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Britain's Queen Elizabeth had special cause for celebrations on Thursday when her horse Estimate won the Royal Ascot Gold Cup. _0"> On a day of sentimental successes and broken records, it was the first time a reigning monarch's horse had claimed victory in the race's 207-year history. Estimate, a four-year-old filly trained by Michael Stoute, held off a challenge by Simenon in the final furlong to win by a neck and initiate a rapturous reception for the Queen in the winner's enclosure. The Queen was expected to present the winner's trophy, but instead received it from her second son, the Duke of York. Estimate, a 7-2 favorite, won at Royal Ascot last year when landing the Queen's Vase. The Queen's grandson Peter Phillips told Channel 4: "It's amazing! This is her passion and her life.   "She's here every year and she strives to have winners -- to win the big one at Royal Ascot means so much to her." Jockey Ryan Moore

David Beckham drew a line under China's soccer history on Thursday, saying he hoped to inspire local children to get back into the sport. _0"> Appointed in March as a Chinese soccer ambassador shortly before the start of the new Super League season, the former England captain faces a tough task with local soccer still in a quagmire following a long line of graft issues.   In February, two former soccer administration heads were banned for life by the Chinese Football Association for accepting bribes, while Shanghai Shenhua, who made waves by signing former Chelsea strike duo Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, were docked points for matchfixing and stripped of the 2003 title. "When I first came on as ambassador of the Super League, I was well aware of what has happened in the past, and people question why I wanted to be involved in something that in the past had a bad name or corruption involved," Beckham told reporters in Shanghai. "For me, the past is t

Olympic silver medalist Carmelita Jeter has pulled out of the U.S. championships due to injury but will still be eligible for August's world championships in Moscow as defending 100 meters titlist, officials said on Thursday. _0"> Jeter, the second fastest female sprinter of all-time, injured her right quadriceps at the Shanghai Diamond League meeting in May and has not run since then.   She won the world 100 meters gold in South Korea in 2011, earning her an automatic berth in the August 10-18 world championships. She will be able to accept the wild card spot without competing in the U.S. championships because of the injury, a USA Track and Field spokeswoman said. The U.S. meeting, being held in Des Moines, Iowa through Sunday, serves as the American trials for the world championships. (Editing by Larry Fine)

New England Patriots football player Aaron Hernandez was mobbed by reporters and trailed by a news helicopter on Thursday as investigators probed the killing of a young man found less than a mile from the star tight end's sprawling home in North Attleborough, Massachusetts. _0"> The body of 27-year-old Odin Lloyd, a semi-professional football player for the Boston Bandits, was discovered on Monday in an industrial park in the town, which lies about 40 miles south of Boston. Police have since searched Hernandez's house and questioned him. A spokeswoman for the Bristol County Prosecutor's Office, Yasmina Serdarevic, said on Thursday prosecutors were not prepared to discuss possible suspects. "All I can say is that this is an active homicide investigation," she said. Hernandez has also been slapped with a civil lawsuit by a Connecticut man, Alexander Bradley, who claims the Patriots tight end shot him in the face after the two left a Miami strip club in

American Charley Hoffman kick-started his bid for redemption at the Travelers Championship with a stunning nine-under-par 61 for a one-shot lead after Thursday's opening round in Connecticut. _0"> Hoffman, looking to atone for last year's collapse when he squandered a two-shot lead with two holes to play, turned a steady start of five straight pars into a sensational round, carding five birdies and two eagles over the final 13 holes. Compatriot Hunter Mahan, fresh off a share of fourth place at the U.S. Open, was alone in second following a bogey-free, eight-birdie 62 while big-hitting Bubba Watson sits third following an entertaining 63.   Hoffman came to the 17th tee in last season's event at TPC River Highlands with a two-shot lead over Marc Leishman's clubhouse number but double-bogeyed to drop into a tie before making bogey on 18 to hand the Australian the win. "Believe it or not, I was thinking about (last year) going down 16, 17, 18," said

