person is experiencing strong emotions, they sweat more, increasing skin conductance.

The volunteers reported feeling more negative emotions while watching the robot being abused. Meanwhile, the volunteers' skin conductance levels increased, showing they were more distressed.

In the second study, researchers use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to visualize brain activity in the participants as they watched videos of humans and robots interacting. Again, participants were shown videos of a human, a robot, and, this time, an inanimate object being treated with affection or abuse.

In one video, for example, a man appears to beat up a woman, strangle her with a string and attempt to suffocate her with a plastic bag. In another, a person does the same things to the robot dinosaur.

Affectionate treatment of the robot and the human led to similar patterns of neural activity in regions in the brain's , where emotions are processed, fMRI scans showed. But the watchers' brains lit up more while seeing abusive treatment of the human than abuse of the robot, suggesting greater empathy for the human.

"We think that, in general, the robot stimuli elicit the same emotional processing as the human stimuli," said lead study author Astrid Rosenthal-von der Ptten of the University of Duisburg Essen, in Germany. Rosenthal-von der Ptten suspects that people still have greater empathy for humans than robots, as evidenced by the stronger effect of watching violence toward the human than the robot.

Still, the study only assessed people's immediate reactions to the emotional cues, Rosenthal-von der Ptten said. "We don't know what happens after the short term," she said.

Human-robot interactions

That humans would show empathy for the robot is not surprising, because the bot looked and behaved like an animal, roboticist Alexander Reben, founder of the company BlabDroid, LLC and a research affiliate at MIT, told LiveScience. Reben, who was not involved in the recent study, himself builds small cardboard robots that tap into the human affinity for cute creatures.

Some people find the idea of humans empathizing with robots concerning. But Reben compared trends in robot development with breeding dogs for companionship. "We have been doing this for millennia," he said. "I think we're doing the same thing with robots."

Humans have been known to show empathy for robots in a variety of contexts. For instance,on the battlefield. Other research suggests that humans feel more empathy for , but not if they're too humanlike.

As robots become more and more ubiquitous, understandingwill take on increasing importance, Rosenthal-von der Ptten said.

The new research will be presented in June at the International Communication Association Conference in London.

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BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Prime Minister Viktor Orban strongly denounced growing anti-Semitism in Hungary on Sunday but stopped short of censuring the far-right Jobbik party his audience of world Jewish leaders most wanted him to scold.

Orban told the World Jewish Congress (WJC), which is holding its four-yearly assembly in Hungary to highlight its concern about rising hostility to Jews here and elsewhere in Europe, that anti-Semitism was "unacceptable and intolerable".

He recounted the steps his conservative government has taken to outlaw hate crimes and preserve the memory of the Holocaust, during which about half a million Hungarian Jews died.

But he did not respond to a call from WJC President Ronald Lauder, who in his opening remarks singled out Jobbik and told Orban "Hungarian Jews need you to take on these dark forces".

After Orban's speech, a WJC statement said: "The prime minister did not confront the true nature of the problem: the threat posed by the anti-Semites in general and by the extreme-right Jobbik party in particular.

"We regret that Mr. Orban did not address any recent anti-Semitic or racist incidents in the country, nor did he provide sufficient reassurance that a clear line has been drawn between his government and the far-right fringe."

ALSO AGAINST ROMA, EUROPEAN UNION

Jobbik, which also vilifies Hungary's Roma minority and opposes the European Union and what it sees as other foreign influences, has 43 of the 386 seats in parliament, where Orban's Fidesz party has more than two-thirds of the seats.

One of Jobbik's deputies called in November for lists of prominent Jews to be drawn up to protect national security.

At a Jobbik rally on Saturday, he and other deputies charged that Jews were trying to buy up property to take over Hungary and accused Israel of running concentration camps in Gaza.

Addressing the Jewish leaders, Orban said: "We don't want Hungary to become a country of hate and anti-Semitism and we ask for your help and experience in helping us solve the problem."

