NEW YORK (Reuters) - Dan Brown's "Inferno" held on to the top spot on the U.S. best-sellers list on Thursday for the third consecutive week. The list is compiled using data from independent and chain bookstores, book wholesalers and independent distributors nationwide.

Book Talk: The tale of a time-travelling serial killer

TOKYO (Reuters) - When Harper meets Kirby, he is a grown man and she is a child. He gives her a toy pony, tells her he'll be back, then vanishes - into Chicago in the 1930s and a mysterious house that opens onto other times. Later, he tries to kill her. "The Shining Girls", by South African Lauren Beukes, traces Harper's compulsion to murder the women he knows as "The Shining Girls" and Kirby's stubborn fight to unravel the mystery behind him and bring him down.

Book Talk: When North Korea attacks, misfits are Japan's only hope

TOKYO (Reuters) - Banks have failed, the yen has fallen and Japan's economy has collapsed, leading to political turmoil. Its great ally, the United States, abandons it. Then comes the final straw: an attack by North Korean guerrillas posing as Korean tourists. "From the Fatherland, With Love", by veteran Japanese novelist Ryu Murakami, chronicles the political fumbling that is the Japanese government's response and the eventual counterattack by a motley group of homeless, psychotic misfits using largely homemade weapons.

Europe should walk on the wild side, with wolves: author

HAY-ON-WYE, Wales (Reuters) - Europe has an extraordinary opportunity to re-introduce wolves, bison and beavers and allow its citizens to reconnect with their wild side, an environmentalist and author said. George Monbiot told an audience at the Hay Festival of literature on the weekend that some 30 million hectares - an area the size of Poland - were expected to be taken out of agricultural use between 2000 and 2030 as farmers chose not to stay on unproductive land.

Ringo Starr unveils unseen Beatles photos in e-book

(Reuters) - Former Beatle Ringo Starr is lifting the lid on a collection of previously unseen photographs of the Fab Four in their heyday from his personal collection, in a new photography book due out next month. "Photograph," which will be released as an e-book on Apple's iBookstore on June 12, will coincide with a Grammy Museum exhibit on Starr, entitled "Ringo: Peace & Love," the book's publishers said on Wednesday.

New book asks: Could Germany have a Jewish chancellor?

BERLIN (Reuters) - A new novel about a neo-Nazi plot to assassinate Germany's first Jewish candidate for Chancellor has shed a timely light on the right-wing extremist violence that has plagued the country since 1990 and was swept under the carpet for years. Political thriller "The Jewish Candidate" by British journalist David Crossland has been published just as Germany's September election campaign is heating up and at the start of a trial of a neo-Nazi cell blamed for a spate of racist murders that went undetected for more than a decade.

Short story writer Lydia Davis wins major fiction prize

LONDON (Reuters) - American short story writer Lydia Davis won the fifth Man Booker International Prize for fiction on Wednesday for a body of work that includes some of the briefest tales ever published. Davis, a professor of creative writing at the University of Albany, is best known for work that Observer critic William Skidelsky once said "redefines the meaning of brevity".

Mystery and science fiction author Jack Vance dead at 96

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Mystery and science fiction writer Jack Vance, whose works included "The Dragon Master" and "The Last Castle," has died at age 96, according to a statement posted on his official website on Wednesday. Vance passed away at his Oakland, California, home on Sunday, according to the statement at www.jackvance.com, a site maintained by his friends and family.

First edition of 'Great Gatsby' to be sold at auction

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A first edition copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald's masterpiece, "The Great Gatsby," will be up for sale next month and could fetch up to $150,000, Sotheby's said on Thursday. The book, which once belonged to the critic and author Malcolm Cowley, will go under the hammer along with a group of Fitzgerald's letters and an unpublished poem in the June 11 books and manuscript sale in New York.

