Homeowner Legally Justified In Deadly Shooting

Homeowner Legally Justified In Deadly Shooting

Niochie Lawson (left)

and Jakel Stone were arrested

in connection with a deadly home

invasion in Upper Gwynedd

on June 9.

Police have arrested two Maryland men after a deadly shootout during a Montgomery County home invasion in early June.

Nearly a dozen shots were fired after a group of suspects confronted a home owner and his family on the 100 block of Hancock Road in Upper Gwynedd Township at about 10:45 p.m. on June 9.

Jermaine Edwards, his wife Jolene and their three daughters, ages 6, 9, 11, were held up at gunpoint by at least three suspects who forced their way into the home.

For full story go to:

http://cbs3.com/local/shooting.upper.gwynedd.2.1743372.html

All You Can Eat Ice Cream At Penn's Landing

All You Can Eat Ice Cream At Penn's Landing

PHILADELPHIA (CBS 3) ―

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All–You-Can-Eat Ice Cream Super Scooper is 4th of July weekend 2010 @ Penns Landing. Join us for the largest ice cream party the city of Philadelphia has each and every year while helping us "lick leukemia".

Our 12th annual "all-you-can-eat" ice cream Super Scooper event. July 3rd, 4th and 5th from Noon – 5pm each day at Penn's Landing. Additional hours Saturday night July 3rd from 6-9pm prior to the Fireworks.

The event itself is simple. Each person donates $5.00 then walks into a large tent filled with many different ice cream stations. You can go to as many stations as you wish and taste as much ice cream as you want. Stay for as long as you want and then leave. There is no re-entry. Can anything be better?

For full story go to: http://cbs3.com/local/ice.cream.penns.2.1777303.html

Federer stunned by Berdych in Wimbledon quarters

Federer stunned by Berdych in Wimbledon quarters

Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates after defeating Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun in their quarterfinal match at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, Wednesday, June 30, 2010.

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Roger Federer was knocked out of Wimbledon in the quarterfinals by Tomas Berdych on Wednesday, stopping his bid for a record-tying seventh title at the All England Club.

The 12th-seeded Czech used his big serve and forehand to beat Federer in four sets, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, on Centre Court for the biggest victory of his career.

It's the first time since 2002 that Federer has failed to reach the final. Since losing in the first round eight years ago, Federer had won the title six times and finished runner-up once, bolstering his reputation as the greatest player of all-time.

Winner of a record 16 Grand Slam titles, Federer was clearly outplayed by a man who has always possessed enormous talent but often failed to live up to expectations.

The 6-foot-5 Berdych was on the offensive for most of the match, hitting 51 winners, compared to 44 for Federer.

Berdych broke Federer four times, with the decisive break coming in the seventh game of the fourth set. Berdych, hitting first serves consistently in the 130s mph, served 12 aces and was broken just once.

"It's really tough to show this crowd how I'm just feeling right now, it's amazing to play on this stadium to play such a great player as Roger is, and come here and be here as a winner is just really amazing," Berdych said.

Berdych ripped a clean forehand winner on his second match point.

"If I can just go through my career, it was so far the toughest game to serve and close out the match," he said.

Federer came in with an 8-2 career record against Berdych, having lost the first match at the 2004 Athens Olympics and the last in Miami this year.

Federer was playing in his 25th consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinal. He had won 23 straight, but now has lost two in a row. Federer fell to Robin Soderling at the French Open earlier this month.

Federer had won 76 of 77 grass-court matches dating to 2002 coming into this month, but has now lost two of the past six, including to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle, Germany, the week before Wimbledon.

With the loss, Federer will drop to No. 3 in the ATP rankings next week for the first time since Nov. 10, 2003.

Berdych will next face Novak Djokovic, who swept past Yen-hsun Lu in straight sets to reach the semifinals or the second time.

The third-seeded Djokovic never faced a face break point as he beat the 82nd-ranked Taiwanese player 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 in less than two hours on Court 1.

Lu stunned three-time finalist Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals, but couldn't replicate that performance against the 2008 Australian Open champion.

Djokovic lost just 12 points in 13 service games. He won 26 of his first 28 service points, including 15 in a row. The Serb had 29 winners and 17 unforced errors, and converted five of 15 break points.

"Nothing is easy these days, especially at this stage of the tournament," Djokovic said. "But the way I played, I deserved to win. I was hitting all the shots and I was really playing very solid from all parts of the court. I'm very, very happy with the performance today."

Djokovic reached the semifinals here in 2007 but had to retire against Rafael Nadal with a foot injury while trailing in the third set.

"This time physically I'm fitter," Djokovic said. "Those were very strange conditions and circumstances. I had to play three very long matches in three days and couldn't hold on in the semifinal. This time everything is in order and Ill give my best."

In other matches, No. 2 Nadal played No. 6 Robin Soderling, and No. 4 Andy Murray faced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The women's semifinals are Thursday, with an unusual final four featuring Serena Williams and three unheralded players.

Defending and three-time champion Williams plays 62nd-ranked Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, while 82nd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria will face No. 21 Vera Zvonareva of Russia

Missing is five-time champion Venus Williams, who played in eight of the past 10 women's finals but was upset in straight sets by Pironkova in the quarterfinals.

There was a surprise in the women's doubles Wednesday with the top-ranked Williams sisters losing 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the quarterfinals to Russians Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva.

The loss ends the American pair's hopes of winning the Grand Slam this year after victories at the Australian Open and French Open. They had won four straight Grand Slam titles and were shooting for their 13th Grand Slam title and fifth here.

After 25 years, CNN seeks Larry King's replacement

After 25 years, CNN seeks Larry King's replacement

In an image provided by CNN, talk show host Larry King is shown on the set of his program "Larry King Live" at the CNN studios in Los Angeles, Thursday, March 17, 2005. King, who interviewed statesmen and stars from a prime-time perch at CNN for 25 years but has faded in ratings and influence lately, said Tuesday June 29, 2010 that he will step down this fall from his nightly show.

NEW YORK (AP) -- CNN is preparing for a summertime search to find the successor to Larry King, who announced suddenly that he's leaving the show that has been the centerpiece of the news network's lineup for 25 years.

Even though the host is changing, CNN will keep to the idea of a provocative interview show with newsmakers, CNN U.S. President Jon Klein said.

"Nobody else does it," he said. "It's an important tool in the arsenal, and we want to keep it going."

King's announcement Tuesday came a couple of weeks after he celebrated his 25th anniversary with a week of shows interviewing President Barack Obama, LeBron James, Bill Gates and Lady Gaga - precisely the unique blend of stars and statesmen he considered the signature of "Larry King Live."

King said he will continue to do occasional specials for CNN after stepping down in the fall. He was already lobbying for guests for his final week on Tuesday, extracting a promise to appear from ABC's Diane Sawyer when she called in to his show to congratulate him.

The longtime radio host was a pioneer in cable television. From the first show, on which he interviewed then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, King's desk was considered a valued spot for anyone interested in talking to the nation. King's interview style was plainspoken, and critics would suggest occasionally ill-prepared, but he was good at making his guests feel comfortable.

Klein said King was a pioneer.

"He lured so many people to this new frontier of cable back before anybody understood what it was all about," said Klein, who called King a "living, breathing Hall of Famer who is still doing the work."

