SERRA SAN BRUNO, Italy, May 7 (Reuters) - Tour de France champion Bradley Wiggins has yet to show the form of last season that would make him top favourite for the Giro d'Italia, according to Juan Jose Cobo, the last non-Team Sky rider to beat the Briton on a Grand Tour.

"He's not necessarily the strongest rider," Spaniard Cobo told Reuters before Tuesday's fourth stage where Wiggins lost 17 seconds as the peloton split in the final kilometres.

"Personally I think (Italian) Vincenzo Nibali is equally likely to win."

Wiggins dropped from second to sixth overall on Tuesday, 34 seconds adrift of Italian Luca Paolini. Nibali is in fourth and last year's winner Ryder Hesjedal of Canada fifth, 31 and 34 seconds off the pace respectively.

Cobo, who toppled Wiggins and his Sky team mate Chris Froome to win the 2011 Tour of Spain, believes Wiggins may not be at his best, while others have shown they are in great shape.

"If Bradley had the same level as in last year's Tour then he's probably unbeatable but that's not at all clear yet this season," he said.

"Nibali has been very strong in all the races he's done this year and Wiggins hasn't yet had a chance to show his hand.

"Hesjedal has been very active in a lot of races too, and yesterday (Monday) when he attacked on that last climb, he showed he's got really good form," he added.

"That was very impressive, and he's the most recent winner of the Giro. He's somebody who has to count."

Wiggins has not won a race this season, while Nibali has taken the Tirreno-Adriatico stage race ahead of Froome and the Giro del Trentino, Italy's key warm-up race for the Giro d'Italia, ahead of Wiggins.

"Bradley is a favourite, but one of several, not the top candidate," Cobo said. "He's not been up there yet, but we'll see what happens."

STRONGEST TEAM

Cobo, who raced against Wiggins in last year's Tour de France but as part of his build-up for the Tour of Spain, his big target of the year, said Sky were the strongest team collectively in the Giro.

"When it comes to the third week, they'll be the ones who really matter, they'll make the running," he said.

Cobo said although he beat Wiggins in the 2011 Tour of Spain, wrenching the lead from him on the Angliru, Spain's toughest single climb, the Briton had not been in his top condition then.

"He was coming back from a lot of injuries and a bad crash in the Tour de France. It's nice to have done it, I won't forget that I beat him but you have to keep it in perspective," he said.

Racing injured after he crashed and hit his knee in the reconnaissance of Sunday's team time trial, Cobo was dropped on Tuesday's final climb of the Croce Ferrata early on.

"I was hoping to do well, perhaps even a top-10 result but with this injury, that's not going to happen," he said.

"My best option now is a stage win and to work for (Spanish Movistar overall contender) Benat Intxausti (who lies third behind Rigoberto Uran and Paolini). I'm not going to be beating Wiggins in this year's race, that's for sure."(Editing by Sonia Oxley)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Viewers are gearing up to crown the first female winner of "American Idol" in six years, but the biggest drama at the once-dominant Fox TV singing contest is taking place backstage over which of the celebrity judges will be voted off.

Audiences for what was the most-watched TV show in the United States for eight years have slumped to new lows in the current 12th season, despite the addition of singers Mariah Carey, Nicki Minaj and Keith Urban to the judging panel.

Veteran record producer Randy Jackson, the only member of the panel to have been with the show since it started in 2002, announced on Thursday that he was quitting after viewers vote for their winner next week.

Jackson's announcement came a day after entertainment website TheWrap reported that Carey, Minaj and Urban would not be asked back, along with the show's longtime executive producer, Nigel Lythgoe.

TheWrap.com said that Fox television was turning against paying huge salaries for big-name judges, only to see ratings fall.

Fox and production company FremantleMedia on Thursday declined to comment on the overhaul reported by TheWrap that have overshadowed the battle between singers Angie Miller, Candice Glover and Kree Harrison to reach the two-part finale.

Carey, one of the world's best-known recording artists, is getting a reported $17 million salary, with rapper Minaj pulling in about $12 million and country singer Urban around $7 million a year for their jobs on the contest.

Audiences for "American Idol" have fallen to around 12 million viewers per episode in recent months, compared to about 30 million during the show's heyday in 2006 and 2007.

The show is facing stiff competition from NBC rival "The Voice."