James Salter breaks long silence with 'All That Is'

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Award-winning author James Salter, who completed his last full-length book more than 30 years ago, has released a new novel that chronicles a life drawn from many of his own experiences. Like Salter, the main character in "All That Is" leaves the military to embark on a literary career. Unlike Salter, Philip Bowman becomes an editor after failing to find work as a writer.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of Audience Inc. rose Wednesday, amid a largely down market, after the voice technology company announced a partnership with China Mobile.

THE SPARK: As part of the deal, Audience will help China Mobile, the world's biggest phone carrier by number of subscribers, improve voice recognition technology in its upcoming line of smartphones.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

THE BIG PICTURE: Audience, based in Mountain View, Calif., sells voice technology for a variety of smartphones and tablet computers, including devices made by Google Inc. and its Motorola Mobility subsidiary.

Like other suppliers of mobile device components, Audience continues to benefit from the continued increase in global demand for mobile devices.

THE ANALYSIS: Benchmark analyst Gary Mobley initiated coverage of Audience with a "Hold" rating and $15 price target, saying that while the company is poised to succeed, its shares are a little too expensive right now.

"Despite strong market growth prospects and superior voice and audio processing technology, we are waiting for a more opportune time before carrying a 'Buy' rating," Mobley wrote in a note to investors.

The analyst noted that Audience shares have more than doubled since the company's September announcement that its technology would not be used in the iPhone 5. In the months since, the stock has gotten a boost from higher demand from other smartphone makers and the strong launch of the Samsung Galaxy S IV.

THE SHARES: Up 39 cents, or 3 percent, to $13.99 after peaking at $14.59 earlier in the day. Over the past 52 weeks, the company's shares have traded between $5.51 and $23.41.

PARIS (Reuters) - The last time Maria Sharapova dropped the opening set of a match 6-0, an Olympic dream was trampled. On Wednesday a similar drubbing provoked a champion's response as the Russian kept alive her hopes of a second successive French Open title alive.

Thoughts of her humiliating defeat at Wimbledon by Serena Williams last year returned as the misfiring Sharapova surrendered the first set of her quarter-final against Jelena Jankovic in 28 minutes before recovering to win 0-6 6-4 6-3.

As expected Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic set up a siesmic semi-final clash after comfortable wins against Stanislas Wawrinka and German veteran Tommy Haas respectively.

Seven-times champion Nadal, roaring back into top form after a poor opening week, crushed weary-looking Swiss Wawrinka 6-2 6-3 6-1 while world number one Djokovic was made to work harder by Haas before polishing off the 35-year-old 6-3 7-6(5) 7-5.

With Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Spaniard David Ferrer enjoying comprehensive wins on Tuesday all four men's quarter-finals at Roland Garros were won in straight sets for the first time since 1948.

In contrast all the women's last-eight ties have been tightly contested, even Victoria Azarenka's 7-6 6-2 defeat of Maria Kirilenko which featured a 76-minute opening set.

That Sharapova pulled round a match in which she managed just 14 points in a first set to move through to a juicy-looking semi-final against Azarenka spoke volumes for the fighting spirit of the four-times grand slam champion.

SIZZLING WINNERS

"I wanted to put that chapter behind me," Sharapova said.

"It was certainly nice to change that around, because I wasn't doing much in that first six games."

World number two Sharapova will be wary of making such a slow start against Azarenka on Thursday.

The Belarussian enjoys a 7-5 career record against Sharapova and says she is beginning to fall in love with clay after reaching her first semi-final at Roland Garros.

"I still don't have any ring on my finger," she said when quizzed about her relationship with the Parisian clay courts.

"But I feel like we made a step forward."

Sharapova made 45 unforced errors against the feisty Jankovic but having worked her way back into the match she showed her class with some sizzling winners when it mattered.

At 3-3 in the third set she stretched her long limbs to hook an impossible-looking backhand winner and then broke serve with a piercing forehand down the line, holding her celebratory fist-clenched salute as courtside cameras clicked their appreciation.

She then fought off a break point in the next game with a nerveless swinging volley off a Jankovic moon ball, breaking the Serbian's spirit in the process as she moved on to reach the semi-finals here for the fourth time in 11 attempts.

"Sometimes you just have to get the job done, and I did today," Sharapova said.

