TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Shares of diagnostic test maker Myriad Genetics Inc. surged Thursday after the Supreme Court handed the company a partial victory in a battle over validity of Myriad patents underlying its lucrative test for genes linked to high risk of breast and ovarian cancer.

The ruling likely will eventually benefit rivals, as well as doctors and patents wanting to determine the best course of treatment.

Myriad, based in Salt Lake City, sells a popular test for the BRCA 1 and BRCA 2 genes linked to hereditary risk of breast and ovarian cancer the only test currently available because of its patents. They were challenged by a scientists group, leading to the Supreme Court's review, even though the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has been awarding patents on human genes for almost 30 years.

The high court ruled that genes naturally found in the body cannot be patented, but that synthetically created genetic material, called complementary or cDNA, can be patented. Patents enable inventors to prevent others from making, using or selling a novel device or process they've created.

While Myriad said the ruling will preserve its revenue from the test, other experts said it will open the door for competing tests and for scientists to do gene-related disease research without restraints.

"We are very pleased with the outcome," which ends four years of litigation, Myriad's general counsel, Rick Marsh, told The Associated Press in an interview.

He said the ruling invalidates only five Myriad patent claims, which involve isolated bits of naturally occurring DNA. That's out of more than 500 separate claims in 24 patents the company holds for the company's BRACAnalysis test, launched in 1996 and used by more than a million women so far.

"The balance of our patent estate is still valid and enforceable," Marsh said.

He said the court's ruling upholds Myriad's "method" patent claims, those detailing specific processes for testing patients' genes for their cancer susceptibility, as well as ones covering cDNA. That is the synthetic DNA created to look like the natural DNA at issue that Myriad uses in its testing of patient samples.

Marsh said the ruling is not expected to decrease revenues for sales of the BRACAnalysis test, the top seller for the Salt Lake City-based company.

"I think that's why you're seeing a market reaction," he added, referring to a big jump in the price of Myriad stock following the ruling.

In early afternoon trading Thursday, Myriad shares were up 5.4 percent, or $2.36, at $35.73. They had earlier set a 52-week high at $38.27, with trading volume more than nine times the daily average of 1.1 million shares.

However, Jeffrey Rosenfeld, a researcher and assistant professor at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, said the ruling is good news for researchers, who now will be able to sequence genes to try to better understand diseases and to create new treatments without fear of being sued by companies such as Myriad.

"Their monopoly is gone. The method patents basically are completely irrelevant," Rosenfeld said.

He said diagnostic testing companies now could sequence genes linked to breast cancer or other diseases and use the information to develop diagnostic tests that use different methods than Myriad's. Likewise, he said, "scientists can now research freely without fear of being sued."

Myriad spokesman Ron Rodgers, asked about Rosenfeld's assertion, wrote, "We believe we have a strong patent estate" and can't speculate on what others will do.

Les Funtleyder, health care strategist at private equity fund Poliwogg, said the ruling will benefit drugmakers in the long run.

"It will allow more tests to percolate up from research, especially in light of the progress being made in personalized medicine," he said.

For some cancers and other diseases, patient treatments are starting to be individualized based on their genes and how they affect which medicine works best.

"Most drugs are going to have a (diagnostic) test eventually," to determine if a medicine will help a particular patient or not, Funtleyder said.

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Follow Linda A. Johnson at http://twitter.comLindaJ_onPharma.

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The female goose initially was seen wandering in downtown Bay City in April and people alerted the state Department of Natural Resources, expressing concern for its safety, MLive.com reported (http://bit.ly/131InlA ).

Officials initially decided not to remove the arrow, because the bird was able to fly without difficulty. The DNR again came across the goose at the end of June when biologists were banding geese and decided to take action.

"It really, actually, was a lucky chance that we were able to get that goose in the pen when we were rounding up geese to band them," Michigan DNR Wildlife Outreach Technician Holly Vaughn said. "That particular goose wasn't targeted. It just happened to be with the rest of the geese when our biologists were banding."

A biologist removed the arrow, banded the bird and let it go within about a half-hour, releasing it back into the Saginaw River.

"The arrow was able to move freely within the bird. The wound from the arrow itself had pretty much healed up around the arrow," Vaughn said. "They found that taking the arrow out wouldn't do any further damage."

Officials say the goose appeared to be OK afterward, and Vaughn said it "just went on its merry way."

LONDON (Reuters) - Monetary policy that cannot get traction; weak banks that cannot or will not lend; an economy trapped in a twilight world of low growth, haunted by the specter of deflation.

If this combination sounds familiar, that's because it is.

The euro zone, still drowning in debt bequeathed by the great financial crisis, increasingly resembles Japan in the 1990s as it struggled with its own balance sheet recession brought on by the bursting of an almighty asset bubble.