The report by TheWrap followed a story in The Hollywood Reporter last month that said producers had considered a mid-season replacement of Carey with Jennifer Lopez, who had quit the panel in 2012.

A Fox television spokeswoman termed that report "another ridiculous 'Idol' judge rumor."

DIVAS GRAB THE SPOTLIGHT

Minaj told "Idol" host Ryan Seacrest in a Thursday interview for his E! News show that she enjoyed being a judge. But she dodged the issue of whether she would be back.

"I feel happy here and I have to thank them for giving me this chance. They could have picked anyone in the world. And they picked me. So that's all I'll say about that," Minaj said.

Lyndsey Parker, managing editor of Yahoo! Music, said that Minaj had been met with a backlash from the core, middle-aged and family "Idol" audience, especially after reports last year of a feud between her and Carey.

"I think they were hoping she would bring in some kind of youthful audience but that doesn't appear to have happened," Parker told Reuters.

As for Carey, "she came to the panel with a lot more credibility than many others, but I don't think she is very good TV - a little bit low energy - and she rambles," Parker said.

The backstage drama comes in a strong season for women, with female singers dominating the final rounds for the first time in years.

On Thursday night, Seacrest will announce which contestants viewers have chosen to be in the finale in Los Angeles next Wednesday and Thursday.

Battling for the two spots are piano-playing pop singer Miller, 18, from Massachusetts; former travel agent turned powerhouse soul singer Glover, 23, from South Carolina; and 22-year-old country singer Harrison, from Texas, whose personal story and the loss of both her parents has won as many hearts as her voice.

Whoever is crowned the new "American Idol" will be the first female winner since Jordin Sparks in 2007.

Fox is a unit of NewsCorp.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Xavier Briand)

The announcement was made Tuesday. Villaume is only the third person named to the position in the company's 56-year history.

Villaume's career has included engagements with New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden and Washington's National Opera.

After opening the Dallas Opera's 2013-2014 season by conducting "Carmen," he'll return to the Royal Opera House for performances.

Villaume also will maintain a schedule of symphonic performances, including concerts with the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and the Slovenian Philharmonic.

Dallas Opera General Director Keith Cerny says he believes Villaume "will prove an excellent ambassador for the company while attending to his many national and international conducting engagements."

Cut a staggering $4 trillion from deficits while protecting big benefit programs, subsidizing more health care, plowing extra money into education and avoiding tax increases on everyone except the rich? Not on this Earth.

The postelection reality is starting to shake out now, though how it will all settle can't yet be known.

To reach for his promised deficit reduction, Obama has proposed breaking his tax promise. Toward the same end, his pledge from four years earlier that he wouldn't trim cost-of-living benefits in Social Security has given way to a proposal to do just that.

None of that might happen.

Republicans, who oppose tax increases, and Democrats, who object to curbs on entitlements, could block his path and in doing so save Obama from breaking his own promises.

If they do, though, that big pledge to bring down deficits by $4 trillion would surely have no hope at all.

That's the overarching dilemma in a catalog of campaign promises facing varying prospects over the next few years.

Obama is driving toward success on his energy goals. He's got a decent chance of achieving an immigration overhaul. Activists who once ridiculed his promise to be a "fierce advocate" of gay rights say he's come around and become just that.

Much else is bogged in the budget swamp or is a nonstarter for one reason or another. Anything costing big money comes with big obstacles, and one promise that cost relatively little, gun control, is dust. Yet Obama, in powering through with his health care overhaul, financial regulation and stimulus spending in his first term, has shown that tough causes aren't always lost ones.

A look at Obama's leading promises and what's happening with them:

Debt:

The promise: Cut deficits by $4 trillion over a decade.

Prospects: Deals with Congress to cap spending and raise taxes on wealthier people, along with the resulting savings on interest payments on the debt, have already achieved a projected $2.6 trillion in deficit reduction for the years ahead. But the rest of the $4 trillion will be tough. To get there, he proposes a 10-year $583 billion tax increase, an additional layer of tax increases from slower indexing of tax brackets for inflation and modest curbs to federal health care programs, all helping to produce further interest savings.

Republicans are so far standing firm against further tax increases and liberal Democrats are a tough sell on trimming entitlement programs and other spending. This, as the Congressional Budget Office warns that "such high and rising debt would have serious consequences" if unchecked. Among those consequences are reduced national savings and investment, a potential fiscal crisis and higher interest costs for the government.