As cable news audiences gravitated toward politically pointed shows and newsmakers found many more outlets for interviews in recent years, King slipped in the ratings behind Fox News Channel and MSNBC - two networks that didn't exist when he first turned on his TV microphone. During his interview with Lady Gaga, the 76-year-old broadcast veteran had people wondering if he was really connecting with a pop star a half-century his junior.

King said he felt no pressure from CNN to leave. He said he began thinking about stepping down as a plane flew him home to Los Angeles from Akron, Ohio, where he interviewed James, and he reflected on his big-name guests of the week.

"I said, 'I can't top this,'" King recalled in an interview Tuesday.

"I'm tired of the nightly grind," he said. "I do want to do other things, but I want to stay at CNN in some way ... . There's a case of great mixed emotions."

King told his staff Tuesday during a conference call he referred to as "one of the saddest 10 minutes of my life."

CNN is in the midst of remaking its prime-time lineup and last week announced that former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and conservative columnist Kathleen Parker would co-host an 8 p.m. EDT show on politics and current events.

CBS News anchor Katie Couric has long been considered a potential successor to King. That talk has cooled lately with suggestions that Couric may be reluctant to take responsibility for another network with ratings troubles; Klein would not discuss specific candidates. Recent published reports have suggested that "America's Got Talent" judge Piers Morgan could be a candidate. King said if it were up to him, "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest would be the best choice to fill his shoes.

King estimated he's conducted 50,000 interviews during a 53-year broadcasting career. He said he always tried to ask short questions and to never come in with an agenda, leaving his ego at the door.

"I never learned a thing while I was talking," he said. "That would be my motto."

King got some sympathy from comic Bill Maher, invited as a guest on "Larry King Live" on Tuesday specifically to be there on the night of the announcement.

"I heard people say Larry didn't understand Lady Gaga," Maher said. "Who understands Lady Gaga?"

King dismissed a series of stories this spring questioning his future and speculating about possible successors.

"You can't worry about things you can't control," he said. "I can't control if a newspaper is going to speculate about something or if a blog is going to speculate ... . If I let it get me, I'll go nuts. So what I try to do, and I'm not being morbid, I just try to do the best show I can. If it works, it works."

King said he was able to see the baseball all-star games of his sons this weekend. If it was during the week, he'd miss them.

"I'm never going to see these again," he said. "They're not going to repeat themselves. They're 11 and 10. They're not going to be 11 and 10 again."

Besides work with CNN, King said he'd be interested in working in comedy.

Maher said on the show that, speaking for a lot of people in America, "I will miss you terribly at this hour."

Day 3: Nominee Kagan won't criticize Roberts court

Day 3: Nominee Kagan won't criticize Roberts court

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, June 30, 2010, before the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Elena Kagan declined an invitation to criticize the current Supreme Court on Wednesday, testifying at the third day of confirmation hearings, "I'm sure everyone up there is acting in good faith."

In a lengthy exchange with Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, Kagan said pointedly she didn't agree with the Rhode Island Democrat's analysis that justices appointed by Republican presidents were "driving the law in a new direction by the narrowest possible margins" in a series of 5-4 rulings.

The exchange occurred as Kagan returned to the witness chair for another long day of questioning by members of the committee that will vote first on her nomination for the high court. She appears well on her way toward confirmation, although it is unclear how many, if any, of the panel's seven Republicans will support her.

Unlike the first two days of the hearings, there were few if any spectators in line to witness a bit of history. Democrats hoped to conclude questioning of President Barack Obama's nominee by day's end.

"I do hope we can learn more about the nominee," said Sen. Jeff Sessions, of Alabama, the panel's senior Republican. "We see her gifts and graces; in many ways those are revealed in her humor and her knowledge."

In something of a jab at her reticence to expand on numerous legal controversies, he said some critics are wondering what she believes and "whether you'd be more like John Roberts or more like Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

Ginsburg, appointed by President Bill Clinton, is generally viewed as being a member of the court's liberal wing, cast into the minority on a series of controversial 5-4 rulings.

Whitehouse seemed more concerned with Roberts and the other justices who frequently side with him in closely decided cases.

The Rhode Island Democrat cited a 9-0 ruling that banned school desegregation in 1954 and a 7-2 decision in 1973 that said women have the right to an abortion as examples of far-reaching cases decided by large or unanimous majorities joined by justices appointed by presidents of both parties. By contrast, he said, the current court had overturned precedent in antitrust law, gun ownership and other cases on 5-4 rulings joined only by "Republican appointees."

He asked what efforts the justices should make to return to a "collegial environment at the court" so controversial rulings are not decided so narrowly.

"Every judge, every justice has to do what he or she thinks is right," she said. "You wouldn't want the judicial process to become in any way a bargaining process," she said, although she added that the court and country are best served when the public "trusts the court as an entirely nonpolitical body."

Kagan did cast doubt on a key argument Roberts outlined in a recent case in which the court said corporations and unions are free to spend their own funds on political activity. In a concurring opinion as part of a 5-4 ruling, the chief justice said legal precedents whose validity is a matter of intense dispute can be toppled.

"It should be regarded with some caution," Kagan said of that line of thinking. She said that there were "stronger reasons" for overturning precedents, including if they became unworkable, if courts reverse the cases that helped establish them or if new facts have made them irrelevant.

NY suspect dubbed femme fatale of Russian spy case

NY suspect dubbed femme fatale of Russian spy case

This undated image taken from a Facebook page shows a woman journalists have identified as Anna Chapman, who appeared at a hearing Monday, June 28, 2010 in New York federal court. Chapman, along with 10 others, was arrested on charges of conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government without notifying the U.S. attorney general.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Anna Chapman has been called the femme fatale of a spy case with Cold War-style intrigue - a striking redhead and self-styled entrepreneur who dabbled in real estate and mused on her Facebook page, "if you can dream, you can become it."

Chapman's American dream, U.S. authorities say, was a ruse.

The 28-year-old Chapman, they say, was a savvy Russian secret agent who worked with a network of other operatives before an FBI undercover agent lured her into an elaborate trap at a coffee shop in lower Manhattan.

Though the U.S. has branded the operatives as living covertly, at least in Chapman's case, she had taken care to brand herself publicly as a striver of the digital age, passionately embracing online social networking by posting information and images of herself for the world to see.

Prosecutors have charged Chapman and 10 other suspects with following orders by Russian intelligence to become "Americanized" enough to infiltrate "policymaking circles" and feed information back to Moscow.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Farbiarz has called evidence against Chapman "devastating." She is "someone who has extraordinary training, who is a sophisticated agent of Russia," he said.

Her mother, who lives in western Moscow, said she is convinced of her daughter's innocence.

"Of course I believe that she's innocent," Irina Kushchenko told The Associated Press. She refused to comment further.

Chapman and nine others accused of being ring members were arrested across the Northeast and charged with failing to register as foreign agents, a crime that is less serious than espionage and carries up to five years in prison. Some also face money laundering charges. An 11th suspect was arrested in Cyprus, accused of passing money to the other 10 over several years.

Prosecutors said several of the defendants were Russians living in the U.S. under assumed names and posing as Canadian or American citizens. It was unclear how and where they were recruited, but court papers said the operation went as far back as the 1990s. Exactly what sort of information the agents are alleged to have provided to their Russian handlers - and how valuable it may have been - was not disclosed.

The FBI finally moved in to break up the ring because one of the suspects - apparently Chapman, who was bound for Moscow, according to court papers - was going to leave the country, the Department of Justice said Tuesday.

