AP News in Brief

House Democrats confident they can overcome abortion rift in health bill

WASHINGTON (AP) — Victory within reach, President Barack Obama rallied House Democrats on Saturday for a final health care push, and party leaders appeared confident they had overcome a flare-up over abortion funding restrictions in the legislation.

Building on Democrats' momentum, House leaders decided on a straight up-or-down vote on Obama's top priority and the defining issue of his first year in office, backing off a much-challenged plan to vote on the bill indirectly. With the vote scheduled for Sunday, the battle tilted in Obama's direction as more Democrats disclosed how they would vote.

The president decided to make a final personal appeal with a Saturday afternoon visit to the Capitol. He spoke after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., reassured House rank and file that the Senate will complete the legislation. More than 50 Democratic senators have signed a pledge to do, Reid's spokesman said.

"Is this the single most important step that we have taken on health care since Medicare?" Obama asked lawmakers. "Absolutely."

The legislation, affecting virtually every American and more than a year in the making, would extend coverage to an estimated 32 million uninsured, bar insurers from denying coverage on the basis of existing medical conditions and cut federal deficits by an estimated $138 billion over a decade.

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Pope orders Vatican probe into Irish church, blasts bishops, takes no Vatican blame for abuse

DUBLIN (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI's unprecedented letter to Ireland apologizing for chronic child abuse within the Catholic Church failed Saturday to calm the anger of many victims, who accused the Vatican of ducking its own responsibility in promoting a worldwide culture of cover-up.

Benedict's message — the product of weeks of consultation with Irish bishops, who read it aloud at Masses across this predominantly Catholic nation — rebuked Ireland's church leaders for "grave errors of judgment" in failing to observe the church's secretive canon laws.

The pope, who himself stands accused of approving the transfer of an accused priest for treatment rather than informing German police during his 1977-82 term as Munich archbishop, suggested that child-abusing priests could have been expelled quickly had Irish bishops applied the church's own laws correctly. He pledged a church inspection of unspecified dioceses and orders in Ireland to ensure their child-protection policies were effective.

He also appealed to priests still harboring sins of child molestation to confess.

"Openly acknowledge your guilt, submit yourselves to the demands of justice, but do not despair of God's mercy," he wrote.

But Benedict offered no endorsement of three official Irish investigations that found the church leadership to blame for the scale and longevity of abuse heaped on Irish children throughout the 20th century.

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British Airways crew launches 3-day strike, forcing airline to cancel thousands of flights

LONDON (AP) — Retiree Richard Moore arrived at Heathrow with a suitcase of summer clothes for a Miami cruise only to be sent to Denver. Susan Danby wondered if plans for a joint 50th birthday celebration in Las Vegas would be a losing bet.

The start of a three-day strike by cabin crew at British Airways spurred chaos and passenger angst on Saturday as union members promised more airline and rail walkouts in the coming weeks as Britain prepares for a hotly contested general election.

"This is our dream trip, we booked it last August and we've been planning it for years," said Danby, who was still hoping to get to Las Vegas with her friends. "We all want more money and better conditions, but people shouldn't ruin other people's holidays."

BA's cabin crew are disputing a pay freeze and changes to working conditions. Their Unite union also says BA didn't inform it of cost-cutting plans.

BA said it would handle as many as 49,000 passengers on both Saturday and Sunday. That compares with the average 75,000 for a normal weekend day in March. At its Heathrow base, more than 60 percent of long-haul flights were operating, but only 30 percent of short-haul. At Gatwick, all long-haul flights and more than half short-haul flights were running as normal, as were flights from London City airport, including flights to New York.

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UN chief says Israeli settlements must be stopped; Palestinian teen killed by Israelis troops

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — Visiting U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon said Saturday that Israeli settlement building anywhere on occupied land is illegal and must be stopped, while a Palestinian teenager was killed in clashes with Israeli troops elsewhere in the West Bank.

The death of 16-year-old Mohammed Qadus, who Palestinians say was shot in the chest by Israeli security forces, comes amid heightened tensions between Israelis and Palestinians after Israel announced plans last week for 1,600 new homes for Jews in disputed east Jerusalem.

The settlement announcement has sparked outrage and protests from Palestinians, as well as condemnation from Israel's closest ally — the United States — and the U.N. secretary general.

From a hilltop observation post on the outskirts of the Palestinian city of Ramallah, Ban got a closer look Saturday at some of the Israeli enclaves scattered across Palestinian-claimed territories.

The panorama included the sprawling West Bank settlement of Givat Zeev, home to 11,000 Israelis who live in rows of red-roofed houses, and Jewish neighborhoods in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, the Israeli-annexed sector of the city that Palestinians claim as a future capital.

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Thousands carry flag-draped coffins, 'Indict Bush' signs in DC protest on Iraq war anniversary

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of protesters — many directing their anger squarely at President Barack Obama — marched through the nation's capital Saturday to urge immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least eight people, including activist Cindy Sheehan, were arrested by U.S. Park Police at the end of the march, after laying coffins at a fence outside the White House. Friday marked the seventh anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

"Arrest that war criminal!" Sheehan shouted outside the White House before her arrest, referring to Obama.

