Danny Puff

BOSTON (AP) The manhunt for a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing is causing filming on David O. Russell's film "American Hustle" to be suspended.

Sony spokesman Steve Elzer said Friday that the film's producers are heeding official requests to remain indoors as a massive manhunt Friday virtually shut down the city and some suburbs.

Authorities suspended mass transit and asked businesses not to open as thousands of officers swarmed the streets.

The Boston Symphony Orchestra also said it was postponing its Friday night concert for a week.

"American Hustle," about an FBI sting operation in the late '70s, features Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper both stars of Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" along with Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Amy Adams.

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By Poornima Gupta and Noel Randewich

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc's shares fell below $400 on Wednesday for the first time since December 2011 after a chip supplier's disappointing revenue forecast fanned fears about weakening demand for the iPhone and iPad as competition intensifies.

The stock dropped below $400 briefly before bouncing back to end 5.5 percent lower at $402.80, losing more than $22 billion of market value in a single day.

Cirrus Logic, which makes analog and audio chips for the iPhone and iPad, on Tuesday warned of a reduced product forecast from one customer - which it did not name. But 90 percent or more of its business comes from Apple, making it a key indicator of demand for iPhones and iPads.

The surprise warning fueled fears that demand for the iPhone - which makes up more than half of Apple's revenue - is falling faster than expected as Samsung Electronics and other rivals who use Google Inc's Android software flood the market with cheaper phones. Typically, many Apple fans also hold off on buying the gadgets if they believe a new model will be introduced in the next few months.

Apple is to report quarterly results on Tuesday. Analysts say Cirrus Logic's reduced outlook lends weight to arguments that consumers' love affair with the iPhone is waning as challengers such as Samsung vie for their attention.

"This is a tough environment. Apple is in transition between products," said Michael Yoshikami, a portfolio manager at Destination Wealth Management, which owns about 50,000 Apple shares. Cirrus's warning "makes it more likely Apple's not going to surprise on upside."

Since its September 2012 peak, Apple has lost 40 percent of its market value or more than $280 billion - slightly more than Google's entire capitalization - battered by worries about the effect on Apple's industry-leading margins if it's forced to do faster updates of its products to keep up.

Some believe Apple will not be able to sustain its high gross margins as competition in the tablet and smartphone markets leads to lower prices. Shorter product cycles limit Apple's ability to bring down component costs, Bernstein Research analyst Toni Sacconaghi said in a note to clients.

Cirrus's weak forecast follows a 19 percent decline in first-quarter sales at Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision Industry Co Ltd, Apple's main contract manufacturer.

"It's a reminder of weakening demand and the challenges around product transitions," Shannon Cross, of Cross Research, said. "There's not a lot of conviction about what the second half is going to look like."

Verizon Communications Inc, which with Vodafone controls the No. 1 U.S. wireless carrier Verizon Wireless, reports results on Thursday and may offer more clues to iPhone and iPad demand in the quarter.

NERVES

Investors are growing increasingly nervous about Apple's growth prospects.

Shares of other chip makers and Apple suppliers, including Qualcomm, Avago Technologies, Broadcom and Skyworks, fell between 2 and 6 percent on a day that saw broad weakness in financial markets.

Goldman Sachs analyst Bill Shope said in a note on Wednesday that Apple's momentum could weaken further before it launches new products later this year.

Apple, which relies heavily on new products to drive its revenue growth, has not had a launch since last October when it unveiled its 7.9-inch iPad mini and an updated full-size iPad.

The company typically launches a new iPad in the spring, but it is unlikely to do so because of the October update. Looking forward, investors now expect an upcoming new iPhone to power earnings in the second half. The two versions of the iPad are also likely to get an update in the fall.

In the past week, analysts had reduced their estimates for Apple's March quarter revenue on average to $42.53 billion from $42.68 billion. Following Cirrus' warning on Tuesday, some think Apple's results could miss those already reduced expectations.

Apple is expected to report a 9 percent increase in quarterly revenue, with net profit expected to decline 17 percent to $9.59 billion, or $10.08 a share, for its fiscal second quarter, according to average analysts' estimates.

