Rescue teams were sent to Mayon volcano in the central Philippines to look for four climbers and guides trapped after the mild eruption, Albay provincial Gov. Joey Salceda said. Clouds have cleared over the volcano, which was quiet later in the morning.

The four climbers who died were struck by huge rocks, guide Kenneth Jesalva told ABS-CBN TV network by cellphone from a camp near the crater. Another man was critically injured from a group of eight that included five foreigners and three Filipino guides.

One of those killed was Filipino. The nationalities of the foreign climbers were not immediately clear. No bodies have been retrieved yet.

Jesalva said he was in the group that spent the night on the picturesque mountain, known for its almost-perfect cone, when the volcano rumbled back to life early in the morning and rocks "as big as a living room" came raining down on them. He rushed back to the base camp to call for help.

The head of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, Renato Solidum, said Tuesday's eruption was normal for the restive Mayon, about 340 kilometers (212 miles) southeast of Manila. It has erupted about 40 times during the last 400 years.

In 2010, thousands of residents moved to temporary shelters when the volcano ejected ash in an 8-kilometer (5-mile) zone surrounding the crater.

Solidum said that no alert was raised for the volcano following the latest eruption and no evacuation was being planned. Climbers are not allowed when an alert is up, and the recent calm may have encouraged this week's trek.

Basso was suffering from a cyst, which made it impossible for him to pedal correctly, his Cannondale team said in a statement on Thursday.

Compatriot Damiano Caruso would replace Basso in the squad, Cannondale said.

The 35-year-old climber won the Giro in 2006 and 2010 but was not regarded as a top contender this year, having shown poor form this season.

Basso also twice finished on the Tour de France podium, taking third place in 2004 and second place in 2005.

The Giro starts in Naples on Saturday and finishes in Brescia on May 26.

(Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by Amlan Chakraborty)

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Stephen Hawking toured a stem cell laboratory Tuesday where scientists are studying ways to slow the progression of Lou Gehrig's disease, a neurological disorder that has left the British cosmologist almost completely paralyzed.

After the visit, the 71-year-old Hawking urged doctors, nurses and staff at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to support the research.

Hawking recalled how he became depressed when he was diagnosed with the disease 50 years ago and initially didn't see a point in finishing his doctorate. But his attitude changed when his condition didn't progress quickly and he was able to concentrate on his studies.

"Every new day became a bonus," he told a packed room.

Cedars-Sinai received nearly $18 million last year from California's taxpayer-funded stem cell institute to study the debilitating disease also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control the muscles. People gradually have more and more trouble breathing and moving as muscles weaken and waste away.

There's no cure and no way to reverse the disease's progression. Few people with ALS live longer than a decade.

Diagnosed at age 21 while a student at Cambridge University, Hawking has survived longer than most. He receives around-the-clock care, can only communicate by twitching his cheek, and relies on a computer mounted to his wheelchair to convey his thoughts in a distinctive robotic monotone.

A Cedars-Sinai patient who was Hawking's former student spurred doctors to invite the physicist to glimpse their stem cell work.

"We decided it was a great opportunity for him to see the labs and for us to speak to one of the preeminent scientists in the world," said Dr. Robert Baloh, who heads the hospital's ALS program.

During the tour, Hawking viewed microscopic stem cells through a projector screen and asked questions about the research, Baloh said.

Cedar-Sinai scientists have focused on engineering stem cells to make a protein in hopes of preventing nerve cells from dying. The experiment so far has been done in rats. Baloh said he hopes to get governmental approval to test it in humans, which would be needed before any therapy can be approved.

Renowned for his work on black holes and the origins of the universe, Hawking is famous for bringing esoteric physics concepts to the masses through his best-selling books including "A Brief History of Time," which sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. Hawking titled his speech to Cedars-Sinai employees "A Brief History of Mine."

Despite his diagnosis, Hawking has remained active. In 2007, he floated like an astronaut on an aircraft that creates weightlessness by making parabolic dives.

Space exploration is important "for the future of humanity," he told the audience.

Hawking said he did not think Earthlings would survive "without escaping beyond your fragile planet."

And he gave some advice: Look up at the stars. Stay curious.

"However difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at," he said.

Doctors don't know why some people with Lou Gehrig's disease fare better than others. Baloh said he has treated patients who lived for 10 years or more.