The court papers allege that some of the ring's members were husband and wife and that they used invisible ink, coded radio transmissions and encrypted data and employed methods such as swapping bags in passing at a train station.

Farbiarz called the arrests "the tip of the iceberg" of a conspiracy by Russia's intelligence service, the SVR, to collect information inside the U.S. The arrests raised fears that Moscow has planted other couples.

Such deep-cover agents are known as "illegals" in the intelligence world because they take civilian jobs instead of operating inside Russian embassies and military missions.

Russian officials initially denounced the arrests as "Cold War-era spy stories" and accused elements of the U.S. government of trying to undermine the improving relationship between Moscow and Washington. But the White House and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed confidence that the arrests would not damage ties between the two nations.

At a court hearing Monday in federal court in Manhattan, where Chapman was jailed without bail, her attorney called the case against her weak. He said she had visited the United States on and off since 2005 before settling in Manhattan to start a business.

Chapman took an apartment a block from Wall Street and began using online social networks, including LinkedIn and Facebook, to develop business contacts and to market her skills. On her LinkedIn page, Chapman is listed as the chief executive officer of PropertyFinder Ltd., which maintains a website featuring real estate listings in Moscow, Spain, Bulgaria and other countries.

Biographical information on Chapman on the Lifenews.ru website said she was the daughter of a Russian diplomat, who at one time worked in Kenya. It said she moved to Britain after marrying a Briton whose father was Europe director for Auchan, the French supermarket chain, which operates many stores in Russia.

"Love launching innovative high-tech startups and building passionate teams to bring value into market," Chapman's LinkedIn summary says.

She lists previous jobs at an investment company and a hedge fund in London. The summary also says she earned a master's degree in economics at a Russian university in 2005.

In more than 90 photos posted to Facebook, Chapman is pictured in various countries, including Turkey, where she is in one of the rooms of the luxurious Hotel Les Ottoman, in Istanbul. There are also what look like family photographs from Russia and photographs of her dressed in a student uniform.

Her Internet footprints also include a photo of her posing with a glass of wine between two men at the Global Technology Symposium at Stanford University in March - it cost more than $1,000 to attend - and video clips, speaking in Russian about the economic opportunities in her adopted home.

Media reports quickly branded her a femme fatale, and tabloids splashed her photos on their front pages.

An acquaintance, David Hantman, owner of a New York real estate company, described Chapman as "pleasant, very professional, friendly."

"There's nothing too crazy about her that I knew of," he said.

A criminal complaint alleges that, unbeknownst to her business contacts such as Hantman, Chapman was using a specially configured laptop computer to transmit messages to another computer of an unnamed Russian official - a handler who was under surveillance by the FBI.

The laptop exchanges occurred 10 times, always on Wednesdays, until June, when an undercover FBI agent got involved, prosecutors said. The agent, posing as a Russian consulate employee and wearing a wire, arranged a meeting with Chapman at a Manhattan coffee shop, they said.

During the meeting, they initially spoke in Russian but then agreed to switch to English to draw less attention to themselves, the complaint says in recounting their recorded conversation.

"I need more information about you before I can talk."

"OK. My name is Roman. ... I work in the consulate."

The undercover said he knew she was headed to Moscow in two weeks "to talk officially about your work," but before that, "I have a task for you to do tomorrow."

The task: To deliver a fraudulent passport to another woman working as a spy.

"Are you ready for this step?" he asked.

"S---, of course," she responded.

The undercover gave her a location and told her to hold a magazine a certain way - that way, she would be recognized by a Russian agent, who would in turn confirm her identity by saying to her, "Excuse me, but haven't we met in California last summer?"

But Chapman was leery, prosecutors said.

"You're positive no one is watching?" they say she told the undercover agent after being given the instructions.

Afterward, authorities say, she was concerned enough to buy a cell phone and make a "flurry of calls" to Russia. In one of the intercepted calls, a man advised her she may have been uncovered, should turn in the passport to police and get out of the country.

She was arrested at a New York Police Department precinct after following that advice, authorities said.

In a video clip on a Russian website focused on investment in hi-tech start-ups, she talks about her ambitions to create a venture fund that would invest in projects in Russia and discusses the business opportunities offered by New York.

"Nothing has excited me more in life than the number and level of people I have met here. This place is full of ideas," she said in Russian.

"I'm trying to create a project that would connect two capitals - New York and Moscow - the two most important cities for me in the quest for ideas," she says.

Asked how someone new to business can meet the right people in New York, she says, "America is a free country, and it's the easiest place in the world to meet the most successful people. ... Here you can go out for dinner with your neighbor and meet a top venture capitalist."

Authorities say the undercover's parting words to her had been, "Your colleagues in Moscow, they know you're doing a good job. So keep it up."

82nd-ranked Lu crashes Wimbledon quarterfinals

82nd-ranked Lu crashes Wimbledon quarterfinals

Taiwan's Lu Yen-Hsun waves to the crowd as he celebrates his win over Andy Roddick of the U.S. at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, Monday, June 28, 2010.

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are there. So are Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray and Robin Soderling.

But there's one name among the list of Wimbledon quarterfinals that may not be quite so familiar - Yen-hsun Lu.

He's the 82nd-ranked player from Taiwan who shocked three-time runner-up Andy Roddick to become the first Asian player to reach the men's quarters of a Grand Slam tournament in 15 years.

The 26-year-old from Taipei pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far Monday when he outlasted fifth-seeded Roddick 4-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 9-7 in a match that stretched over 4 1/2 hours.

After Lu ripped a running forehand passing shot on match point to break Roddick for the first time, he looked and pointed to the sky. He said he had bittersweet feelings in memory of his father, a chicken farmer who passed away in 2000.

"I'm really proud to share this victory with him in the sky," Lu said. "In that moment, I just told myself, I've done it. I've done it for my father. I've done it for myself also. I've done it for all the people who supported me."

It was a stunning turnaround for Lu, who had lost in the first round at Wimbledon the past four years and failed to win a match at the last five Grand Slams.

Lu said he didn't believe he could win during Monday's match but told himself to keep fighting and keep holding serve.

"I just tried to stay with him, try to find a chance to win the set, set by set, until at the end, I was shaking his hand and I won," he said.

Before Monday, Lu was 9-18 in Grand Slam matches, 11-17 on grass and 2-10 overall against top-10 ranked players. It was his first win over a top-10 player since he beat Murray in the first round of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

It was a crushing defeat for Roddick, who was hoping to finally win his first Wimbledon title after losing three times to Federer in the finals, including last year's epic match that went to 16-14 in the fifth set. He had beaten Lu in straight sets in three previous meetings.

Roddick served 38 aces but converted only one of eight breakpoint chances. Lu had 22 aces.

Roddick said he played "horrendously" the first three sets, got better after that but Lu served better than ever before.

"When you dig yourself a hole, it's tough to get out," he said. "He played high risk, but he executed very well. He had a game plan, he stuck to it, and he deserved to win more than I did, that's for sure."

Lu had become the first man from Taiwan to reach the third round at a Slam when he did at the 2009 Australian Open. The last Asian man to reach the quarterfinals at a Slam was Japan's Shuzo Matsuoka, who got to the final eight at Wimbledon in 1995. Thailand's Paradorn Srichapan reached the round of 16 here in 2003.

Lu earned a quarterfinal meeting with third-seeded Djokovic, who beat 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the last eight for the second year in a row.

