Strauss-Kahn maid makes appeal as civil suit looms

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The hotel maid who accused ex-IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her made an emotional public appeal on Thursday for people to believe her story as her lawyer threatened a civil lawsuit.

In a highly unusual news conference, Nafissatou Diallo told reporters she cannot stop crying and that she wants no other woman to suffer like her -- first at the hands of a powerful attacker and then through media muckraking.

"I am going through a lot. My daughter, we are going through a lot. We are crying everyday. We can't sleep," an emotional and tearful Diallo said in broken English. "A lot of things they say about me are not true."

When she finished her remarks, her lawyer promised to file a civil lawsuit against her attacker "soon."

The case pits an illiterate, immigrant, 32-year-old mother and hotel maid against a powerful politician. She has said he behaved like a "crazy man" on May 14 in his suite at the luxury Sofitel hotel near Times Square. She alleges he brutally forced her to perform oral sex on him and attempted to rape her.

The 62-year-old Strauss-Kahn -- the former managing director of the International Monetary Fund who was viewed as a possible French president -- denies the charges and contends any sex that afternoon with Diallo was consensual.

Diallo, known as "Nafi" to her friends, said her daughter told her: "She goes, 'Mom, please promise me you stop crying. People call you bad names because they don't know you.'"

"You have to remember this guy is a powerful man," Diallo said, adding that she told her daughter, "I am going to be strong for you and for every other woman in the world."

"What happened to me, I don't want to happen to any other woman," she said. "I said, 'God, Why me?'"

The case against Strauss-Kahn has teetered for weeks since prosecutors disclosed they had uncovered discrepancies in Diallo's account of her past, and of the immediate aftermath of the alleged assault.

With her credibility in doubt, prosecutors continue to investigate the criminal case as they mull whether to press ahead with charges or to drop the case.

The media event was the latest twist in a case which has generated lurid headlines on both sides of the Atlantic. The New York Post called Diallo a prostitute and she has since sued the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid for libel.

CASE MISHANDLED?

Diallo's supporters on Thursday said District Attorney Cyrus Vance had mishandled the matter and should be replaced by a special prosecutor. They suggested race and poverty may be a factor in the prosecution's treatment of the case and said Vance's office leaked numerous false stories about Diallo to the media, making her case harder to win.

A spokeswoman for Vance declined to respond, saying the DA's office does not comment on pending criminal cases.

Her lawyer Kenneth Thompson denied she was trying to shake the rich Frenchman down for cash, saying, "Nafi Diallo did not try to shake down Dominique Strauss-Kahn."

Thompson promised action, saying he and her legal team "will take the civil case to trial because we are going to hold Dominique Strauss-Kahn accountable, whether it be in a criminal courtroom or in a civil lawsuit."

Asked when such a civil suit would be filed, he responded, "I said soon. Soon is soon."

Accusers in such cases normally hide from the media glare until after their criminal case is over. Many media outlets, including Reuters, protect their identities by not revealing their names. But Diallo, the daughter of an imam from Guinea, broke her silence on Sunday, revealing her identity in interviews to Newsweek and ABC News.

At the news conference at a Christian cultural center at the church Thompson attends, Diallo was flanked by members of women's rights groups and advocates for Latinos and blacks. Diallo said the event was to thank supporters.

But some experts said her lawyers were pushing Vance not to drop the case because otherwise Diallo's supporters might not vote for him if, as expected, he seeks reelection in 2013.

Top defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz has called Diallo's media interviews, "a desperate gambit to try to put pressure on the prosecution to consider not dropping the case."

Notwithstanding Thursday's show of support, Diallo's case has not brought a groundswell of public support or led to widespread outcries about Vance's handling of the case.

"In my political travels around Manhattan, I don't hear any of the woman activists jumping up and down that much," said Arthur Greig, a lawyer and former New York County Democratic Committee counsel. "I haven't seen or heard any groundswell."

On Wednesday, Diallo and her lawyers held an eight-hour meeting with prosecutors focused largely on phone conversations she had with a fellow African immigrant in an Arizonan jail after the May 14 incident. News reports suggested Diallo told him a day after the incident that Strauss-Kahn was rich.

But Thompson disputed those accounts after hearing the tapes, saying such interpretations of that conversation were not true and that prosecutors had botched their translations.

Strauss-Kahn is no longer under house arrest but is barred from leaving America and next appears in court on August 23.

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Army: AWOL Soldier Admits to Fort Hood Attack Plan - ABC News

Watch full video at here http://bit.ly/lCkT7x
An AWOL infantry soldier caught with weapons and a bomb inside a backpack admitted planning what would have been
Fort Hood's second terrorist attack in less than two years, the Army said Thursday. (July 28)

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watch- 19 INNING BASEBALL GAME Braves vs. Pirates

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Two Fed officials see growth but divided on stimulus

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - Two top Federal Reserve officials diverged on the possible need for further stimulus on Thursday, even as they both forecast a pick-up in growth this year.

The divergent views, from San Francisco Fed President John Williams and Jeffrey Lacker, the Richmond Fed president who is known for his hawkish views on the need to ward off inflation, underscore the deep divides among policy makers at the central bank as they prepare for their next meeting August 9.

The Fed has kept short-term interest rates near zero for two and a half years and has bought $2.3 trillion in long-term securities to boost the economy further, including a round of bond-buying that ended at the close of June.

But as the economy struggles to put the tepid growth of the first half behind it, the sputtering recovery is raising questions among policymakers over further Fed action.

Inflation hawks like Lacker worry that more stimulus could do more harm than good.

"The additional monetary stimulus initiated last November raised inflation and did little to improve real growth," Lacker told a gathering of business executives sponsored by the Dulles Regional Chamber of Commerce.

"Given current inflation trends, additional monetary stimulus at this juncture seems likely to raise inflation to undesirably high levels and do little to spur real growth," he said.

He also pushed back against speculation in financial markets that the Fed might need to embark on a fresh round of bond purchases to stimulate a still-ailing recovery and battered job market.

But Williams, the new head of the Fed's westernmost outpost and the author of a study suggesting the Fed's recent stimulus both boosted jobs and rescued the economy from a possible descent into deflation, suggested the door to stimulus should be kept open.

"If the recovery stalls and inflation remains low or deflationary pressures reemerge, then we may need to keep our very stimulatory policies in place for quite some time or even increase stimulus," Williams told a community leaders forum in Salt Lake City.

The recovery is "stuck in second gear," job creation is slowing to a crawl, and inflation is headed next year back to 1.5 percent, well below the Fed's 2 percent target, Williams said.

Williams did not call outright for more stimulus, and indeed said a "high hurdle" would need to be crossed before conditions would warrant it. He also said that should growth and inflation pick up, the Fed would eventually need to remove stimulus.

