Perry, who two weeks ago won the Senior Players Championship, was 10 behind pace-setter Michael Allen at the halfway mark but romped to victory by shooting a 64 in the third round and finishing with a seven-under round at Omaha Country Club.

The previous biggest comeback after 36 holes in a senior major was seven strokes.

"That was by far probably the greatest round of golf I ever played," Perry, a 14-time winner on the PGA Tour, said in a TV interview after his round.

"It all came together today."

Finishing second was fellow American Fred Funk, who shot a final-round 68 for eight-under-par 272.

Another stroke back were Rocco Mediate (66) and Corey Pavin (67) on 273, with Allen a further shot behind after registering a two-over 72 on Sunday.

Perry began the final round two shots behind Allen, but back-to-back birdies from the second hole set the tone for his brilliant finish.

After a bogey at the fifth, Perry made four birdies in a row to make the turn at five-under 30, needing only 10 putts as he took command of the championship.

Perry twice came agonizingly close to winning a major, finishing second at the 1996 PGA Championship and at the 2009 Masters, but never broke through.

In winning the U.S. Senior Open, the 52-year-old became the 11th player ever to win back-to-back senior majors.

(Reporting by Larry Fine in New York; Editing by Gene Cherry)

A well-rested Stephen Strasburg and the Washington Nationals are destined to face Josh Hamilton and the Los Angeles Angels in the World Series. The Houston Astros have the best record in baseball. Manny Ramirez is playing in Taiwan. And no one is quite sure how to pronounce the name of this Puig guy.

Well, a few things are still the same: Homer Bailey is pitching no-hitters, Miguel Cabrera swings the most devastating bat in the majors and, well, the drug cloud isn't going away anytime soon.

As the All-Star game approaches next week at Citi Field, a look at the first half of the season:

___

EXTRA! EXTRA!

By the time Matt Harvey and the New York Mets let the hovering seagulls take over AT&T Park well past midnight, they were wiped out. This week's win at San Francisco took 16 innings the Mets already had lost a 20-inning game and a pair of 15-inning contests.

"I've never heard of anything like this. It's unbelievable," manager Terry Collins said. "At least we're used to it."

All over, fans are getting way more than their money's worth. Going into this weekend, 19 games had lasted at least 14 innings; there were a total of 20 last year, according to STATS.

"Is a lunar eclipse coming?" Oakland outfielder Josh Reddick wondered. "I have no idea. Probably more of a coincidence than anything. That's how the game goes sometimes."

___

WACKY WEATHER

Even in ski country, this was a bit extreme: When the Atlanta Braves and Colorado Rockies started up at Coors Field in late April, it was 23 degrees. That made it the coldest game-time temperature in STATS' records, dating back more than two decades.

Braves pitcher Mike Minor threw six innings and won in short sleeves, no less. He figured long sleeves wouldn't help much. He also got a trainer to rub his arms, back and thighs with a heating ointment.

"I was burning up there," he said, smiling.

Snow at Target Field, hail at Yankee Stadium and buckets of rain from coast to coast. More than 30 games postponed so far, going in the weekend. Last year? Just 21, the whole season.

The crummy conditions have wreaked havoc with the schedule. With interleague games most every day, there's not a lot of wiggle room for makeups. So there's been a push to get the games in Tampa Bay waited out almost five hours of rain delays in Cleveland to win a game that started on a Friday night in May and finished on an early Saturday in June. The Mets, meanwhile, played in three different time zones in three days.

In St. Louis, there was a 4-hour rain delay in the ninth inning before Kansas City outlasted the Cardinals. The game ended at 3:14 a.m. at Busch Stadium, and created travel trouble for the umpires, too they worked at Wrigley Field in Chicago the next afternoon.

"We worry about that game when we get to that one," crew chief Joe West said. "We had to worry about this game tonight."

And recently, a Giants-Reds rainout in Cincinnati had the teams talking about making it up at Coors Field, of all places. A neutral site in Denver might indeed be the most convenient spot for both clubs later this year.

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NEW WAVE

Be it Manny Machado, Bryce Harper or Mike Trout, the face of baseball is changing. Young stars are dominating, and also revving up the debate: Should Dodgers sensation Yasiel Puig that's "Pweeg" be on the All-Star team?