___

Economy:

The promise: An approach to deficit reduction that doesn't undermine the recovery or unduly burden the middle class. Also, cut some corporate tax rates, penalize those who shift work overseas and create 1 million manufacturing jobs by 2016.

Prospects: Obama has had mixed success cutting the deficit without slowing growth. He struck a deal with Congress to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a set of tax increases and spending cuts in January. Businesses responded by stepping up hiring and spending.

But he and Republican leaders allowed Social Security taxes to rise, cutting take-home pay for nearly all working Americans. He wasn't able to avoid $85 billion in automatic spending cuts that started March 1.

Manufacturing has been creating more jobs but adding 1 million more by 2016 is unlikely. That would require 250,000 new factory jobs per year, nearly double the current pace. Overall, the unemployment rate dropped to 7.5 percent in April, the lowest in four years of recession and ragged recovery. The economy is growing modestly but steadily. It expanded at a 2.5 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter.

___

Education:

The promise: Raise the high school graduation rate from 78 percent to 90 percent by 2020 and make the country No. 1 in college graduates by that year. Cut federal money to colleges that don't control tuition costs.

Prospects: A rocky path at best. There's little momentum in Congress for the spending required, his pledge to make the U.S. first in college graduates is a long shot and tuitions are climbing without the promised federal penalty.

Obama has proposed $36 billion for Pell Grants in 2013. Yet those grants now cover less than one-third of the cost of a four-year public college. In 1980, they covered 69 percent of the costs.

___

Energy:

The promise: Cut oil imports by half by 2020.

Prospects: He could well deliver on this promise. New drilling technologies have unlocked enormous domestic reserves of crude oil and natural gas. Policies that mandate increasing use of renewable fuels and better vehicle fuel economy have helped slash demand. That has translated into a dramatic reduction in oil imports and increase in diesel and gasoline exports.

But oil and gasoline are global commodities. If Mideast turmoil disrupts oil production there, prices worldwide will rise, even if the U.S. gets little or no oil from that region. The U.S. economy won't ever be free from the effect of high oil prices. It just may be able to get much less oil from abroad.

___

Entitlements:

The promise: No cuts in Social Security cost-of-living increases. Protect Medicare from Republican proposals to turn it into a voucher-like program.

Prospects:Obama is ready to break his Social Security pledge from the 2008 campaign. He favors a new measure of inflation that would gradually trim benefit increases in Social Security, Medicare and other programs. The change, if adopted, eventually would cut Social Security benefits $560 a year for an average 75-year-old, $136 for a 65-year-old.

His approach to Medicare savings is different from one proposed by House Republicans to transform the program. He'd cut Medicare payments to service providers and is proposing that a growing share of seniors pay higher premiums over time, based on their incomes. Such Medicare changes were foreseen before the 2012 election. Meantime, Washington is expanding Medicaid to bring in more of the low-income uninsured.

For years, budget hawks have insisted that huge entitlements must be on the table for true fiscal discipline to be achieved. They're on the table now.

___

Gay rights:

The promise: Be a "fierce advocate" for gay rights. Obama endorsed gay marriage in 2012.

?Prospects: The course for gay marriage will be shaped by the Supreme Court, expected to rule on the matter in June. It's allowed in 10 states and the District of Columbia; many other states seem unlikely to follow suit unless forced by Congress or the court. But cultural attitudes are changing, as did Obama's views. His administration argued in favor of gay marriage rights to the court.

It seems unlikely the court will order gay marriage to be legalized in all states but its ruling could help same-sex married couples on estate taxes, Social Security benefits and other tangible matters. In his first term Obama lifted the ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces.

___

Global warming:

The promise: "Continue to reduce the carbon pollution that is heating our planet."

Prospects: Obama probably will take more steps to reduce the pollution blamed for climate change, but they are unlikely to be of the scale needed to help much in slowing the heating of the planet. Any policy to reduce heat-trapping pollution will target coal burned by power plants and oil refined for automobiles; those industries have powerful protectors in both parties.

Obama has acted on his own, to increase mileage standards and impose pollution control on future power plants. More such executive action is likely; a law is not.

