France on Monday renewed its demand for Tehran to drop charges against a French academic who was accused of spying during post-election unrest in Iran, after she was released from prison on bail.

University teaching assistant Clotilde Reiss, 24, was freed from the capital's Evin prison late Sunday and transferred to the French embassy to await a verdict, after appearing in a televised mass trial on August 8.

"This release on bail is just a first step," French foreign ministry spokesman Romain Nadal told a news conference, repeating demands that her case, and that against a Franco-Iranian embassy worker, be thrown out.

"We demand that the legal proceedings against Clotilde Reiss and Nazak Afshar, which nothing can justify, are dropped as soon as possible," he said.

Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner later confirmed that Paris had paid "around 200,000 euros" (280,000 dollars) in bail to secure Reiss's release from prison.

"Of course we hope to be reimbursed, because she is innocent and that will be recognised," Kouchner said on cable news channel LCI.

"We can expect, we must expect, a verdict that recognises her innocence," he added.

The Tehran prosecutor earlier said Reiss' bail had been set at 300,000 dollars, according to the Mehr news agency.

The French foreign ministry also said President Nicolas Sarkozy spoke directly with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad to enlist his help in winning Reiss's release.

France had already praised Syria, a former pariah which is in the process of mending strained ties with Paris and is Iran's closest Arab ally, for helping negotiate Afshar's release, and did so again in the case of Reiss.

Scores of reformists, journalists and opposition supporters were jailed in the wake of mass protests that erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election, and around 140 have appeared in mass trials.

Reiss was seized at Tehran airport as she tried to fly home after completing a six-month teaching and research assignment in the central city of Isfahan.

According to Kouchner, Iranian authorities accused her of spying after she took souvenir photographs of the marches and sent them to friends. State media in Iran have said she has also admitted sending a report to the French embassy.

France has demanded her unconditional release, but Iranian prosecutors have said she must remain in Iran pending the verdict.

Egypt on Monday prevented dozens of pilgrims over the age of 65 or under 25 from travelling to Mecca as part of measures to prevent the spread of swine flu, an airport official said.

"Fifteen percent of passengers who arrived on Monday at Cairo airport to travel to Saudi Arabia on pilgrimage were prevented from leaving," the official said.

He said the travel ban affected between 180-200 people "who belong to age groups banned from going on umrah (lesser pilgrimage) and hajj (annual Muslim pilgrimage) this year."

"The people banned from leaving are those over 65 and those under 25 because they are the most at risk of being contaminated by swine flu," the A(H1NI) virus, the official added.

Egypt began implementing the travel restriction on Sunday.

Pilgrims wanting to go on umrah or hajj must show airport officials in Cairo medical certificates to prove they do not suffer from any chronic diseases, including diabetes, officials said.

A spokesman for the Egyptian chamber of tour operators said pilgrims denied travel to Saudi Arabia, home of Islam's holiest shrines, will be reimbursed.

Arab health ministers agreed in July to restrict the number of people allowed to go on hajj and umrah after an Egyptian woman back from Saudi Arabia became the first swine fly death in the Middle East and Africa.

On July 25 Saudi health ministry spokesman Khaled Marghalani said his country was likely to ban people older than 65 and younger than 12 from this year's hajj which is due to take place in late November.

As well as the annual hajj, which all Muslims are required to make once in a lifetime if they have the means, the faithful can also make the lesser pilgrimage known as umrah at any time of the year.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday put the onus on Israel to break a deadlock with Arab nations as he held talks with a US administration under pressure to launch a new peace push.

Mubarak held a closed-door meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a day ahead of a summit with President Barack Obama. It will the first White House meeting in five years for Mubarak, who had tense relations with President George W. Bush.

Obama has shown new deference to the octogenarian Egyptian leader, with his administration saying it wanted to consult with him before launching any major new initiative in the Middle East.

But US hopes to push forward the peace plan before the Muslim holy month of Ramadan starts later this week look increasingly slim as Israel and Arab states both insist that the other make the first move.

Obama is pressuring Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-leaning government to stop Jewish settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank while asking Arab states to take at least symbolic steps to reconcile with Israel.

In remarks published Monday, Mubarak said he told Obama in June -- when the US leader chose Cairo as the backdrop for a landmark speech reaching out to the Islamic world -- that Israel must freeze settlements.

"I explained to President Obama in Cairo that the Arab initiative offers the recognition of Israel and normalization of ties with it after, and not before, a just and lasting peace is achieved," Mubarak told the state-controlled Al-Ahram newspaper.

The Arab League in 2002 endorsed a peace plan calling for Arab states to recognize Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from the land it occupied in war in 1967 and an equitable resolution for Palestinian refugees.

Only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, have signed peace treaties with the Jewish state while some other Arab countries have trade relations.

"Some Arab countries that exchanged representatives and trade offices might think of reopening these offices if Israel committed itself to stop settlement expansion and to resume final status peace negotiations," Mubarak said.