Champions Audi seized the top three grid spots for the Le Mans 24 Hours sportscar race on Thursday with Frenchman Loic Duval securing pole position for the number two car shared with Denmark's Tom Kristensen and Britain's Allan McNish. _0"> The lockout by the three diesel hybrid factory cars was Audi's first since 2002 at the Sarthe circuit.   Duval's best time of three minutes 22.349 seconds was set in Wednesday night's first session with changeable weather and red flag interruptions thwarting others' efforts to go faster on Thursday. The number one Audi R18 e-tron shared by Andre Lotterer, Marcel Fassler and Benoit Treluyer - winners for the last two years - will start in second place with the number three car of Oliver Jarvis, Lucas Di Grassi and Marc Gene in third. Toyota, Audi's main rivals for victory on the 90th anniversary of the endurance classic, which is in its 81st edition, qualified fourth and fifth but threaten to be stronger in t

Eight-time Pro Bowl quarterback Tom Brady steered the high-scoring New England Patriots to another AFC East crown last season but turmoil in the team's receiving ranks could pose a problem for the 2013 campaign. Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez, the team's twin towers of strength at the tight end position, are both under clouds, a new crew of wide receivers has been brought in to audition and Brady's favorite pass target has been replaced.   "We've had a lot of turnover this year, especially at that position," Brady told reporters about the pack of wide receivers he has been working with in organized workouts. "Really there hasn't been anyone we've thrown to in any game action." Gronkowski, who in 2011 led the National Football League with 17 touchdown catches, underwent back surgery on Tuesday, his fifth operation in less than a year following four surgeries on his left forearm. Hernandez, another of Brady's favorite receivers, i

An airplane entirely powered by the sun landed in Washington on Sunday after a flight from St. Louis, the next-to-last leg of a journey across the United States intended to boost support for clean energy technologies. _0"> The Solar Impulse landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington at 12:15 a.m. EDT, organizers said in a statement. It will remain in the U.S. capital until it takes off for New York in early July for the last leg of its historic trip.   If the spindly experimental aircraft completes the journey as planned, it will be the first solar-powered plane capable of operating day and night to fly across the United States. "It proves the reliability and potential of clean technologies, and this is crucial in pushing our message forward," Swiss pilot Bertrand Piccard said in the statement. Piccard founded the Solar Impulse project with fellow pilot Andre Borschberg. With the wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car, the Solar Imp

AstraZeneca has chosen a science park on the southern outskirts of Cambridge, England, next to the world-renowned Addenbrooke's Hospital, for its new $500 million global headquarters and research center. Property industry sources told Reuters last month that the Cambridge Biomedical Campus (CBC) was the most likely site for the new facility, which will house some 2,000 employees - a decision confirmed by the drugmaker on Tuesday.   Transplanting the heart of the company to the university city is the centerpiece of a $2.3 billion restructuring plan unveiled by new Chief Executive Pascal Soriot in March, which also includes a 10 percent cut in overall staff numbers by 2016. Soriot is trying to turn around the group's fortunes after a series of drug development disappointments by investing more in research and bolt-on acquisitions, while reining in costs. AstraZeneca said at the time that it planned to establish a new global research and development center and corporate head

French start-up company Ynsect has identified a cheap, nourishing and locally sourced alternative to soybeans as a vital source of protein in animal feed. The clue is in its name. Ynsect is not alone in looking to invertebrates to meet a jump in demand for meat and fish, and so for feed, in coming decades. Black soldier flies, common housefly larvae, silkworms and yellow mealworms were named as among the most promising species for industrial feed output in a report last month by the FAO, the United Nations food agency.   "Given insects' natural role as food for a number of farmed livestock species, it is worth reconsidering their role as feed for specific poultry and fish species," the Food and Agriculture Organization's report said. Jean-Gabriel Levon, co-founder of Ynsect, said new protein sources were essential in a market where costs are set to climb. "Insects are an interesting source which can be bred locally," Levon said. "We are in the sa