REPEAT ON CARDS

A repeat of last year's women's final between Sharapova and Italian Sara Errani is still on the cards, although Azarenka and world number one Serena Williams, who faces Errani, will have plenty to say about that.

Nadal had never lost a set against Wawrinka, who was bidding to become the first Swiss to last longer at a grand slam than Roger Federer since 2002, in their nine previous matches and was never in danger of doing so on Wednesday.

Wawrinka broke French hearts when he came back from two sets down to defeat Richard Gasquet in the previous round, but the ninth seed looked leg weary as Nadal unleashed the kind of tennis that has made him virtually unbeatable at Roland Garros since winning the first of his seven titles here in 2005.

"It's always been the case. The deeper I go the better I play usually. It's always been the case. It's the same this year. It's the same old story," Nadal, who labored through his opening rounds here, told a news conference.

The form that has led to five claycourt titles already this year has returned just in time for an earlier-than-normal clash with Serbian Djokovic, who he beat in the final here last year.

Despite virtually owning Roland Garros where his only defeat in 58 matches came against Robin Soderling in 2009, current world number four Nadal came in seeded three and the draw has thrown up a clash which has the feel of a title-decider.

"It's the semi-finals and doesn't matter if it's against Novak or against another player, because the player who wins is not going to be the champion of Roland Garros. It's just a semi-final," Nadal told reporters.

Djokovic played down the implications of meeting Nadal in the semis after ending Haas's bid to become the oldest man to reach the last four at Roland Garros since 1968.

"I can't affect it. It's the draw. It is what it is," he said before elaborating on what will be required to end Nadal's bid to become the first man to win the same grand slam tournament eight times.

"We are in good form. This is it, you know. This is the biggest matchup of our Roland Garros 2013 campaign for both me and him," he said. "I need to be very disciplined and focused in order to get emotionally, physically, and mentally ready for that match."

Haas gave it his best shot against Djokovic, pushed him hard in the second set on a sun-bathed Suzanne Lenglen court and even broke the Serb when he served for the match but ultimately the exertions of the past week and a half caught up with him.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by John Mehaffey)

Moore's fate may transform into a grim awakening in the world of extreme sports, where the X Games have proved a catalyst for the evolution of dangerous, Evil Knievel-style activity invented almost on the fly, with new terrains and new expectations leaving us with this — potentially the first death in the 20-year history of ESPN's competition, all because of a kid on a giant machine who knew exactly what he was getting into.

On Thursday night, Moore didn't have enough speed when he attempted his flip, so his snowmobile under-rotated and instead of bailing on the trick he stayed committed. The skis on the front of the vehicle dug into the snow, throwing Moore forward onto the snow. The snowmobile flipped and came down directly on top of him:

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration on Thursday defended its collection of the telephone records of millions of Americans as part of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, re-igniting a fierce debate over privacy even as it called the program critical to warding off an attack.

The admission came after Britain's Guardian newspaper published on Wednesday a secret court order authorizing the collection of phone records generated by millions of Verizon Communications customers.

Privacy advocates blasted the order as unconstitutional government surveillance and called for a review of the program amid renewed concerns about intelligence-gathering efforts launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The revelation also put a spotlight on the handling of intelligence and privacy issues by President Barack Obama's administration, which already is under fire for searching the telephone records of Associated Press journalists and the emails and phone records of a Fox News Channel reporter as part of its inquiries into leaked government information.

"The United States should not be accumulating phone records on tens of millions of innocent Americans. That is not what democracy is about. That is not what freedom is about," said Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont.

The White House said strict controls were in place to ensure the program did not violate civil liberties, and emphasized that the collection of data did not include listening to the calls.

"The intelligence community is conducting court-authorized intelligence activities pursuant to public statute with the knowledge and oversight of Congress," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters.

Republican Mike Rogers of Michigan, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, said the program did not abuse civil liberties and told reporters it had been used to stop a "significant" terrorist attack within the United States, but did not give details.

"It's called protecting America," added Senator Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee.

