Barcelona, Spain, tops innovative cities contest

NEW YORK — Barcelona, Spain, captured the grand prize in a competition that spurs cities to develop novel approaches to improve urban life, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Wednesday.

Barcelona was awarded 5 million euro ($6.5 million) as top finisher. Four others were awarded 1 million euros ($1.3 million) each: the metropolitan area of Kirklees, England, and the cities of Stockholm; Warsaw, Poland; and Athens, Greece.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced the winners, selected from 21 finalists, in Paris. The prizes came from the billionaire businessman-turned-politician's personal foundation for innovative ideas that could also potentially spread to other cities.

"To meet the biggest challenges of the 21st century, city leaders must think creatively and be unafraid to try new things, and the Mayors Challenge is designed to help them do that," Bloomberg said in a statement.

Cities were challenged to come up with creative solutions to critical urban issues, such as youth unemployment, aging populations, civic engagement, environment and public health and safety.

Barcelona's project focused on improving the quality of life for its growing elderly population with the creation of a support network that would include relatives, friends, social workers and volunteers.

In an email to the foundation after the announcement, Barcelona's Mayor Xavier Trias said, "The Mayors Challenge inspired Barcelona to address the issue of isolation among elderly residents, and this prize will enable us to achieve a more connected and inclusive society."

Kirklees proposed a social capital project that calls for pooling its idle assets such as citizens untapped time and expertise and empty unused spaces to "make the most of what it has and do more with less."

Stockholm focused on combatting climate change by encouraging residents to produce biochar, an organic material that increases tree growth, isolates carbon and purifies storm runoff.

Warsaw proposed a transportation accessibility idea to help the blind and visually impaired navigate the city more easily by providing auditory alerts through mobile apps.

Athens' civic engagement project called for creation of a new online platform to address "the large number of small-scale challenges accelerated by the Greek economic crisis."

"The Mayors Challenge inspired Athens to find ways to link the dynamic input of public-spirited citizens back into municipal priorities," Athens Mayor Giorgos Kaminis said in an email to the foundation.

Bloomberg said the winners "represent the best of the best, and all have the potential to improve lives."

His foundation said 155 European cities with populations ranging from about 250,000 to 1 million from 28 countries competed for 9 million euros — about $12 million — in prizes.

The Mayors Challenge in Europe was modeled on a Bloomberg Philanthropies competition that debuted in the United States last year.

In the U.S. version of the Mayors Challenge, the $5 million top prize went to Providence, Rhode Island. Its project called for improving poor children's vocabulary by outfitting them with recording devices if their parents agreed, counting the words the children hear and coaching parents. The four other cities awarded $1 million apiece were Houston, Philadelphia, Chicago and Santa Monica, California.

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Stocks rise at midday ahead of Fed statement

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks edged higher in morning trading Wednesday as investors waited for a Federal Reserve statement on interest rates following a two-day meeting. Shares of DuPont and FedEx surged.

KEEPING SCORE: The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose one point, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,000 as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 16 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,148, above its all-time closing high of 17,138.20 set July 16. The Nasdaq composite rose five points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,557.

FED WATCH: Investors will be looking to see if the Fed statement keeps the phrase "considerable time," referring to how long it will wait before raising interest rates. The Fed has held the short-term rates it controls close to zero for more than five years, which has helped stimulate the economy and fueled a bull market for stocks. The Fed releases its statement at 2 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday.

INFLATION WATCH: U.S. consumer prices edged down in August, the first monthly drop since the spring of 2013, as gasoline, airline tickets and clothing prices all fell. It was the latest evidence that inflation remains under control and was taken as a signal by some that the Fed is unlikely to raise rates soon. In a note to investors, PNC Financial Group said the inflation figures suggest the first Fed rate hike won't come until July 2015.

DUPONT JUMPS: DuPont jumped 4 percent on news that activist investor Nelson Peltz had sent a letter to the company's board Tuesday suggesting it split in two. His Trian Fund Management LP says it has been in private talks with DuPont for more than a year to boost shareholder value and improve its financial performance. DuPont rose $2.79 to $68.62.