The European Space Agency signed final contracts with Thales Alenia Space Italy for work on a pair of missions to assess if the planet Mars has or ever had life, officials said at the Paris Airshow this week. Until last year, the ExoMars program was a joint project between ESA and the U.S. space agency NASA. But NASA dropped out, citing budget problems. The Russian space agency Roscosmos stepped in to provide two Proton rockets to send an orbiting atmospheric probe and test lander to Mars in January 2016, and a follow-on rover in August 2018 that will drill below the planet's surface to look for spores and bacteria. Roscosmos also is providing a landing system for the rover and scientific instruments. "It took some time, some energy, some efforts from a lot of different parties. It was not easy to move from an ESA-NASA cooperation to an ESA-Roscosmos cooperation," Jean-Jacques Dordain, head of ESA, told reporters after signing a 230 million euros ($300 million) con

A start-up asteroid mining firm that launched a crowd-funding campaign to gauge interest in a planned space telescope reached its $1 million goal, company officials said on Thursday. Bellevue, Washington-based Planetary Resources intends to build and operate telescopes to hunt for asteroids orbiting near Earth and robotic spacecraft to mine them. The company, whose financial backers include Google's founders, also envisions a companion educational and outreach program to let students, museums and armchair astronomers make use of the first telescrope that Planetary Resources plans to build, called Arkyd. Three weeks ago, Planetary Resources launched a crowd-funding initiative on Kickstarter to assess interest in the project and set a goal of raising $1 million by June 30. "It surpassed that amount Wednesday night," company spokeswoman Stacey Tearne wrote in an email. "We currently have 12,000-plus backers who have pledged just over $1.07 million," Tearne s

A budget shortfall has forced a Pentagon security unit to sharply cut back on regular investigations used to update security clearances for defense contractor employees. In a little-noticed announcement posted on its website on June 7, the Defense Security Service said that "due to a funding shortfall," it has been obliged to suspend "most" routine re-investigations of defense contractor employers cleared at the "Top Secret" level, at least through the end of September.   The announcement came two days before Edward Snowden went public in a video released by Britain's Guardian newspaper as the source of leaks about the U.S. government's top-secret surveillance of phone and Internet activity. Snowden was a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton working as a systems administrator at a National Security Agency facility in Hawaii. The leaks have alarmed the U.S. intelligence community and have raised questions about whether the government is doing en

U.S. talks with the Taliban are likely to be held within the "next few days" in Qatar, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday, after delays caused by tensions over the naming of a new Taliban office in the capital, Doha. _0"> A senior U.S. official told Reuters on Tuesday the talks would take place on Thursday.   Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Wednesday his government would not join the peace talks with the Taliban, angered by a banner on the front of the new offices referring to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan , the name the Taliban used during their rule. Later, a statement from Karzai's office said the banner had been taken down. (Reporting by Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Eric Beech)

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska publicly backed gay marriage on Wednesday, becoming the third Republican senator to do so as she spoke out ahead of potentially landmark rulings from the Supreme Court on the issue. Murkowski, 56, wrote in an essay posted on her Senate website that her decision was swayed, in part, by meeting a lesbian couple from Anchorage, one of whom was in the National Guard, who had adopted four children.   "This first-class Alaskan family still lives a second-class existence," Murkowski said in her essay. Her announcement comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule soon on a challenge to California's ban on gay marriage and a separate lawsuit targeting a provision of federal law that denies same-sex couples certain benefits. She joins Republican Senators Rob Portman of Ohio and Mark Kirk of Illinois who earlier this year joined dozens of Democratic senators who support gay marriage. Twelve of the 50 U.S. states and the District of

A day after the American Medical Association classified obesity as a disease, U.S. lawmakers introduced bipartisan bills in the Senate and House of Representatives that would require Medicare to cover more obesity treatment costs. The Treat and Reduce Obesity Act, spearheaded in the Senate by Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware, and Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, would aim to curb costs for obese patients by requiring Medicare to cover treatments such as prescription drugs for weight management, and make it easier to receive weight-loss counseling.   Representatives Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, and Ron Kind, a Democrat from Wisconsin, introduced the companion legislation in the House. There is no immediate word on when action might be taken on the bills. Medicare, the federal healthcare program for the elderly and the disabled, covered almost 50 million people in 2012, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. "As a physician, I have personally seen the imp