Mubarak on Monday met for more than an hour with some 20 Jewish leaders on the peace process and also on Iran, which both Israel and Egypt fear is developing nuclear weapons, participants said.

Martin Raffel, senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, described the meeting as "very friendly" and said he believed Mubarak "clearly is committed" to moving ahead with the peace process.

But he said the Jewish leaders also pressed Mubarak to find ways to reassure the Israeli public "that the Arab world is serious about trying to achieve peace with Israel."

"If you're asking Israel to make hard decisions," Raffel told AFP, "the Israeli people have to begin to feel that there is a positive change happening with the broader Arab world beyond Egypt and Jordan."

Mubarak's position is in line with other Arab nations. Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia, which proposed the 2002 initiative, last month in Washington ruled out a "step by step" diplomatic approach with Israel.

Relations between Cairo and Washington were tense under Bush, whose support of Israel and invasion of Iraq were unpopular but who also pressed Mubarak to release dissidents and hold free elections.

Egyptian dissident Ayman Nur, who was freed earlier this year after three years in prison, accused Obama of neglecting pledges to support political reform.

Nur, speaking to AFP in Cairo, called it a "setback in the promotion of the values Obama pledged to support during his election campaign."

"It betrays American values," he said.

The young lawyer mounted an unprecedented challenge to Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election before being jailed on forgery charges many saw as trumped up.

Yemeni Shiite rebels embroiled in weeklong skirmishes with government forces stormed a camp in northern Yemen housing thousands displaced during years of warfare and seized humanitarian aid, a local aid group said on Monday.

Shiite Zaidi rebels burst into Al-Ind camp and took away aid supplies from the site on the outskirts of Saada, capital of the rugged mountainous province of the same name, the head of Yemen's Red Crescent said.

The Red Crescent asked the government to suspend hostilities for two days so the aid workers could relocate the displaced population to other camps away from the fighting, Abdul-Qader Shaweet said.

"Some families refused to move out of Al-Ind Camp, likely under pressure from the rebels,"Shaweet said.

The rebels, led by Abdul-Malek al-Huthi, have been engaged in fighting with government forces on and off since 2004. The Sunni-dominated government accuses them of seeking to reinstate imamate rule, which ended in a republican coup in 1962.

But the Huthis say they are defending their villages against what they call state aggression.

Thousands of people, including members of Yemen's tiny but ancient Jewish community, have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the fighting.

Yemen's Red Crescent, along with international aid groups, oversees three camps in the province of Saada that house around 12,000 displaced families, providing them with humanitarian needs, such as food and bed covers.

In the past week the army has waged a major offensive on the stronghold of the rebels in Saada, sparking accusations from the rebels that troops have killed dozens of civilians.

The government on Thursday offered terms for ending the offensive, including the rebels evacuating all government offices they have occupied, handing over ammunition and equipment and freeing their prisoners. The rebels shunned the proposal.

An offshoot of Shiite Islam, the Zaidis are a minority in mainly Sunni Yemen but form the majority community in the north. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is himself a Zaidi.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki is to visit Damascus for talks on security on Tuesday after the top US general in Iraq said Syria's role in allowing fighters to enter the country remained a concern.

Maliki's trip, which will include a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, comes just days after a senior US military delegation visited Syria to discuss regional security issues, reportedly including Iraq.

General Ray Odierno told reporters on Monday that while the "flow of foreign fighters in Iraq has decreased significantly... we're still a little bit concerned with Syria's role in this."

Both Iraq and the United States have repeatedly accused Damascus of supporting terrorism and allowing Islamist militants, namely from Al-Qaeda, to enter Iraq through Syria's porous borders.

Maliki's visit to Syria will focus on "security, politics, economics, borders, water and regional cooperation," Ali Musawi, an adviser to the Iraqi premier, told AFP on Sunday.

"We think that this visit will form a solid base for joint cooperation between the two countries, especially over security and borders and preventing infiltration."

Maliki made clear his position on border security, telling visiting Egyptian newspaper editors this week that "those who are infiltrating Iraq are coming from our neighbours... and bringing private agendas, or agendas from the countries they are coming from," his office said in a statement.

Baghdad earlier responded negatively to reports that the US-Syria meeting on August 12 had reportedly included discussions on Iraqi security, which Iraqi deputy foreign minister Labid Alawi said the government did not "care for".

"The prime minister's discussions with senior Syrian officials will focus mainly on security cooperation between Baghdad and Damascus, and what can Syria propose in this field without the need for a third party," Abawi told Al-Bayan newspaper, which is owned by a Maliki adviser.

"Baghdad doesn't care for any of these meetings about Iraq without its presence," he added in reports published Sunday.

Odierno said American "bilateral discussions with them (Syria) are important," referring to the senior US military delegation that visited Damascus to talk about regional security issues.