Leading members of Congress said the program had been going on for seven years. The White House and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said lawmakers were fully briefed.

A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the published court order pertained only to data such as a telephone number or the length of a call, not the subscribers' identities or listening to the actual calls.

The order requires Verizon to turn over to the National Security Agency "metadata" such as a list of numbers that called other U.S. or international numbers as well as other information on the time and location of calls. The NSA is the main U.S. intelligence-gathering agency tasked with monitoring electronic communications.

"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, as it allows counterterrorism personnel to discover whether known or suspected terrorists have been in contact with other persons who may be engaged in terrorist activities, particularly people located inside the United States," the senior administration official said.

Verizon has declined to comment. It remains unclear whether the practice extends to other carriers, although several security experts and a U.S. official said that was likely.

AT&T Inc declined to comment. Representatives for other major carriers, including Sprint Nextel Corp and T-Mobile, could not be immediately reached or had no immediate comment.

BOSTON BOMBING

The three-month court order, dated April 25, directs Verizon's Business Network Services Inc and Verizon Business Services units to hand over daily electronic data until July 19.

It was issued one week after U.S. law enforcement officials tracked down the two brothers accused of carrying out the deadly Boston Marathon bombing. Investigators in that case had been looking into calls made from their phones and had been searching for one brother's laptop computer.

A U.S. official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said this particular surveillance order was not issued in reaction to the April 15 bombing.

The April order compels Verizon to turn over both international calling records and domestic records, and refers to mobile and landline numbers, according to the Guardian's copy, which was labeled "top secret" and issued by the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

The four-page document does not lay out why the order was given or whether it was linked to any specific investigation.

Thursday's admission highlights the ongoing and controversial campaign of domestic surveillance launched under Republican President George W. Bush's administration after the 2001 attacks. A 2001 U.S. law known as the Patriot Act allows the FBI to seek an order to obtain "any tangible thing," including business records, to gather intelligence.

'ROBUST LEGAL REGIME'

The senior administration official said that "there is a robust legal regime in place governing all activities" like the one outlined in the order and that "all three branches of government are involved in reviewing and authorizing intelligence collection."

But the order raised questions about what authorities hoped to learn by sorting through the phone data.

Terrorism financing expert Jimmy Gurul, a former assistant U.S. attorney general and now a law professor at University of Notre Dame, said the order goes too far.

"The question is how the phone data of tens of millions of Americans is 'relevant' to a terrorism investigation. This is clearly an overreach by the NSA and an apparent rubber stamp by the FISA court," Gurul said.

It was unclear if members of Congress knew the scope of the data collection. Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois told Holder at a public hearing on the Justice Department's budget that he was concerned the program could be used to obtain the phone records of members of Congress or the U.S. Supreme Court.

"There has been no intention to do anything of that nature, that is to spy on members of Congress, to spy on members of the Supreme Court," Holder said, although he added he could not get into specifics of the program in public.

Administration and congressional officials said members of the House and Senate intelligence committees had been briefed in detail about collection activities on multiple occasions. One official said the intelligence panels also provided information on the program to any other lawmaker who sought it.

"If we didn't do it, we'd be crazy," Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said of data collection.

The American Civil Liberties Union, among other groups, called on Congress to investigate the scope of the effort, which it labeled "alarming" and "unconstitutional."

"It's a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents," the ACLU's Jameel Jaffer said.

The order can be seen at: http://r.reuters.com/kap68t

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey, Patricia Zengerle, Thomas Ferraro and Alina Selyukh in Washington, Ben Berkowitz and Jim Finkle in Boston and Sinead Carew in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In a victory for Planned Parenthood, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to consider whether the state of Indiana can prevent the nonprofit, which is the country's largest provider of abortions, from receiving federal Medicaid funding for any medical services it offers to low-income people.

Supporters of the law, which was blocked by an appeals court, had wanted to prohibit any government funding of Planned Parenthood's medical programs, such as cancer and HIV screenings, because the group also provides abortion services.