Federer, chasing a record-tying seventh Wimbledon title, swept past 16th-seeded Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 and will meet Tomas Berdych.

Nadal, forced into five sets the previous two rounds, needed only three Monday to beat Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-2, 6-2, and showed no sign of the right knee trouble which bothered him. The Spaniard now faces sixth-seeded Robin Soderling, the Swede who beat him in the fourth round at the French Open last year and lost to him in last month's final in Paris.

"I think the match is completely different," Nadal said. "Nothing similar to playing on grass than on clay."

Murray beat American Sam Querrey 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 to reach the final eight for the third consecutive year and is the only player in the men's draw who hasn't lost a set.

Murray, seeking to become the first British player to win the men's singles title since Fred Perry in 1936, will next meet 10th-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The men have the day off Tuesday, which is set aside for the women's quarterfinals.

Kim Clijsters will face Vera Zvonareva on Centre Court, followed by defending champion and top-seeded Serena Williams against China's Li Na. Venus Williams, the No. 2-seeded player and five-time champion, will be up against Bulgaria's Tsvetana Pironkova on Court 1, followed by Petra Kvitova vs. qualifier Kaia Kanepi.

Strengthening Alex expected to become hurricane

Strengthening Alex expected to become hurricane

In this photo provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Tropical Storm Alex is shown Monday June 28, 2010. Alex continues to intensify this morning after the center of circulation entered the southwestern Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane warnings have been issued for the coasts of south Texas and northeastern Mexico as Alex gains strength.

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico (AP) -- A strengthening Tropical Storm Alex was expected to become a hurricane Tuesday as it swirled toward the Gulf coast of northern Mexico and southern Texas, where authorities were readying emergency shelters and distributing sandbags.

Forecasters said the storm's likely path would take it away from the site of the huge Gulf of Mexico oil spill off Louisiana's coast, but added that it might push oil farther inland and disrupt cleanup efforts.

Alex had maximum sustained winds near 70 mph (110 kph) early Tuesday, and the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami predicted the storm would grow into a hurricane sometime Tuesday as it headed toward the U.S.-Mexico border at the mouth of the Rio Grande. Landfall seemed likely Wednesday night.

Forecaster Todd Kimberlain said conditions Monday led the center to conclude the storm would be a less powerful hurricane than initially thought.

Tropical storm-force winds extended up to 105 miles (165 kilometers) from the storm's center, and Alex was moving toward the north-northwest at 8 mph (13 kph).

A hurricane warning was posted for the Texas coast from Baffin Bay, 100 miles (160 kilometers) south to the mouth of the Rio Grande river and on a further 225 miles (360 kilometers) to La Cruz, Mexico. Except for the border area itself, both regions are lightly populated.

Workers along the South Texas coast were clearing drainage ditches, filling sandbags and positioning heavy equipment and water pumps as well as preparing emergency shelters. Some cities also handed out sandbags to residents and urged people to make preparations.

Mexico's northern Gulf coast braced for heavy rains like those that fell on southern areas and parts of Central America earlier.

"It is a fact we are going to get very heavy rains," said Gov. Fidel Herrera of the Gulf coast state of Veracruz.

Forecasters said rain from Alex would keep falling on southern Mexico and Guatemala into Tuesday, raising the possibility of life-threatening floods and mudslides

The hurricane center estimated that Alex would dump five to 10 inches (12.5 to 25 centimeters) or rain over portions of northeastern Mexico and southern Texas over the next few days.

Heavy rains in Mexico's southern Gulf coast state of Tabasco forced the evacuation of about 300 families from communities near the Usumacinta river.

Alex caused flooding and mudslides that caused at least five deaths in Central America over the weekend, though Belize and Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula appeared largely unscathed.

The storm made landfall in Belize on Saturday night as a tropical storm and weakened into a depression on Sunday as it crossed the Yucatan Peninsula.

When Alex became the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, officials immediately worried what effect it could have on efforts to contain the millions of gallons (liters) of crude spewing into the northeastern part of the Gulf.

A cap has been placed over the blown-out undersea well, directing some of the oil to a surface ship where it is being collected or burned. Other ships are drilling two relief wells, projected to be done by August, which are considered the best hope to stop the leak.

Stacy Stewart, senior hurricane specialist at the U.S. hurricane center, said early Monday that Alex's center wasn't expected to approach the oil spill site, but the storm's outer wind field could push more oil onto land and hinder operations in the area.

Alex was centered about 460 miles (735 kilometers) southeast of Brownsville, Texas, early Tuesday. Its rains could reach Veracruz and the border state of Tamaulipas late Tuesday or Wednesday, the hurricane center said.

Kagan pledges modest approach as justice

Kagan pledges modest approach as justice

Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan smiles at the conclusion of her first day of confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the U. S. Capitol in Washington, Monday June 28, 2010.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Elena Kagan is following the path of every recent Supreme Court nominee in pledging "a fair shake for every American" who comes before the court and stressing her ordinary roots.

The 50-year-old solicitor general is promising "evenhandedness and impartiality" and insisting she will be properly deferential to Congress while safeguarding individuals' rights.

But as senators start to question her Tuesday, Kagan will be pressed to say which laws passed by Congress demand deference and which may be safely discarded. She'll be asked when she will vote with the little guy or with the big guy - a point John Roberts, now chief justice, addressed by saying each guy would win, regardless of size, when he deserved to.

Like her predecessors in the witness chair, Kagan is the product of elite schools and has spent the bulk of her adult life at the highest levels of achievement. She has spent little time with the common man or woman, though she may empathize with them.

On Monday, Kagan talked about her immigrant grandparents and said her mother spoke not a word of English until Kagan started school. She twice mentioned she was the head of a law school, but never said it was Harvard.

Kagan was the model of restraint in the choice of words and measured delivery of her opening statement, as if she wanted to convince Republican senators that her deliberate manner would reflect her approach to judging.

She even suggested that she welcomes tough questions, noting the "relentless" questioning she faced from the justices during her six arguments at the high court in the past year.

Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee promised Kagan she will get difficult queries in the coming days, even though there is little doubt that Democrats have enough votes to confirm her to replace Justice John Paul Stevens.

"It's not a coronation but a confirmation process," said Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, the top committee Republican.

The Republican lines of attack were well developed as the hearing began.

Sessions said Kagan had "less real legal experience of any nominee in at least 50 years." He said her decision to bar military recruiters from Harvard Law School's career services office was in violation of the law - a legal conclusion disputed by the White House.

Several Republicans also expressed concerns Kagan would become a judicial activist along the lines of Justice Thurgood Marshall, Kagan's boss when she was a Supreme Court clerk in the late 1980s.

Democrats said they too would focus on judicial activism of the conservative variety. Several Democratic senators complained that Roberts has broken his promise to observe judicial modesty.

They said the Roberts-led court has strayed far beyond what Congress intended when it wrote laws regarding campaign finance, workplace rights and other issues. Last year, Kagan argued in defense of campaign finance laws at the court.

Boondocks At Phila. Front Page News

Boondocks At Phila. Front Page News

Germany beats England 4-1 in World Cup

Germany beats England 4-1 in World Cup

Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer looks at the ball that hit the bar to bounce over the line during the World Cup round of 16 soccer match between Germany and England at Free State Stadium in Bloemfontein, South Africa, Sunday, June 27, 2010.

BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa (AP) -- Germany's latest World Cup victory over England will be remembered not for any of the brilliant goals, but for the one that didn't count.