FEDEX SURGE: FedEx rose $4.94, or 3 percent, to $159.60 after reporting fiscal first-quarter net income climbed 24 percent, beating forecasts by financial analysts. The company got a boost from an increase in shipments to people buying online.

GENERAL MILLS DROPS: General Mills, the food company behind Cheerios cereal and Yoplait yogurt, fell $1.89, or 3.6 percent, to $51.29 after reporting disappointing fiscal first-quarter results.

CHINA BANKS: Investors were cheered by news reports that China's central bank will inject a total of 500 billion yuan ($81 billion) into the five biggest state banks over three months. Additional financial system liquidity would build on targeted measures to shore up growth, amid a bout of weak economic data. There was no official confirmation of the reports.

THE QUOTE: Chinese support for banks, if confirmed "is likely to snap Asian equities out of their Fed-induced slumber," said Evan Lucas, market strategist with IG in Australia. "However I again reiterate that the Fed is still the main driving force in the market currently."

RUSSIAN CHILL: Moscow's stocks sank amid fears that the government there might start cracking down on large companies in a way it hasn't done for over a decade. The house arrest of tycoon Vladimir Yevtushenkov saw shares in his holding company, Sistema, collapse 36 percent. The wider MICEX index was down 1.9 percent. Business experts fear the arrest is politically motivated and echoes the 2003 case against Yukos. The oil company was broken up and taken over by the state after its CEO was imprisoned.

EUROPEAN STOCKS: France's CAC 40 was up 0.6 percent and Germany's DAX added 0.4 percent. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 0.1 percent.

ASIA'S DAY: Tokyo's Nikkei 225 fell 0.1 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 1 percent. China's Shanghai Composite added 0.5 percent and Seoul's Kospi gained 1 percent. Markets in Taiwan, India and Southeast Asia were higher.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude fell 58 cents to $94.30 a barrel in New York. It rose $1.96 to close at $94.88 a barrel on Tuesday.

BOND TRADING: Government bonds rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.58 percent from 2.59 percent on Tuesday. It has risen as high as 3 percent this, and as low as 2.34 percent.

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Only 4 states will see cuts to food stamps

WASHINGTON — Cuts to the nation's food stamp program enacted this year are only affecting four states, far from the sweeping overhaul that Republicans had pushed, an Associated Press review has found.

As a result, it's unclear whether the law will realize the estimated $8.6 billion in savings over 10 years that the GOP had advertised.

A farm bill signed by President Barack Obama in February attempted to save money by scaling back what lawmakers called a loophole in the food stamp program that entitles low-income families to more food aid if they participate in a federal heating assistance program. States were giving some people as little as $1 a year in heating assistance so they could get more food aid. It's called "heat and eat."

Among the 16 states that allow the practice or some form of it, 12 governors have taken steps to avoid the food stamp cuts.

"Government's role is to help people help themselves, and these steps are necessary to help our most vulnerable residents and families meet their most basic needs," Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said when he announced his state's move earlier this year.

The farm bill was held up for more than two years as conservatives insisted on cutting the nation's food stamp program, which now serves 1 in 7 Americans at a cost of around $80 billion a year. The roughly 1 percent cut was a compromise between Republicans who had hoped for far larger cuts and Democrats who didn't want to see any cuts at all.

The states' workaround — mostly by Democratic governors — has infuriated Republicans who pushed the cuts. In March, House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the states' moves "fraud." House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., and House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., have asked the Obama administration to "hold states accountable" for dodging the cuts.

The governors say they are following the law while preserving crucial benefits for their neediest citizens.

The new law says that people can't get the higher food benefits unless they receive more than $20 a year in heating assistance, which lawmakers hoped would be too expensive for states to pay. But the governors in 12 states and the mayor of the District of Columbia have said they will find a way. Most will use federal heating assistance dollars. At least one state, California, will use its own money.

As of now, the cuts will only affect Michigan, Wisconsin, New Jersey and New Hampshire. All but New Hampshire have Republican governors.

There are about 1.8 million households that receive food stamps in those four states, out of almost 23 million households nationwide.