Medicaid is a federal health program for lower-income people that is administered by the states.

Under existing federal and state law, no government funds can be used to directly fund abortions, but Indiana's law went further by saying that no group that provides abortions could receive government funding for other services. The funding would have the effect of subsidizing the abortion programs, the law's supporters say.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago ruled in October that Indiana had broad authority to exclude unqualified providers from its Medicaid program for the poor, but could not deny funding to a class of providers for an unrelated reason, which in this instance was because Planned Parenthood clinics perform abortions.

Indiana Attorney General Gregory Zoeller, a Republican, subsequently sought Supreme Court review. The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the case leaves the appeals court ruling in place.

Lawmakers in more than a dozen U.S. states have in the last few years taken steps to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood, prompting it to file several lawsuits.

Planned Parenthood is the country's largest provider of abortions, conducting about one-quarter of those performed in the United States.

The case is Secretary of the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration v. Planned Parenthood, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 12-1039.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Howard Goller and Mohammad Zargham)

Sales of the book, which sees the return of fictional symbologist Robert Langdon, have already reached the highest level of customer pre-orders at retailer Waterstones since the release of Harry Potter author JK Rowling's adult fiction "The Casual Vacancy" last year.

"We think it's going to be the fastest and biggest-selling book of the year because Dan Brown is in a league of his own," Waterstones spokesman Jon Howells told Reuters.

"The early word is that it's darker, which will whet the appetite for everyone because this is the fourth appearance of Robert Langdon and I think giving it that sort of twist, freshens it up for long-term readers," Howells added.

Brown, who is famous for his love of puzzling codes, conspiracies and other symbols, said the subject matter for the book was so vibrant and horrifying that it helped do a lot of the work for him.

"I'm not writing about the masons and ancient histories, which is kind of ethereal. I'm writing about Dante's vision of hell," he told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper.

"It wasn't until the 1300s and this version of Inferno that it became terrifying. Dante has had enormous influence on the Christian view of hell."

The author, who said he tries not to read reviews of his books, also spoke of his unique way of dealing with writer's block, by suspending himself upside down to help get his creative juices flowing.

"It does help. You've just got to relax and let go. The more you do it the more you let go. And then soon it's just, wow," he said.

Brown's religion-themed mystery novel "The Da Vinci Code," was published in 2003 and was made into a hit film starring Tom Hanks. It spent more than a year atop the New York Times bestseller list.

(Reporting by Li-mei Hoang, editing by Paul Casciato)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Doctors should regularly screen babies and young children for delays in motor skill development - including trouble sitting, standing and speaking - at well-child visits, pediatricians said today.

In a clinical report, an American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) panel said diagnosing and treating those problems early on may ultimately improve kids' outlook and help families gain additional support.

"Identifying children with delays and motor abnormalities, theoretically or hopefully would set them on a better trajectory," said Meghann Lloyd, who studies motor development at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in Oshawa, Canada.

Lloyd, who was not involved in the new report, called it "a really big step forward for the field."

Dr. Garey Noritz and colleagues on the AAP's neuromotor screening expert panel lay out the skills that a child should have developed by office visits at ages 9, 18, 30 and 48 months.

For example, a 9-month-old baby should be able to roll to both sides, sit well without support and grasp objects. At 18 months, that child should be able to walk, sit and stand on its own.

Pediatricians should also ask parents open-ended questions about their child's development and watch the child play for signs of delays or loss of motor skills at well-child visits, the panel said.

On a general exam, it recommended that doctors measure head size and look at children's muscle tone, reflexes and eye movements.

The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a government-backed expert panel, said in 2006 there wasn't enough evidence to recommend for or against screening instruments designed to detect speech and language delays in young kids. The task force does not have screening recommendations for motor delays in general.

"The AAP recognized that we as a profession weren't necessarily doing a good job screening for motor problems," Noritz, from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, told Reuters Health.

Cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy are two of the most common motor-related diseases and could both be picked up and treated earlier than they typically are now, according to Noritz.