___

Gun control:

The promise: Ban assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, expand background checks, and more, a postelection pledge made after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

Prospects: Obama said he would "put everything I've got into this." His everything wasn't enough. Entrenched support for gun rights and a powerful campaign by the National Rifle Association blocked efforts to pass a single aspect of Obama's package, the first attempt to significantly change the nation's gun laws in over two decades.

Polling found as many as 90 percent of those questioned supported expanded background checks, but even that fell short in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

___

Health care:

The promise: Ensure access to affordable insurance for all and no gutting of Medicare or Medicaid.

Prospects: Obama is likely to achieve his goal of extending coverage to the uninsured. Affordability is another question. Costs are expected to go up, not down, contrary to what Obama promised in his first term.

Some Medicare cuts Obama is willing to enact would hit beneficiaries. Well-to-do seniors and growing numbers of upper middle-class retirees could face higher monthly premiums.

___

Immigration:

The promise: Overhaul the immigration system to provide eventual citizenship to those who came here illegally, tighten borders and smooth legal immigration.

Prospects: Obama failed to deliver on his first-term promise to rework immigration law. His chances of pulling that off are much better now.

Even with a bipartisan Senate group having released legislation to accomplish those goals, however, success is not certain. Even so, the political climate is ripe for change thanks to a shift in Republican attitudes in 2012, when Latino and Asian voters backed Obama in record numbers.?

___

Iran:

The promise: "Do what we must to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon."

Prospects: Sanctions are destroying Iran's economy but not its will to enrich more uranium. By his own timeline, Obama has about a year left to see if diplomacy and sanctions can get Iran to slow its enrichment of uranium and assure the world its nuclear program is peaceful. If the U.S. and its partners cannot succeed, the stage may be set for an American or Israeli military intervention.

___

Taxes:

The promise: Raise taxes on individuals making more than $200,000 and married couples making more than $250,000. No tax increases for people making less. Ensure millionaires pay at least 30 percent of their income in federal taxes.

Prospects: Obama's 2014 budget, if passed, would break his promise to avoid any tax increases for middle and low-income people. He proposes a new inflation yardstick that would expose most people to higher income taxes, especially poorer workers.

He kept his promise to raise taxes on the rich, though at different income levels than he laid out in the campaign: $400,000 for individuals, $450,000 for couples. Republicans dismiss his proposed minimum rate for millionaires as a gimmick.

___

Associated Press writers Dina Cappiello, Philip Elliott, Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Christopher S. Rugaber, Stephen Ohlemacher, Jonathan Fahey, Bradley Klapper, Erica Werner, David Crary, Nedra Pickler, and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Hollande, a Socialist, rose to the presidency last May, promising to spare France the austerity measures imposed elsewhere in Europe. And the French government has largely avoided the deep spending cuts, big tax hikes and the wide-ranging reforms of many of its neighbors.

Instead, it has nibbled around the edges of its deficit, cutting 10 billion euros ($13 billion) in spending and increasing taxes, largely on the rich, by 20 billion euros. That's relatively little for a country with 2 trillion euro economy of which 57 percent is government spending.

Still, France's economy has continued to deteriorate, with growth stagnating and unemployment rising above 10 percent.

Leftists who took the streets on Sunday largely from parties to the left of Hollande's mainstream Socialist Party rejected the notion that Hollande had spared France a worse fate.

"Salaries are frozen. They continue to reduce hiring in the public sector," said Brigitte Blang, a 64-year-old teacher from eastern France. "We're waiting for true leftist policies. There's money in the coffers!"

Blang was among tens of thousands of people from around the country who gathered around Paris' iconic Place de la Bastille, named for the prison stormed by French revolutionaries in 1789. They carried signs that said, "Down with austerity," ''Out with finance, humans first" and "OUSTerity finance should pay."

Paris police said 30,000 people showed up, although protest organizers said there were 180,000. After speeches, the crowd marched to another Paris square.

Several protesters acknowledged that they voted for Hollande a year ago either simply to ensure the incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy's defeat or because they had hope for his leadership.

Hollande's failure to keep the support of those on the far left protesting in Paris on Sunday while also angering the right who think his economic reforms and budget cuts haven't gone far enough has made him one the least popular presidents in modern French history. In a sign of how he is being squeezed from both sides, police said 15,000 people largely right-leaning gathered in another part of Paris on Sunday to protest the recent passage of a law legalizing gay marriage.

Hollande and his ministers have pleaded for more time to allow their policies to take hold.