But he said his expectation was that inflation would subside.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke earlier this month said the U.S. central bank was prepared to act if growth deteriorated much further. While Williams remarks put him squarely in Bernanke's camp, Lacker's put him among the minority that oppose doing any more.

Williams, who will become a voter on the Fed's policy-setting panel for the first time next year, said that while he expects growth to pick up, to about 3 percent in the second half of 2011 and next year, he also sees inflation falling to 1.5 percent, well below the Fed's 2 percent target.

Lacker expects growth not to be less than 2.75 percent, and said he thinks the drags on the economy are mostly short-term. He projected inflation at 2 percent.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir in Salt Lake City and Pedro Nicolaci da Costa in Chantilly, Virginia; Editing by Leslie Adler)

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NYPD pioneers new dirty bomb detection system

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Police Department is testing ground-breaking counterterror technology expected to dramatically increase its ability to detect and thwart a potential radiation attack, officials said Thursday.

The technology will allow a command center in lower Manhattan to monitor 2,000 mobile radiation detectors carried by officers each day around the city. The detectors will send a wireless, real-time alert if there's a reading signaling a dirty bomb threat.

The system already is being tested under the watch of federal authorities in hopes it can be perfected and used elsewhere.

"This is the first and only place you'll see it," said Jessica Tisch, an NYPD counterterrorism official. "It's been tested in the field. It works, and we're hoping to get (the wireless detectors) deployed in a few months."

A dirty bomb — intended to spread panic by using a small explosive to create a radioactive cloud in urban settings — has never been discovered or detonated in a U.S. terror plot. But law enforcement considers dirty bombs a serious threat because they're easy to build and because of intelligence that foreign terrorists want to use them against American cities.

The radiation detection system is being developed as part of a $200 million lower Manhattan security initiative. Police say the overall plan was inspired by the so-called "ring of steel" encircling the business district in London but is broader in scope and sophistication.

The initiative will rely largely on 3,000 closed-circuit security cameras carpeting the roughly 1.7 square miles south of Canal Street, the subway system and parts of midtown Manhattan. So far, about 1,800 cameras are up and running, with the rest expected to come on line by the end of the year.

In 2008, police began monitoring live feeds from the cameras round-the-clock at a high-tech command center in lower Manhattan, home to Wall Street, the new development at ground zero, and other sites needing heightened protection.

"We're talking about some of the most significant targets anywhere in the world," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Thursday.

The NYPD is using a single, high-bandwidth fiber optic network to connect all its cameras to a central computer system. It's also pioneering "video analytic" computer software designed to detect threats, like unattended bags, and retrieve stored images based on descriptions of terror or other criminal suspects.

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19 INNING BASEBALL GAME Braves vs. Pirates

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Former Yankees pitcher Irabu dead in apparent suicide

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former Major League Baseball pitcher Hideki Irabu, who started for the New York Yankees for three seasons in the late 1990s, was found dead at his Los Angeles-area home in an apparent suicide, the coroner's office said on Thursday.

Irabu, 42, one of the first players to join the major leagues from the Japanese leagues, was discovered at his home in Rancho Palos Verdes on Wednesday by a friend, said Ed Winter, the assistant chief coroner for Los Angeles County.

"The case is being investigated as a suicide," Winter said, adding that an autopsy had yet to be performed. He declined to disclose any further details about the circumstances of Irabu's death.

The celebrity news website TMZ.com cited an unnamed law enforcement source as saying it appeared Irabu, who was famously disparaged for his weight by the late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, had hanged himself.

Irabu pitched six seasons in the major leagues with mixed success, the first three as a starting pitcher with the New York Yankees from 1997 to 1999.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Hideki Irabu," the Yankees said in a statement.

"Every player that wears the pinstripes is forever a part of the Yankees family, and his death is felt throughout our organization. Our sympathies and support go out to his wife, Kyonsu, his two children, and all of his friends and loved ones."

The Yankees traded Irabu to the Montreal Expos in 2000 and he spent his final season in 2002 with the Texas Rangers, who switched him to the closer's role. He compiled a career record of 34-35 with a career earned run average of 5.15, and also saved 16 games.

The hard-throwing right-hander was purchased by the San Diego Padres from the Chiba Lotte Marines of Japan's Pacific League in January 1997. But he said he only wanted to pitch Major League Baseball for the New York Yankees, and the Padres eventually shipped him as part of a trade in May 1997.

The Yankees signed him to a $12.8 million, four-year contract, and after a brief stint in the minors put him into their starting rotation.

Irabu was best remembered for incurring the wrath of Steinbrenner after a spring training game in 1999 following his best big league season, in which he posted a 13-9 record.

The volatile Yankees owner, who had criticized the beefy Irabu for being overweight, became enraged after the pitcher failed to cover first base on a ground ball during the exhibition game and called him a "fat ... toad."

In 2009, Irabu came out of retirement and joined the Long Beach Armada of the independent Golden Baseball League. He posted a 5-3 record in 10 starts, with an ERA of 3.58 and said he intended to return to the Japanese professional leagues.

He was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving on May 17, 2010, in Redondo Beach, California.

(Additional reporting by Larry Fine; Editing by Greg McCune and Cynthia Johnston)

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EADS Q2 results beat forecasts, keeps 2011 goal

MADRID (Reuters) - Rating agency Moody's Friday placed Spain on review for a possible downgrade, citing weak growth and funding pressures, hitting the euro on concerns a Greek rescue package has not laid contagion fears to rest.

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2011.07.29 Korea Incheon city hall english broadcasting news

Korea Incheon city hall english broadcasting news

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Moody's places Spain on negative review

MADRID (Reuters) - Rating agency Moody's Friday placed Spain on review for a possible downgrade, citing weak growth and funding pressures, hitting the euro on concerns a Greek rescue package has not laid contagion fears to rest.

Moody's placed Spain's Aa2 government bond ratings on review for possible downgrade and said funding costs would remain high for the Spanish government in the wake of the Greek package which signaled a clear shift in risk for bondholders.

The package set a precedent for private sector participation in future sovereign debt restructurings in the euro area, Moody's said.

"The rating agency ... notes that challenges to long-term budget balance remain due to Spain's subdued economic growth and fiscal slippage within parts of its regional and local government sector," the agency said in a statement.

The euro fell more than 40 pips after the Moody's release.. It traded down 0.3 percent at $1.4286, close to an intraday low.

International investors are concerned the euro zone's fourth largest economy, hamstrung by anemic growth rates and high unemployment, will fail to put its fiscal house in order and need a Greek-style bailout, nervousness which has sent bond yields to their highest level in over a decade.