Jeff Locke is trying to pitch Pittsburgh toward its first playoff spot in two decades, Shelby Miller is dealing in St. Louis and Wil Myers is finding his stroke in Tampa Bay while Paul Goldschmidt and Patrick Corbin are leading Arizona. They were all excelling at the same time former perennial All-Stars Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Ramirez were toiling in the minors.

Oh, and let's salute Orioles slugger Chris Davis, who's proven HR-or-K hitters can learn the strike zone. Davis hit his major league-best 36th homer in Baltimore's 7-3 loss to Toronto on Saturday night.

___

SUMMER SURPRISES

Overhauled Toronto and R.A. Dickey, the powerized Angels and Hamilton, plus the revamped Dodgers have all struggled to reach the .500 mark. The Nationals also hit a wall rather, Harper did while chasing a ball and landed on the disabled list.

Houston moved to the American League and got off a terrific start, beating Texas in the major league opener. Reality quickly set in, however. Their next time out, the overmatched Astros came within one out of having Yu Darvish throw a perfect game against them.

Much harder to figure, Matt Cain and the World Series champion San Francisco Giants.

A year ago, Cain pitched a perfect game. This year, he had one start when he gave up nine runs in an inning, another start when he permitted nine hits in an inning and, earlier this week, he was chased in the first inning.

Added up, the pitching-rich Giants fell far below the break-even point as the All-Star break neared even with Tim Lincecum's no-hitter late Saturday night.

"For the way we think we are as a group and the team that we are, we feel like this is really, really funky," Cain said.

___

AP Baseball Writer Janie McCauley contributed to this report.

But in the wake of Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor convicted in May of first-degree murder in the deaths of three babies, the antiabortion movement has increasingly aimed its fire at the brick-and-mortar clinic. On Friday, Texas became the 16th state to tighten regulations on abortion clinics in the past three years, more than doubling the number of states with what opponents call "targeted restrictions on abortion providers."

The mostly recently affected states range from Republican strongholds such as North Dakota and Alabama to political battlegrounds such as Ohio and Wisconsin. Only six of the 42 abortion clinics in Texas meet the stricter standards that require them to operate like surgical centers, meaning dozens could close. North Carolina lawmakers are also debating tougher licensing requirements.

"The adoption of these regulations is really about shutting clinic doors, which in a sense is easier than trying to overturn Roe v. Wade or to ban abortion," said Elizabeth Nash, state issues manager for the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that favors abortion rights. "We're moving into new territory and very extreme restrictions."

The antiabortion movement's success, however, stems in part from activists making the case that tougher clinic regulation is a mainstream cause to improve women's safety. In Texas, the new rules are wrapped around a ban on abortions after 20 weeks, a limit that most Americans support, according to recent polling.found Americans favor banning late-term abortions 48 percent to 44 percent. A majority of women surveyed in the poll supported the ban after 20 weeks.

Peggy Nance, president of the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, billed the new Texas law as "very limited, common-ground legislation."

"The pro-life movement is at its core is about protecting the unborn child and protecting women, and we believe women deserve better than abortion," said Mallory Quigley, spokeswoman for the Susan B. Anthony List, an antiabortion group. "If a clinic shuts down, there's one less decrepit clinic that's endangering women."

It's a public-relations strategy that seems to be working, even as an 11-hour fillibuster by Texas Sen. Wendy Davis has energized Democrats in her state. At a time when the Republican Party is trying to refute Democratic attacks that abortion limits constitute a "war on women," increasing regulations on clinics can be framed as a positive blow for public health. "These are not viewed as restricting abortion so much as protecting women's health," said Republican pollster Kellyanne Conway. "Women think it is outrageous that tattoo parlors have more operational regulations than abortion clinics."

By arguing that public opinion is on their side, abortion opponents are using a strategy similar to that of gay-rights advocates, who point to increasing acceptance of gay marriage in the polls. The public remains closely divided over abortion, however, forcing opponents to rely on the grisly details of the Gosnell case andTexas Gov. Rick Perry, a former and possibly future Republican presidential candidate, said earlier this year that his goal was to make abortion "a thing of the past." Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant, also a Republican, called the new regulations "the first step in a movement, I believe, to do what we campaigned on: to say that we're going to try to end abortion in Mississippi." There's one abortion clinic in the state.

These declarations by antiabortion officeholders suggest the rules are aimed more at regulating clinics out of business than at improving patient safety. Virginia boasts one of the toughest laws in the country, putting abortion clinics on the same category as hospitals.