He said Hungary's answer to increasing anti-Semitism here and elsewhere in Europe "is not to give up our religious and moral roots but to recall and reinforce the example of good Christians" in its laws defending the dignity of all citizens.

While the government has taken steps against anti-Semitism, critics say it does not draw a clear enough line against Jobbik, which competes with it for votes of nationalist Hungarians frustrated by the deepening economic crisis.

Elie Petit, a French Jewish student leader attending the assembly, said Orban "does not fight really anti-Semitism, racism and attacks on minorities. He is not strong enough to alter the actions of the Jobbik party."

NOT CLEAR ENOUGH

Jobbik is also popular among young Hungarians, especially university students in the liberal arts, sociologist Peter Tibor Nagy told Reuters. "That means it is not just a temporary phenomenon, it will last," he said.

Formed in 2003, Jobbik gained increasing influence as it gradually radicalized, vilifying Jews and the country's 700,000 Roma. Hungary has been among European states worst hit by the economic crisis and has struggled to exit recession.

Peter Feldmajer, head of the Hungarian Jewish community, hinted at the government's ambiguous stand in his speech when he said texts by "Hungarian Nazis are included in the national curriculum and thus polluting the souls of our students".

Hungary was once a centre of Jewish life in Europe and a quarter of Budapest's pre-Holocaust population was Jewish.

The country now has about 80,000-100,000 Jews and has seen a modest revival of Jewish life with renovated synagogues and new schools. New restaurants and bars have made the old ghetto area into one of the city's most popular night spots.

(Editing by Jon Hemming)

LONDON (Reuters) - The new strain of bird flu that has killed 17 people in China has been circulating widely "under the radar" and has acquired significant genetic diversity that makes it more of a threat, scientists said on Friday.

Dutch and Chinese researchers who analyzed genetic data from seven samples of the new H7N9 strain say it has already acquired similar levels of genetic diversity as much larger outbreaks of other H7 strains of flu seen previously in birds.

"The diversity we see in these first few samples from China is as great as the diversity we have seen with a large outbreak in the Netherlands several years ago and one in Italy," said Marion Koopmans, head of virology at the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, who worked on the study as part of a nine-member team.

"This means it (the H7N9 strain in China) has been spreading quite a bit and it's important to understand where exactly that is going on."

Its genetic diversity shows the virus has an ability to mutate repeatedly and is likely to continue doing so, raising the risk that it may become transmissible among humans.

Koopmans, whose research was published in the online journal Eurosurveillance, said the circulation would probably have taken place in either birds or mammals, but said exactly which animals were involved was not yet clear.

"Simply the fact that this virus is spreading under the radar - because that is what this data confirms - is of concern," she told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The H7N9 virus is so far known to have infected 87 people in China, killing 17 of them. Health officials raised further questions on Friday about the source of the new strain after data indicated that more than half of patients had had no contact with poultry.

MUTATIONS

A scientific study published last week showed the H7N9 strain was a so-called "triple reassortant" virus with a mixture of genes from three other flu strains found in birds in Asia. One of those three strains is thought to have come from a brambling, a type of small wild bird.

For their study, Koopmans and her team compared some data from the first two weeks of the China H7N9 outbreak with data from a large H7N7 flu outbreak in birds and people the Netherlands in 2003 and an H7N1 epidemic in birds in Italy in 1999 and 2000.

The Dutch outbreak resulted in infection of poultry on 255 farms and led to the culling of about 30 million chickens. Some 89 people were also diagnosed as having the H7N7 virus and one person, a vet, died as a result of the infection.

The comparison suggested that "widespread circulation (of the H7N9 strain in China) must have occurred, resulting in major genetic diversification", the researchers wrote in their study.

They added: "Such diversification is of concern, given that several markers associated with increased risk for public health are already present."

Flu experts in China and at the World Health Organization say there is no evidence so far that H7N9 is passing easily between people.