He said families often refer to the "diagnostic odyssey" involved in getting a definitive diagnosis for a sick child.

"We're hoping that people can get to a specialist more quickly and thus get diagnosed more quickly, but that primary care clinicians at the same time as they're looking for a diagnosis, will refer (kids) to therapy," he said.

PROMOTING MOVEMENT

There is normal variation in how kids develop, Lloyd said - so if a child is a couple of months late to walk, for example, parents shouldn't be overly concerned.

But longer delays, or combinations of multiple motor problems, are a good reason for a visit to the pediatrician, she told Reuters Health.

"Other types of movements that don't seem right, like a tremor or a rigidity or some sort of repetitive motor movement would be another red flag for me," Lloyd added.

Typical motor delays that aren't a result of more serious underlying conditions are treated with physical or occupational therapy.

Parents can bring their children to an early movement program such as Kindergym to promote development of motor skills, Lloyd said, regardless of other treatments and whether or not they are delayed.

Having poor motor skills in general "sets you on a trajectory for low levels of physical activity, which of course is related to obesity," she said.

"The prevention of these delays or the promotion of motor ability can actually impact your health for your lifespan."

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/cxXOG Pediatrics, online May 27, 2013.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - More evidence that Americans are heeding calls to cut back on sugary drinks appears in a report from researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 2010, U.S. children got an average of 68 fewer calories per day from sugary drinks than in 2000, according to the analysis in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Both children and adults are drinking less sugar at meals and at snack time, the study also found.

The results are consistent with previous studies showing a decline in consumption of sugar generally, and soda specifically, between 1999 and 2008, said lead author Dr. Brian Kit of the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics in Rockville, Maryland.

There has been no corresponding dip in obesity rates over the decade, though, Kit noted.

"During our 12-year study duration, obesity prevalence, although high, has largely remained stable," he told Reuters Health.

Whether Americans are compensating for consuming less sugar by taking in more calories in other forms, or perhaps are exercising less, was not investigated in the current study but other research suggests it's probably the latter (see Reuters Health story of March 6, 2013 here: http://reut.rs/YYBE7F).

Kit and his colleagues analyzed responses to the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys, which include a home interview, a physical examination and an a series of questions about diet, from the years 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010.

Participants, roughly 8,500 people each year, were asked what they had eaten in the past 24 hours.

The researchers categorized regular soda, fruit drinks, energy drinks, sports drinks and sugar-sweetened coffees or teas as "sugary drinks." Drinks containing only no-calorie artificial sweeteners were not included.

In 2010, kids ages 2 to 19 got about 155 calories per day from sugary drinks, down 68 calories from the year 2000. Adults took in an average of 151 sugary-drink calories per day, down 45 calories compared to the beginning of the decade.

Soda consumption declined the most, by 67 calories per day for kids. Sports and energy drinks actually went up over the same time period, but in 2010 they still contributed an average of only 10 calories daily for kids.

Among teenagers, sugary beverage intake went down by 84 calories per day, the largest drop for any age group and a significant change, according to Kit.

Because NHANES data are self-reported, the surveys probably underestimate the actual number of calories people eat, but the trend from 2000 to 2010 is encouraging, said Marion Nestle, professor of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University.

"These results are also consistent with industry figures that indicate a steady reduction in soda intake among Americans," Nestle told Reuters Health. "That's good news."

It's too soon to say what caused the drop, Kit said.

"We know there are wide efforts to reduce sugary drink consumption and we show a reduction in sugary drink consumption," he said. "However, we did not look at the effects of specific policies."

It's also too soon to stop encouraging kids to cut back on sugary drinks, according to Nestle.

"It would be even better news if soda companies weren't trying so hard to make up for the shortfall by marketing harder to minorities, low-income groups and low-income people in developing countries - the very people most at risk for obesity and related conditions," she said.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/18s6E5r American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online May 15, 2013.

The case was aimed at Liberty Reserve, a currency transfer and payment processing company based in Costa Rica that authorities say allowed customers to move money anonymously from one account to another via the Internet with almost no questions asked.