He would say only that the meetings were "exactly that -- bilateral meetings between the United States and Syria, that dealt with regional issues."

"I believe that the best way for Iraq and Syria to solve their issues is through the bilateral work that will go on between Prime Minister Maliki and Assad.

"We have a lot of reasons to begin discussions... with Syria, and I think this is just the beginning of those discussions, and it's not just Iraq that they're dealing with."

Maliki's talks in Syria will also focus on water resources, amid frequent complaints from Baghdad that the flow of the Euphrates river, which runs from Turkey through Syria to Iraq, is insufficient for Iraq's agricultural needs.

Baghdad's water minister accused Turkey last week of breaking a promise to increase water flows down the Euphrates, saying Ankara was actually holding back on the precious commodity.

He was responding to remarks by visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu that his country had fulfilled its promises and was considering increasing the flow further.

In July, Baghdad called for talks with Ankara and Damascus over the issue.

US President Barack Obama was bidding Tuesday to breathe new life into his Middle East peace push, looking to Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak help break a deadlock between Israel and Arab states.

It will mark the longtime US ally's first White House summit in five years, turning a page on a tense relationship with former president George W. Bush who pushed him to release political prisoners and hold free elections.

Obama has been pushing Israel's right-leaning government hard to freeze Jewish settlements but has also called on Arab nations to take symbolic gestures to encourage the Jewish state to move forward.

But Obama has had little to show, with Israel going ahead with evictions of Palestinian families from a sensitive area of east Jerusalem and Arab states, including Egypt, saying Israel must take action before they do.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said that Obama will "take some time" with Mubarak to reach out.

"I think obviously each country in the region on either side of this issue has certain responsibilities to uphold as we make progress toward a lasting peace in the Middle East," Gibbs told reporters Monday.

"And without a recognition of those responsibilities it's going to be hard to move forward," Gibbs said on Air Force One as the president returned from a working holiday in the western United States.

Obama has shown new deference to the octogenarian Egyptian leader, with his administration saying it wanted to consult with him before launching any major new initiative in the Middle East.

In remarks published Monday, Mubarak said he told Obama in June -- when the US leader chose Cairo as the backdrop for a landmark speech extending a hand to the Islamic world -- that Israel must freeze settlements.

"I explained to President Obama in Cairo that the Arab initiative offers the recognition of Israel and normalization of ties with it after, and not before, a just and lasting peace is achieved," Mubarak told the state-controlled Al-Ahram newspaper.

The Arab League in 2002 endorsed a plan calling for Arab states to recognize Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from the land it occupied in war in 1967 and an equitable resolution for Palestinian refugees.

Only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, have signed peace treaties with the Jewish state while some other Arab countries have trade relations.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton discussed the peace process with Mubarak on Monday along with developments on Iran, which both nations fear is building nuclear weapons.

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley voiced confidence that Clinton and Mubarak agreed on the need for "gestures that move towards normalization" as both Israel and the Palestinians take peace steps.

He said Clinton also raised human rights with Mubarak.

"It is something that we raise in every high-level meeting that we have," Crowley told reporters. "We would like to see Egypt embark on a path to expand political dialogue."

Leading Egyptian dissident Ayman Nur, who spent three years in prison after challenging Mubarak in the 2005 presidential election, earlier voiced fear that Obama would set back efforts to promote reform in Egypt.

"It betrays American values," Nur told AFP in Cairo.

Mubarak also met Monday with some 20 Jewish leaders in a meeting that Martin Raffel, senior vice president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, described as "very friendly."

But he said the Jewish leaders also pressed Mubarak to find ways to reassure the Israeli public "that the Arab world is serious about trying to achieve peace with Israel."

"If you're asking Israel to make hard decisions," Raffel told AFP, "the Israeli people have to begin to feel that there is a positive change happening with the broader Arab world beyond Egypt and Jordan."

Israeli soldiers posted along the Egyptian border on Monday opened fire at an Egyptian policemen they claim acted in a suspicious manner, the Israeli army said.

"The soldiers saw a suspect individual approach with a rifle which he was arming. They shot in the air and then towards him," an army spokeswoman said.

It was later established the man was a policeman and that he sustained a shoulder wound, army radio said.

A joint Israeli-Egyptian team will investigate the incident, the spokeswoman said.

The incident took place 20 kilometres (15 miles) north of the Israeli Red Sea resort of Eilat.

Army radio initially said the Israelis had returned fire after the Egyptian shot at them.

LIVERPOOL, England (AFP) – Fernando Torres signed a new contract with Liverpool on Friday and then told his team-mates they have a golden opportunity to end the club's 19-year wait to win the English title this season.

Spain striker Torres agreed an improved deal that will keep him at Anfield until 2013 with the option of a further year's extension and he insists there are no excuses for not winning the title.

"Fernando Torres has put pen to paper on a new and improved contract at Anfield," a statement on Liverpool's website confirmed.