It's unclear how many people will be affected. Officials in Wisconsin, New Jersey and New Hampshire said they don't track that number. Michigan officials say around 20 percent of the state's recipients, or around 170,000 households, participated in the "heat and eat" program and will see cuts.

Bob Wheaton, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Human Services, says the state didn't want to "create a new loophole even beyond the loophole that previously existed" and draw down federal heating benefits for others in the cold-weather state. He said the average decrease will be around $76 a month for a family of four, starting in November. That amount varies by state.

Terry Smith, director of New Hampshire's family assistance programs, said his state's decision "was not to deplete an already tenuous LIHEAP allocation in our state and take needed heat from people."

LIHEAP is the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and it is paid to states as federal grants each year. New Hampshire did not give recipients $1 payments but did allow a LIHEAP application to qualify them for higher food benefits. The farm bill's change in policy will discontinue that practice.

The states that are using that federal heating assistance money to avoid the food stamp cuts say they believe they can do it without significantly reducing heating aid to others who need it, even without more money from the federal government. Peter Merrill, the deputy director of MaineHousing, says he estimates that maintaining the food stamp benefits will only reduce federal heating assistance payments to Maine residents by about $4 a year on average.

In Washington state, residents will see food stamp benefits reduced briefly, in November and December, due to a backlog in getting their computer systems running. A spokeswoman for the governor said the state will reinstate the higher heating assistance payments in January, once the backlog clears, and 200,000 households will see their benefits go back up.

On Capitol Hill, Republicans say the states' decisions don't mean the farm bill cuts are obliterated. A GOP memo from the House Agriculture Committee staff notes that some states may reverse their decisions to avoid the cuts, especially as current recipients move off the rolls. And the Congressional Budget Office, which figures out how much bills cost, accounted for some states bowing out when coming up with its $8.6 billion estimate over 10 years. But the CBO hasn't said whether it accounted for high-population states like California, New York and Pennsylvania maintaining the higher food stamp benefits.

Other states that have dodged the cuts are Connecticut, Delaware, Montana, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont.

Pat Baker of the Massachusetts Law Reform Institute, an advocacy group that focuses on poverty issues, says the "heat and eat" recipients are often elderly or disabled, sometimes living in apartments where utilities are included but the rent is higher. "This would be a significant loss in nutrition benefits to the lowest-income and neediest residents," she says.

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Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mcjalonick

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US consumer prices fall 0.2 percent in August

WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices edged down in August, the first monthly drop since the spring of 2013, as gasoline, airline tickets and clothing prices all fell. It was the latest evidence that inflation remains under control.

Consumer prices edged down 0.2 percent last month following a tiny 0.1 percent gain in July, the Labor Department reported Wednesday. It was the first decline since a similar 0.2 percent drop in April 2013. Core prices, which exclude energy and food, were unchanged in August, the first time there hasn't been an increase since October 2010.

Over the past 12 months, overall prices and core prices are both up a modest 1.7 percent. These gains are well within the 2 percent annual increase for inflation that the Federal Reserve considers optimal.

Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said that the drop in prices would give a "powerful boost" to "doves" on the Fed, officials who argue that at the moment unemployment and weak economic growth are bigger problems than the threat of future inflation.

Analysts believe that inflation will remain moderate in coming months, helped by falling energy prices. AAA reports that the nationwide average for a gallon of gasoline is down to $3.38, down eight cents from a month ago and 14 cents lower than a year ago.

The recent decline in gasoline prices is one reason that economists are optimistic that consumer spending will show solid gains in the coming months. A drop in gasoline prices means consumers will have more to spend on other items.

For August, energy prices fell 2.6 percent, the second straight monthly decline. Gasoline costs were down 4.1 percent in August after a smaller 0.3 percent July drop.

Food costs edged up 0.2 percent in August following a 0.4 percent July. Over the past 12 months, food costs have risen 2.7 percent reflecting drought in California that has cut into crop yields.

The cost of new vehicles and alcoholic beverages were up in August but the price of airline fares, recreation, home furnishings, clothing and used cars were all down.