But scientists who analyzed the genetic sequence data from three early samples from China say the virus has already acquired some mutations that might make it more likely to be able to do so in the future, raising the risk of a human pandemic.

"Although human infections with H7 influenza viruses have occurred repeatedly over the last decades without evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, the absence of sustained human-to-human transmission of H7N9 viruses does not come with any guarantee," Koopmans' team wrote in their study.

(Editing by Ben Hirschler and Alison Williams)

Easter 2013 saw the online community break records for total visitors, page views and video views.Total visitors reached 517,000, an increase of 30% from the previous record set in November 2011.The site topped 2,200,000 page views, up 27% from the November 2011 record.Visitors watched 900,000 videos, a massive increase of 119% over the previous record set at Easter 2012.

Overall, WorshipTogether.com has grown over 150% in the last four years.

Thesite averages over 300,000 unique site visits and 1.3 million page views each month generated from key content features including weekly free song downloads and New Song Cafe instructional videos featuring many of today's most compelling and influential worship leaders and songwriters. Over 525,000 registered members are coming to the site, averaging almost 5 minutes per visit, to find the songs and resources they need to lead their services each week. The weekly newsletter update is sent to over 128,000 opt in subscribers featuring the latest songs, downloads and other content added to the site, as well as any new resources available for purchase.

Top Worship artists like Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, Tim Hughes, Hillsong, Brenton Brown and Matt Maher were introduced to worship leaders and individual worshippers by EMICMG Publishing through WorshipTogether.com. New artists, writers and songs are continually being recruited, equipped and launched through the worship community by this powerful resource.

WorshipTogether.com is part of Capitol CMG Publishing. CMG Publishing is home to EMI CMG Publishing and Brentwood Benson Music Publishing, unified under the direction of President Eddie DeGarmo.In addition to having such songwriters as TobyMac, Kirk Franklin, Chris Tomlin, Casting Crows and Jars of Clay, the company also encompasses such prominent Christian music catalogs as Motown Gospel, sixsteps, Thankyou Music, Hillsong, Maranatha! Music, Emack Music, Reunion Music and the Sparrow catalogs, repository to numerous legendary gospel and Christian evergreens.

The site is also part of the FrontGate Worship Network reaching worship leaders, pastors and church musicians.FrontGate’s network also includes the musician community ChristianGuitar.org; Christian Musician Summits, the largest worship leader conferences in country; leading digital and print magazines Worship Musician and Christian Musician, Creator Magazine and more.

Established in 2001, FrontGate () is the leading culture-engaged media group & marketing service reaching the faith and family values audience which represents $4.6 billion worth of Christian products purchased by consumers annually according to USA Today, and the only media group founded for the purpose of marketing others’ projects rather than publishing content.This foundational focus on marketing has made FrontGate a leader for innovation in delivering the faith-based audience.

The firm just received the 2013 Crystal Trophy as the “Best Faith-based Website” in the Internet Advertising Competition, and was also honored with two 2012 WebAwards receiving the Standard of Excellence in Marketing and in Faith-Based.

Serving as “Your Gateway To The Christian Audience,” FrontGate’s ad network provides reach to more than 10 million people and six million email subscribers. The network includes the leading faith-based audience sites in their categories including ChristianCinema.com, NewReleaseTuesday.com, iTickets.com, ProjectInspired.com, Rapzilla.com, WashingtonTimes.com, WorshipTogether.com, and more, as well as key magazines and events. A complete roster can be found on the Media Kits channel at FrontGateMedia.com. In addition, the firm provides strategy and execution for Public Relations, Social Media, Media Buying, Global Pay Per Click campaigns and Merch Development. The company plays a key role in the success of movie studios, non-profit organizations, publishers and authors, record labels and artists, and more seeking faith-based and faith-friendly audiences.

Lori Lenz-HeiselmanFrontGate Media714-553-5181