"The 25-year old striker agreed the terms of the deal back in May and has now completed the formalities of signing the new contract."

Rafa Benitez's runners-up finished just four points behind Manchester United in the Premier League last season and Torres is confident Liverpool can hold their own against the top four rivals.

He believes landing wins rather than draws in some of the other tricky fixtures, like Sunday's Premier League opener at Tottenham, will be enough to overhaul United.

"We have no problem beating Manchester United or Chelsea but it is games like Sunday's at Tottenham where we need to show our real title intentions," Torres told The Sun.

"Tottenham is not an easy place to go but these are games we must be winning if this is to finally be our year.

"I am not thinking can we win the title, I am thinking we have to win the title."

After several seasons on the fringes of the title race, Torres believes the experience of going so close last term will stand them in good stead this year.

"We came so close last season but for many of the players it was their first time experiencing the pressure of a Premier League title race," Torres said.

"We have experience and if we don't bring the title back to Anfield I won't be offering up any excuses at the end of the season.

"We don't need to improve a lot on last season to win the title. There is only a slight improvement needed to give the fans and players the title they have wanted for so many years now.

"This is the best Liverpool team there has been in years, that is what many of the experienced players are saying.

"Now is our time. Second best is just not going to cut it with me any more."

MILWAUKEE – Lavelle Felton was doing what he always wanted to do by playing in a professional European basketball league, his stepfather said Friday, a day after the Milwaukee native died from a gunshot wound.

"Lavelle was a people person," Ken McLean said Friday. "When you see Lavelle, Lavelle made your day better because he always had something nice to say, always had a smile on his face and he was a person who was living his dream."

Police said the 29-year-old was shot in the head while sitting in the driver's seat of a vehicle at a Milwaukee gas station around 2 a.m. Wednesday. He died Thursday about 9:30 p.m. at a local hospital. No arrests have been made, police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said Friday.

Schwartz said she was releasing few details because there was no one in custody. Detectives have been interviewing people near the gas station and to Felton's friends and relatives.

"We're trying to find out a motive," Schwartz said. "We're trying to talk to anybody who might have seen something."

Felton played for Paderborn last season in Germany's top league, Bundesliga. He was a guard and played in 34 games, averaging 10.4 points and 2.4 assists per game as he helped the club reach the Bundesliga playoffs.

Felton had played basketball at Madison High School in Milwaukee, then at Louisiana Tech, where he averaged 13.7 points and 5.1 rebounds per game in 2002-03. He then spent two years with the Turkish club Buyuk Kolej before moving on to Greece and France.

McLean and friends have said Felton, nicknamed "Velle" or "Romie," lived to play basketball, playing as much as he could.

But Felton also spent a lot of time with his family, McLean said. He has a 5-year-old stepson, a 4-year-old son, and a 2-year-old daughter with his girlfriend, he said.

"He's going to be sorely missed," he said. "He's such a great person."

His stepfather said a witness told the family that Felton was filling his "old school" car with fancy rims with gas when another driver in an "old school" car drove up "acting a fool around his car."

He said the driver left but came back, shooting into the air. The gas station then turned off its lights, possibly feeling threatened. While Felton was distracted, another man crept up and fired at him, McLean quoted the witness as saying.

McLean called it "senseless" and "idiotic." McLean said he was irate with police because he hasn't heard anything from them and they didn't prevent the shooting.

In an e-mail, Schwartz said McLean's statements were inaccurate and police were working to solve the murder. No funeral plans had been made as of Friday afternoon, McLean said.

Felton's Los Angeles-based agent for the last two years, Mark Mayemura, described Felton as mature person who cared as much about providing for his family as playing basketball.

"Professionally he did achieve a lot," he said. "He still had so much more to give for himself, for his family and for the game and that's the tragic part about it."

Felton had an offer on the table from Cyprus and was supposed to give Mayemura an answer on Wednesday.

There were numerous comments on Felton's Facebook page. Some of his friends changed their profile photos Friday to his picture and said they were in disbelief.

"I am not taking the news well at all but I know you are in a better place now and that God will take care of you," Kiana Believesinkarma-Addison wrote. "I love you like a brother and I miss you. Until we meet again. ... R.I.P. Velle."

(This version CORRECTS Corrects spelling of step-father's last name on first reference to McLean; LINKS new photos. Moving on general news and sports services.)

WASHINGTON – Amid a boisterous debate on health care reform, people flooded members of Congress on Thursday with so many e-mails that they overloaded the House's primary Web site.

Technical support issued a warning to congressional staff that the site, http://www.house.gov, may be slow or unresponsive because of the large volume of e-mail being sent to members.

Jeff Ventura, a spokesman for the House's chief administrative officer, which maintains the Web site, said traffic data was not available and could not be released without the lawmakers' consent.

"It is clearly health care reform," Ventura said. "There's no doubt about it."