Sacconaghi, who lowered his revenue estimate to $41.1 billion from $42.4 billion, said he expects mixed results with Apple's revenue coming in below consensus and earnings per share largely as expected.

Apple's implied volatility, which measures perceived risk of future stock movement, shot up on Wednesday. The implied volatility for the next 30 days for Apple stood at 43.73 percent, a 16.7 percent increase.

Share price volatility should increase into earnings and surpass an annual high in the next few days, said Ophir Gottlieb, managing director of options analytics firm Livevol.

(Additional reporting By Edwin Chan; Editing by Maureen Bavdek, Andrew Hay, Leslie Adler and Cynthia Osterman)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) NBC said Friday that it's pulling an episode of its serial killer drama "Hannibal" out of sensitivity to recent violence, including the Boston bombings.

The episode that was to air next week features a character, played by guest star Molly Shannon, who brainwashes children to kill other children.

"Hannibal" executive producer Bryan Fuller asked NBC to pull the episode, citing the Newtown, Conn., school shooting in December and this week's Boston Marathon attack, NBC spokesman Stuart Levine said.

Fuller said Friday that he began talking with NBC executives several weeks ago about keeping the episode off the air. His concern was prompted by Newtown and reinforced by Monday's violence, he said.

Although the "Hannibal" story is unrelated to real-world events, the intent was "to be sensitive to where we are as a nation," Fuller said.

The episode, the fourth for the freshman series, will be replaced by another "Hannibal" hour. Viewers will not see a plot continuity issue, Levine said.

But a "clip package" with scenes from the unaired episode will be available at NBC.com next week, without the scenes of child violence and with commentary by Fuller. That will allow viewers to keep current with the show's larger story arcs, the producer said.

"Hannibal" stars Mads Mikkelsen as the title character, the brilliant cannibalistic killer seen on the big screen in "The Silence of the Lambs" and its sequel and introduced in the Thomas Harris novel "Red Dragon." Hugh Dancy and Laurence Fishburne also star in the drama.

There have been other instances of networks responding quickly to the potentially difficult overlap between fact and fiction.

ABC has delayed airing an episode of the crime drama "Castle" in which a main character, New York police Detective Kate Beckett (Stana Katic), steps on a pressure-sensitive bomb. It had been scheduled to air next Monday, one week after two bombs exploded near the Boston Marathon finish line, killing three people and injuring more than 180.

"Out of respect," Katic tweeted Wednesday.

Last December, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, the Syfy channel pulled an episode of the series "Haven" that featured a campus violence story line.

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Lynn Elber can be reached at lelber(at)ap.org and http://twitter.com/lynnelber .

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The Fox TV series "Glee" will keep on singing for another two years.

The network announced Friday that it has renewed the show about music-loving students through 2014-2015 its 6th season.

In a statement, Fox Entertainment Chairman Kevin Reilly said "Glee" continues to break new ground as a rare successful TV musical comedy. The show been a music hit as well, with more than 50 million downloads of "Glee" tracks and worldwide album sales of more than 13 million.

"Glee" has expanded from its original focus on the McKinley High School glee club to the college world of Rachel and Kurt, played by cast members Lea Michele and Chris Colfer.

Next Thursday's episode will feature Sarah Jessica Parker. Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Hudson are among previous "Glee" A-list drop-ins.

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BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Internet was abuzz on Thursday over a report that President Xi Jinping, who is striving to portray himself as a humble man, had hailed a cab in Beijing last month. The report was later dismissed by state media as being false.

Many Chinese news portals, which had carried the story, removed it, including the website of the newspaper that wrote the original piece.

The report, which first appeared in the Beijing-backed Ta Kung Bao newspaper of Hong Kong, went viral on Chinese microblogs and the Internet before the official Xinhua news agency stepped in to say it was all untrue.

The Ta Kung Pao later posted an apology on its website.

"Because of our lapse, a significant false report appeared," the newspaper said. "For this, we sincerely apologise to our readers, We take this as a warning, and will return to producing accurate and rigorous reporting for the public."

The story had portrayed Xi, who has been keen to break from the stiff and aloof style of past leaders, as a man who takes random taxi rides and gives moderate tips.