"But 50 years is unusual, to say the least," he said.

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Follow Alicia Chang at http://twitter.com/SciWriAlicia

He struggled to operate what he called an "Apple telephone" and said he was more familiar with 8-tracks than modern technology.

Taylor was released Tuesday after doubts about his conviction surfaced and he agreed to a deal with prosecutors that set him free. He pleaded no contest to each of the nearly 30 counts of murder against him in an agreement that allowed the judge to sentence him to time served.

While he has consistently maintained his innocence, Taylor said he took the deal because he wanted out now instead of remaining in prison for years more to seek vindication at a new trial.

"I had no choice," he said at a news conference with his attorneys on Wednesday. "I wasn't going to give them another minute, another hour, another decade."

The 1970 blaze at the Pioneer Hotel was one of the deadliest fires in Arizona history as hundreds of people gathered at the exclusive spot in Tucson to celebrate Christmas. When the fire erupted, exits were blocked and fire truck ladders were too short to reach the upper floors. Many guests were trapped in their rooms. Some jumped to their deaths while others burned alive. One of the victims was waiting for his family to arrive for the Christmas holiday. The gifts burned in the room.

Taylor was 16 when he was arrested that night at the hotel, where he says he went to get free drinks and food from various parties. The now-58-year-old, who is black, was convicted by an all-white jury and sentenced to life in prison.

At his news conference, Taylor addressed the questions of race that have long loomed over the case. The original fire investigator told The Associated Press this week that he profiled the suspect as "probably a negro," but insisted his statements had nothing to do with Taylor's arrest.

"They singled me out," Taylor said. "They targeted me. All they said was, 'The little colored boy, the little negro boy.'"

He broke down in tears before continuing.

"I'm not saying it was a racial injustice but certainly it wasn't fair what they did to me," Taylor said.

The case started getting more attention a decade ago amid reports by "60 Minutes" that raised questions about whether the fire was arson. The Arizona Justice Project, which works on behalf of inmates believed to be wrongly convicted, began reviewing the evidence.

The group claimed prosecutors committed misconduct at Taylor's original trial when they neglected to inform his defense that no accelerants were found at the scene. In addition, fire experts the group hired to review evidence could not determine what caused the blaze.

However, Cy Holmes, now 83 and the original fire investigator, stands by his findings that it was arson, noting experts taking on the case now don't have all the evidence and didn't spend days investigating the scene like he did.

Prosecutors still insist Taylor is guilty, but they acknowledged that gaining a conviction at a new trial would be dicey given that some evidence has been lost and witnesses have either moved or died.

Pima County authorities say Taylor was arrested with five boxes of matches and told numerous lies as he was questioned by investigators. They say he also admitted to starting arson fires in the past. In court papers, prosecutors wrote that hotel employees on the night of the blaze "found the defendant standing by himself simply looking at the fire."

"This is not exoneration," Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall said. "Louis Taylor was found guilty at trial beyond a reasonable doubt."

Taylor claims he was railroaded, and that authorities never allowed him access to an attorney on the night of his arrest.

"I never hurt anybody in my whole life," he said Wednesday, adding that he helped save guests. "I'm glad I went there because I saved a lot of people."

He explained how while in prison, some inmates encouraged him to escape.

"I said, 'I'm not going nowhere, I'm an innocent man,'" Taylor said. "Only the guilty run away. I held on, and look, I'm free now."

Arizona Department of Corrections records show Taylor was found guilty while in prison of nearly 70 infractions, including disorderly conduct, sexual assault and arson.

He acknowledged he was "no angel" behind bars.

"You grow up in prison, you get a lot of bad habits," he said.

Yet despite his claims of injustice, Taylor forgives everyone involved and is just looking to the future. The no contest pleas allowed Taylor to neither dispute the charges against him nor admit guilt, and he also gave up his right to seek a new trial.

He said he took an hour-long hike in a canyon near Tucson to "transcend back into society" upon his release. He went to In-N-Out Burger, then cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast on Wednesday morning.

"I'm going to try to do the best that I can. I can't look back," Taylor said. "I just thank God that I'm free."

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The worst of the budget crunch that afflicted state governments after the 2008 financial crisis appears over, data from the Census showed on Thursday.

The Census reported that state tax collections last year surpassed their previous peak, and all but three states registered a surge in receipts.

