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VIDEO: Today's Headline News from Associated Press

ITUNES CELEBRATES A DECADE, FACES NEW CHALLENGES

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- When Apple launched its iTunes music store a decade ago amid the ashes of Napster, the music industry - reeling from the effects of online piracy - was anxious to see how the new music service would shake out.

 

"The sky was falling, and iTunes provided a place where we were going to monetize music and in theory stem the tide of piracy. So, it was certainly a solution for the time," said Michael McDonald, who co-founded ATO Records with Dave Matthews and whose Mick Management roster includes John Mayer and Ray LaMontagne.

 

The iTunes music store became much more than a solution; it changed how we consume music and access entertainment. It's not only music's biggest retailer, it also dominates the digital video market, capturing 67 percent of the TV show sale market and 65 percent of the movie sale market, according to information company NPD group. Its apps are the most profitable, it has expanded to books and magazines, and it is now available in 119 countries. This week, iTunes posted a record $2.4 billion in revenue in first-quarter earnings.

 

But as iTunes celebrates its 10-year mark Sunday, it faces renewed scrutiny on how it will continue to dominate in the next decade - or whether it can. With competition from subscription services like Spotify and other services like Amazon.com, Netflix, Hulu and others, iTunes will likely need to reinvent itself to remain at the top of the digital entertainment perch.

 

Apple Inc.'s Eddy Cue, senior vice president of Internet software and services, refused to comment on reports that the company will launch a radio service or some other service to compete with Spotify.

 

US TEAM SPEAKING TO SUSPECTS' PARENTS IN RUSSIA

 

MAKHACHKALA, Russia (AP) -- U.S. investigators are in contact with the parents of the two Boston bombing suspects in southern Russia and working with Russian security officials to shed light on the deadly attack, a U.S. Embassy official said Wednesday.

 

The parents plan to fly to the United States on Thursday, the father was quoted telling the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.

 

The U.S. team traveled Tuesday from Moscow to the predominantly Muslim province of Dagestan "because the investigation is ongoing, it's not over," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. He said the Americans were working with the Russian security services, the FSB. He would not specify how long the Americans planned to stay in Dagestan.

 

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, and his 19-year-old brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, are accused of setting off the two bombs near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. The elder brother was later killed in a police standoff.

 

LONG-TERM CARE IN AGING US: NOT FOR ME, POLL SAYS

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- We're in denial: Americans underestimate their chances of needing long-term care as they get older - and are taking few steps to get ready.

 

A new poll examined how people 40 and over are preparing for this difficult and often pricey reality of aging and found two-thirds say they've done little to no planning.

 

In fact, 3 in 10 would rather not think about getting older at all. Only a quarter predict it's very likely that they'll personally need help getting around or caring for themselves during their senior years, according to the poll by the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

 

That's a surprise considering the poll found more than half of the 40-plus crowd already have been caregivers for an impaired relative or friend - seeing from the other side the kind of assistance they, too, are likely to need later on.

 

"I didn't think I was old. I still don't think I'm old," explained retired schoolteacher Malinda Bowman, 60, of Laura, Ohio.

 

Bowman has been a caregiver twice, first for her grandmother. Then after her father died in 2006, Bowman moved in with her mother, caring for her until her death in January. Yet Bowman has made few plans for herself.

 

"I need to plan eventually," she acknowledged.