The report on consumer prices was released as the Federal Reserve wrapped up two days of discussions Wednesday on what to do with interest rates.

The Fed seeks to promote maximum employment and stable prices, which the Fed defines as inflation rising at a moderate 2 percent annual rate. Price increases measured by the Fed's favorite inflation gauge have been running below 2 percent for the past two years.

That has given the central bank the leeway to keep interest rates ultra-low in an effort to combat an anemic economic recovery. However, some critics say the Fed needs to start raising rates in coming months to make sure its prolonged period of easy credit policies does not set the stage for future inflation problems.

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Trade, investment hopes as China's Xi visits India

AHMEDABAD, India — Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in the Indian prime minister's home state of Gujarat on Wednesday for a three-day visit expected to focus on India's need to improve worn out infrastructure and reduce its trade deficit.

Xi was greeted on the tarmac by state officials carrying fringed umbrellas to guard him from the sun in Gujarat's main financial city of Ahmedabad.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to court Chinese business and seek investment to upgrade creaky infrastructure, banking on China's track record at building highways, railways, and industrial zones. India is also eager to address the imbalance in their annual trade, which now totals around $65 billion but is skewed toward imports of Chinese electrical equipment and parts.

Modi and the Gujarat government are staging a lavish welcome for Xi, with billboards across Ahmedabad showing a smiling Modi and Xi. A banquet dinner was being held Wednesday night on the banks of the Sabarmati River in Ahmedabad. Modi was also celebrating his 64th birthday.

Xi has been equally effusive in expressing excitement for the visit.

"China-India relations have become one of the most dynamic and promising bilateral relations in the 21st century," Xi wrote in an article published Wednesday in The Hindu newspaper.

The choice of Gujarat as Xi's first stop in India, rather than the capital New Delhi, marked a departure from protocol that some saw as a sign of warming ties between China and India. Relations had been tested by a decades-old border dispute and fears of China's growing military and economic might. Xi will meet officials in New Delhi on Thursday.

Earlier this week, Xi visited Sri Lanka and Maldives, both traditional allies of India who have unnerved New Delhi by growing closer to Beijing.

Modi appeared to be unbothered by those visits, alluding Tuesday to ancient Sino-Indian ties dating to a Chinese Buddhist monk, Xuan Zang, who spent time in Modi's village in Gujarat in 600 AD.

"Through the medium of Buddhism, India and China, especially China and Gujarat have developed very close relations," Modi said, addressing Chinese media.

India, with its 1.2 billion population surpassed only by China's 1.4 billion, has also long aimed at becoming the next massive cheap labor economy. Modi has pledged to streamline business and build up industry to make that happen.

"India and China today constitute almost 35 percent of the world's population. From a purely arithmetic point of view ... that they decide to work together will open big gates for progress and development in the world," Modi said.

But not everyone in Gujarat was excited about the Chinese leader's visit.

Traders and small business owners have grown increasingly nervous about the calls for warmer relations and increased trade between India and China, fearing they'll be sidelined by Chinese competitors.

"We need to tread with care since China is a global manufacturing hub itself, which sees us as a market for their goods," said Bhagyesh Soneji, chairwoman of the Gujarat branch of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

She hoped the two leaders would take "one small step at a time to ensure that there is no threat to the nascent local industry."

Small business leaders said industries such as pharmaceuticals, solar panel manufacturing, software and agriculture were already struggling to compete with Chinese companies who were benefiting from subsidies and soft loans.

In solar panels, "we stand very disadvantageously placed because their product is almost 20 percent cheaper," said Ashok Jain, a director with solar panel manufacturer Gujarat Borsil Ltd.

But for India's vast numbers of poor, there are some clear benefits from Chinese imports.

Low-end Chinese mobile phones have flooded the Indian market and beaten domestic brands on affordability, Hina Telecom shop owner Kaushik Kamdar said.

"For the poor among the consumers, if it lasts a year and serves their basic needs, it is more than enough," Kamdar said. "Patriotic concerns don't weigh heavily on the minds of people living by the day."

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Daigle reported from New Delhi.