States collected a record $794.6 billion in fiscal 2012, which for most ended last June 30. That was $34.3 billion more than the prior year and $14.9 billion more than the previous record $770.7 billion brought in during fiscal 2008.

California's tax collections topped those of all other states, bringing in $112.37 billion, or 14 percent of the total in the country. Nonetheless, alongside Wisconsin and New Hampshire, it registered a decrease from the year before.

"The explanation for each state's year-to-year changes vary," said the Census in the report. "California's tax revenue decline was due to expiration of the temporary rate increase for the general sales and gross receipts tax."

New York collected the second most taxes, $71.55 billion, followed by other states with large populations: Texas at $48.6 billion, Illinois at $36.44 billion, Florida at $33 billion and Pennsylvania at $32.95 billion. South Dakota collected the least taxes, $1.52 billion, followed by New Hampshire at $2.21 billion and Montana at $2.46 billion.

The 2007-09 recession, financial crisis and housing market downturn conspired to push almost all states' revenues down to lows not seen for decades.

In turn, states confronted unprecedented budget crises, with many calling emergency legislative sessions to make quick spending cuts or enact temporary tax hikes. The federal government stepped in with the largest transfer of money to states in U.S. history in the 2009 economic stimulus plan.

Crawling out of the revenue crater has been slow for most states, and recent improvements are threatening to turn sluggish.

"The latest data show that state tax revenue is continuing to recover, albeit slowly, from the depth of the recession," said Donald Boyd, senior fellow at the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government, in a statement.

In fiscal 2012 states' sales tax receipts increased 2.9 percent to $242.7 billion, compared to the 5.8 percent rise the year before. Individual income taxes, which provide the most revenues, increased 8.1 percent to $280.4 billion after rising 9.8 percent the previous year. Not all states charge income or sales taxes.

In general, the recovery began unevenly as states that found fortune in the housing market expansion struggled long after commodities-rich states found stable fiscal footing.

"In the case of Alaska and North Dakota, increased tax revenue was largely due to strength in severance tax revenues, which are taxes imposed for the extraction of natural resources," the Census said.

Altogether eight states had tax collection increases of 10 percent or more in fiscal 2012, with North Dakota on top at 47 percent. Alaska followed with 27.3 percent, then came Illinois at 19 percent, Connecticut at 15 percent. Hawaii, Oklahoma, Texas and South Dakota rounded out the group.

Much of the strength came from rising income taxes, Census said. Illinois had the sharpest increase in individual income tax collections, 39.8 percent, followed by Hawaii, 23.5 percent, and Oklahoma, 16.3 percent.

(Editing by David Gregorio)

The only reason they used up the 10 minutes allotted them Thursday night? The offensive tackle's cellphone kept cutting out inside New York City's Radio City Music Hall.

"We waited a while because we had a hard time getting ahold of him," Chiefs coach Andy Reid said with a smile. "The phone was dying. That was the reason for waiting."

Evidently, Fisher was worth the wait.

The Chiefs picked him ahead of Texas A&M offensive tackle Luke Joeckel, who went No. 2 to the Jacksonville Jaguars, to kick off a draft heavy on linemen. Fisher is a potential replacement for Branden Albert, and should help protect the blindside of new quarterback Alex Smith.

"It was almost surreal that phone call was happening," said Fisher, just the third offensive lineman picked No. 1 since the AFL-NFL merger in 1970. "It was my goal all along, but I think it didn't hit me until my phone rang."

The Chiefs had the top pick in the NFL draft for the first time in franchise history. But rather than announce their intentions early, like the Indianapolis Colts did in picking Andrew Luck last season, new general manager John Dorsey and Reid decided to wait until they were on the clock before making their choice public.

Kansas City was still considering a handful of players early this week, including Joeckel, who many believed was the best available player. Dorsey also indicated that he would listen to offers from teams trying to trade up until the last possible minute.

When nothing materialized, Dorsey phoned in his selection and Fisher became the first player from Central Michigan to be picked first overall.

"What you're getting is a very athletic player, a great kid, a smart kid engineering major," Reid said. "He can play any position along the line, and loves to play the game."

The Chiefs were in a need of a quarterback after going 2-14 a year ago, but without a top-end talent available, they chose to acquire Smith in a trade with San Francisco. That allowed them to spend the most coveted pick in the draft on who they believed to be the best player.