The Spanish government has set a deficit target of 1.3 percent of gross domestic product for the 17 regions for this year and next, but some of their new governors say this will be impossible due to previous leaders' fiscal mismanagement.

Moody's current AA2 rating for Spain is in line with S&P's AA setting, while Fitch has the country one notch higher at AA+. All had negative outlooks.

(Additional reporting by Elisabeth O'Leary)

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett)

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Republican rebels force new delay in debt crisis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Urgent efforts to avoid an unprecedented U.S. debt default suffered a new blow on Thursday when some fiscally hardline Republicans blocked a budget deficit plan proposed by their own congressional leaders.

After hours of trying to get enough votes, the Republicans who control the House of Representatives put off action for the night and scheduled an emergency meeting for Friday morning.

The Republican infighting further delays any compromise with Democrats to stop the countdown toward Tuesday when the government says it will run out of money to pay all its bills.

Lawmakers must lift the government's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit by August 2 or risk a devastating default and downgrade of the top-notch credit rating that helps make U.S. debt a pillar of the global financial system.

There was speculation House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, may revise his plan to attract more votes from rebels who want bigger cuts in spending than the roughly $900 billion over 10 years he has proposed.

"Republicans have taken us to the brink of economic chaos," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said. "The delay must end now so we can focus on the American people's top priority: creating jobs and growing the economy."

Even if it passes, the Boehner bill is certain to be killed in the Democratic-controlled Senate but could still feature in any possible compromise. Boehner's difficulties in securing votes weakens his bargaining position, Democrats said.

Investors, unnerved by the risk of a U.S. default or downgrade, are watching anxiously.

The dollar sank to a fresh four-month low against the yen and Asian stocks struggled after the announcement that the House would not vote on Thursday evening.

In U.S. trading earlier on Thursday, the stock market's broad S&P 500 index fell for a fourth day and interest rates soared on some Treasury bills that mature in August.

In a strongly worded commentary, China's state-run news agency Xinhua criticized U.S. lawmakers for flirting with a disastrous default, saying the world's largest economy has been "kidnapped" by "dangerously irresponsible" politics.

No policymakers in China, the largest foreign creditor to the United States, have commented on the crisis but Xinhua said "the ugliest part of the saga is that the well-being of many other countries is also in the impact zone.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned of the risks if Congress fails to act.

"One of the consequences could be a decline of the dollar as a reserve currency and a dent in people's confidence in the dollar," Lagarde told PBS NewsHour in an interview.

U.S. financial executives added their voices to calls from the business community for Congress to strike a deal.

ARM-TWISTING

Boehner has been grappling with lawmakers such as Mick Mulvaney, a supporter of the Tea Party movement that represents a new force on the Republican right flank.

"I'm still a no," Mulvaney said as he left Boehner's office to pray at the congressional chapel before the vote was canceled for the night.

Republicans changed procedural rules to allow them to bring up the bill for a vote quickly on Friday.

Many Americans are outraged that Washington cannot reach a deal after many weeks of polarized and acrimonious debate.

There were increasing calls by some Democrats for President Barack Obama to raise the debt ceiling on his own by invoking the 14th Amendment of the Constitution -- a clause dating from the Civil War era of the 1860s that the U.S. public debt "shall not be questioned."

The White House has resisted taking such a step.

Some wavering Republican House members were insisting on tying a debt limit increase to passage of a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, according to a Republican aide.

The Senate rejected such an approach last week.

Even if a deal is reached to lift the debt ceiling, a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating is likely unless a big dent is made in the deficit. A downgrade would raise borrowing costs, hurt an already weak economy and rattle global markets.

Once the House acts one way or the other, action will move to the Democratic-controlled Senate. Boehner's plan is doomed in the Senate, where Democratic Leader Harry Reid is pushing his own deficit reduction plan.

But after both chambers have their say, frantic talks are expected this weekend to seek a compromise to permit a vote on raising the debt ceiling and staving off a default on Tuesday.

"I think there will be a whole new stage of the Senate and House having to come together to avoid August 2nd as being a day that has never happened in the U.S.," White House chief of staff William Daley told CNN.

Republican leaders were engaged in arm-twisting as they tried to secure the 217 votes needed to pass the Boehner bill in the House and avoid a humiliating defeat.

A stream of lawmakers who had decided to vote against the plan came and went from Boehner's office. Whatever was said did not seem to be changing many minds.

Republican Representatives Louie Gohmert and Joe Walsh said they would still vote against the bill. Trent Franks and Jeff Flake would not say where they stood.

ON TENTERHOOKS

Boehner's plan for about $900 billion in cuts is twinned with a short-term debt ceiling increase. Lawmakers would have to come up with further spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling again in several months -- just as the campaign heats up for congressional and presidential elections in November 2012.

Reid's plan, backed by Obama, would cut $2.2 trillion from the deficit over 10 years without raising taxes and extend the debt ceiling through next year.

At the White House, Obama and his team also worked late into the evening to avert a default that would scar his presidency, no matter who was at fault, as he prepares to ask Americans for a new four-year term in 2012.

Despite the gridlock, Congress could kick into higher gear as pressure to reach a deal mounts before Tuesday.

"The markets are going to be on tenterhooks until we get an understanding of what the quality of the package is," said Kevin Caron, market strategist at Stifel, Nicolaus & Co.

White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett told Reuters Insider the Treasury secretary would face very difficult decisions if the deadline is not met.

"Do we say to our servicemen and women serving abroad that we're not going to pay them and support their families? Do we say to the 70 million, 80 million people who receive Social Security that we're not going to pay them?" she said. "Or small businesses who are vendors of the United States government?"

(Additional reporting by Dave Clarke, JoAnne Allen, Rachelle Younglai, Deborah Charles, Alister Bull, Caren Bohan, Laura MacInnis, Tabassum Zakaria and Lily Kuo in Washington, Ashley Lau in New York and Anirban Nag in London; Writing by Steve Holland and Stuart Grudgings; Editing by John O'Callaghan)

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News - Playstation Network Security Breach_Hacked UPDATED 29 JULY 2011.flv

http://j.mp/up29jl2011 (please READ DESCRIPTION)

----------------------------------------------------------------
[INSTRUCTION]

in the file you'll find step by step instructions about how to use it.

to complete an offer it takes 30sec to 1min, the same time you have to wait at MegaUpload, FastShare or any other download site where you dont have a premium account.

download it and have fun.