Lawmakers are in their home districts for the August recess, where a populist backlash has emerged in some quarters against President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul the nation's health care system.

A spokesman for Rep. Joe Barton, a Texas Republican, said e-mail traffic related to health care has exploded in recent weeks.

Sean Brown said the office has received 2,761 e-mails on the subject since the debate heated up five weeks ago. In the five weeks before that, the office received 368 health care-related e-mails. He estimated that 90 to 95 percent of the e-mails were opposed to Obama's plan.

Democrats are trying desperately to regain control of the debate, with the White House posting a new Web site designed to dispel what it called "the misinformation and baseless smears that are cropping up daily." House Democratic aides have set up a health care war room out of Majority Leader Steny Hoyer's office. It is designed to help lawmakers answer questions about the legislation.

Ventura said the last time he saw such a significant slowdown in the system was in January, shortly before the House passed an $819 billion bill to stimulate the economy.

Ventura said new technology called "load balancing" is in place to try to handle spikes in volume. So far, the House Web site remains available to the public.

In particular, people are heavily using a link on the site called "Write Your Representative," which helps a voter track down their representative by plugging in their ZIP code.

CHASKA, Minn. – Tiger Woods has a four-stroke lead midway through the PGA Championship after a 2-under 70 on Friday at Hazeltine National.

Woods is looking to win his first major of the year and 15th overall. While there are still two rounds left to play, the odds are on his side: He is 8-0 when he is the 36-hole leader at a major.

Woods is at 7-under 137. Playing partner and defending championPadraig Harrington, U.S. Open winner Lucas Glover, Vijay Singh, Brendan Jones and Ross Fisher are all at 141.

Tied with Fisher with five holes to play, Woods took advantage of the shortened par-4 14th to start a run of three straight birdies that separated him from the pack.

Woods has four PGA titles, one fewer than Walter Hagen and Jack Nicklaus.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

CHASKA, Minn. (AP) — Just like that, Tiger Woods has solid control of the PGA Championship.

Woods took advantage of the shortened par-4 14th and a poor finish by Ross Fisher, needing only two holes Friday to turn a tie into a three-stroke lead. Woods, looking to win his first major of the year, is at 6 under through 14.

Fisher and Padraig Harrington, Woods' playing partner and the defending champion, are at 3 under with U.S. Open winner Lucas Glover (70), Brendan Jones (70) and Vijay Singh (72).

Phil Mickelson, meanwhile, is in danger of missing the cut at the PGA for the first time since 1995 after a second straight 2-over 74. The cut was projected to be 2 over when Lefty finished, but was at 4 late in the afternoon.

"I don't know if it will make it or not. I'm not going to beat many people putting the way I am," said Mickelson, who has played sparingly this summer to be with his wife, Amy, and his mother, both of whom have breast cancer. "I've got to get this thing turned around."

Things didn't come nearly as easy for Woods on Friday as they did Thursday, when he shot a bogey-free 67. The conditions didn't help. The air was hot and muggy, the wind was blowing so hard it rattled the flagstick in the cup on the first hole and the greens were bumpy in the afternoon sun. Indeed, the rounds of the day came in the morning, when Tim Clark and Ernie Els shot 68s. Club pro Grant Sturgeon gets a nod, too, for a 1-under 71.

"It is usually the other way around, but this afternoon I think watching is more enjoyable than playing," Geoff Ogilvy said on Twitter.

But Woods showed in that two-hole swing why he's the world's No. 1 and everyone else is just trying to catch him.

Fisher had been brilliant in the tough conditions, playing his first 16 holes at bogey-free 6 under to join Woods in the lead. But he couldn't finish it off. His tee shot on the par-3 17th landed in the heavy stuff on the downslope of the green, he ran his 15-footer to save par long.

Three holes back, Woods was driving the green on 14, which was shortened to a mere 299 yards. He had 35 feet from the fringe for an eagle and just missed, dropping to his knees when the putt stopped six inches from the hole.

Fisher had all kinds of trouble on 18. His drive ran through a trap and into the heavy stuff just in front, giving him a tough shot from an awkward stance. He landed in more rough, and wasn't able to get up and down.

Harrington actually had the lead after Woods bogeyed the 10th hole, but he fell behind after three straight bogeys.

Mickelson skipped the British Open to be with his wife and mother, and his appearance at Bridgestone last weekend was his first since the U.S. Open. The layoff is evident.

Mickelson sprayed his tee shots in the rough, the sand and the gallery — one on Thursday going so deep he could have grabbed a snack from a corporate tent. But it's his putter that's really hurt him. He's been trying to tweak his stroke, but he hasn't gotten used to it quite yet.

He made a bogey on 18 when he missed a putt, then missed a 3-footer on No. 1 for another bogey (he started on the back nine). He also missed one from 8 feet on the par-3 No. 4.