The United States and Cuba have agreed to resume regular migration talks in a possible sign of thawing relations after more than three years of tensions over Cuba's jailing of a U.S. government contract worker. The announcement of the talks Wednesday came as Cuban and U.S. officials met in Washington for discussions exploring the restoration of direct mail service between the two countries after a 50-year ban.   The new round of migration talks on July 17 "do not represent a significant change in U.S. policy towards Cuba," a State Department official said on condition of anonymity. Migration between the two countries has long been a thorny issue. Diplomatic relations have been frozen since soon after Cuba's 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro, and hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles fled their homeland for South Florida in the decades that followed. Migration talks were suspended in 2003 by President George W. Bush. The talks were briefly revived by the Obama

The United States uses drones for surveillance in some limited law enforcement situations, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Wednesday, sparking additional debate about President Barack Obama's use of domestic surveillance. The acknowledgement came in response to questions from U.S. senators who said they wanted to know more about the federal government's increasing use of unmanned aircraft.   "Does the FBI use drones for surveillance on U.S. soil?" Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa asked during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. "Yes," Mueller said, adding that the use was in "a very, very minimal way and very seldom." Mueller did not go into detail, but the FBI later released a statement that said unmanned aircraft were used only to watch stationary subjects and to avoid serious risks to law enforcement agents. The Federal Aviation Administration approves each use, the statement said. The FBI used a drone during a hostage-ta

The Senate on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved White House international economic affairs adviser Michael Froman to be the next U.S. trade representative, sending him into the fray of two huge trade negotiations in Asia and Europe. _0"> Froman, a longtime friend of President Barack Obama, has already played a major role in shaping U.S. trade policy over the past four years from his post in the White House.   Now he is moving from that behind-the-scenes work to a prominent role in Obama's Cabinet, where other big jobs will include managing difficult trade relationships with China and India and breathing life into moribund world trade talks. "Mike is smart. He knows the issues. Very importantly, he has the trust of the president," former U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick, a Republican, said on Wednesday in a speech at the Wilson Center, a foreign policy think tank. Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, was among the few to vote against

Prospects for U.S. Senate passage of an immigration bill with strong bipartisan support brightened on Wednesday when a group of Republican and Democratic negotiators reached a tentative deal on ways to shore up border security, senators said. After days of intensive negotiations, a small group of senators had hit upon a compromise that was being floated more broadly in order to gauge support, Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee told reporters.   "I think we've overcome the issues that have separated the group in negotiations. I think we're together now," Corker said. It was unclear how the new package might be received by senators who are considered to be undecided and Corker did not want to reveal details of the potential compromise. A positive response could mean that the Senate next week would approve a sweeping immigration bill by a huge margin, giving it greater chances of success in the House of Representatives. A Senate aide familiar with the talk

More than a dozen FBI agents are assigned to a criminal probe into Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative political groups, FBI Director Robert Mueller said on Wednesday. "It's a high-priority investigation and it needs to be handled with care, but it also needs to be pushed aggressively," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing. Mueller spoke as Tea Party conservatives rallied outside the U.S. Capitol in the sixth week of a controversy that prompted President Barack Obama to fire acting IRS Commissioner Steve Miller.   At least 1,000 protesters gathered at an "Audit the IRS" event organized by the Tea Party Patriots, an umbrella group of the anti-Washington movement whose members favor lower taxes and less government spending. Republican Representative Dave Camp of Michigan told the crowd that the IRS investigation will take time, but it will get answers. "We will hold those responsible accountable," he said. Carol Bolli