U.S. officials said the enterprise was staggering in scope: Over roughly seven years, Liberty Reserve processed 55 million illicit transactions worldwide for 1 million users, including 200,000 in the U.S.

The network "became the bank of choice for the criminal underworld," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in announcing the unsealing of an indictment against the defendants, including Liberty Revenue founder Arthur Budovsky, an American who renounced his U.S. citizenship after deciding to set up in Costa Rica.

Liberty Reserve allowed users to open accounts using fictitious names, including "Russian Hacker" and "Hacker Account." An undercover investigator was able to register using the name "Joe Bogus" and the address "123 Fake Main Street" in "Completely Made Up City, New York," and then conduct transactions he recorded as "ATM skimming network" and "for the cocaine."

"The coin of the realm was anonymity," Bharara said. "It was the opposite of a know-your-customer policy."

The network charged a 1 percent fee on transactions through middlemen known as exchangers, who converted real currency into virtual funds and then back into cash.

In the indictment, prosecutors called the network "one of the principal means by which cyber criminals around the world distribute, store and launder proceeds of their illegal activity ... including credit card fraud, identity theft, investment fraud, computer hacking, child pornography and narcotics trafficking."

Bharara said it was possibly "the largest international money laundering case ever brought by the United States."

Budovsky and another defendant, identified as Azzeddine el Amine, were arrested Friday at a Madrid airport while trying to return to Costa Rica, according to a Spanish court official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because court policy forbids him from speaking on the record. They were ordered jailed while they await a hearing on extradition to the U.S.

Two other men, including Liberty Reserve co-founder Vladimir Kats, were arrested last week in New York City. There was no public record of their arraignments on Friday night, and there was no immediate response to phone messages left Tuesday with their attorneys.

Of the three remaining defendants, one was in custody in Costa Rica and the others were at large there.

A notice pasted across Liberty Reserve's website Tuesday morning said the domain "has been seized by the United States Global Illicit Financial Team." Attempts to reach Liberty Reserve by phone and email were unsuccessful.

Budovsky and Kats have previous convictions on state charges related to an unlicensed money transmitting business, according to court papers. After that case, they decided to move their operation to Costa Rica, the papers said.

In an online chat captured by law enforcement, Kats admitted Liberty Reserve was illegal and noted that authorities in the United States knew it was "a money-laundering operation that hackers use."

While authorities described Liberty Reserve as being rife with criminals, the site's ease of use, low fees and irreversible transactions that deterred fraud also attracted legitimate users.

Mitchell Rossetti, whose Houston-based ePayCards.com was one of several mainstream merchants that accepted Liberty Reserve's online-only currency, said his business still had about $28,000 tied up in Liberty Reserve accounts.

"The irony of this is I went to them because of the security," Rossetti said. "All sales were final."

He acknowledged that the currency was being used by scammers but said Liberty Reserve funds were just like any other currency: "The U.S. dollar can be donated to a church or it can pay a prostitute."

Liberty Reserve appears to have played an important role in laundering proceeds from the recent theft of some $45 million from two Middle Eastern banks, according to documents made public by U.S. authorities earlier this month. In that scheme, thieves stole debit card information and then used it to drain cash from thousands of ATMs around the world in a matter of hours.

As part of the Liberty Reserve investigation, authorities raided 14 places in Panama, Switzerland, the U.S., Sweden and Costa Rica. In Costa Rica, investigators recovered five luxury cars, including three Rolls-Royces. Bharara said authorities also seized Liberty's computer servers in Costa Rica and Switzerland.

The businesses that were raided in Costa Rica on Friday as part of the investigation into Liberty Reserve are dedicated to Web hosting services, website development and Internet business consulting.

In Costa Rica, all online businesses are legal and there aren't any laws regulating them, so the country has been attracting entrepreneurs setting up Internet-based companies that do everything from e-commerce to gambling banned in other countries.

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Satter reported from London. Alan Clendenning and Jorge Sainz in Madrid and Javier Cordoba in San Jose, Costa Rica, contributed to this report.