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US stocks rise slightly in opening trade

NEW YORK — U.S. stocks are rising slightly in early trading, ahead of a Federal Reserve announcement this afternoon that might signal when the central bank will raise interest rates.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 17,146. The Standard & Poor's 500 index edged up two points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,001. The Nasdaq composite nudged up four points, or 0.1 percent, to 4,557.

The Fed wraps up a two-day meeting later today with a statement and press conference.

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US homebuilder confidence soars in September

U.S. homebuilders' confidence in the market for new, single-family homes surged this month to the highest level in nearly nine years.

The brighter outlook reflects growing optimism that sales will increase over the next six months. That could potentially spur growth in home construction, a key driver of the economy.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo builder sentiment index released Wednesday rose this month to 59, up four points from August. The index has risen four months in a row.

The latest reading is the highest since reaching 61 in November 2005, before the housing bubble burst.

Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good, rather than poor.

Builders' view of current sales conditions for single-family homes, their outlook for sales over the next six months and traffic by prospective buyers each increased in the latest survey.

The optimism comes despite a steady slowdown in U.S. sales of new homes this summer. Sales fell from a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 454,000 in May to a rate of 412,000 in July.

Still, sales of new homes are running ahead of last year's pace.

Economists project that sales accelerated in August to a rate of 429,000, according to FactSet. August sales figures are due out next week.

The U.S. economy added jobs at a solid clip through much of this year, though the gains slowed in August. Last month, employers added just 142,000 jobs, well below the 212,000 average of the previous 12 months.

The job gains this year and a pickup in home values have spurred homeowners to trade up to a nicer home. But fewer homes are being purchased by first-time homebuyers.

A mix of rising home prices, higher mortgage rates and meager wage growth has made it more difficult for would-be homebuyers to purchase a newly built home, particularly first-time buyers.

Even so, many of the largest U.S. homebuilders have posted sales gains this year.

On Wednesday, Miami-based Lennar Corp. reported that its completed home sales climbed 9 percent in the three months ended Aug. 31, while new home orders vaulted 23 percent. Its shares added $2.66, or 6.8 percent, to $41.79 in morning trading. The stock has risen 19 percent in the last 12 months.

In the latest NAHB index, which was based on responses from 317 builders, builder confidence improved nationally and on a regional basis, with readings for the Midwest, West, Northeast and South all posting gains from last month.

The index gauging current sales conditions for single-family homes climbed five points to 63, the highest level since December. The builders' outlook for sales over the next six months rose two points to 67. The last time it was higher was a year ago.

Meanwhile, a measure of traffic by prospective buyers increased five points to 47, the highest level since October 2005.

Housing, while still a long way from the boom of several years ago, has been recovering over the past two years.

Though new homes represent only a fraction of the housing market, they have an outsize impact on the economy. Each home built creates an average of three jobs for a year and generates about $90,000 in tax revenue, according to NAHB data.

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Gov. dismisses report pegging ACA costs at $1B

BOSTON — Gov. Deval Patrick is sharply criticizing a report that puts a price tag of about $1 billion on the implementation of the federal Affordable Care Act in Massachusetts.

The Pioneer Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank, said in a report issued Wednesday that it will cost Massachusetts more than $600 million to get a functional health insurance exchange up and running.

Additionally, the report estimates a cost of at least $400,000 for placing some 300,000 people into temporary Medicaid coverage because of the initial failure of the state's health connector website.

Patrick is currently on a European trade mission but issued a strongly-worded statement from London calling the Pioneer Institute report one "based on politics rather than facts."

Patrick said Massachusetts was expanding health coverage successfully "and doing so within budget."

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FedEx to add 50,000 seasonal jobs

DALLAS — Growth in online shopping is boosting profit at FedEx, and the company plans to hire more than 50,000 extra workers to handle what is shaping up as another record year for holiday-season package deliveries.

That's up from about 40,000 temporary holiday workers hired last year.

The hiring plan from FedEx Corp. came a day after rival UPS said it would hire up to 95,000 seasonal workers. Both companies are trying to avoid the problems that plagued them last year, when they were inundated by more holiday shipments than they expected and some packages didn't arrive until after Christmas.