The Ta Kung Pao said that China's new leader hailed a cab in the capital last month to take him to the Diaoyutai Hotel, part of the well-guarded state guesthouse.

Taxi driver Guo Lixin said he picked up two men, one of whom turned out to be Xi, who at the time was Chinese Communist Party secretary and was two weeks later named China's president.

"This is hilarious. It shows that people will believe anything," wrote one user on Sina Weibo, China's answer to Twitter, after Xinhua's denial.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones and Eleven Du; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

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AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) The attorney for a Maine man who lived in the woods as a hermit for 27 years has established a fund to repay people who think they were victims of burglaries at their cottages by the recluse.

Christopher Knight, known as the North Pond Hermit, may have committed as many as 1,000 burglaries over the years for food, clothing, camping and cooking gear and other supplies that allowed him to live at a camp in the woods of the rural town of Rome, police have said.

Knight, who is 47, was arrested earlier this month while allegedly breaking into a camp for people with special needs to steal food. He is being held on $25,000 bail.

Knight's lawyer, Walter McKee, told the Kennebec Journal the account will pay for "what will be the substantial restitution he will owe for what he took."

"Chris very much wants to make things right," McKee told the Augusta newspaper via email. People who want to contribute to the fund can send donations to McKee at his Augusta law firm.

Lillie Cogswell of Wimberley, Texas, whose camp on Little North Pond was burglarized, said that her family "the monetary issue is not an overriding issue" and that there should be consequences for Knight's behavior.

"The bigger part was all of us feeling uncomfortable and not feeling safe and feeling like someone was watching us in our homes," said Cogswell.

District Attorney Maeghan Maloney said following Knight's initial court appearance Tuesday that she expects he will be charged in connection with 15 to 20 burglaries that were reported to police in recent years. Knight's next hearing was scheduled for June 11. So far, he has entered no plea on several burglary and theft charges.

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Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/

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By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A star-studded crowd gathered to celebrate the 2013 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees on Thursday, as Oprah Winfrey and Usher gathered to pay homage to the likes of Donna Summer, Quincy Jones, Randy Newman and Rush.

Disco queen Summer, producer Jones and comedy-rock singer Newman were inducted along with Canadian progressive rock band Rush, blues guitarist Albert King, hip hop pioneers Public Enemy, rockers Heart and veteran producer Lou Adler.

Television personality and media mogul Winfrey, who said she was discovered by veteran R&B producer Jones when he cast her in "The Color Purple" in 1985, praised his decades-long career, during which he launched stars such as the late Michael Jackson.

"He defines the word legend, he is remarkable and everybody knows it," Winfrey said.

"I continue to be amazed at what goes on in his head ... he's of this time and so far ahead of this time," she added as she present Jones, 80, with his induction trophy.

"Queen of Disco" Summer, who died last May aged 68, was inducted by singer Kelly Rowland, who praised Summer's career for paving the way for female artists

"Her words remind us of exactly who we are," she said.

Summer's husband and daughters were on hand to accept her trophy and singer Jennifer Hudson got the crowd on their feet singing Summer's hits "Bad Girls" and "Last Dance".

Newman, 69, kicked off the night with "I Love LA", joined on stage by musicians Tom Petty, Jackson Browne and John Fogerty and later performed his songs "I Think It's Going to Rain Today" and "I'm Dead" with former Eagles member Don Henley.

Henley, who inducted Newman, criticized the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for its delay in including Newman, calling it "one of those inductions long overdue, in fact, shamefully overdue."

Newman was less critical, saying he was "glad" to be inducted while he was still alive.

"I always wanted to be respected by musicians ... it means a great deal to me that the people I respect are giving me respect," Newman said.

TRIBUTE TO THE BLUES

Grammy-winning singer-songwriter John Mayer paid homage to late pioneering American blues guitarist Albert King, who died in 1992 aged 69.

"The blues is in every undercurrent of the music that I play ... Albert is forever embedded in that music," Mayer said.

Seattle rockers Heart, fronted by sister duo Nancy and Ann Wilson, were inducted by Chris Cornell and performed their hits "Barracuda" and "Butterfly".

"Equality is coming right along. For us, music is the real church, it's a life calling, it's bigger than men and women put together, music makes us all equal and human," Nancy said.