After surviving arson, bullets, and pipe bombs during its 40 years in existence, the Hillcrest Clinic in South Hampton Roads closed in April, in part because of the new regulations. "I was there for 28 years, and I can recall transporting one person to a hospital who had a reaction to a medication--which is a risk in a dental office too," said the former director, Suzette Caton.

Rosemary Codding, director of a Northern Virginia abortion clinic suing the state, opened the door to one of the biggest scofflaws in her office: the janitor's closet. The cramped space isn't big enough under the stricter guidelines, and the washer and dryer need to be in a separate room. Meeting the stricter standards, which also dictate the size of the hallways, parking lot, and outdoor awning, would cost the Falls Church Healthcare Center an estimated $1 million.

"How in the world would this improve the safety of women?" Codding demanded during a recent tour, peering into the closet of cleaning supplies. "I feel very strongly the state is sacrificing women's health to a political agenda, and that's unconscionable."

The new rules apply only to the 20 clinics in Virginia offering first-trimester abortions, because the state already requires later-term procedures to be done in a hospital. Clinics have to meet the same construction standards as hospitals built after 2010, even though existing hospitals do not have to comply retroactively. Less than 0.3 percent of women getting abortions need to be hospitalized, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Virginia's new law holds abortion clinics to stricter standards than medical offices that perform outpatient procedures like colonoscopies, oral surgery, and even liposuction.

"The objection is that these regulations will do nothing to help women reach a higher standard of medical care," said Anna Scholl, director of ProgressVA, a liberal group that fought the new rules for abortion clinics. "They are not connected to the medical reality of the services those centers are providing. A woman getting a mammogram doesn't need extra room in the hallway for another gurney."

The Falls Church clinic has sent only two patients to the hospital in the last decade; one wasn't getting an abortion. The clinic also offers pregnancy tests, gynecological exams, birth control, and flu vaccines. The clinic is much smaller than a typical hospital, with only 11 employees and 5,000 square feet of space.

The state health board initially voted to grandfather in existing clinics, but Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli rejected that decision and warned board members they could be personally liable for legal costs if they were sued. The state health commissioner resigned in protest.

Cuccinelli is now the Republican nominee for governor. His office said he was only following the law passed by state lawmakers in 2011, which he believes precluded the board from waiving the rules for existing abortion clinics.

"When it comes to advising on and enforcing Virginia's laws in my role as attorney general, my personal opinion about them doesn't matter," Cuccinelli said in a written statement. "Whether I like them or don't like them, my job is to impartially uphold our laws."

It's quiet at Falls Church Healthcare Center on a recent afternoon, making it seem far removed from the heated rhetoric at rallies in Washington, Austin, and Raleigh in recent weeks. Inside a dumpy, three-story building, the clinic tries to present a cheerful setting with freshly painted cream-colored walls and boxes of pink and purple plastic flowers in the waiting room.

While women in medical scrubs padded by, Codding pointed to a number of rooms and fixtures that would flunk the new guidelines. The 50-year-old building lacks a central ventilation system, and the ceiling tiles are no good. The tiny staff lounge doesn't have a shower or separate lockers. The armchairs in the patient lounge will probably need to be separated with privacy curtains, but she's not sure. "We have a year to figure all of this out," she said. "It just makes no sense."

Three other researchers presented results of epidemiologic studies that uncovered risk factors and/or possible therapies for Alzheimer's disease. The results indicated that:

"With these large-cohort studies and others, we are beginning to see the outlines of a broad picture of Alzheimer's disease risk and prevention factors," said Maria Carrillo, Ph.D., vice president of medical and scientific relations at the Alzheimer's Association.

"However, we need to know even more about what specific factors actually raise and lower risk for cognitive decline and Alzheimer's. To do that, we need longer-term studies in larger and more diverse populations, and more research funding is required to make that happen. Alzheimer's research would benefit from its own version of the Framingham Study, which has taught us so very much about preventable risk factors for heart disease and stroke," Carrillo said.

"With funding of research being a critical need for progress, the National Plan to Address Alzheimer's Disease must be fully implemented and the $100 million identified for Alzheimer's and dementia research this fiscal year needs to be funded," Carrillo concluded.