Japan was long viewed with pity for its failure to shake off its torpor. Its central bank was criticized for policy timidity.

Now, though, the tables are turned. While new Bank of Japan Governor Haruhiko Kuroda has embarked on quantitative easing on an unprecedented scale, the European Central Bank is shrinking its balance sheet and contenting itself with forward guidance' to talk interest rates down.

In light of the euro zone's wide output gap, reflected in record high unemployment, and the mountain of debt that governments and the private sector still need to pay down, some economists say inflation risks falling uncomfortably short of the ECB's target of just below 2 percent.

In a new report, JP Morgan said it expects core inflation, excluding taxes, to drop below 1 percent, from 1.1 percent in the 12 months to May, and remain below that level at least until the end of 2015.

The downward pressure on prices is especially great in struggling countries on the euro zone periphery.

With the option of exchange rate depreciation closed off, their only way to regain competitiveness is to hold down wages and other costs. Greece, for example, is mired in deflation for the first time in 45 years, adding to the real burden of its debt. Others might join it, JP Morgan reckons.

ECB policymakers acknowledge that the threat to price stability lies to the downside and say they are ready to relax policy further if necessary. For some economists, additional easing is a question of when, not if.

"We're not there yet, and QE is not our base case. But the lesson from the Japan of the 1990s is that the longer Europe waits to clean up bank balance sheets, the larger deflation looms," said Joachim Fels with Morgan Stanley in London.

CLEAN UP THOSE BANKS

Warnings about the dangers of delay are coming thick and fast, especially as the failure of Europe's banks to transmit low ECB interest rates to companies and households in southern Europe is splintering the 17-country bloc.

"To reverse these dynamics, bank losses need to be fully recognized, frail but viable banks recapitalized, and non-viable banks closed or restructured," the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.

Japan took the best part of a decade to deal with zombie' banks hit by crashing property prices, while euro zone arrangements to share the cost of future bank failures might not come into effect until 2019.

ECB policymaker Joerg Asmussen says that is too late.

What's more, the proposed agency to shut bust banks will not have an immediate backstop fund to do its job while it builds up a war chest funded by an industry levy.

Demographics are another disturbing parallel.

Japan's working-age population peaked as a percentage of its total population in 1990, marking the end of a golden era of growth. Japan now has more people over 60 - 32 percent of its population - than any other country, according to the UN.

Yet Japan is not alone. Many countries in the European Union will also need to cope with rapidly ageing populations, including Portugal, Ireland and Latvia.

Andrew Milligan, an economist with Standard Life in Edinburgh, is particularly concerned about Italy.

Not only does Italy rank joint second with Germany in the over-60s league, but its weak economic and political institutions will make it harder to push through the structural reforms needed to reverse very low trend productivity growth.

Unless those barriers to change are removed, a lost decade or longer could be in store.

"While overall the West does not suffer from the scale of the difficulties that have plagued Japan, certain European countries, such as Italy, are much more vulnerable to going down the Japanese path than others," Milligan said.

CARROTS AND STICKS

The tricky balancing act for the ECB is to let bond markets apply sufficient pressure on governments to reform while providing enough monetary support to aggregate demand. Hence ECB President Mario Draghi's reassurance that interest rates will stay at current or lower levels for an extended period.

"On the one hand it is helpful that the ECB is adopting some form of forward guidance. It helps offset the view that the rest of the world will follow the path of U.S. policy and clearly has fed into a somewhat lower euro. However, major questions still remain about the ability of the ECB to support individual economies in difficulty," Milligan added.

Of course, there are limits to what any central bank can do. Easier monetary policy can, with time and persistence, raise nominal GDP and so lighten the burden of servicing debt. But central banks cannot make people live longer or work smarter.

The task of wringing more growth and productivity from a shrinking population rests squarely with the government.

In the case of Japan, for all the impetus delivered so far through a fiscal boost and Kuroda's bold monetary policy, that means Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's aim needs to be true when he fires his third arrow' of structural reform after Upper House elections on July 21.

"If PM Abe decides after all to adopt ambitious growth-enhancing measures and Abenomics' proves successful, the most important implication for Europe will be that reviving the economy requires a combination of bold macroeconomic and structural policies, with the right sequencing between the two," said Andre Sapir with Bruegel, a think tank in Brussels.

(Editing by Hugh Lawson)

The league said the hearing would be to decide if the former New England Patriots tight end should be suspended or face other action before a resolution of the charges is reached. It said no player contract with Hernandez would take effect before a hearing.

Hernandez was arrested Wednesday and charged with first-degree murder and weapons counts in the shooting death of a friend, Odin Lloyd. Hernandez was cut by the Patriots after the arrest and before his court appearance and is being held without bail.