Ask anyone - players, coaches, thousands of fans in the stadium and millions more watching on television - and there's little question that Frank Lampard put a shot in the net late in the first half that would have tied the score.

But referee Jorge Larrionda waved play on, and Germany used two second-half goals by Thomas Mueller for a 4-1 victory Sunday. The Germans are headed to the quarterfinals. The English are shaking their heads in disbelief.

"It's incredible," England coach Fabio Capello said. "We played with five referees and they can't decide if it's a goal or no goal. The game was different after this goal. It was the mistake of the linesman and I think the referee because from the bench I saw the ball go (in)."

Germany coach Joachim Loew couldn't argue that point.

"What I saw on the television, this ball was behind the line," Loew said. "It must have been given as goal."

It wasn't.

"The goal was very important," Capello said. "We could have played a different style.

"We made some mistakes when they played the counterattack. The referee made bigger mistakes."

Larrionda and assistant referee Mauricio Espinosa were not made available to comment. FIFA said in a statement that it "will not make any comments on decisions of the referee on the field of play."

Soccer's rules-making panel agreed last March not to pursue experiments with technology that could help referees judge goal-line decisions.

Germany went up on goals by Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski before England's Matthew Upson made it 2-1 in the 37th minute.

Lampard's non-goal came a minute later. After the ball landed across the line, it spun back into the arms of Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Capello initially celebrated what he thought was an equalizer by clenching his fists and shaking his arms. But his face changed when he realized the goal had not been given.

As the players headed off the field at halftime, Wayne Rooney walked over to a linesman and gestured with his hands how far he thought the ball crossed the goal line.

In 1966, England and Germany were 2-2 in extra time in the World Cup final when Geoff Hurst's shot struck the underside of the crossbar, bounced down and spun back into play. That time, the referee consulted his linesman, who awarded the goal.

Hurst went on to score a third goal in England's 4-2 victory at Wembley.

This time, it was Mueller getting two goals.

"We heard that the ball was behind the line, that we were fortunate," Mueller said of Lampard's shot. "Before the last two goals, the game hung in the balance, England was putting on the pressure."

The 20-year-old forward finished two quick German counterattacks within 3 minutes to sink England's hopes of beating Germany at the World Cup for the first time since that '66 final.

Germany plays the winner of Argentina-Mexico, which is later Sunday.

"In the knockout stages, Germany is always there," Podolski said. "We fought and ran a lot, just fantastic today."

Added Klose: "We were aggressive from the first minute and it was a deserved victory. Our target was to reach the semifinals and that's what we want to achieve."

It was the most lopsided England loss in a World Cup.

Mueller scored on the counterattack in the 67th minute, having started the move after a long clearance by Jerome Boateng. Mueller passed to Bastian Schweinsteiger, who patiently dribbled upfield and ran across the 18-yard line to feed the unguarded Mueller. His shot hit the hand of England goalkeeper David James and went in.

Three minutes later, Mueller struck again after a break on the left wing by Mesut Oezil.

"We played I think well at 2-1, but after the third goal it was a little bit disappointing," Capello said. "Germany is a big team. They played a good game."

Klose scored his 50th goal in 99 games for Germany - his 12th World Cup goal - by outmuscling defender Upson to a bouncing ball off a goal kick. Podolski gave the three-time champions a 2-0 lead, putting the ball through James' legs.

Upson headed in a cross from Steven Gerrard to make it 2-1, then Lampard's shot was not rewarded - a decision sure to be debated for as long as international soccer has no video replay.

"I think if you look back at the game as a whole, we've been beaten by the better team," England captain Steven Gerrard said. "At 2-1, if Frank's ball had stayed I think it would have been a nice turning point in the game."

Jay-Z leads nominees at music-filled BET Awards

Jay-Z leads nominees at music-filled BET Awards

FILE- In this Sept. 13, 2009 file photo shows singer Kanye West taking the microphone from singer Taylor Swift as she accepts the "Best Female Video" award during the MTV Video Music Awards in New York.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Jay-Z and Justin Bieber. Kanye West and T.I. John Legend and Prince. Hosted by Queen Latifah, Sunday night's BET Awards promise to be a star-studded affair, and organizers say it will be packed with more performances than in previous years.

West and T.I. will make their TV comebacks on the show. West is set to perform, returning to the spotlight after keeping a low profile since last year's MTV Video Music Awards, when the rapper swiped the microphone from stunned "Best Female Video" winner Taylor Swift and declared that Beyonce should have won the award. T.I. will also return to the stage for his first televised performance since his release from prison in December.

Legend and Prince will receive special honors at Sunday's ceremony, to be broadcast live from the Shrine Auditorium. Legend will be presented with BET's humanitarian award for his work the Show Me campaign, which aims to eradicate poverty worldwide through education and health care. The artist currently known as Prince will be feted with musical tributes as the recipient of the network's lifetime achievement award.

The BET Awards honor the year's best in music, sports and film in 19 categories.

Jay-Z leads nominees with five nods, including best male hip-hop artist and two for video of the year, for "Empire State of Mind" and "Run This Town."

Beyonce, Alicia Keys, Trey Songz and Melanie Fiona have four nominations each.

Bieber, the tween sensation, is up for best new artist, while fellow tween star, Selena Gomez, is nominated for the Young Stars award.

Winners are selected by a voting academy comprising industry insiders and executives, music journalists and a group of fans randomly selected by BET.com.

Pope deplores Belgian sex raids, stresses autonomy

Pope deplores Belgian sex raids, stresses autonomy

Musicians of the "Orkiestra Deta OSP" from Tenczyn, southern Poland, perform in St. Peter's square at the Vatican during the Angelus prayer celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI, Sunday, June 27, 2010.

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI lashed out Sunday at what he called the "deplorable" raids carried out by Belgian police who detained bishops, confiscated computers, opened a crypt and took church documents as part of an investigation into priestly sex abuse.

Benedict made a rare personal entry into the escalating diplomatic dispute with Belgium, issuing a message of solidarity to the head of the Belgian bishops' conference and other bishops who were detained in the June 24 raid.

He said justice must take its course, but also asserted the right of the Catholic Church to investigate clerical abuse alongside civil law enforcement authorities.

It was first time the pope himself had commented on the raids, and his message to Monsignor Andre Joseph Leonard capped a daily ratcheting up of the Vatican's criticism. On Saturday, the No. 2 Vatican official said the raids were unprecedented even under communism.

Belgium's justice minister defended the searches on Sunday, saying the bishops were treated normally and that the search warrant was fully legitimate.

In the raids, police searched the home and former office of former Archbishop Godfried Danneels, taking documents and his personal computer, just as the country's nine bishops were starting their monthly meeting. The men were held for nine hours and - along with diocese staff - had to surrender their cell phones.

In addition, police opened at least one tomb of a prelate - a violation that has particularly galled the Vatican.

Police and prosecutors have not said if Danneels is suspected of abuse himself or simply had records pertaining to allegations against another person.

Separately, police seized the records of an independent panel investigating sexual abuse by priests, some 500 cases in all. The head of the panel called the raid a huge violation of the privacy of people - mostly men now in their 60s and 70s - who have lived with the shame of abuse.

Benedict said he wanted to write to Belgium's bishops "at this sad moment" to express his solidarity "for the surprising and deplorable way in which the searches were conducted." He noted that the monthly meeting of the bishops was set to discuss clerical abuse.