North Carolina's governor, hoping to resume executions in his state, on Wednesday signed the repeal of a law that has allowed death row inmates to seek a reduced sentence if they could prove racial bias affected their punishment. The Racial Justice Act, the only law of its kind in the United States, had led to four inmates getting their sentences changed to life in prison without parole after taking effect in 2009. Supporters said the historic measure addressed the state's long record of racial injustice in its capital punishment system, while critics said it caused unnecessary costs and delays after nearly all death-row inmates, including whites, sought relief under the act.   Governor Pat McCrory, a Republican, said repealing the law would remove the "procedural roadblocks" that had kept North Carolina from executing anyone since 2006 despite there being 152 people on death row. "The state's district attorneys are nearly unanimous in their bipartisan

President Barack Obama will target carbon emissions from power plants as part of a second-term climate change agenda expected to be rolled out in the next few weeks, his top energy and climate adviser said on Wednesday. Obama will take several steps to make tackling climate change a "second-term priority" that builds on first-term policies, said Heather Zichal, deputy assistant to the president for energy and climate change.   "In the near term, we are very much focused on the power plant piece of the equation," she said at a forum sponsored by the New Republic magazine. On Wednesday in Berlin, Obama said the United States understood it had to do more to fight climate change and he pledged that more action was coming. "Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down, but we know we have to do more. And we will do more," he said in a speech. The president is expected to announce new U.S. measures to fight global warming in the coming weeks. Zichal con

The head of a newly revived federal privacy oversight board pledged on Wednesday to be "as transparent and public as possible" as the board reviews recently exposed U.S. government secret surveillance programs. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which has been largely dormant since 2008, held its first full-fledged meeting on Wednesday after the Senate confirmed David Medine as its chairman last month.   The meeting was behind closed doors to review classified information about the vast and controversial Internet and phone monitoring programs. But Medine told Reuters that the board is aiming to hold a public event around July 9 to get legal insight from experts, academics and advocates. "Based on what we've learned so far, the board believes further questions are warranted," said Medine, who previously was a partner at the law firm WilmerHale and served as an associate director at the Federal Trade Commission. Still without formal email, a we

The Senate Banking Committee will hold a confirmation hearing on June 27 for President Barack Obama's two nominees to serve on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the committee announced on Thursday. Kara Stein, a Democrat, and Michael Piwowar, a Republican, would replace SEC commissioners Elisse Walter and Troy Paredes, respectively.   Stein is currently an aide to Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat and a senior member of the banking panel. Piwowar is chief economist for the committee, working under the panel's ranking Republican, Mike Crapo, of Idaho. Stein and Piwowar are expected to have fairly speedy confirmations by the U.S. Senate, and neither is considered controversial. They would join the SEC at a critical time. The agency is under the leadership of a new chair, former federal prosecutor Mary Jo White. This week, White said the SEC would make major changes to its settlement policy by trying to require defendants in some select cases to admit wr

The regulatory board overseeing marijuana legalization in Washington State is leaning toward allowing licensed growers to raise the drug outdoors, citing the much higher carbon footprint of indoor and greenhouse cultivation, board members said. The view, which all three members of the Washington State Liquor Control Board told Reuters they shared, represents a reversal from the draft pot industry rules the body issued last month. "If they can provide the security parameters that we require for indoor or greenhouse, if they can provide for that outdoors, then it's OK with me," board member Ruthann Kurose said, after a public meeting on Wednesday. Washington and Colorado became the first U.S. states to legalize recreational pot after approval by voters last November, although the use and sale of marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Some 18 states allow pot for medical use. The shift on cultivation rules underscores the degree to which the Washington State boar

A bipartisan group of 15 U.S. senators urged the Obama administration on Thursday to consider whether the proposed sale of Smithfield Foods Inc to Chinese meat company Shuanghui International posed any threat to U.S. food safety or food security that could justify blocking the deal. "We believe that our food supply is critical infrastructure that should be included in any reasonable person's definition of national security," the senators said in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, whose department chairs the interagency panel that reviews foreign investment for national security threats.   Smithfield, based in Smithfield, Virginia, is the world's largest producer and processor of pork. Shuanghui is planning to acquire it for $4.7 billion in what would be the biggest takeover of a U.S. company by a Chinese firm. "We strongly encourage you to include the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration in any CFIUS (Committee on Foreign Inve