Meanwhile, Puma announced Thursday that it has ended its relationship with Hernandez.

The sportswear company ended the two-year contract it agreed to in April with Hernandez, Puma spokesperson Katie Sheptyck said. She did not say how much it was worth.

Hernandez "was going to be involved with our men's training program" but had not started working with Puma and his role wasn't specifically defined, Sheptyck said. The agreement didn't involve product endorsements, she said.

Last Friday, five days before Hernandez was arrested, the company that makes Muscle Milk said it was ending its endorsement deal with him.

CytoSport, based in Benicia, Calif., said in a one-sentence statement that in light of the investigation involving Hernandez, it was terminating its endorsement contract with him effective immediately.

The company, which makes Muscle Milk and other nutritional supplements for athletes, did not disclose the value of the contract or what it called for Hernandez to do.

The Daily Sitka Sentinel reported that Henry Liebman of Seattle was deep-sea fishing off the coast of Alaska on June 21 when he hooked the record-settingfish from a depth of approximately 900 feet.

I knew it was abnormally big (but I) didnt know it was a record until on the way back we looked in the Alaska guide book that was on the boat, Liebman told the paper.

Shortrakers, which have hues of orange, pink or red on top of their white bodies, are one of the most commonly sought fish in Alaska and can live at depths of more than 2,500 feet.

Troy Tidingco, Sitka area manager for the state Department of Fish and Game, said the fish is still being analyzed but he believes it is at least 200 years old. Tidingco said that would beat the current record of 175 years. Researchers are able to determine the age of a shortraker by the number of growth rings along its ear bone.

However, a previously caught rougheye rockfish, similar to the shortraker, was believed to have been 205 years old. Still, Tydingco said that record-setting fish was quite a bit smaller than the 41-inch specimen Liebman caught.

In 2007, a commercial fisherman caught a similarly sized . Amazingly, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association say that fish was still fertile at the time of its capture. "The belly was large," NOAA researcher Paul Spencer told The Associated Press. "The ovaries were full of developing embryos."

Liebman told the paper he plans to have the fish mounted back home in Seattle, but he did provide the Alaska Department of Fish and Game with a sample so its age could be determined.Tidingco noted that if the fish is actually as old as believed, it would easily predate thein 1867.

Scientists say they still don't fully understand animal longevity. Normally, smaller animals tend to outlive larger ones, though that does not necessarily appear to be true with the rockfish. Thewas a clam believed to have been 400-years-old.

Henry Liebman's catch might set a record. (AP)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - I would rather have one Chewbacca than an entire clone army."

That's how director Angela Robinson reacted when suits at Disney suggested that her film "Herbie: Fully Loaded" feature a computer-generated VW Beetle in the title role rather than a nuts-and-bolts car.

Would that Guillermo del Toro had had the same attitude regarding 'Pacific Rim," his new big-budget take on giant robots (here known as "jaegers," German for "hunters") versus giant monsters (which, as any Comic-Con all-access pass-holder can tell you, are known in Japanese as "kaiju").

One guy in one rubber Godzilla suit stepping on a balsa-wood scale model of Tokyo provides lots more thrills than del Toro's Monster Armies of the Night.

Part of the film's problem is the whole "of the Night" thing: whenever the jaegers and the kaiju throw down in "Pacific Rim," it's at night in the pouring rain unless they're both at the bottom of the ocean. What's the point, exactly, of cutting-edge CG monsters filmed in a way where we can barely see them? Would "Jurassic Park" have worked if our glimpses of the dinosaurs had been fleeting at best?

These on-screen battles provide a few jolts one of the film's strong points is that it isn't shot and edited in Michael Bay Confuse-o-Vision but it's a jigsaw of random pieces. We get a robo-fist here and a monster face there, but none of the satisfying head-to-toe action of, say, Rodan or Mothra going toe-to-toe with another zipper-backed beast.

This isn't merely an issue of nostalgia for old-school monster movies; the 1990s saw a Japanese reboot of the "Gamera" series that married the venerable flying, fire-breathing turtle with contemporary sensibilities and visual-effects technologies. If a similar updating was del Toro's objective, he takes a decent stab at it with "Pacific Rim," but ultimately falls short.

If you thought the characterizations and dialogue here would be any richer than the ones in "Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster" or the old "Ultraman" series, get ready for disappointment. "Pacific Rim" posits a world in which kaiju come to Earth from an alternate dimension, and humanity's response is to construct robots so huge and elaborate that they require two operators, sharing a mental connection known as "the drift."

The jaeger program is discontinued after Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) loses his brother Yancy (Diego Klattenhoff) in combat, leading politicians to shift resources to constructing giant walls around coastal cities to keep the monsters out. (With Mexican filmmaker del Toro at the helm, any resemblance between this bone-headed move and real-life U.S. border issues is no doubt intentional.)