Belgium's Catholic Church has been stunned following the resignation in April of its longest-serving bishop, Roger Vangheluwe, who stepped down after admitting to having sexually abused a young boy during the time Danneels was archbishop.

The revelation came as hundreds of cases of abuse were being reported across Europe, Latin America and elsewhere, exposing cover-ups by bishops and evidence of long-standing Vatican inaction to stop it.

In his message Sunday, Benedict stressed that such crimes are handled by both civil and canon law "respecting their reciprocal specificity and autonomy."

"In that sense, I hope that justice takes its course, guaranteeing the fundamental rights of people and institutions with respect to the victims, recognizing without prejudice all those who are committed to collaborating with justice and refuting all that which seeks to obscure its noble goals," he wrote.

The Belgian justice minister, Stefaan De Clerck, stressed that the procedures used in the raids were correct and that the bishops were treated normally, according to the Belga news agency. He bristled at the criticism by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican No. 2, saying his suggestion that the raids were unprecedented even under communism had been excessive, based on false information.

Mayor Nutter Announces Free Summer Meal Program

by KYW’s Karin Phillips

Mayor Michael Nutter and city feeding agencies have announced Philadelphia’s summer meals program, providing free meals for children in Philadelphia this summer.

Mayor Michael Nutter kicked off the city’s summer meals program; Food That’s in, when school is out, at City Hall:

“There are no income requirements or registration in qualifying areas. Let me say that one more time, no registration, no income requirements, all you need to do is show up.”

For full story go to: http://kyw.cbslocal.com/

Diamondbacks' Edwin Jackson no-hits Rays

Diamondbacks' Edwin Jackson no-hits Rays

Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher Edwin Jackson, center, celebrates after throwing a no-hitter against the Tampa Bay Rays during a baseball game Friday, June 25, 2010, in St. Petersburg, Fla.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) -- Edwin Jackson was so wild early there was no reason to think he would even finish the game, forget throw the fourth no-hitter of the season.

This being the Year of the Pitcher, though, anything was possible.

Jackson made it happen, all right, throwing a whopping 149 pitches - the most in the majors in five years - leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 1-0 victory Friday night over his former team, The Tampa Bay Rays.

"It's one of those moments where you're just caught up in the moment. It's one of the craziest games I've had, especially the game starting off how it did. Not being able to find the strike zone with the fastball," Jackson said. "Good thing I could throw the slider for strikes in any count. It just resurrected my game."

Jackson walked eight, all but one in the first three innings, but the Rays still were no-hit for the third time since last July, including Dallas Braden's perfect game at Oakland on May 9.

Colorado's Ubaldo Jimenez no-hit Atlanta on April 17 and Philadelphia's Roy Halladay tossed a perfect game at Florida on May 29. Armando Galarraga lost his perfect game with two outs in the ninth on a blown call by umpire Jim Joyce.

Jason Bartlett grounded to shortstop Stephen Drew for the final out and Jackson's teammates mobbed him on the field after the improbable feat. Jackson improved his career record to 43-45 in eight seasons. He was an All-Star last year for Detroit before being traded to Arizona in the offseason in a three-team trade with the Yankees that included Curtis Granderson.

Jackson was hit with a pie in the face by a teammate as he was doing an on-field interview.

"It was definitely a great feeling, especially after those first few innings. ... After the fifth I looked up and said 'Wow' there's no hits.'" Jackson said.

"It's one of those bittersweet moments. You throw a no hitter and it's against your old team," Jackson added. "At least it's with a crowd that you've had accomplishment with and you can do in front of someone who will appreciate it."

The crowd of 18,918 stood and applauded the first no-hitter at Tropicana Field in the relatively short history of the Rays, who like the Diamondbacks began play in 1998.

Randy Johnson has the only other no-hitter in Arizona history, a perfect game at Atlanta on May 18, 2004.

Adam LaRoche homered off Jeff Niemann (6-2) with one out in the second, all the support Jackson would need.

"He's a great athlete and a great kid. He's one of the very few who can do that," Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon said, noting Jackson's ability to continue to pitch well despite a high pitch count.

"He threw 150 pitches and it's rare to see that many walks and not score a run," Maddon added. "Our guys are just pressing too hard."

Jackson (5-6) walked the bases loaded in the third but was bailed out by a stellar play by third baseman Mark Reynolds, who spun around to throw out Ben Zobrist at home plate. Hank Blalock then grounded out to end the inning.

Reynolds made another big play on a sharp line drive by Bartlett in the seventh. Earlier in the at-bat Bartlett hit a dribbler that hung close to the third base line before rolling foul in front of the bag.

In the eighth, Miguel Montero threw out pinch-runner Carl Crawford trying to steal second after Carlos Pena reached on an error by Drew.

Jackson was so wild and the pitch count unusually high that the Diamondbacks had relievers warming up from the sixth inning on.

"All's well that ends well. We stopped counting at about 115," Diamondbacks manager A.J. Hinch said. "You do want to make smart decisions. You do have a chance at history and you don't want to take it away from him."

No one has thrown that many pitches in a nine-inning game since June 3, 2005, when Washington's Livan Hernandez threw 150 against the Marlins.

Jackson pitched for the Rays from 2006-08. His only other shutout in 126 career starts came for Tampa Bay in 2007.

"To be able to come back and give the crowd I used to play for something to see. Today is just a special day. Something I'll never forget," Jackson said.

Jackson's eight walks were a career high - he struck out six. In 2001, A.J. Burnett walked a record nine in a no-hitter for Florida against San Diego.

In the ninth, Jackson struck out B.J. Upton on three pitches. Blalock flied to left before Jackson got the final out for his 149th pitch.

Niemann struck out eight and walked two in 7 1-3 innings.

The performance by Jackson, who helped Tampa Bay make an improbable run to the World Series two years ago, overshadowed the first meeting between brothers B.J. and Justin Upton, who despite being relatively close in age had never competed with or against each other at any level before Friday.

The Uptons are one of nine sets of brothers who have played in the majors this season. About 65 relatives and friends are in town for the series, and mother, Yvonne, wore a jersey bearing the names and numbers of both above the notation: "my sons."

Hinch joked with Justin before the game that he was tempted to post a mock lineup that didn't include the right fielder.

"I said, 'would have you been in here'" to protest, "and he said: `My mother would have been in here.'"

NOTES: Crawford was out of the lineup with a sore throwing shoulder. ... Hinch confirmed Arizona had given the Florida Marlins permission to talk with 3B coach Bo Porter about their open managerial opening.

Storm could be latest problem in spill cleanup

Storm could be latest problem in spill cleanup

Shrimps boats skim for oil just off the beach in Gulf Shores, Ala., Friday, June 25, 2010. Oil from the Deepwater Horizon disaster continues to wash ashore along the Alabama and Florida coasts.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- A tropical storm churning in the Caribbean could be the latest bad news for BP crews trying to contain and clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf, an effort that has been plagued by setbacks for more than two months.

It is still too early to tell exactly where Tropical Storm Alex might go, or how it might affect oil on and below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, forecasters said. An armada of ships is working on the spill. That includes those drilling two relief wells, projected to be done by mid-August, which are the best hope for halting the crude that has been gushing since an April 20 explosion touched off the biggest offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

BP's effort to drill through 2 1/2 miles of rock is on target, the oil giant said Friday. But BP's stock tumbled anyway over the mounting costs of the disaster and the company's inability to plug the leak sooner.