He did make an eagle on the par-5 seventh, then had a chance to pick up another stroke with a 15-footer on the eighth. But it ran long, and Mickelson waved his hands as if to say, "Come on!"

"I think the struggling on the greens is carrying over a little bit into maybe my focus on some other shots," he said. "I don't feel I'm hitting it bad, but I am hitting some bad shots."

WASHINGTON – Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin refused to retreat from her debunked claim that a proposed health care overhaul would create "death panels," as the growing furor over end-of-life consultations forced a key group of senators to abandon the idea in their bill.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, one of six lawmakers negotiating on a Senate bill, said Thursday they had dropped end-of-life provisions from consideration "entirely because of the way they could be misinterpreted and implemented incorrectly."

In a Facebook posting called "Troubling Questions Remain About Obama's Health Care Plan," Palin said that "it's gratifying that the voice of the people is getting through to Congress; however, that provision was not the only disturbing detail in this legislation; it was just one of the more obvious ones."

In an earlier Facebook posting, Palin argued that the elderly and ailing would be coerced into accepting minimal end-of-life care to reduce health care costs based on the Democratic bill in the House.

But there will be no "death panels" under the legislation being considered. In fact, the provision in the bill would allow Medicare to pay doctors for voluntary counseling sessions that address end-of-life issues. The conversations between doctor and patient would include living wills, making a close relative or a trusted friend your health care proxy, learning about hospice as an option for the terminally ill, and information about pain medications for people suffering chronic discomfort.

The sessions would be covered every five years, more frequently if someone is gravely ill.

The American Medical Association and the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization support the provision.

In a Wednesday posting, Palin wrote: "With all due respect, it's misleading for the president to describe this section as an entirely voluntary provision that simply increases the information offered to Medicare recipients." She added, "It's all just more evidence that the Democratic legislative proposals will lead to health care rationing."

The issue is no longer viable for the six members of the Senate Finance Committee — three Republicans and three Democrats — working on a bipartisan bill, according to Grassley. In a statement, he criticized the House bill, saying there was a difference between a "simple education campaign, as some advocates want," and paying "physicians to advise patients about end-of-life care."

The provisions remain in the House bill.

Palin's posting came one day after Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said that Palin and other critics were not helping the GOP by tossing out false claims. Portions of the Democratic health care bills "are bad enough that we don't need to be making things up," Murkowski said, invoking a phrase that Palin used in her resignation speech, when she asked the news media to "quit making things up."

Murkowski said she was offended at the "death panel" terminology. "There is no reason to gin up fear in the American public by saying things that are not included in the bill," she said.

Palin hasn't always been against end-of-life counseling. As Alaska governor, she signed a proclamation making April 16, 2008, Healthcare Decision Day with the goal to have health care professionals and others participate in a statewide effort to provide clear and consistent information about advance directives.

The proclamation noted that only about 20 percent of Alaskans, and 50 percent of severely or terminally illpatients, have an advance directive. "It is likely that a significant reason for these low percentages is that there is both a lack of knowledge and considerable confusion in the public about advance directives," it said.

Palin said Thursday that comparing that proclamation to Congress's end-of-life provision is "ridiculous."

"The two are like apples and oranges," she said. "The attempt to link the two shows how desperate the proponents of nationalized health care are to shift the debate away from the disturbing details of their bill."

Georgia Sen. Johnny Isakson, a Republican who co-sponsored a similar measure in the Senate, said it was "nuts" to claim the bill encourages euthanasia.

And Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., who authored the provision on end-of-life counseling, said he is astounded that Palin has not tempered her bleak descriptions of the health care bill.

"It's deliberate at this point," Blumenauer said. "If she wasn't deliberately lying at the beginning, she is deliberately allowing a terrible falsehood to be spread with her name."

He said the measure would block funds for counseling that presents suicide or assisted suicide as an option, calling references to death panels or euthanasia "mind-numbing."

WASHINGTON – Rep. Joe Barton had a plane to catch, but he wanted to give college football officials a warning before leaving the highly publicized hearing.

Peering down from the podium, the Republican said in his Texas twang that unless the officials took action toward a playoff system in two months, Congress would likely move on his legislation aimed at forcing their hand.

More than three months have passed, and Barton's bill hasn't moved. Such is the way with college football and Congress.

For years, lawmakers have railed against the Bowl Championship Series, calling it an unfair way to select a national champion. A lot of righteous thundering, however, has not yielded anything on the legislative front.

President Barack Obama joined the fray last year, saying shortly after his election that there should be a playoff system.

"I'm going to throw my weight around a little bit," he said. "I think it's the right thing to do."

But now that he's in office, the recession, two wars and health care reform have taken him away from football, at least so far.

It seems unlikely Congress will take the initiative. To figure out why, just look at a map of the United States.

The current college bowl system features a championship game between the two top teams in the BCS standings, based on two polls and six computer rankings. After the title game, eight other schools fill in the remaining slots for Orange, Sugar, Fiesta and Rose bowls.