A growing body of evidence suggests a possible association of cancer with reduced risk for Alzheimer's disease; until now, whether the association differs between cancer types or is modified by cancer treatment is unknown.

Laura Frain, M.D., a geriatrician at VA Boston Healthcare System, and colleagues analyzed the health records of 3,499,378 veterans age 65 and older who were seen in the VA health care system between 1996 and 2011 and who were free of dementia at baseline. The objective was to evaluate the relationship between a history of 19 different cancers, cancer treatment and subsequent Alzheimer's disease.

Over a median follow-up of 5.65 years, 82,028 veterans were diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Twenty-four (24) percent of those veterans with Alzheimer's had a history of cancer, while 76 percent did not.

The researchers found that most types of cancer were associated with reduced Alzheimer's risk, ranging from 9 percent to 51 percent. Reduced risk was greatest among survivors of liver cancer (51 percent lower risk), cancer of the pancreas (44 percent), cancer of the esophagus (33 percent), myeloma (26 percent), lung cancer (25 percent) and leukemia (23 percent). Cancers that did not confer a reduced Alzheimer's risk, or were associated with an increased risk, included melanoma, prostate and colorectal cancers.

The researchers found no association between cancer history and reduced risk of any other typical age-related health outcome; in fact, cancer was associated with an increased risk of stroke, osteoarthritis, cataracts and macular degeneration. Most cancer survivors were also at increased risk for non-Alzheimer's dementia.

"Together, these findings indicate that the protective relationship between most cancers and Alzheimer's disease is not simply explained by increased mortality among cancer patients," said Frain. "More research is needed to determine if these results have therapeutic implications for Alzheimer's."

Among veterans with a cancer history, treatment with chemotherapy but not radiation reduced Alzheimer's risk by 20 to 45 percent, depending on cancer type, with the exception of prostate cancer.

"The potential protective effect of chemotherapy is supported by recent experimental studies," Frain observed. "The results of this study are interesting because they could help focus future research onto the specific pathways and treatment agents involved in the individual cancers that are associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's. This could potentially open new therapeutic strategies for Alzheimer's prevention and treatment."

Type 2 diabetes doubles the risk of dementia. However, until recently, little research has been done to examine the association between type 2 diabetes treatments and dementia risk. Rachel Whitmer, Ph.D., and colleagues at Kaiser Permanente Division of Research studied a cohort of 14,891 type 2 diabetes patients age 55 and older who began diabetes therapy between October 1999 and November 2001. Only patients who started a single therapy (metformin, sulfonylureas, thiazolidinediones (TZDs) or insulin) were included. The patients were followed for up to five years.

Patients initiating metformin, an insulin sensitizer, had a significantly reduced risk of developing dementia compared with patients on other diabetes therapies. Compared with those taking sulfonylureas, those initiating metformin had a 20 percent reduced risk of dementia, while those initiating TZD or insulin had no difference in risk.

"These results provide preliminary evidence that the benefits of insulin sensitizers may extend beyond glycemic control to neurocognitive health," said Whitmer. "Research in animals suggests that metformin may contribute to the creation of new brain cells and enhance spatial memory."

Trials are currently under way to evaluate metformin as a potential therapy for dementia and mild cognitive impairment, which is thought to be, in some cases, a precursor to Alzheimer's disease.

Some research has suggested that intellectual stimulation and mental engagement throughout life may be protective against Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. In an analysis of health and insurance records of more than 429,000 self-employed workers in France, reported at AAIC 2013, Carole Dufouil, Ph.D., director of research in neuroepidemiology at INSERM (Institut National de la sante et de la recherche medicale) at the Bordeaux School of Public Health, and colleagues found that retirement at older age is associated with a reduced risk of dementia.

The researchers linked health and pension databases of self-employed workers who were living and retired as of December 31, 2010. Workers had been retired on average for more than 12 years. Prevalence of dementia in this group was 2.65 percent.

Analyses showed that the risk of being diagnosed with dementia was lower for each year of working longer (i.e., higher age at retirement) (hazard ratio of dementia was 0.968 (95 percent Confidence Interval = [0.962-0.973]). Even after excluding workers who had dementia diagnosed within the 5 years following retirement, the results remained unchanged and highly significant (p<0.0001).

"Our data show strong evidence of a significant decrease in the risk of developing dementia associated with older age at retirement, in line with the 'use it or lose it' hypothesis," said Dufouil. "The patterns were even stronger when we focused on more recent birth cohorts."