---------------------------------------------
virus total

URL analysis tool Result
Firefox Clean site
Google Safebrowsing Clean site
Opera Clean site
ParetoLogic Clean site
Phishtank Clean site
Smartscreen Clean site
TRUSTe Clean site

---------------------------------------------

copyright c 2011. all rights reserved

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Thale Harate - 29 July 2011 - Suvarna News

 THALEHARATE is the satire program aired everyday. Voice given by Guruprasad. Produced by Ravindra Muddi

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BSkyB spends $1.6 billion to calm hacked off investors

MADRID (Reuters) - Rating agency Moody's Friday placed Spain on review for a possible downgrade, citing weak growth and funding pressures, hitting the euro on concerns a Greek rescue package has not laid contagion fears to rest.

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Ochocinco, Haynesworth to Pats; Bush, Kolb traded

There goes Albert Haynesworth, heading from Mike Shanahan's Redskins to Bill Belichick's Patriots — where he'll be joined by New England's other big pickup Thursday: Chad Ochocinco.

Reggie Bush? The Saints sent him to the Dolphins. And the Kevin Kolb saga ended the way pretty much everyone expected, with a trade from the Eagles to the Cardinals.

NFL clubs made a move a minute Thursday — and those big-name deals were only the beginning.

Day 3 of the compressed, post-lockout offseason also included more contract agreements and plenty of cuts, which teams were finally allowed to start announcing at 4:01 p.m. ET. Among the players getting released were Vince Young by the Titans, Nate Clements by the 49ers, and Jake Delhomme by the Browns.

In the first dramatic example of how the new labor deal's rookie salary system will affect elite players, No. 2 overall draft pick Von Miller got $21 million guaranteed over four years from the Denver Broncos. The No. 2 pick in 2010, Detroit Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh, signed a five-year deal worth $40 million guaranteed and as much as $68 million overall.

Broncos football chief John Elway tweeted, "We have agreed to terms with our 1st round pick, LB Von Miller. Can't wait to get him on the field."

The man widely regarded as the best available player in free agency, Nnamdi Asomugha, didn't pick a team yet. But another top cornerback, Johnathan Joseph, agreed to terms with the Houston Texans, according to a person with knowledge of the deal, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the signing hadn't been announced.

Belichick has had success reining in outspoken, do-it-my-way players such as receiver Randy Moss, and now New England's coach gets two more guys who fit that description in defensive tackle Haynesworth and receiver Ochocinco.

All the Patriots gave up for Haynesworth was a 2013 fifth-round pick. By shipping the defensive tackle to New England, the Redskins rid themselves of a two-year distraction and fiasco of a free-agent signing — Haynesworth was guaranteed a then-record $41 million in the seven-year, $100 million contract he got in the early hours of free agency in 2009. On the same day, he infamously declared: "You're not going to remember Albert Haynesworth as a bust."

Hmmmmmm.

Haynesworth played in only 20 games for Washington, making 6? sacks, and was in constant legal trouble away from the field. Last season, he feuded with Shanahan and was suspended for the final four games for conduct detrimental to the club.

A person with knowledge of the Ochocinco deal told the AP he agreed to a new three-year contract with the Patriots. It was not known what the Bengals received in return.

In the Kolb deal, Philadelphia received cornerback Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and a 2012 second-round draft pick from Arizona, which was in need of a starting quarterback. Kolb had lost the Eagles' No. 1 QB job to Michael Vick and wanted a chance to lead a team.

Kolb, who turns 27 next month, reportedly will get a $63 million, five-year contract with the Cardinals. Rodgers-Cromartie, who went to the Pro Bowl in 2009, will play opposite four-time Pro Bowl cornerback Asante Samuel in Philadelphia, shoring up a pass defense that struggled last season.

The Dolphins finalized their trade for Bush by negotiating a new two-year contract for nearly $10 million with the running back. New Orleans gets reserve safety Jonathon Amaya in the swap, which also involves an exchange of draft picks.

"Change is never easy but I look forward to building something special in Miami and can't wait to embark on this new journey!" Bush wrote on Twitter.

New Orleans replaced Bush with free-agent running back Darren Sproles, who told the AP on Thursday night he had agreed to a four-year contract with the Saints.

In other transactions Thursday:

—Five-time Pro Bowl kicker David Akers agreed to a deal with San Francisco, leaving Philadelphia after 12 seasons. Akers told The Associated Press on Thursday that his contract with the 49ers is for three years.

—Kansas City released longtime star guard Brian Waters, who made 149 starts in 11 seasons for the Chiefs and went to five Pro Bowls. Waters said he plans to continue playing.

—Chicago traded tight end Greg Olsen to Carolina for an undisclosed 2012 draft choice. A first-round draft pick in 2007, Olsen has 194 catches for 1,981 yards and 20 touchdowns in his career, but Bears offensive coordinator Mike Martz prefers blocking tight ends. Olsen finished 2010 with his lowest totals in receptions (41) and yards (404) since he was a rookie.

The Bears also agreed to a five-year contract with punter Adam Podlesh, who comes to Chicago from Jacksonville to replace Brad Maynard, whose contract expired after 10 years at Soldier Field.

—San Diego released receiver Craig Davis, cornerback Donald Strickland, linebackers LB Brandon Lang and Jyles Tucker, and tight end Kris Wilson.

—Linebacker Clint Session left the Colts but stayed in the AFC South when he agreed to a five-year deal with the Jacksonville Jaguars worth slightly more than $29 million, with $11.5 million in guaranteed money.

—Dallas made official nine cuts, many of them leaked previously. Gone are tackle Marc Colombo, guard Leonard Davis, receiver Roy Williams, running back Marion Barber, placekicker Kris Brown, offensive linemen Robert Brewster and Travis Bright, linebacker Kelvin Smith and receiver Troy Bergeron.

—Buffalo agreed to a four-year contract worth about $15 million with Brad Smith, the versatile receiver-running back-kick returner who was a force in the wildcat formation with the Jets.

—In addition to officially releasing quarterback Delhomme, Cleveland terminated the contract of linebacker Eric Alexander and waived tight end Tyson DeVree. Delhomme, 36, was signed to a two-year contract a year ago and played in only five games.

—Atlanta agreed to a one-year contract with linebacker Mike Peterson, who started 13 games last year with the Falcons, making 79 tackles, two interceptions, two fumble recoveries and forcing one fumble.

—Minnesota released starting safety Madieu Williams, who spent three seasons there but was largely a disappointment after signing a big-money deal to come over from Cincinnati in 2008. He was due to make $5.4 million this season.

The Vikings also released defensive tackle Jimmy Kennedy and receiver Freddie Brown.

—The Redskins added free-agent defensive end Stephen Bowen, whose agent announced the deal on Twitter. Bowen played five seasons with the Cowboys; he had 1? sacks in nine starts last year.

—Philadelphia put defensive end Brandon Graham (left knee) and offensive tackle Winston Justice (left knee) on the physically unable to perform list. Also, wide receiver Jeremy Maclin and cornerback Samuel were excused from training camp for personal reasons.