Under the BCS, six conferences get automatic bids — the ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC, in states from Massachusetts to Florida to California to Washington to Illinois. Those conferences receive far more money than the conferences that don't get automatic bids.

"There are just too many senators and congressmen who represent districts where major BCS schools have a very dominant influence," said Gary Roberts, dean of the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis and an expert on sports law.

"So you're not going to get any senators from Louisiana or Alabama or Florida or Georgia or Tennessee orOhio — those are all states with major state universities that are major BCS powerhouses."

There's been no bill introduced in the Senate this year to revamp the BCS, although GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah said he's looking into it. Mountain West Conference champion Utah was bypassed for last season's national championship despite going undefeated.

Barton, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, is one of several House members who has authored legislation aimed at forcing a playoff. His bill, which has four co-sponsors, would ban the promotion of a postseason NCAA Division I football game as a national championship unless it's the outcome of a playoff.

California Republican Gary Miller has three co-sponsors for his bill that would deny federal funds to schools in the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision unless the championship resulted from a playoff system. And Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat from Hawaii, has a nonbinding resolution calling for a playoff system and for aJustice Department investigation. He's got five co-sponsors.

Roberts says it's not enough.

"Sure, you've got Orrin Hatch from Utah who's unhappy," he said. "There are a handful of congressmen and senators from districts or states that feel like the BCS disadvantages them and their constituents, but they're a small minority of the overall Congress."

If there's a silent majority of lawmakers on the other side, "it's only silent as long as the issue is just a bunch of noise," Roberts said. "If a bill actually got some traction, you can bet that (Texas coach) Mack Brown would call the Texas senators, and (Alabama coach) Nick Saban would call the Alabama senators. There's no traction in Congress for doing anything about the BCS."

Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer, for example, told The Associated Press that while he supports a playoff system, "the one caveat is I have (a New York school) Syracuse, which benefits from the funding situation because the Big East gets in. You'd have to preserve that."

Barton insisted in a telephone interview that there's a good chance his bill will pass the House this year.

"The key is finding a place on the agenda" in a year crowded with high-profile issues, he said. "We'll keep plugging away."

Hatch, who held a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights last month, has focused more on getting the Justice Department to investigate the BCS for antitrust violations. He told the AP he's working on letters to both the department and Obama making that case.

"Like I've said in the past, I'm not real anxious to get the government involved in regulating college football, but those who have the power to fix the system should do so — and they should do so voluntarily," Hatch said. "The BCS people don't appear too willing to consider any alternatives."

He said the Justice Department should look into the matter and report back to Congress either way — even if it determines there is no antitrust violation.

"I think this is a big enough issue," Hatch said. "People try to pass this off as some itty-bitty issue. Hey, it involves hundreds of millions of dollars, it involves unfairness, mistreatment."

The Justice Department declined to say whether it would investigate the BCS.

Stephen Ross, director of the Penn State Institute for Sports Law, Policy and Research, and a former lawyer for the Justice Department's antitrust division, said the department will likely look into Hatch's request — but more as a senatorial courtesy than anything else.

He said the department generally takes the position that its resources should be devoted to actions that can't be brought by a private party, and would be unlikely to launch a full-blown investigation into the BCS. Someone other than the department could bring a lawsuit challenging the BCS.

Congress has given the issue a high-profile look this year with a pair of media-generating hearings, but it also held them in the past — including a couple in 2003 that didn't lead to any legislative remedy.

That year, the House and Senate Judiciary committees both held hearings — the latter one requested by Delaware Sen. Joe Biden, now vice president.

"What about the teams that aren't in these conferences and the fans that aren't in these conferences?" he asked at the time. "It looks un-American. It really does. It looks not fair. It looks like a rigged deal."

TRIPOLI (AFP) – A US senate delegation said on Friday that it had told Libyan leaders of Washington's strong opposition to any early release by the Scottish authorities of convicted Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmet al-Megrahi.

"We have made clear to the Libyan authorities that we are resolutely opposed to his release," said Senator John McCain, the defeated Republican candidate in last year's presidential election.

Fellow Senator Joseph Lieberman, who sits as an independent, warned of "damage" to US-Libyan relations if Megrahi, who is serving a life sentence with a mininum 27-year tariff for the deadly 1988 bombing ofPan Am flight 103 over the Scottish village, is freed early on compassionate grounds.

"Relationships between Libya and US could be tested in the days ahead if Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi is released by Scottish authorities," he told a news conference at the end of the delegation's 24-hour visit.

"If Megrahi is released, there will be a very negative reaction by the American people."

The bombing killed all 259 on board the airliner, and 11 people on the ground. Many of those on the flight were Americans travelling home for the Christmas holidays.

The US administration expressed its own opposition on Thursday to any early release of Megrahi by the Scottish authorities, who enjoy devolved powers from the British government over Scottish affairs.