Canadian progressive rockers Rush had the largest number of fans in the Nokia theater, receiving rousing standing ovations as they were inducted by Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins.

The night's longest speech went to Public Enemy's eccentric rapper Flavor Flav, who giggled and rambled as he talked about the influence of his group's music.

Public Enemy - comprising rappers Flavor Flav, Chuck D, Professor Griff and DJ Lord - were influential in bringing a political and social conscience to hip hop in the 1980s.

"We all come from the damn blues. Let's not get it twisted. We studied the forms of music in DJ culture ... we've always known and paid respect to where music comes from," Chuck D said.

The hip hop collective also sampled music from Summer, Jones and Rush as they performed their tracks "Bring The Noise", "911 is a Joke" and the seminal "Fight The Power".

To be eligible for induction in 2013, a candidate must have released their debut album or single at least 25 years earlier. The ceremony will be televised on HBO on May 18.

The eight inductees were chosen by some 500 voters of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, which includes past inductees and for the first time, allowed fans to vote.

(Reporting By Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Elaine Lies and Pravin Char)

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LOS ANGELES (AP) The end is coming for Showtime's serial killer drama "Dexter."

The cable channel said Thursday that the series' upcoming eighth season will be its last.

"Dexter" stars Michael C. Hall as a Miami Police Department blood-spatter expert who's got his own list of murder victims. The drama debuted in 2006 and became Showtime's first hit series, with a steady performance in the ratings through its run.

The final season begins June 30. It will feature English actress Charlotte Rampling as a neuropsychiatrist specializing in serial killers, and more of Dexter's criminal romantic interest, Hannah, played by Yvonne Strahovski.

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By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Every dog has its day, and for Afghan pooch Aiden, today is for dancing lessons while cats Lucky and Missy are legally guaranteed their nightly shrimp dinners according to their owner's last testament.

These are just a few of the "Spoiled Rotten Pets," a new television series that dives into the world of fawning pet owners who outfit rats in formal wear and pamper Burmese pythons like princes.

The series, which will debut on U.S. cable network Nat Geo Wild on Saturday, follows host Beth Stern as she meets devoted pet owners who go above and beyond spoiling their pets - a venture the network's chief, Geoff Daniels, said was not so hard to find.

"This is about saying that this is more pervasive that anybody thinks," Daniels, executive vice president for Nat Geo Wild, a sister network of the Natural Geographic Channel, told Reuters.

"The show is about colorful and relatable people," he added. "Everybody knows someone like this or does something for their pets to this degree."

Indeed, as the series seeks out the over-the-top pet owner, it also shows they are not alone. After all, there is a thriving market for their spoils of clothing and comfort.

New York resident Cynthia takes time to iron the countless dresses and sweaters that her Yorkie, Toto, wears every day.

"Toto is spoiled," Cynthia says. "I want to do everything possible that I can to make sure that Toto is happy and healthy."

But Toto also has her own psychic, who cautions that the toy-sized dog feels trapped in her fashionable threads.

"She wants to run naked on the beach," pyschic Madrette says while reading Toto's paw print.

"Just once in a while, make sure that she feels that she's being put first ... I think she would really like a mommy-and-me day," Madrette says in her final analysis.

'PIG-TICIANS' AND 'BARK MITZVAHS'

"It's really interesting to see how these people put their pet care above their own," Daniels said. "You consistently get the sense that there's nothing too great for these animals if you see them as family and friends."

Enter Dave and Jennifer, who drop off pet pigs Wilma and Pebbles at a nearby "pig spa" for the night, which will be the couple's first night without them in eight years.

Wilma and Pebbles get the five-star treatment, like Chinese massage from a "pig-tician," while Dave and Jennifer have a quiet but uneasy night as empty-nesters.

Not to be outdone, Diane from upstate New York keeps her 10 rats on a strict vegan diet while spoiling newcomer Vinnie with a special first birthday party where he gets his own tuxedo.

"It's one thing about spoiling dogs and cats, but we're talking pigs and donkeys and rats and tortoises," Daniels said.

Religion also gets its due when New Jersey couple David and Donna give their Pomeranian dog, Sophia, a "bark mitzvah," a canine take on the Jewish coming-of-age bar mitzvah ceremony.