The crew that has been drilling the relief well since early May ran a test to confirm it is on the right path, using a tool that detects the magnetic field around the casing of the original, blown-out well.

"The layman's translation is, 'We are where we thought we were,'" said BP spokesman Bill Salvin.

Once the new well intersects the ruptured one, BP plans to pump heavy drilling mud in to stop the oil flow and plug it with cement.

Despite the encouraging news, BP stock tumbled 6 percent in New York on Friday to a 14-year low on news that BP has now spent $2.35 billion dealing with the disaster.

BP has lost more than $100 billion in market value since its deep-water drilling platform blew up, and its stock is worth less than half the $60 or so it was selling for on the day of the explosion.

If the bad weather heads toward the Gulf, it could add to BP's problems.

Forecasters can't say yet if Alex - which blew into a tropical storm early Saturday - will hit the northeastern part of the Gulf, where the spill has spread over the past 10 weeks.

Somewhere between 69 million and 132 million gallons of crude have spewed into the water since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20, killing 11 workers.

Most storm prediction models show it traveling over the Yucatan Peninsula over the weekend and into the southern Gulf by Monday. Where it goes next is the question.

Jack Bevins, a forecaster with the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said early prediction models Saturday morning no longer had it going across the oil spill. But Alex's track could quickly change in the coming days as conditions shift.

The effort to capture the oil gushing from the sea bottom could be interrupted for up to two weeks if a storm forces BP to move its equipment out of harm's way, said Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the crisis.

BP would need about five days to secure or move all its equipment to safety from an approaching storm but is working to shorten that to two days, Salvin said. The equipment includes ships that are processing the oil sucked up by the containment cap on the well and the rigs drilling the two relief wells.

In other news:

- A financial disclosure report released Friday shows that the Louisiana judge who struck down the Obama administration's six-month ban on deep-water drilling in the Gulf has sold many of his energy investments. U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman still owns eight energy-related investments, including stock in Exxon Mobil Corp. Among the assets he sold was stock in Transocean, which owned the rig that exploded. The Justice Department asked a federal appeals court Friday to delay Feldman's ruling "to preserve the status quo" during the government's appeal.

- Labor Secretary Hilda Solis slammed BP - along with Massey Energy, owner of the West Virginia coal mine where 29 workers died in an explosion in April - saying they need better safety measures. "We are not saying go out of business," she said. "Do your job better. Make an investment in your employees. We want you to make a profit, but not at the expense of killing your employees."

- Vice President Joe Biden will head to the Gulf on Tuesday to visit a command center in New Orleans and the oil-fouled Florida Panhandle.

- The IRS said payments for lost wages from BP's $20 billion victims compensation fund are taxable just like regular income. Payments for physical injuries or property loss are generally tax-free.

BP is capturing anywhere from 840,000 to 1.2 million gallons of oil a day. Worst-case government estimates say 2.5 million gallons a day are leaking from the well, though no one really knows for sure.

BP is working to develop a different containment system that would be easier to disconnect and hook back up if a storm interrupted the work.

White House summons US general to explain himself

White House summons US general to explain himself

FILE - In this March 28, 2010 file photo, President Barack Obama is greeted by Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan Gen. Stanley McChrystal, left, and U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl W. Eikenberry, right, at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan, en route to an unannounced visit with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Afghanistan. McChrystal has been summoned to Washington to explain derogatory comments about President Barack Obama and his colleagues, administration officials said Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan was fighting for his job Tuesday after being summoned to Washington to explain a magazine profile that included derogatory comments about President Barack Obama and his colleagues.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Gen. Stanley McChrystal's comments were "distractions" to the war in Afghanistan.

McChrystal, who publicly apologized Tuesday for using "poor judgment" in an interview in Rolling Stone magazine, has been ordered to appear at the White House Wednesday, according to officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

He'll be expected to explain his comments in the magazine's profile, titled "The Runaway General," to the president and top Pentagon officials, officials said.

A top military official in Afghanistan told The Associated Press that McChrystal hasn't been told whether he will be allowed to keep his job. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions between Washington and the general's office in Kabul.

McChrystal spent Tuesday calling several of those mentioned in the article to apologize, officials said, including Gates and Richard Holbrooke, U.S. special envoy to Pakistan.

Gates issued a statement saying McChrystal made "a significant mistake" and used poor judgment in his remarks to a magazine reporter.

"We are fighting a war against al-Qaeda and its extremist allies, who directly threaten the United States, Afghanistan, and our friends and allies around the world," Gates said. "Going forward, we must pursue this mission with a unity of purpose. Our troops and coalition partners are making extraordinary sacrifices on behalf of our security, and our singular focus must be on supporting them and succeeding in Afghanistan without such distractions."

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

WASHINGTON (AP) - A senior U.S. military official in Afghanistan tells The Associated Press that Gen. Stanley McChrystal doesn't know whether he'll keep his job when he appears at the White House on Wednesday.

The official says the general has been given no indication that he'll be fired - but no assurance he won't be.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions between Washington and the general's office in Kabul.

McChrystal has apologized for a Rolling Stone magazine profile this week in which aides mock other administration officials. Obama summoned the general to Washington to explain the remarks.

Serena Williams, Nadal win Wimbledon openers

Serena Williams, Nadal win Wimbledon openers

Defending champion Serena Williams returns to Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal, during their women's singles, first round match on the Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis Championships at Wimbledon, Tuesday, June 22, 2010.

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- Serena Williams finished with an ace and a curtsy, showing she's ready for the queen and a lot more at Wimbledon.

The defending champion won her opening match Tuesday, relying on an overpowering serve to beat 17-year-old Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal 6-0, 6-4.

Williams won all 27 points on her first serve and hit 15 aces, the last on her final shot. As the crowd applauded her victory, Williams curtsied, mindful Queen Elizabeth II is expected to visit Wimbledon for the first time since 1977 on Thursday.

Williams plays her second-round match that day and has been practicing her curtsy.

"I want it to be more natural," she said. "Right now it feels really forced. Seems like I've never done a curtsy before, which may be true. But I'm looking forward to nailing it."

The queen may also get to see top-ranked Rafael Nadal, who advanced by beating Japanese wild card Kei Nishikori 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. It was Nadal's first match at Wimbledon since he became the 2008 champion; he missed last year's tournament because of knee tendinitis.

"For me it was a very special moment to come back to this, probably the nicest Centre Court in the world," Nadal said. "I'm enjoying a lot to be back in my favorite tournament."

Neither French Open women's finalist survived the first round. Roland Garros runner-up Samantha Stosur, ranked a career-high sixth, lost to qualifier Kaia Kanepi 6-4, 6-4. Surprise French Open winner Francesca Schiavone was beaten Monday.

"No doubt it's a quick turnaround," Stosur said. "The champions of the game can do it back to back. That's the kind of pedestal that you want to try to look up to and try to get to yourself."

Maria Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, needed only 54 minutes to beat lucky loser Anastasia Pivovarova 6-1, 6-0. No. 3-seeded Caroline Wozniacki swept Tathiana Garbin 6-1, 6-1.

Former top-five player James Blake, returning from a three-month layoff because of a right knee injury, lost to Robin Haase 6-2, 6-4, 6-4.

"The knee is not great," Blake said. "If it doesn't get better soon, I'm not sure how much longer I want to play in pain."