"Professional activity may be an important determinant of intellectual stimulation and mental engagement, which are thought to be potentially protective against dementia," observed Dufouil. "As countries around the world respond to the aging of their populations, our results highlight the importance of maintaining high levels of cognitive and social stimulation throughout work and retired life, and they emphasize the need for policies to help older individuals achieve cognitive and social engagement.

The study was also coordinated by the International Longevity Center-France (Head: Prof. Francoise Forette).

Alzheimer's disease and other dementias have been shown to be higher among older blacks in the United States than older whites; however, risk factors that might account for this difference have not been extensively studied.

Note: According to the Alzheimer's Association 2013 Alzheimer's Disease Facts and Figures report, older African-Americans are about twice as likely to have Alzheimer's and other dementias as older whites, and Hispanics are about one and one-half times as likely to have Alzheimer's and other dementias as older whites.

Kristine Yaffe, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco and the San Francisco VA Medical Center, and colleagues sought to determine if differences in dementia rates by race existed among a cohort of community dwelling elders and whether any differences observed could be explained by socioeconomic status (SES) indicators (income, financial adequacy, education and literacy) and health-related factors.

The scientists evaluated dementia risk among 3,075 black and white elders (mean age 74.1 years) participating in the ongoing prospective Health, Aging and Body Composition Study who were free of dementia at baseline.

During 12 years of follow-up, 18.7 percent of participants were determined to have developed dementia, based on prescribed medications, hospital records and cognitive decline. In this population, African-Americans were 1.5 times more likely to develop dementia than whites (21.9 percent vs. 16.4 percent). However, after adjusting for socioeconomic factors including education level, literacy, income and financial adequacy, the researchers found that the difference in risk was no longer statistically significant.

"Our findings suggest that differences in socioeconomic factors may, in large part, explain racial and ethnic disparities in dementia rates," said Yaffe. "Future studies that investigate these disparities should take a broad range of socioeconomic factors into account."

Yaffe suggested that more studies are needed "to explore the potential benefits of improving socioeconomic risk factors as a way of reducing dementia rates."

(Disclosure: Dr. Yaffe is co-chair of the AAIC 2013 Program Committee.)

About AAIC The Alzheimer's Association International Conference (AAIC) is the world's largest conference of its kind, bringing together researchers from around the world to report and discuss groundbreaking research and information on the cause, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease and related disorders. As a part of the Alzheimer's Association's research program, AAIC serves as a catalyst for generating new knowledge about dementia and fostering a vital, collegial research community.

About the Alzheimer's Association The Alzheimer's Association is the world's leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer care, support and research. Our mission is to eliminate Alzheimer's disease through the advancement of research; to provide and enhance care and support for all affected; and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Our vision is a world without Alzheimer's. Visitor call 800.272.3900.

SOURCE Alzheimer's Association

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan increased to 3.98 percent. That's up from 3.91 percent last week and the highest since April 2012. The average rate was last at 4 percent or higher in March 2012.

The rate on the 15-year loan advanced to 3.10 percent from 3.03 percent. That's also the highest since April 2012.

Concerns that the Federal Reserve will scale back its bond purchases have pushed rates higher. Still, mortgage rates remain low by historical standards.

Cheap mortgages have helped sustain a housing recovery that began last year, encouraging more Americans to buy homes or refinance existing loans.

Mortgage rates are rising because they tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield on the 10-year note climbed as high as 2.29 percent this week from a low of 1.63 percent last month. It has since declined to 2.20 percent in early trading Thursday.

The Fed's $85-billion-a-month in bond purchases have pushed down long-term interest rates. As speculation has grown that the Fed will slow those purchases, investors have driven rates up. That has decreased the value of bonds with lower yields.

Fed policymakers hold a two-day meeting next week that will be closely watched for signals that the Fed may soon slow the bond purchases.

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

The average fee for 30-year mortgages was unchanged at 0.7 point. The fee for 15-year loans also was steady at 0.7 point.

The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage held at 2.58 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable-rate loans was unchanged at 0.4 point.

The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage rose to 2.79 percent from 2.74 percent. The fee edged up to 0.6 point from 0.5.

BELFAST (Reuters) - Violence flared for a second night around traditional Orange Day parades in Northern Ireland, with police coming under attack from petrol bombs, fireworks, stones and bottles and responding with water cannon.