On the one hand, France's reluctance to enact major budget cuts may seem prescient to some as many economists and politicians in Europe rethink the austerity programs demanded in exchange for bailouts. The effects of budget cuts and tax increases have been much more detrimental to growth than some expected, and the prolonged recession and high unemployment in many countries has begun to make those policies untenable.

But others note that France hasn't just shied away from budget cuts, it has also skimped on reforms. While Spain and Italy may be struggling more than France currently, both countries are also laying the groundwork for a strong, durable recovery, many economists say.

France, on the other hand, may be left behind when the rebound comes since it has only partially committed to labor market reforms. Many of its companies are still not competitive on the world stage, its government spending is still too high and Hollande's administration has only exacerbated the impression that France is a difficult place to do business. One of his ministers has had very public spats with Goodyear, ArcelorMittal and Yahoo in the past year.

Hollande has been trying to turn that reputation around, recently unveiling a raft of tax cuts for entrepreneurs. But that announcement is a good example of the bind he finds himself in: Those very tax cuts were held up as a call to arms for Sunday's protest. And many deplored what they see as a stranglehold on power exercised by big companies and banks.

"Our march ...is a protest against the coup d'etat of the world of finance that is happening throughout Europe," said Jean-Luc Melenchon, the head of a grouping of leftist political parties known as the Left Front.

NEW YORK/CHICAGO (Reuters) - For years, Apple Inc was a stock investor's dream regardless of the market environment. But now concern about the iPhone maker's growth has made many investors wary about a big share swing after its earnings are released on Tuesday.

Options pricing on Friday suggested a post-earnings move of about 7.5 percent by April 26. That is far more than in the past and reflects the fact that Apple stock has become more volatile.

The company, once the world's largest by market value, saw its shares close below $400 on Thursday for the first time since December 2011. It has shed nearly $300 billion in market value since peaking at $705.07 a share in September.

"Being a bear on Apple used to be a lonely position. The tables have turned," said Enis Taner, global macro editor at options research firm RiskReversal.com in New York.

A 7.5 percent swing for Apple would be the fourth largest one-day post-earnings move in the last five years, according to research firm Birinyi Associates. That could take shares as high as $419.20 or as low as $360.80, based on the weekly $390 "straddle" expiring on April 26, which cost $29.20 on Friday.

Traders use prices on the straddle to estimate the market's view of the potential range of a stock going into an event such as earnings. A straddle combines the purchase of a call option and put option with the same strike price and expiration date.

A move of 7.5 percent would exceed the average move in Apple after its earnings, which in the last eight quarters has been 5.4 percent. Apple's biggest post-earnings swing was a 12.4 percent drop on January 23 of this year.

Apple is expected to report an 8 percent increase in quarterly revenue, among the weakest displays of quarterly growth in years, according to estimates. Earnings per share are expected to fall 18 percent as Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other rivals erode market share for phones and tablets and put downward pressure on margins.

Because the stock was such a stalwart, investors for years knew it was difficult to go against the crowd. Between July 2009 and November 2012, short interest - the percentage of shares borrowed by investors who "short," or bet against, the stock - on Apple never exceeded two percent of the company's shares outstanding. At the current 2.1 percent, Apple's short interest is still lower than 55 percent of U.S. companies, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine.

Expectations of how much the stock is likely to move in coming weeks have also increased. Apple options show implied volatility for the next 30 days was 43.5 percent on Friday, according to data from options analytics firm Livevol.

That implies about a 4 percent move in the stock in either direction in the next month, said Livevol managing director Ophir Gottlieb.

Historic volatility for Apple for the 30-day period over the past year was about 34 percent. It has been rising over the past several months.

Many analysts still expect the stock to rebound because of still-strong demand for Apple's products. But there are many institutions that own shares bought at higher prices and they might remain a source of selling pressure if buyers surface, said Phil Erlanger, president of institutional research firm Phil Erlanger Research in Acton, Massachusetts.

"The problem for Apple is that those that have hung onto their shares after September will represent significant supply, which tends to squash any short-term advance," Erlanger said.

Apple is currently trading at nine times trailing earnings and 45 of 58 analysts polled by Reuters give the stock a "strong buy" or "buy" rating. According to Thomson Reuters Starmine, Apple's intrinsic value - a price target based on expected growth rates over the next decade - was about $565 a share.