"She's my daughter so I feel like I'm going to do whatever it takes to make her happy," says Donna.

More than 70 guests, including dogs, attend the ceremony under a tent in the couple's yard. But it is not the first bark mitzvah for the rabbi, who says she has done the same for the dogs of comedians Joan Rivers and Roseanne Barr.

Daniels said Nat Geo Wild sees "Spoiled Rotten Pets" as adding a lighter touch to its wildlife-heavy programming, which attracts many more male viewers.

"We are really trying to transform our offerings and bring in more women, especially," Daniels said. "We're looking for differentiation in the marketplace and a more balanced demographic."

Nat Geo Wild is owned by the National Geographic Society and News Corp.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Jill Serjeant and Sandra Maler)

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NEW YORK (AP) Microsoft is working with manufacturers to produce a line of small touch-screen devices powered by Windows, apparently intended to compete with 7-inch tablets like the iPad Mini and Amazon Kindle Fire.

Peter Klein, Microsoft's chief financial officer, told investors and analysts on a conference call Thursday that the new devices will be available in coming months at competitive prices.

Microsoft Corp. is struggling to extend its software into smartphones and tablets as consumers are turning away from PCs, the foundation of its empire. Over the winter, it launched two larger tablets under the Surface brand. And in October, the company took a large stake in Barnes & Noble's digital unit, which sells a line of entertainment-oriented 7-inch tablets under the Nook brand.

Microsoft reported financial results for its latest quarter Thursday, showing a deep but largely expected impact from the slowdown in global PC sales. Investors seemed to be expecting worse after some recent dismal reports on the PC slump.

Outside the Windows division, Microsoft posted solid results from its Office, software tools and Xbox divisions.

Even if the company has a lot of challenges, "there's a lot of good things going on at Microsoft," said Colin Gillis, an analyst at BGC Partners.

The Redmond, Wash.-based company's shares rose 81 cents, or 2.8 percent, to $29.60 in extended trading, after the release of the report.

The software company's net income was $6.1 billion, or 72 cents per share, for the fiscal third quarter, which ended in March. That was up 18 percent from $5.1 billion, or 60 cents per share, a year ago, and beat the forecast of analysts polled by FactSet, at 68 cents. However, analysts have trimmed their forecasts quickly in the last few weeks a month ago, they were expecting Microsoft to post 77 cents in earnings.

Last week, research firm IDC said PC sales fell 14 percent in the quarter, a record. It blamed, in part, Microsoft's new Windows 8, which makes a clean break with the look and workings of old Windows in order to work better with touch screens. Buyers seem daunted by the new interface, IDC said.

Klein said that an updated version of Windows 8 to be released later this year and code-named "Blue," will be in part a response to "customer feedback." Many complaints have focused on the lack of a Start button for those who prefer the older "Desktop" environment, which is hidden behind the new tile-based interface. Klein didn't offer details.

Revenue was $20.5 billion, up 18 percent from a year ago and matching analyst forecasts.

Both earnings and revenue were skewed by software accounting practices. Microsoft offered a $15 upgrade to Windows 8 for Windows 7 PCs purchased June 2 or later. It wasn't able to start recognizing the full value of the software licenses until these offers were redeemed or expired. In the latest quarter, Microsoft was able to recognize $1.1 billion of such deferred Windows revenue, greatly boosting the overall figure.

Stripping out the deferred revenue, overall revenue rose 8 percent, and revenue in the Windows division was flat with a year ago. Even if consumers aren't buying many Windows 8 PCs, businesses are still upgrading from Windows XP to Windows 7 at a rapid clip.

Stripping out deferred revenue and the effect of a $733 million fine levied by the European Commission, Microsoft earned 65 cents per share, up 8 percent from a year ago.

At the company's largest division, Business, revenue rose 8 percent from a year ago to $6.3 billion. The increase was 5 percent adjusting for upgrade offers for the new Office suite.

Microsoft also said CFO Klein is leaving at the end of the fiscal year, in June. He has been in his current role for four years and at the company for 11 years. The company plans to name a new CFO from its finance team in the next few weeks.

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