One police officer was engulfed in flames when struck by a petrol bomb, but it was quickly extinguished by colleagues. The officer remained on duty after being examined by medical personnel, a spokesman said.

Thousands of pro-British Protestants march every summer in the British province, a regular flashpoint for sectarian violence as Catholics, many of whom favour unification with Ireland, see the parades as a provocation.

Violence between the two religious groups still sometimes flares since a peace deal was signed in 1998, which largely ended three decades of strife. Much of Belfast remains divided along religious and nationalist lines.

The Orange Order, which organises marches to mark the 1690 victory at the Battle of the Boyne by Protestant Prince William of Orange over Catholic King James of England, was angered this year when authorities ruled they could not walk along a stretch of road that divides the two communities.

That sparked violence on Friday evening, after tens of thousands of Orange Order marchers, wearing orange sashes and waving British flags, paraded at more than a dozen venues across Northern Ireland.

A total 32 police were injured on Friday night in what Chief Constable Matt Baggott described as "shocking and disgraceful" violence, including head, eye and leg wounds.

Another 400 reinforcements were being brought in from Britain as trouble continued through the weekend. More than 20 people have been arrested.

(Editing by Sam Cage and Eric Walsh)

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan eased to 3.93 percent last week. That's down from 3.98 percent last week but is still the highest level since April 2012.

The rate on the 15-year mortgage fell to 3.04 percent from 3.10 percent. That's the highest since May 2012.

Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday each week. Bernanke's comments during a news conference Wednesday afternoon weren't fully reflected in the latest rates.

Concern that the Fed will wind down its bond purchases has pushed mortgage rates higher in recent weeks. Mortgage rates are still low by historical standards, helping sustain the housing recovery that began last year. But a spike in long-term interest rates could drive them higher quickly.

The Fed has been buying $85 billion worth of Treasury and mortgage bonds a month since late last year. The purchases pushed long-term interest rates to historic lows, making mortgages and other consumer and business loans cheaper.

Mortgage rates are expected to rise because they tend to follow the yield on the 10-year Treasury note. The yield on the 10-year note climbed in early trading Thursday to 2.39 percent, its highest level in 15 months. That's up from a low of 1.63 percent last month.

And the yield could go even higher based on Bernanke's remarks that the Fed will begin tapering later this year and could end the program in the middle of next year, provided the economy shows continued strength.

The average mortgage rates do not include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for 30-year mortgages rose to 0.8 point from 0.7 point. The fee for 15-year loans was unchanged at 0.7 point.

The average rate on a one-year adjustable-rate mortgage declined to 2.57 percent from 2.58 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable-rate loans was steady at 0.4 point.

The average rate on a five-year adjustable-rate mortgage was unchanged at 2.79 percent. The fee slipped to 0.5 point from 0.6 point.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Institutional investors are tripping over themselves to buy so-called peer-to-peer loans offered by a new breed of Internet lending companies, a development that could transform the nascent sector into significant player in the credit markets.

P2P lending, as it is known, started in 2006 with the founding of Lending Club and Prosper Marketplace. Back then, the idea was to match individual borrowers with small investors looking to lend as little as $25.

The loans often have interest rates low enough to make them a feasible way for individuals to pay off high-cost credit card debt, yet the returns to investors are attractive compared to many other fixed-income assets.

These developments have caught the eye of hedge funds, endowments, pension funds and even banks and insurers who want to put hundreds of millions of dollars to work.

The influx of institutional money is enabling online lenders, led by Lending Club and Prosper, to offer far more loans and compete more directly with traditional banks. Loan originations are growing at about 300 percent a year, according to the two market leaders.

But the arrival of Wall Street investors also brings new risks for the sector. Sharp changes in interest rates or another economic slump could prompt the new money to depart as quickly as it arrived. And questions remain about the way the peer-to-peer lending industry vets borrowers and whether interest rates on the loans properly reflect the risk.

"The industry says it's more efficient and it uses technology to underwrite better. That's all a bunch of crap," said Mike Cagney, a credit market veteran and founder of SoFi, an Internet lending platform focused on student loans. "Peer-to-peer lending in its current form hasn't really gone through a full credit crisis."