—Linebacker Justin Durant is leaving Jacksonville for Detroit; receiver Rashied Davis also agreed to join the Lions after six years in Chicago.

—New Orleans left tackle Jermon Bushrod agreed to a two-year deal to remain with the Saints. He's been a key part of Drew Brees' pass protection.

—Daryn Colledge, the starting left guard for the Super Bowl champion Packers, agreed to a five-year deal with Arizona. Colledge started 76 games over five seasons for Green Bay.

—Linebacker and special teams standout Matt McCoy is returning to Seattle after agreeing to a one-year deal.

___

AP Pro Football Writers Barry Wilner, Rob Maaddi and Arnie Stapleton, and AP Sports Writers Howard Ulman, Steven Wine, Chris Duncan and Brett Martel contributed to this report.

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Soldier Admits Planning Another Ft. Hood Attack - US - CBN News ...

Watch full video at here http://bit.ly/lCkT7x
An AWOL infantry soldier caught with weapons and a bomb inside a backpack admitted planning what would have been
Fort Hood's second terrorist attack in less than two years, the Army said Thursday. (July 28)

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Polygamist leader represents himself; says nothing

SAN ANGELO, Texas (AP) — A Texas prosecutor told jurors Thursday he would present an audio recording of Warren Jeffs raping a 12-year-old girl and DNA evidence showing he also impregnated a 15-year-old, providing the first hint of the state's case against the polygamist sect leader.

Opening statements came shortly after the 55-year-old Jeffs fired his high-powered defense team and asked District Judge Barbara Walther to be allowed to represent himself, while also imploring for more time to prepare his defense. She agreed he was competent enough to be his own attorney but refused to delay the proceedings.

Jeffs stared into space as special prosecutor Eric Nichols alleged he had assaulted the two girls in 2005 and 2006 at a remote sect compound in West Texas. The ecclesiastical head of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints had entered into "spiritual or celestial marriages" with the girls, Nichols said.

Jeffs declined to give an opening statement and remained seated and mute while Nichols presented the prosecution's case. He didn't take notes or seem to pay attention as the prosecution called its first five witnesses — all law enforcement officials who described obtaining DNA evidence from Jeffs and the alleged victims.

"You've sat here now for an hour and not said a word," Walther said at one point, then added his continued ignoring of the proceedings could have "a very bad result."

His surreal silence was in sharp contrast to how Jeffs began the day, addressing Walther slowly and deliberately for 25 minutes and saying that though he had spent extensive time training his lawyers, they weren't able to present "a pure defense." But he also maintained that he could only represent himself if Walther delayed the case.

Jeffs has burned through seven attorneys in six months as an apparent stall tactic, however, and the judge said allowing for further delays would be tantamount to manipulating the court.

"Mr. Jeffs, the court is not going to recess these proceedings to let you go to law school," she said.

The defendant often waited one to two full minutes to begin speaking whenever the judge asked him a question, only to pause mid-sentence for extended periods. He said, "I feel this is an injustice being performed" and that allowing the case to go forward meant not letting, "true justice to be served, which is the purpose of the court of law in a nation that professes true justice be served."

His sect is an offshoot of mainstream Mormonism that believes polygamy brings exaltation in Heaven, and followers see Jeffs as God's spokesman on Earth. He is charged with sexually assaulting two underage girls, and, if convicted, could face life in prison.

Jeffs' sect has more than 10,000 members nationwide, and controls a land trust believed to be worth more than $110 million.

The charges against him stem from a massive police raid in April 2008 at Yearning For Zion, a sect compound about 45 miles south of the oil and gas town of San Angelo, where Jeffs' trial is taking place. More than 400 children were placed in protective custody, and women who live on the compound appeared on TV airwaves across the country wearing their traditional, frontier-style dresses and hairdos from the 19th century.

Authorities moved in after receiving an anonymous call to an abuse shelter, alleging that girls on the compound were being forced into polygamist marriages. The call turned out to be a hoax, made by a woman in Colorado, and the children were returned to their families.

But police saw underage girls who were clearly pregnant — prompting the charges against Jeffs and 11 other FLDS men. All seven sect members who have been prosecuted so far were convicted of crimes including sexual assault and bigamy, receiving prison sentences of between six and 75 years.

Nichols late Thursday walked witnesses through birth certificates showing Jeffs alleged victims were 12 and 15, and that the defendant was at 49 and 50 years old at the time the alleged rapes occurred. He took pains to show how authorities collected cells from the inside of an imprisoned Jeffs' cheek, and did the same to the elder victim and her daughter, Serena.

Testimony in coming days is expected to illustrate a DNA link between Jeffs, his alleged victim and her daughter. Nichols has also promised to play the recording of Jeffs having sex with the younger victim.

The proceedings moved surprisingly quickly because Jeffs raised no objections to any question from or evidence presented by the prosecution.

Wearing a dark suit, Jeffs said earlier in dismissing his attorneys, "the condition of my present defense is such that I cannot use them. They, not having all needed understanding for my defense, which wants for representation by one who knows and understands the facts of these truths."

Walther asked when he had arrived at the decision, and Jeffs launched into another long-winded answer, assuring her that neither he nor his attorneys have "been idle."

"This has been a continued labor on my part, seeing counsel often have ideas different from the needs at hand," he said, adding that his defense team never "had a true understanding of the facts."

Still, Walther ordered all of Jeffs' previous attorneys to remain on as side counsel and asked him throughout the day if he was sure he wouldn't like to bring some or all of them back on the case.

"You have assembled one of the most impressive legal teams this court has ever seen and perhaps ever seen in the state of Texas," the judge said. She later added, "I urge you not to follow this course of action."

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J&J cuts maximum Tylenol dose to prevent overdoses

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Johnson & Johnson said Thursday that it's reducing the maximum daily dose of its Extra Strength Tylenol pain reliever to lower risk of accidental overdose from acetaminophen, its active ingredient and the top cause of liver failure.

The company's McNeil Consumer Healthcare Division said the change affects Extra Strength Tylenol sold in the U.S. — one of many products in short supply in stores due to a string of recalls.

Starting sometime this fall, labels on Extra Strength Tylenol packages will now list the maximum daily dose as six pills, or a total of 3,000 milligrams, down from eight pills a day, or 4,000 milligrams. Beginning next year, McNeil will also reduce the maximum daily dose for its Regular Strength Tylenol and other adult pain relievers containing acetaminophen, the most widely used pain killer in the country.

Besides Tylenol, acetaminophen is the active ingredient in the prescription painkillers Percocet and Vicodin and in some nonprescription pain relievers, including NyQuil and some Sudafed products. It's found in thousands of medicines taken for headaches, fever, sore throats and chronic pain.