The stock closed 0.4 percent lower on Friday at $390.53.

(Reporting By Angela Moon and Doris Frankel; Editing by David Gaffen and Andre Grenon)

U.S. President Barack Obama got his eighth entry on the annual list of the 100 top global titans, leaders, artists, pioneers and icons, along with his wife Michelle, newly installed Pope Francis, British royal Kate Middleton, Beyonce, Justin Bieber's manager Scooter Braun and basketball player LeBron James.

Former PayPal entrepreneur Musk was named to the list as his SpaceX devlops space transport with an ultimate goal of enabling people to live on other planets.

In the international field, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Philippines President Noynoy Aquino, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi and China's glamorous new first lady Peng Liyuan were among those making the list.

Time said that for the first time it is issuing seven separate covers for its 100 Most Influential People edition, which is published in the United States on Friday.

Chinese tennis player Li Na, 31, the first Asian woman to win a Grand Slam title, and Bollywood actor and political activist Aamir Kahn, will be featured on the front of international editions, while Jay-Z, Lawrence, Musk, Yousufzai and U.S. Republican Senator Rand Paul will be featured on five different U.S. covers.

The list is not ranked, but Time managing editor Rick Stengel said the seven cover portraits "reflect the breadth and depth of the list."

Jay-Z, 43, a recording artist and entrepreneur with interests in sport and fashion, was described by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg as embodying the American Dream.

"In nearly everything he's tried, he's found success. (He even put a ring on Beyonce.) And in doing so, he's proved that the American Dream is alive and well," Bloomberg wrote of the "Empire State of Mind" singer.

Yousufzai, 15 has become an international symbol of resistance to the Taliban's efforts to deny women rights after she was shot in head in Pakistan in October 2012 for speaking out on the importance of education for girls.

Chelsea Clinton, daughter of former U.S. President Bill Clinton, said the Taliban "almost made Malala a martyr; they succeeded in making her a symbol."

Lawrence, 22, won an Oscar in February for her role as an outspoken young widow in movie "Silver Linings Playbook" and is the star of young adult movie franchise "The Hunger Games."

The complete list can be seen at http://time100.time.com/

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

(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)

Mothers who pick up their infants and walk with them when they are crying trigger a specific set of emotional and physical responses,published in the journal Current Biology on Thursday. Researchers believe the responses originally developed to promote bonding between a mother and her child.

In aof the study, scientists point out that the mothers of many mammalian species demonstrate this carrying behavior. They claim that this is the first time that the anecdotal evidence regarding the efficacy of carrying and other soothing techniques demonstrated by mothers has been the subject of scientific research.

Here is some of the key information that emerged on Thursday regarding this new study into the mother-infant bonding process.

* The behaviors that the scientists measured, which included a specific set of "central, motor, and cardiac regulations" all were triggered specifically by mothers carrying their infants while walking. Mothers who were sitting and holding their babies did not trigger nearly the same level of response in their infants, according to the researchers' report.

* Measured responses to being picked up and carried included a rapid decrease in heart rate, as well as a halt to voluntary movement and crying.

* Researchers who conducted the study believe that the behaviors developed to increase mother-infant bonding. Specifically, that these behaviors in infants, which they defined as "innate," are meant to promote "maternal proximity" by triggering a particular set of responses to being separated from their mothers, according to the report in Current Biology.

*the study was a particularly small one, involving a sample group of just 12 infants and their mothers. The babies were all between the ages of 1 month and 6 months old.

* Researchers observed that when an infant began crying, if their mother picked them up and began walking around, that there was an observable "automatic change" to the mother's actions, according to the MyHealthNewsDaily report.

* This response has led the researchers to speculate that carrying an infant may be a more effective way to soothe them than other techniques, including rocking.

* Although this particular study specifically looked at an infant's response when picked up by their mother, the scientists were quick to point out that any primary caregiver -- whether father, grandparent, or other adult in the household -- may be able to trigger the same responses.

* The researchers also tested mice to see if the same behavioral mechanisms would reveal themselves, which they did.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation still on Sunday had been unable to interview the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, who was injured on Friday while on the run from police, Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told CBS-TV's "Face the Nation" program.

U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz, the federal prosecutor for the Boston area, was reviewing information about possible charges against Tsarnaev and more information would be forthcoming later on Sunday, Davis said.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Philip Barbara)