Lending Club and Prosper do not lend money directly. Instead, borrowers fill out loan applications and post requests on their websites. Investors commit to fund the loans, then Utah-based bank WebBank makes the loans, sells them to Lending Club and Prosper, which in turn sell them on to the investors in the form of a note. The companies make money from servicing and origination fees.

The industry is on course to make about $3 billion in loans this year. But the market opportunity is about $85 billion, based on the most creditworthy borrowers currently served by the credit card industry, Prosper executive Ron Suber told a packed crowd at the industry's first conference, LendIt, last month.

Google Inc took a $125 million stake in Lending Club in May, valuing the company at more than $1.5 billion. An initial public offering is planned next year, according to Lending Club Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche.

'ATTRACTIVE YIELD'

P2P loans have annual interest rates ranging from 6 percent to as much as 30 percent, higher than many other fixed-income assets. The loans are typically repaid after just over a year.

"Attractive yield and short duration. In a yield-starved world, it's very interesting," said Jason Jones of private investment firm Disruption Credit, which is starting a fund to buy and possibly securitize P2P loans.

Other investment funds that are jumping into the business include HCG Funds, which recently launched a $10 million fund for Lending Club loans; Colchis Capital, which has more than $200 million allocated to P2P loan investing; and Eaglewood Capital Management and Arcadia Funds.

A new Internet lending site, CircleBack Lending, will launch this month with an exclusive focus on institutions and ultra-wealthy investors, according to co-founder Michael Solomon.

Some institutional loan buyers employ leverage - borrowing money at a lower interest rate and then re-lending it to the online borrowers.

Disruption Credit, according to Jones, is planning to raise a $75 million fund to invest in P2P loans, and will then borrow another $425 million so it can buy $500 million worth of loans.

Eaglewood, which has put about $80 million to work in P2P lending so far, can leverage its fund 3 to 1, depending on the risk of the loans and other criteria.

But counting on money from leveraged hedge funds could leave the industry suddenly starved of funds to lend in the event that rising interest rates, a slumping economy or unexpectedly high rates of default were to suddenly send that money elsewhere.

The credit risk is hardly academic: loans originated by Prosper from November 2005 to June 2009 had a yield of just over 12 percent through the end of 2012. But losses from loan defaults reached almost 18 percent, leaving investors down 5.36 percent overall.

Prosper now sets interest rates on loans itself, based on the creditworthiness of borrowers, a big change from letting borrowers and lenders negotiate rates and an approach it says that has helped the company attract institutional investors.

Still, the challenges of relying on leveraged investors remain for Lending Club, Prosper and new rivals like CircleBack.

"If any P2P platform becomes overly reliant on hedge funds or similar capital that is sensitive to markets and could be quickly removed, a major market shakeout could cut demand for their loans," said Jose Penabad of HCG Funds.

Hedge funds represent less than 10 percent of funding for loans on Lending Club and only half of them use leverage, according to CEO Laplanche. Lending Club has been working to attract more stable sources of institutional funding such as corporate pension plans and community banks, he said.

And Lending Club has sought to prevent too much hedge fund money from flooding the market.

Colchis tried to launch a leveraged P2P loan fund earlier this year, but Lending Club did not allow it because the platform is not originating enough loans to meet the demand that would have been created by such an investment vehicle, according to a Colchis investor who did not want to be identified.

A Colchis representative declined to comment. Lending Club's Laplanche confirmed that there is no leveraged Colchis fund but declined further comment.

SECURITIZATION LOOMS

Some of the new P2P investors hope to employ yet another Wall Street tactic to boost returns: securitizing the loans by slicing them up into pieces for sale.

Disruption Credit, for one, plans to securitize its loan assets in the future, dividing them into different tranches that can be bought and possibly traded by institutions such as pension funds and insurers.

Cagney said SoFi is planning the first securitization of its P2P student loans in September, with ratings from the credit rating agency DBRS and underwriting by banks including Barclays.

Securitization will provide another source of capital to fuel further growth in originations. But it also exposes the industry to even greater interest rate risk.

If yields on other types of debt jump as firms are preparing to securitize a pool of P2P loans, that could imperil the effort by making the offering less attractive to investors.

Junk bond yields have surged from less than 5 percent to almost 7 percent in recent months. That makes P2P loans relatively less attractive to investors, said Cagney.

If rates keep climbing, SoFi may have to wait to do its securitization, he added.