When the walls fail, Raleigh returns to service under his old commander, Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) not making up these names, people and despite Pentecost's resistance, it's clear that the pilot best suited to be Raleigh's new partner is Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi), who as a child witnessed the slaughter of her parents at the hands of the kaiju.

No one has ever watched monster movies for the performances, but some very talented people are doing some of their worst work here. Hunnam has been a charismatic TV presence, from the original "Queer as Folk" to "Undeclared" to his current gig on "Sons of Anarchy," but he's an utterly bland leading man here. Elba works in two modes muttering and SIGNIFICANT SHOUTING while Kikuchi, so dryly funny in "The Brothers Bloom," makes for the weeping-est and mewling-est action heroine ever.

No wonder, then, that the movie is stolen by the comedy relief Charlie Day ("It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia") and Burn Gorman ("Torchwood") as a frick-and-frack pair of kaiju experts and del Toro regular and Hunnam's "Sons of Anarchy" co-star Ron Perlman as a trafficker in monster parts. Perlman's presence reminds us of how much Hellboy you get to see in del Toro's "Hellboy," while the other-worldly creatures here are consigned to the shadows.

"Pacific Rim" offers a few laughs and a few thrills, but it feels like a very large platter serving a disappointingly meager meal. Unlike its scaly cinematic ancestors, it never feels like the kind of movie that's going to inspire a seven-year-old to roar and knock over the Lego city he built for just that purpose.

That's when Froome gets the chance to extend his lead over the likes of two-time champion Alberto Contador, 2010 winner Andy Schleck and 2011 winner Cadel Evans in the Tour's first individual time trial, one of his favorite disciplines.

Froome's rivals are already lagging behind after two punishing days of climbing in the Pyrenees that underlined the British rider's status as the clear favorite.

Contador is nearly two minutes back but has not given up hope. He says ''everyone's legs are hurting, but if you don't think you can succeed then you never will. So we have to take a few risks.''

Cilest is manufactured by Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc, a unit of Johnson & Johnson. Spokeswoman Michelle Romano said the recall of 179 batches was initiated because one active ingredient in Cilest did not lead to a "defined specification" in one routine internal test.

Media reports have said the tests showed one of the two hormones in Cilest was being released more slowly than intended. The pill is available in 43 countries, but is not sold in the U.S.

Cilest contains two hormones that are similar to the natural hormones estrogen and progesterone. Cilest, which women use to avoid unwanted pregnancies, works by preventing the release of eggs from the ovary.

The product remains safe and effective, Romano said, adding that there is no risk for the women who had taken the pill. Less than 800,000 individual consumer packets remain available for sale, she said.

The recall, of which wholesalers and pharmacies were notified in the week of May 27, involves pills that were manufactured in or after 2011. The company did not issue a formal press release announcing the recall.

"The recall is at the wholesale and pharmacy level and this is not a patient level recall," Romano said.

In the past two years J&J has recalled over-the-counter drugs, contact lenses, heart devices, and insulin pump cartridges.

In March J&J's LifeScan unit recalled and replaced nearly 2 million meters used to measure blood glucose levels in diabetics due to a failure to operate properly at extremely high glucose readings.

(Reporting by Sakthi Prasad in Bangalore; Editing by Daniel Magnowski)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Video game journalist and podcaster Ryan Davis, known for his devout fan following in the tight-knit community, died last week at the age of 34, Giant Bomb, the news gaming site he cofounded, said on Monday.

Davis had a visible online presence in the video game community through the popular podcast "the Giant Bombcast" he hosted every week to discuss industry news and review games.

A former editor at the video game news site GameSpot, Davis co-founded Giant Bomb in 2008. Three years later, Time magazine named it one of the top 50 websites of the year, describing it as a sort of Wikipedia for gaming news, reviews and commentary - "a mashup of a traditional game-info destination."

The cause of Davis' death, which occurred less than a week after his wedding, was not given by Giant Bomb.

"In the face of this awfulness, many of us will at least always remember him as we last saw him: outrageously, uproariously happy, looking forward to his next adventure with the biggest grin his face could hold," Matthew Rorie, product manager at Giant Bomb, said in a message posted on the site.

Minutes after the post was published on Monday, video game industry analysts, game enthusiasts, journalists and games publishers like Ubisoft and Amazon Video Games took to Twitter to express their sense of loss.

"A sad day in the industry, RIP Ryan Davis," was posted on the official twitter feed of Amazon Video Games.

"Every time I saw Ryan Davis, I left smiling," tweeted Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter.

(Reporting by Malathi Nayak; Editing by Edith Honan)