FedEx Corp. announced Wednesday that it earned $606 million in the June-through-August quarter, up 24 percent from the same period in 2013. The results beat expectations, and the stock rose more than 3 percent in midday trading.

CEO and Chairman Fred Smith said the company was helped by strength in the ground-shipping segment, solid volume and revenue increases at the freight division and growth in U.S. volumes for the core FedEx Express business.

"We expect continued revenue and earnings growth in fiscal year '15," which ends next May, "assuming moderate global economic growth and stable fuel prices," Smith said on a conference call with investors.

The holidays are a crucial part of the year for FedEx, and the company will again be challenged by a compressed peak season. Thanksgiving, the traditional kickoff to the season, falls late again this year — Nov. 27. That will push so-called Cyber Monday, one of the biggest days for online shopping, back to Dec. 1.

Executive vice president Michael Glenn said FedEx expects another record season for delivery volumes, and that explains the plan to hire more temporary drivers, package handlers and other workers.

Both FedEx and UPS were caught short last holiday season. FedEx had announced it would hire 20,000 temporary workers, but wound up adding twice that number, a spokesman said Wednesday. United Parcel Service Inc. planned to add 55,000 seasonal workers but ended up hiring 85,000.

FedEx officials said they are talking with retailers about other steps to avoid a repeat of last year's delivery problems, but they declined to detail those discussions.

Memphis, Tennessee-based FedEx said its fiscal first-quarter earnings equaled $2.10 per share, up from $1.53 per share a year ago. Analysts surveyed by FactSet expected $1.96 per share.

Revenue rose 6 percent to $11.68 billion, topping Wall Street's forecast of $11.48 billion.

The ground-delivery segment accounted for about one-fourth of FedEx revenue but was more profitable than the much larger express-delivery business. Revenue rose in both businesses and at the smaller freight-shipping segment.

"It was another solid quarter for FedEx," said Logan Purk, an analyst with Edward Jones who rates the stock a "hold." The company is aided by growth in the economy and online shopping, "but what is really helping FedEx is their cost-reduction initiative for the express segment," he said.

The company's goal is to cut annual costs by $1.7 billion, mostly at the express unit and largely through voluntary buyouts to shed jobs. The plan is designed to offset a shift by customers from pricey air deliveries to slower but cheaper services.

Despite beating expectations in the quarter, FedEx did not change its forecast for the full fiscal year. It still expects to earn between $8.50 and $9 per share through May 2015. Analysts predict full-year earnings of $8.84 per share.

The earnings report came one day after FedEx announced that it will raise U.S. rates for express, ground and home-delivery shipments by an average of 4.9 percent on Jan. 5. It will also charge more for SmartPost, a service that uses the U.S. Postal Service for final delivery, and U.S. freight deliveries.

On the same day in January, FedEx will also begin charging more for bulky but light parcels that are shipped by ground by changing the pricing formula to increase the emphasis on package dimensions, not just weight. UPS is making a similar change. Big, lightweight packages take up more space in delivery trucks.

Shares of FedEx rose $4.88, or 3.2 percent, to $159.54 in midday trading. They began the day up 8 percent in 2014.

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Sony stock falls 6% after projections of $2 billion loss

Shares of Sony fell sharply Wednesday morning after the Japanese electronics company said it will likely lose $2.15 billion for the fiscal year.

It had initially forecast $488 million in losses through through March of 2015, but had to revise those projections due to problems in its mobile phones division.

Investors did not take the news well, sending share prices plunging in pre-market trading by 10%. As of 11:15 a.m., the company's stock had climbed back slightly. It was down 6.22% to $18.99 having closed the previous day at $20.25.

Sony's most profitable smartphone division faces declining sales amid increased competition from Apple, Samsung and other manufacturers. It has also struggled to boost sales in its TV set manufacturing and PC businesses.

The latest revision to its forecast marks the sixth time that Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai has had to push projections downward since taking the reins in 2012.

© 2014 Variety Media, LLC, a subsidiary of Penske Business Media; Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

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