Fisher is only the third player in the past 20 years to be drafted first from a non-BCS school, and the first non-quarterback. The only other player out of Central Michigan to go in the first round was Joe Staley, the San Francisco 49ers' Pro Bowl left tackle.

With surprising athleticism in a 6-foot-7, 306-pound frame, Fisher rocketed up draft boards after the Senior Bowl. And while he doesn't play a marquee position such as quarterback, and may not push the needle for many Chiefs fans, Fisher does fill a significant need.

Albert, who the Chiefs picked in the first round in 2008, was given the franchise tag in March and is due to make about $9.3 million next season. But he has repeatedly expressed his unhappiness with the lack of long-term stability, and the Chiefs granted permission to the Dolphins to speak with Albert's agent, making a trade possible at some point during the draft.

That would allow Fisher to slide into the starting lineup at left tackle. And if Albert is still with the Chiefs next season, one of them could shift to the right side.

"That doesn't bother me," Reid said, "because he's a good football player. I'm going to take the five best guys and put them up there. Position doesn't matter to me. Never has."

Fisher certainly isn't going to quibble: "Wherever I can help the team out, wherever they put me, I'm fine with it," he said. "Wherever they need me, I'm ready to play."

Fisher's only scholarship offers out of high school came from Central Michigan and Eastern Michigan, and he said at the combine in February that he heard from Michigan State and Purdue but that "neither of them really wanted anything to do with me."

The Chiefs certainly have made him feel wanted.

The only other offensive linemen to be picked first overall had been Orlando Pace, who the Rams selected in 1997, and Jake Long, the choice of the Dolphins in 2008.

"So many great players have been the first pick, and you can throw me in the bunch now. I don't know if it's hit me yet," said Fisher, adding that he will use some of his rookie contract to help his mother retire after 33 years spent working for Volkswagen.

Fisher is the 13th offensive lineman that the Chiefs have drafted in the first round. He also continues a trend: Dorsey helped to pick offensive linemen two of the past four years while he was working for the Green Bay Packers, and Reid selected offensive guard Danny Watkins with the Philadelphia Eagles' first-round pick in 2011.

"We're fortunate to have a draft where there's a number of offensive linemen who are first-round-caliber guys," Reid said. "That's what we need here, and we have a good nucleus now."

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Online: http://pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP_NFL

NEW YORK (AP) -- Zynga' s first-quarter results will likely exceed Wall Street's expectations but mainly because of the company's conservative guidance, not because the health of its business is changing, said Sterne Agee analyst Arvind Bhatia in a note to investors Wednesday.

Online game maker Zynga Inc. is scheduled to report its quarterly earnings after the stock market closes on Wednesday. Analysts, on average, are expecting a loss of 3 cents per share on revenue of $264.5 million, according to a poll by FactSet.

In February, Zynga forecast an adjusted loss of 5 cents to 4 cents per share and revenue of $255 million to $265 million.

"We believe growth in social gaming remains challenging," Bhatia wrote. "For Zynga, any hope for real, sustainable top-line growth likely rests primarily on opportunities in online gambling opportunities that are at least a year away."

Zynga signed a deal last fall to offer online poker and casino games in the U.K. It launched two such games, "ZyngaPlusPoker" and ZyngaPlusCasino," earlier this month.

Zynga's business in the U.K. is much smaller than the company's U.S. market. Other analysts have said that legal online gambling in the U.S. would be a key driver for Zynga stock.

Internet gambling is legal in the U.S. only in New Jersey, Nevada and Delaware.

Shares of San Francisco-based Zynga rose 2 cents to $3.20 in premarket trading.

(Reuters) - The U.S. government filed court documents Tuesday laying out its case against cyclist Lance Armstrong, who is accused of defrauding the Postal Service by taking millions of dollars in sponsorship money while flouting professional cycling rules by doping.

The U.S. Department of Justice said in February it would join a whistleblower lawsuit brought in 2010 by Armstrong's former teammate, Floyd Landis, and on Tuesday filed its formal complaint.

Armstrong has been stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and was banned for life from cycling in 2012 after accusations he had cheated for years. In January, he said the accusations were true in an interview with television host Oprah Winfrey.

Armstrong and his teammates from Tailwind Sports were paid $40 million by the Postal Service from 1998 to 2004, according to the suit. Armstrong's salary during that time, excluding bonuses, was $17.9 million, according to the complaint.