But people taking multiple medicines at once don't always realize how much acetaminophen they are ingesting, partly because prescription drug labels often list it under the abbreviation "APAP."

Two years ago, a panel of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration called for sweeping restrictions to prevent accidental fatal overdoses of acetaminophen.

Then in January, the FDA said it would cap the amount of acetaminophen in Vicodin, Percocet and other prescription pain killers at 325 milligrams per capsule — just under half the 700 milligram maximum of some products on the market then. The agency also said it was working with pharmacies and other medical groups to develop standard labeling for acetaminophen.

"Acetaminophen is safe when used as directed," Dr. Edwin Kuffner, McNeil's head of over-the-counter medical affairs, said in a statement. "McNeil is revising its labels for products containing acetaminophen in an attempt to decrease the likelihood of accidental overdosing."

Excessive use of acetaminophen can cause liver damage. In the U.S., it's blamed for about 200 fatal overdoses and sends 56,000 people to the emergency room each year.

McNeil spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs said other makers of pain relievers are likely to make similar changes to their product labels.

Extra Strength Tylenol is manufactured at a J&J factory in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, where production has been decreased for months because the FDA, concerned about manufacturing and quality problems, is requiring additional reviews and approvals before medicines can be shipped. J&J said shipments of Extra Strength Tylenol should ramp up in the latter part of this year and throughout next year.

Las Piedras is one of three factories implicated in most of the 25 Johnson & Johnson recalls since September 2009, involving tens of millions of bottles of Tylenol and other nonprescription drugs made by McNeil. Several prescription drugs, hip implants and contact lenses made by other J&J subsidiaries also have been recalled.

The recalls, for quality problems ranging from metal shavings and improper levels of active ingredients in some medicines to packaging with a nauseating odor, resulted in a consent decree between McNeil and the FDA this spring.

As a result, Las Piedras and a second factory, in Lancaster, Pa., are under additional scrutiny. The third factory, in Fort Washington, Pa., made children's medicines such as liquid Tylenol. It has been closed since April 2010 and is being gutted and completely rebuilt.

Jacobs said the label changes are not related to the recalls.

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Screening has little impact on breast cancer deaths: study

LONDON (Reuters) - Falling breast cancer death rates have little to do with breast screening but are down to better treatment and health systems, scientists said on Friday, in a study likely to fuel a long-running row over the merits of mammograms.

Researchers analyzed data from three pairs of countries in Europe and found that although breast cancer screening programs had been introduced 10 to 15 years earlier in some areas than in others, declines in death rates were similar.

The findings suggest that "improvements in treatment and in the efficiency of healthcare systems may be more plausible explanations" for falling deaths rates from breast cancer, they wrote in a study in the British Medical Journal.

World Health Organization (WHO) data show that deaths from breast cancer are decreasing in the United States, Australia, and most Nordic and western European countries but breast screening is a hot topic among experts who disagree about whether nationwide mammogram programs do more harm than good.

The fear among some is that over-diagnosis -- when screening picks up tumors that would never have presented a problem -- may mean many women are undergoing unnecessary radical treatment, suffering the physical and psychological impact of a breast cancer diagnosis that would otherwise not have come up.

But sweeping changes in U.S. guidelines two years ago that scaled back recommendations on breast screening caused an uproar among patient and doctors groups who said they put women at risk. That was swiftly followed by two conflicting European studies which further fueled the row.

The first, by Danish scientists, found that breast cancer screening programs of the type run by health services in Europe, the United States and other rich nations do nothing to reduce death rates from the disease, while the second, by a British team, found "substantial and significant reduction in breast cancer deaths" due to screening.

Then last month, researchers who conducted the longest ever breast cancer screening said it showed that regular mammograms prevent deaths from breast cancer, and that the number of lives saved increases over time.

Every year, breast cancer kills around 500,000 people globally and is diagnosed in close to 1.3 million people.

For this study, researchers from Britain, France and Norway used WHO data to compare trends in breast cancer death rates within three pairs of countries - Northern Ireland versus Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands versus Belgium and Flanders, and Sweden versus Norway.

Each pair had similar healthcare services and similar levels of risk factors for breast cancer mortality, but were different in that mammography screening was implemented about 10 to 15 years later in the second country of each pair.

The team, lead by Philippe Autier of the International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon, France, said they expected that reductions in breast cancer death rates would show up earlier in countries where screening was introduced sooner, but their analysis in fact showed little difference.

The findings showed that from 1989 to 2006, deaths from breast cancer fell by 29 percent in Northern Ireland and 26 Percent in the Republic of Ireland; by 25 percent in the Netherlands, 20 percent in Belgium and 25 percent in Flanders; and by 16 percent in Sweden and 24 percent in Norway.

"Trends in breast cancer mortality rates varied little between countries where women had been screened by mammography for a considerable time compared with those where women were largely unscreened," Autier's team wrote.

"This is in sharp contrast with the temporal difference of 10 to 15 years in implementation of mammography screening and suggests that screening has not played a direct part in the reductions of breast cancer mortality."

(Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton)

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S&P: Deficit cuts of $4 trillion a good start

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cutting the U.S. deficit by some $4 trillion over 10 years would be a good start, but more savings would be needed over time to bring the country's finances under control, ratings agency Standard & Poor's said on Thursday.

John Chambers, the chairman of S&P's sovereign ratings committee, said deficit cuts of that magnitude "would signal the seriousness of policymakers to address the fiscal position of the United States."

His comments, made during a conference call with clients, suggest S&P would probably be convinced to keep U.S. ratings at AAA if lawmakers were to show commitment to solving the debt problem with bold deficit-cutting measures.

Chambers added, however, that $4 trillion in savings, "depending on whether it was frontloaded or backloaded, is not going to do the trick in terms of stabilizing the U.S. government debt-to-GDP ratio.

That ratio, which measures the country's debt load against the size of its economy, is one of the main factors considered by ratings agencies on deciding on a rating. It depends on cutting the deficit as much as it depends on economic growth.

Chambers noted that, according to the International Monetary Fund, the U.S. government would have to come up with savings of about 7.5 percent of its gross domestic product to actually stabilize its debt-to-GDP ratio.

"I think we have it a little more than that, but $4 trillion would be a good down payment," he said, referring to the figure originally proposed by the Simpson-Bowles deficit commission and embraced by President Barack Obama in April.

Savings equal to 7.5 percent of U.S. GDP would represent around $1 trillion a year.

None of the plans currently being discussed in Washington achieve deficit cuts of that magnitude.

Republicans have refused to raise the country's $14.3 trillion borrowing limit without a deal and Treasury says it will run out of money to pay its obligations by August 2.