At a rally before the march, Sheehan asked whether "the honeymoon was over with that war criminal in the White House" — an apparent reference to Obama — prompting moderate applause.

The protesters defied orders to clear the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House and park police say they face charges of failure to obey a lawful order.

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With celebration cigars ready, Fargo calmly waits for river to crest and flood threat to pass

FARGO, N.D. (AP) — They passed out cigars in Fargo on Saturday, but no matches just yet, as a flood-weary city that's spent the last week getting ready to hold back the Red River cautiously prepared to celebrate what appeared to be a successful defense against the swollen waterway.

The river continued to inch upward toward an expected crest Sunday a few feet below last year's record, to be followed by a quick and steady drop. As they waited, Fargo's residents turned their attention to cleaning up debris in low-lying neighborhoods where more than a million sandbags held back the waters, with some taking a break for basketball.

"Last year I was not sleeping well. This year I am sleeping like a baby," said Fargo resident Kevin Pladson, who last year counted on mounds of sandbags to keep the river away from his back deck. This year, the water isn't close. "I'm relaxing and watching as much of the NCAA tournament as I can."

The easygoing mood stood in stark contrast to last year, when floods along the north-flowing Red River sparked a last-minute frenzy of sandbagging that brought life to a halt and forced thousands to evacuate.

This year, residents in Fargo and neighboring Moorhead, Minn., were calm as the river completed a rise driven by the spring thaw of a thick snowpack: they walked their dogs, went shopping and worked out at the gym. At one mobile command center on the Minnesota side of the river, the focus early Saturday was on breakfast instead of levee breaks as sheriff's deputies spent the morning cooking deer sausage.

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Aruba to review underwater picture that tourist believes might be remains of missing US teen

ORANJESTAD, Aruba (AP) — Authorities will search once again for a missing U.S. teen after an American couple took an underwater picture of what they believe might be Natalee Holloway's remains, a spokeswoman for the prosecutors' office told The Associated Press on Saturday.

A police diving team will soon do preliminary work at the spot where officials believe the picture was taken, spokeswoman Ann Angela said.

It is too early to say whether the tip is more viable than the other numerous ones authorities have received, Angela said.

"It could be a skull, it could be a stone, it could be anything," she said. "That's what we're trying to figure out."

The couple cannot pinpoint the exact location, but a local resident believes he can find the spot, Angela said.

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Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall, environmental crusader, dies at age at 90

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Stewart Udall, who sowed the seeds of the modern environmental movement as secretary of the interior during the 1960s and later became a crusader for victims of radiation exposure from the government's Cold War nuclear programs, died Saturday. He was 90.

A statement from Udall's family, released through the office of his son, Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said he died of natural causes at his home in Santa Fe, surrounded by his children and their families.

Udall, brother of the late 15-term congressman Morris Udall, served six years in Congress as a Democrat from Arizona, and then headed the Interior Department for eight years under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. His son Tom and nephew Mark also became congressmen, then both were elected to the Senate in 2008.

Under Stewart Udall's leadership from 1961 through 1968, the Interior Department aggressively promoted an expansion of public lands and helped win enactment of major environmental laws, including ones to protect endangered species.

Udall helped write several of the most far-reaching pieces of legislation, including the Wilderness Act of 1964, which protects millions of acres from logging, mining and other development.

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16-year-old boy charged with making racial comment over intercom at southern NJ Walmart

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) — A 16-year-old boy who police said made an announcement at Walmart ordering all black people in the southern New Jersey store to leave was charged with harassment and bias intimidation, authorities said Saturday.

The boy, whose name is not being released because he is a juvenile, grabbed one of the courtesy phones at Walmart's Washington Township store Sunday evening and calmly announced: "Attention, Walmart customers: All black people, leave the store now," police said.

The teen was arrested Friday and released to the custody of his parents; police did not know whether he had a lawyer.

"This was an extremely disturbing event on many levels," Gloucester County Prosecutor Sean Dalton said at a news conference. "Any statements like these that can cause harm or grave concern must be addressed as quickly we possibly can."

Dalton said the case would be handled in juvenile court in neighboring Atlantic County, where the boy lives. He would not say whether the boy has a criminal record, citing the teen's age, and would not disclose the teen's race, saying that did not factor into the investigation.

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NCAA: Tennessee cruising against No. 14 seed Ohio; Butler beats Murray State 54-52

Just in case nobody in Providence realized J.P. Prince had slammed down an alley-oop, his guttural scream running back the other way made every animal in Rhode Island perk up its ears.

Cameron Tatum followed with a dunk, then came another fastbreak layup, and the Vols are cruising with about 5 minutes left. The lead is back to 71-58.

So many fans love to treat games as if it were Oct. 31. Spotted in the crowd of the Ohio-Tennessee game: two Ohio fans in green afro wigs, one draped in the American flag. Another Ohio fan painted his face checkered style green and white. And yes, he had a black afro.

Don't worry, the Vols fans came ready to wear. There was a grown man in what looked like an Orange onezie. Yes, his face was painted. Of course, he had the afro wig. One Vols fan, her sunglasses on, wore an oversized "T'' hat that could have been stuffed with two basketballs and still fit on her head.