The government is suing under the False Claims Act and can recoup up to three times the amount it lost as a result of the fraud. The complaint also alleges breach of contract, unjust enrichment and fraud.

An attorney for Armstrong said the complaint was opportunistic and insincere.

"The U.S. Postal Service benefited tremendously from its sponsorship of the cycling team. The USPS was never the victim of fraud," said attorney Elliot Peters in a statement. "Lance Armstrong rode his heart out for the USPS team, and gave the brand tremendous exposure during the sponsorship years."

The complaint echoes Landis' claims that Armstrong and others defrauded the U.S. government by falsely denying the doping accusations and continuing their sponsorship relationship with the Postal Service.

When the government believes a suit has merit, it may take over the litigation. The individuals, or whistleblowers, get a portion of the proceeds if the case is successful.

The U.S. complaint accuses Armstrong of using at least one prohibited substance or method in connection with every Tour de France between 1999 and 2005. "Moreover, he knew that his teammates were engaged in similar doping practices, and he actively encouraged and facilitated those practices," the complaint said.

"(T)he United Stated suffered damage in that it did not receive the value of the services for which it bargained," the complaint said.

A lawyer for Landis, Paul Scott, said in statement that he was "pleased to see the United States take this important step toward recovering taxpayer dollars lost to fraud."

The case is U.S. ex rel Landis v. Tailwind Sports Corp, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 10-976.

(Reporting by Jessica Dye in New York; Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

TOURNEMIRE, France (Reuters) - A long slow retreat from nuclear power in France or indecision over policy could be very risky as skilled staff retire and young people reject careers with an uncertain future, the state-funded atomic safety research institute said.

If France does decide to pull out of atomic energy it should follow Germany's example and do it quickly, or face operating with inadequate personnel, said Jacques Repussard, who heads the Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN).

"You can't spread the exit of nuclear over half a century. It's very dangerous," he said, adding that this consideration partly explained Germany's decision to opt for a fast exit to avoid a loss of skills.

France's state-owned utility EDF, which operates its 58 nuclear reactors, faces a wave of retirements and will have to replace half its nuclear staff by 2017-18.

While Socialist President Francois Hollande has undertaken to cut the country's reliance on atomic energy to 50 percent of electricity consumption by 2025, from 75 percent now, he has not made clear what would happen after that date.

"If, in the next 10 years, there is no clarity on what the future of nuclear energy will be, we will inevitably see a trend in our universities of young people saying: 'I don't want to do that line of work'," Repussard told Reuters in an interview at one of its research centers in the south of France.

As part of the reduction drive in France, the world's most nuclear-reliant country, the government has announced that Fessenheim in the east, its oldest nuclear plant, will shut by the end of 2016.

While the government has allowed EDF to pursue building its first next-generation nuclear reactor in Flamanville in northwestern France, it abandoned the previous government's project to build another reactor at Penly in Normandy.

Germany decided to shut all its nuclear reactors by 2022, in a policy reversal drafted in a rush after Japan's Fukushima disaster in March 2011.

CONSIDERABLE RISKS

"It was criticized and we asked ourselves how they would do it... But it's wise because doing it slowly means taking considerable risks with the last operating reactors, as finding skilled subcontractors and companies manufacturing certain parts (could become problematic)," Repussard said.

But he admitted that France, where nuclear reactors are on average 26 years old, would never consider a fast exit even though this would be the safest approach if it decided to stop building new reactors or conducting research.

Another issue for the government to consider, he said, was that generic defects would probably appear in several reactors at around the same time, leading them to stop working abruptly.

This echoed comments earlier this month by Pierre-Franck Chevet, the head of France's nuclear safety agency, who said the country needed to ensure there was enough available electricity generation capacity to cope with the sudden outage of 5 to 10 nuclear reactors.

"One day we will see wear and tear appear in the steel of core tanks... and when we see it in one, we will probably see it in all the reactors of the same generation in a short space of time," Repussard said.

Electrabel, the Belgian subsidiary of GDF Suez, has had to close two reactors in Belgium after finding possible cracks in the core tanks that house them.

"To be 80 percent reliant on nuclear energy exposes us to that kind of situation," he added.

(Writing by Muriel Boselli; Editing by Anthony Barker)