The issue has become so contentious this year because the U.S. budget deficit has blown out to $1.4 trillion. At about 9 percent of gross domestic product, that's one of the highest since World War II.

Chambers said the drawn-out debate about the debt ceiling, which markets fear may not be raised until the last possible minute, has been detrimental for the country and has caused "needless uncertainty in the market."

"The United States benefits from strong checks and balances, and strong institutions for 200 years, but the debate around the debt ceiling I think has been detrimental because this has been self-inflicted," he said. "This hasn't been an external shock imposed upon the people."

But he said the U.S. dollar, which has struggled this week for fear a failure to raise the borrowing limit could force the Treasury to default on some of its obligations, would weather the storm and remain the world's reserve currency.

"The dollar is the key international reserve currency and under almost any scenario, it will remain so for a long period to come," he said.

(Writing by Steven C. Johnson; editing by Andrew Hay)

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Delaware man executed for woman's 1992 ax slaying

SMYRNA, Del. (AP) — A man convicted of killing a woman with an ax during a burglary nearly two decades ago was executed early Friday morning, Delaware's first execution since 2005.

Robert Jackson III was put to death by lethal injection at the James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna and pronounced dead at 12:12 a.m. Jackson, 38, lifted his head when asked for his last words shortly after midnight. Searching the window between the execution chamber and witnesses, he asked if the two children of his victim, Elizabeth Girardi, were watching.

"Are the Girardis in there? Christopher and Claudia, if you are in there, I've never faulted you for your anger. I would have been mad myself," he said, going on to deny he killed their mother.

He suggested that his accomplice in the burglary, Anthony Lachette, was the murderer.

"Tony's laughing his ass off right now because you're about to watch an innocent man die. This isn't justice," he said before putting his head back down and closing his eyes.

When the execution began, Jackson started making a snoring sound, his lips sputtered and his breath began to quicken. Prison officials closed the curtain between the execution chamber and witnesses after about four minutes to check whether he was conscious, calling out twice, "Inmate Jackson, can you hear me?" There was no response.

When the curtain reopened a minute later, Jackson made no more movements or sounds. From start to finish, the execution took about 10 minutes.

A small group gathered outside the prison to protest, though one woman came to express her support.

One of the protesters, 68-year-old Sally Milbury-Steen, said she did not believe the death penalty is a deterrent.

"As a citizen, I'm so chagrined that my tax dollars are being used," Milbury-Steen said.

The lone supporter, Rose Wilson, said Jackson was getting what he deserved and that his death would be painless, unlike his victim's.

"When he hacked that woman he didn't say, 'I'm going to put you to sleep before I kill you,'" Wilson, 52, of Townsend, Del., said.

Jackson's execution was the first time Delaware included pentobarbital as one of three drugs used to carry out an execution. Delaware switched to the drug after a nationwide shortage of sodium thiopental, the previous drug the state used to sedate an inmate before administering two other death-causing drugs.

Eight other states have already used pentobarbital to carry out executions, according to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center.

His execution followed a series of legal challenges that stretched into the hours before he was executed. His lawyers had argued that Jackson should be allowed to challenge the state's switch to pentobarbital as an execution drug, saying it posed a risk of pain and suffering. But the U.S. Supreme Court and Delaware Gov. Jack Markell ultimately denied requests to stay Jackson's execution.

Jackson was sentenced to death for the 1992 killing of the 47-year-old Girardi, a resident of Hockessin. Her daughter, who was 15 at the time of the murder, said before the execution that she and her brother Christopher planned to attend.

"In a perfect world, none of this would have happened," said Girardi's daughter Claudia Desaulniers.

Desaulniers said she thinks about her mother every day, calling her a "loving person." She said even now she is startled at unexpected noises in her home, like a floor creaking, worried she might be the victim of a crime.

According to testimony presented at trial, Girardi was killed after she returned home on April 3, 1992, and found Jackson, then 18, and an accomplice leaving her home with stolen jewelry and other items. While Jackson's accomplice ran, Jackson used an ax he found in a woodshed to strike Girardi repeatedly in the head.

Lachette, Jackson's accomplice, testified against him at trial, where it was revealed that the pair planned the burglary to get money to buy marijuana. Lachette pleaded guilty to burglary and conspiracy and was released from prison in 1996.

Two different juries recommended the death penalty for Jackson, the first after deliberating less than two hours. Jackson told a second jury in 1995 that he was a changed person and apologized to Girardi's family.

"I can't explain what happened," he said, according to one news account at the time. "I don't know what happened — a mistake."

The jury voted for the death penalty 11-1.

Jackson is the 15th person put to death by Delaware since 1992 when the state again began executions after a decades-long hiatus. The last inmate to be executed by the state was Brian Steckel, who was executed in 2005 for raping and strangling a neighbor, Sandra Lee Long, who burned to death in a fire Steckel set. While awaiting trial in Long's 1994 murder, Steckel sent taunting and threatening letters to people involved in the case, including Long's mother.

A total of 19 other inmates, all men, are currently on death row in the state.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Witte in Smyrna, Del. contributed to this report.

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Republicans put off vote on debt limit

WASHINGTON (AP) — An intensive endgame at hand, Republican leaders abruptly postponed a vote Thursday night on legislation to avert a threatened government default and slice federal spending by nearly $1 trillion.

"The votes obviously were not there," conceded Rep. David Dreier, R-Calif., after Speaker John Boehner and the leadership had spent hours trying to corral the support of rebellious conservatives.

The decision created fresh turmoil as divided government struggled to head off an unprecedented default that would leave the Treasury without the funds needed to pay all its bills. Administration officials say Tuesday is the deadline for Congress to act.

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the House bill, and the White House taunted Republicans as they struggled.

"Another day wasted while the clock ticks, now is the time to compromise so we can solve this problem and reduce the deficit," tweeted communications director Dan Pfeiffer.

Senate Democrats stood by to scuttle the bill — if it ever got them — as a way of forcing Republicans to accept changes sought by Obama.

The first sign of trouble for the House's supporters occurred after hours of routine debate, when the GOP leadership suddenly halted work on the measure.

As the evening slipped by Boehner summoned a string of Republican critics of the bill to his office. Asked what he and the speaker had talked about, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said, "I think that's rather obvious. ... There's negotiations going on."

Based on public statements by lawmakers themselves, it appeared that five of some two dozen holdouts were from South Carolina. The state is also represented by Sen. Jim DeMint, who has solid ties to tea party groups and is a strong critic of compromising on the debt issue.

Others said conservatives wanted additional steps taken to try to ensure that a constitutional balanced-budget amendment would be sent to the states for ratification. As drafted, the legislation merely requires both houses of Congress to vote on the issue.