Meanwhile, SoFi's loans are being financed by banks including Morgan Stanley.

"We could afford to wait a few months," Cagney added.

(This story refiles to fix the spelling throughout of SoFi founder to Cagney from Cagny)

(Reporting by Alistair Barr Editing by Jonathan Weber and Tim Dobbyn)

Vivus shares rose as much as 6 percent in morning trading on the Nasdaq before easing back to be up 2.5 percent in early afternoon trading.

Privately held Menarini will sell the drug, avanafil, as Spedra in Australia, New Zealand and 40 European countries.

Avanafil has not been launched in the United States despite being cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration more than a year ago because Vivus has been unable to find a partner to sell it - among the complaints of 9.9 percent shareholder First Manhattan Co.

Vivus will get an upfront payment of 16 million euros, and is eligible for up to 79 million euros in milestone payments above royalties on Spedra's sales.

The erectile dysfunction drug will be Vivus's second product on the market after weight-loss drug Qsymia, whose sales have struggled to reach anywhere near analysts' expectations.

First Manhattan nominated a slate of new directors and even proposed a new chief executive for Vivus in March, criticizing the company for a poor launch of Qsymia.

Vivus said on Tuesday that First Manhattan has been offering only "uncertainty and delay" in its efforts to shake up the company's board.

"FMC's 'plan' - to the extent they have one - appears to revolve solely around doing things that the Vivus board and management team are already doing, 'fixing' things that aren't broken," Vivus said in a statement.

The company said its management was already doing what needed to be done to unlock the full sales potential of Qsymia.

First Manhattan and Vivus will face off on July 15 when shareholders vote on the alternative board nominations.

Vivus shares were up 2.5 percent at $12.86 in early afternoon trading.

(Reporting by Zeba Siddiqui and Ransdell Pierson; Editing by Maureen Bavdek and Don Sebastian)

The new Charon photo was taken by NASA's New Horizons spacecraft, which is closing in on Pluto and due to fly by the icy world in July 2015. The black-and-white image shows Charon as a dim object that is near, but clearly separate from, the brighter object that is Pluto.

NASA unveiled the new Charon photo Wednesday (July 10), hailing the image as a "major milestone" for New Horizon's 9 1/2-year trek to Pluto. []

"The image itself might not look very impressive to the untrained eye, but compared to the discovery images of Charon from Earth, these 'discovery' images fromlook great!" said New Horizons project scientist Hal Weaver of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Md. "Were very excited to see Pluto and Charon as separate objects for the first time from New Horizons."

: Charon, Nix, Hydra, Styx and Kerberos. Charon is the largest of the five and orbits Pluto at a distance of about 12,000 miles (19,000 kilometers). It is about 750 miles (1,207 km) wide and was discovered in 1978 by astronomers using the Kaj Strand Astrometric Reflector at the U.S. Naval Observatorys Flagstaff Station noticed a visible "bump" moving around Pluto, New Horizons mission scientists explained.

The four other moons of Pluto were discovered in images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The , which were formally called P4 and P5, were unveiled last week.

New Horizons scientists used their spacecraft's LOng Range Reconnaissance Imager, called LORRI, to take the new Charon photos. The camera took six different photos of Charon and Pluto, which scientists used to create a single composite view of the dwarf planet and its biggest moon.

"In addition to being a nice technical achievement, these new LORRI images of Charon and Pluto should provide some interesting science too," New Horizons principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Colorado said in a statement.

Because of the unique angle of the New Horizons photos, they may hold new clues into the surface properties of Charon and Pluto, including the potential for a layer of fine particles blanketing their surfaces, New Horizons officials explained.

NASA launched the $700 million New Horizons mission in January 2006. Currently, New Horizons is about 550 million miles (880 million km) from . But it will be much closer on July 14, 2015, when it makes its closest approach to Pluto and its moons. On that day, the spacecraft zoom within 7,750 miles (12,500 km) of Pluto and should provide spectacular views of the dwarf planet and its moons.

"We're excited to have our first pixel on Charon," Stern said, "but two years from now, near closest approach, we'll have almost a million pixels on Charon and I expect we'll be about a million times happier too!"

Editor's Note: This story was corrected to reflect the proper diameter of Charon (750 miles/1,207 km).

Email Tariq Malik at tmalik@space.com or follow himandFollow us ,and . Original article on .