"We have made our views clear to the UK government, to other authorities, that we believe that he should spend the rest of his time in jail," said US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley.

A spokeswoman said the Scottish government is considering two options for Megrahi, who has been diagnosed with terminal prostrate cancer -- transferring him to Libya to serve out his sentence, or compassionate release -- but added that no decision would taken until later this month.

McCain said the US senate delegation, which also included Republicans Lindsey Graham and Susan Collins, had "productive meetings" with Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi and other officials.

WASHINGTON – Despite a growing corruption investigation, the Navy has allowed a defense contractor in the middle of a federal contracts-for-cash probe to keep working with the government.

Under an agreement between the Navy and Kuchera Defense Systems of Windber, Pa., the company has made changes in its accounting practices in exchange for authority to seek government contractsagain, Kuchera's lawyer said Thursday night.

The Navy alleged fraud when it suspended the company, which has grown in recent years because of millions of dollars in congressional earmarks sponsored by Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa.

The firm was removed from the Excluded Parties List System of contractors blocked from government work. The government had placed Kuchera on the list in April.

The Navy can re-suspend the company or its owners if they are indicted, convicted or enter a guilty plea into the relevant legal issues, Navy Cmdr. Victor Chen, public affairs officer for the Navy's acquisition organization, said Friday.

The agreement implements compliance reviews, audits and reports establishing that Kuchera Defense Systems is a responsible contractor, Chen added.

Kuchera is caught up in a criminal investigation that became public early this year when FBI agents raided the company's offices. In a separate raid last November, the FBI carted away financial records of campaign donations by a Washington-area lobbying firm founded by Paul Magliocchetti, who has long been close to Murtha. Magliocchetti's firm specialized in getting "earmarks" for defense contractors from Murtha and other House appropriators.

The Justice Department investigation focuses on the campaign donations from defense contractors that have fueled the process of congressional earmarks — specific projects that lawmakers direct to particular contractors — for many decades.

As part of the probe, a federal grand jury subpoenaed Rep. Pete Visclosky's office, campaign committees and some of his employees to turn over documents in the probe. The chief of staff for the Indiana Democrat resigned after the subpoenas were delivered.

In recent years, Murtha has steered millions of dollars in congressional earmarks to Kuchera from the Pennsylvania Democrat's position as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Visclosky is the third-ranking Democrat on the panel and also chairs his own House appropriations subcommittee on energy and water.

The most ominous development for members of Congress and defense contractors under scrutiny in the probe is the cooperation that two government witnesses recently began providing federal prosecutors.

One of them, Richard Ianieri, worked closely with one of the owners of the Kuchera company, William Kuchera, and with a lobbying firm that once employed Murtha's brother and that still employs a former Murtha aide.

On July 29, Ianieri testified in federal court in Pensacola, Fla., that he had taken $200,000 in kickbacks from the Kuchera company, after providing the defense contractor with $650,000 from an $8.2 million congressional earmark. Ianieri's firm had gotten the earmark after hiring the firm that employed Murtha's brother. Murtha's office refuses to say whether the congressman sponsored the earmark.

The Pensacola case was Ianieri's first public appearance as a prosecution witness. A month ago, he pleaded guilty to two felonies involving the $8.2 million earmark and he faces up to 15 years in prison. If Ianieri provides what the government regards as substantial assistance in the criminal probe, it could result in a judge giving Ianieri a lighter sentence. Sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 22.

The $8.2 million earmark that was the focus of a criminal trial in Pensacola was intended for a program at the munitions directorate of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Eglin Air Force Base. The program was designed to rapidly improve the Air Force's battlefield communication technology.

Under questioning by a federal prosecutor in court, Ianieri testified about where he moved $1.824 million of the earmarked funds. Some of it ended up at Kuchera and the lobbying firm that at the time employed Murtha's brother.

Why Ianieri acted as he did was never made clear.

In some instances, "there was political and earmark pressure" to shift the money, testified Ianieri, who was not asked to specify the sources of the pressure. Ianieri testified that Kuchera used $200,000 to $250,000 from the earmarked funds to support travel on an aircraft the company partly owned.

Ianieri said that he paid $574,000 to a pair of software manufacturers. One of the software companies then paid $82,398.15 to the lobbying firm that employed Murtha's brother, KSA Consulting. The figure amounted to almost precisely 1 percent of the total value of the earmark, $8.2 million.

"What happened to the software" that Ianieri's company purchased? asked the prosecutor.

"Nothing. It sat at the office" unused, Ianieri replied.

"Why go through the charade of buying the software? Why not just give them $574,000 out of the contract?" asked the prosecutor.

"I believe that in the case of the particular software that was purchased, that needed to be a software purchase so that the lobbyist could get their commission on it," Ianieri replied.

In the Florida case in which Ianieri testified, the jury convicted the defendant, who was among five subcontractors receiving slices of the $1.824 million from the $8.2 million earmark.