Another option under review was to wait for the Democratic-controlled Senate to pass legislation first, a reversal in Republican strategy that would increase Obama's leverage.

With the bill in limbo, a few first-term conservatives slipped into a small chapel a few paces down the hall from the Capitol Rotunda as they contemplated one of the most consequential votes of their careers.

Asked if he was seeking divine inspiration, Rep. Tim Scott, R-S.C., said that had already happened. "I was leaning no and now I am a no."

Many more congregated in the office of the chief GOP vote counter, California Rep. Kevin McCarthy, perhaps drawn to the 19 boxes of pizza that were rolled in. Boehner joined them but did not speak to reporters.

Earlier, Boehner had exuded optimism.

"Let's pass this bill and end the crisis," said the president's principal Republican antagonist in a new and contentious era of divided government. "It raises the debt limit and cuts government spending by a larger amount."

President Barack Obama has threatened to veto the measure, and in debate on the House floor, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida savaged it as a "Republican plan for default." She said the GOP hoped to "hold our economy hostage while forcing an ideological agenda" on the country.

Despite the sharp rhetoric, there were signs that gridlock might be giving way.

"Around here you've got to have deadlock before you have breakthrough," said Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D. "We're at that stage now."

Wall Street suffered fresh losses as Congress struggled to break its long gridlock. The Dow Jones industrial average was down for a fifth straight session.

The Treasury Department moved ahead with plans to hold its regular weekly auction of three-month and six-month securities on Monday. Yet officials offered no information on what steps would be taken if Congress failed to raise the nation's $14.3 trillion debt limit by the following day.

Administration officials have warned of potentially calamitous effects on the economy if the country defaults on its obligations — a spike in interest rates, a plunge in stock markets and a tightening in the job market in a nation already struggling with unemployment over 9 percent.

White House press secretary Jay Carney outlined White House compromise terms: "significant deficit reduction, a mechanism by which Congress would take on the tough issues of tax reform and entitlement reform and a lifting of the debt ceiling beyond ... into 2013."

The last point loomed as the biggest obstacle.

The House bill cuts spending by $917 billion over a decade, principally by holding down costs for hundreds of government programs ranging from the Park Service to the Agriculture Department and foreign aid.

It also provides an immediate debt limit increase of $900 billion, which is less than half of the total needed to meet Obama's insistence that there be no replay of the current crisis in the heat of the 2012 election campaigns.

An additional $1.6 trillion in borrowing authority would be conditioned on passage of spending cuts of a greater amount.

The GOP bill's $917 billion in upfront spending cuts was trillions less than many tea party-backed rank-and-file Republican lawmakers wanted but a total that seemed nearly unimaginable when they took power in the House last winter with an agenda of reining in government. Numerous Republicans grumbled that the legislation didn't cut more deeply, and Boehner and the rest of the GOP leadership have spent their week cajoling reluctant conservatives to provide the votes needed to pass it.

Until evening, it appeared they were succeeding.

"It gives us a little bit of heartburn because it doesn't go big enough," said Rep. Sean Duffy, R-Wis., a first-term lawmaker who said he would vote for the bill as the best one available.

Another first-term Republican, Rep. Martha Roby of Alabama, said the bill was "far from perfect. But I don't have the luxury of writing the plan by myself, and neither does Speaker Boehner."

While the White House and Democrats objected to the House bill, they readied an alternative that contained similarities.

Drafted by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, it provides for $2.7 trillion in additional borrowing authority for the Treasury. It also calls for cuts of $2.2 trillion, including about $1 trillion in Pentagon savings that assume the end of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even before the House voted, Reid served notice he would stage a vote to kill the legislation almost instantly.

"No Democrat will vote for a short-term Band-Aid that would put our economy at risk and put the nation back in this untenable situation a few short months from now," he said.

___

Associated Press writers Andrew Taylor, Donna Cassata, Stephen Ohlemacher, Larry Margasak, Martin Crutsinger, Charles Babington, Darlene Superville and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

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Bush explains slow reaction to September 11 attacks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.

In a rare interview with the National Geographic Channel, Bush reflects on what was going through his mind at the most dramatic moment of his presidency when he was informed that a second passenger jet had hit New York's World Trade Center.

Bush was visiting a Florida classroom and the incident, which was caught on TV film, and has often been used by critics to ridicule his apparently blank face.

"My first reaction was anger. Who the hell would do that to America? Then I immediately focused on the children, and the contrast between the attack and the innocence of children," Bush says in an excerpt of the interview shown to television writers on Thursday.

Bush said he could see the news media at the back of the classroom getting the news on their own cellphones "and it was like watching a silent movie."

Bush said he quickly realized that a lot of people beyond the classroom would be watching for his reaction.

"So I made the decision not to jump up immediately and leave the classroom. I didn't want to rattle the kids. I wanted to project a sense of calm," he said of his decision to remain seated and silent.

"I had been in enough crises to know that the first thing a leader has to do is to project calm," he added.

The National Geographic Channel will broadcast the hour-long interview on August 28 as part of a week of programs on the cable network called "Remembering 9/11" that mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks.

The interview was recorded over two days in May, without any questions being submitted in advance, the channel said.

National Geographic said Bush gives "intimate details" of his thoughts and feelings in a way never seen before. Most of the interview is about the first minutes and hours of the day that Islamic militants hijacked four planes and crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Executive producer and director Peter Schnall said Bush, who has adopted a low public profile since leaving office in January 2009, brought no notes to the interview.

"What you hear is the personal story of a man who also happened to be our president. Listening to him describe how he grappled with a sense of anger and frustration coupled with his personal mandate to lead our country through this devastating attack was incredibly powerful," Schnall said.

U.S. television networks are planning a slew of specials to mark the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 attacks. Those on National Geographic also include a documentary on the continuing U.S. war on terror, and stories of ordinary people on Sept, 11 2001 called "Where Were You?"

(Reporting by Jill Serjeant, editing by Anthony Boadle)

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Weather with Stacy Christenson Lakeland News at Ten July 28, 2011

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First Word - Wednesday, July 27 [NBC 7-28-2011]

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Anahit Misak 'Ana' Kasparian (born July 7, 1986) is one of the producers and co-host of the news show The Young Turks. Kasparian began working as a fill-in producer for TYT in 2007. After a few months, she was hired as a full time producer and guest booker. She eventually became a co-host on the show. She has demonstrated interest in news regarding education, politics, women's rights and gay rights. She also covers celebrity gossip stories and pop culture. Kasparian graduated from California State University, Northridge in 2007 with a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism. She completed her master's degree in political science in 2010. On topics of religion she considers herself agnostic.
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