No. 6 Robin Soderling, runner-up at the French Open the past two years, beat American Robby Ginepri 6-2, 6-2, 6-3. No. 18 Sam Querrey of the United States won. No. 4 Andy Murray, No. 9 David Ferrer and No. 10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga also advanced.

Williams played first on Centre Court and remained unbeaten in opening Grand Slam matches. She's 43-0 in the first round at major events.

For her return to Wimbledon on a warm, sunny afternoon, the three-time champion wore a cream dress with red trim.

"Strawberries and cream," she said.

Larcher de Brito, ranked 148th, has three wins over top-20 players but was overwhelmed at the start, needing 33 minutes to win a game.

The teenager then began to play better, and grunts that accompanied her shots grew louder. Last year, French Open opponent Aravane Rezai complained that Larcher de Brito's shrieks were too loud, and the noise drew considerable attention from the British media at Wimbledon.

"Anything with my grunting, I don't want to answer," Larcher de Brito said. "I don't want to go down the same road again."

Williams grunted, too. There were some vigorous rallies down the stretch, with Larcher de Brito holding her own as both players scrambled along the baseline.

"She definitely packs a punch," Williams said. "It was good for me because most people that do play nowadays hit really hard. It was good to get someone that hit really hard early on."

Williams packed the bigger punch - she finished with 47 winners to six for Larcher de Brito, many on serves that reached up to 119 mph.

"It's not even about the pace, because I could deal with that," Larcher de Brito said. "But she places it so well. When she aims for targets, she really hits that line or just clips that line."

In the final game, Williams hit a service winner and three aces to close out the victory. She said poor serving cost her when she was upset by Stosur in the quarterfinals at the French Open.

"I served so terrible my last match at the French," Williams said. "I went home and worked really hard on my serve. I was incredibly disappointed with it. Had a talk with my serve. I said, 'You know, we got to do a little bit better.'"

Williams reached double figures in aces for the eighth time this year, most on the women's tour. She has won 58 of her past 59 matches against players ranked outside the top 100.

Nadal was in control from the start against Nishikori, and the Spaniard lost serve only once while committing just 16 unforced errors.

Nadal, who won his fifth French Open title this month, is seeded second at Wimbledon to six-time champion Roger Federer. The two could meet in the final.

Murray defeated Jan Hajek 7-5, 6-1, 6-2; Ferrer beat Nicolas Kiefer 6-4, 6-2, 6-3; and Tsonga downed Robert Kendrick of the U.S. 7-6 (2), 7-6 (8), 3-6, 6-4.

Querrey, who won his first career grass-court title at Queen's this month, advanced when Sergiy Stakhovsky retired because of illness trailing 7-6 (4), 6-3, 2-1. Stakhovsky won the grass title this month at Den Bosch, Netherlands.

Two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was aced 16 times but still beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-4. No. 7-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Melinda Czink 6-3, 6-3, and No. 10 Flavia Pennetta swept Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 6-0.

Gulf rig owner criticizes Obama's drilling halt

Gulf rig owner criticizes Obama's drilling halt

Workers walk along a line of barges anchored in Pass Abel on the coast of Louisiana near Grand Isle, La., Monday, June 21, 2010. When completed, the barges, which will be lined up end-to-end, are expected to serve as a barrier against oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill from entering Barataria Bay.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- The owner of the drilling rig involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico criticized the U.S. government's six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the area Tuesday.

On the sidelines of an oil conference in London, Transocean Ltd. president Steven Newman said there were things President Barack Obama's administration "could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit."

Transocean owns the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was run by British oil company BP PLC. An April 20 explosion on the rig killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The criticism came a day after a federal judge in New Orleans began to mull lifting the moratorium, which the Obama administration imposed after the disaster began, and the administrator of a $20 billion fund to compensate oil spill victims pledged to speed payment of claims.

Judge Martin Feldman said he will decide by Wednesday whether to overturn the ban.

During Monday's two-hour hearing, plaintiffs' attorney Carl Rosenblum said the six-month suspension of drilling work could prove more economically devastating than the spill itself.

"This is an unprecedented industrywide shutdown. Never before has the government done this," Rosenblum said.

Government lawyers said the Interior Department has demonstrated that industry regulators need more time to study the risks of deepwater drilling and identify ways to make it safer.

"The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety," said Justice Department attorney Guillermo Montero.

Meanwhile, Kenneth Feinberg, who has been tapped by the White House to run the fund set up to help people harmed by the spill, said many people are in desperate financial straits and need immediate relief.

"We want to get these claims out quicker," he said. "We want to get these claims out with more transparency."

Feinberg, who ran the claim fund set up for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said BP has paid out over $100 million so far. Various estimates place total claims so far in excess of $600 million.

BP said it has spent $2 billion fighting the spill for the last two months and compensating victims, with no end in sight. It's likely to be at least August before crews finish two relief wells that are the best chance of stopping the flow of oil.

The British oil giant released its latest tally of response costs, including $105 million paid out so far to 32,000 claimants. That figure does not include the $20 billion fund BP PLC last week agreed to set up for residents and businesses hurt by the spill.

Also Monday, the government sent BP a $51.4 million bill for the response effort. BP has already paid two other bills totaling $70.9 million.

Shares of BP, which have lost about half their value since the April 20 oil rig disaster that killed 11 workers, fell nearly 3 percent Monday in New York trading to $30.86.

BP chief executive Tony Hayward canceled a scheduled Tuesday appearance at the London oil conference, citing his commitment to the Gulf relief effort. The last-minute pullout followed stinging criticism of Hayward's attendance at a yacht race on the Isle of Wight off the coast of southern England on Saturday.

Obama's administration has also been struggling to show it is responding forcefully to the spill, which has gushed anywhere from 68 million to 126 millions gallons of oil into the Gulf.

As part of that effort, the Interior Department halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells in the Gulf.

But a lawsuit filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La., claims the government arbitrarily imposed the moratorium without any proof that the operations posed a threat. Hornbeck says the moratorium could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages.

During Monday's hearing, Feldman asked a government lawyer why the Interior Department decided to suspend deepwater drilling after the rig explosion when it didn't bar oil tankers from Alaskan waters after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 or take similar actions in the wake of other industrial accidents.

"The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer," Montero said. "It really illustrates the risks that are inherent in deepwater drilling."

Feldman asked Rosenblum if it's true that a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Hornbeck suggests "basically things are pretty good" for the company and it can survive the moratorium. Rosenblum said the full impact of the shutdown cannot be calculated.

"Thousands of businesses will be affected," he said. "These dominoes are falling as we speak."

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs' suit. A lawyer for the state told Feldman that the federal government did not consult Louisiana officials before imposing the moratorium, in violation of federal law.

Catherine Wannamaker, a lawyer for several environmental groups that support the moratorium, said six months is a reasonable time for drilling to be suspended while the government studies the risks and regulations governing the industry.

"The risks here are new," she said.

Government lawyers said the plaintiffs haven't seen much of the data that served as the basis for the Interior Department's decision to suspend drilling operations.

Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar "wants to be sure deepwater drilling is as safe as we all thought it was on the day before the incident on April 20," said government lawyer Brian Collins.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in Houston listened to Monday's hearing over the telephone. Atlas is presiding over a similar case against the Interior Department filed by Diamond Offshore Co., which operates a fleet of drilling rigs.

Along the coast Monday, some cleanup workers reported progress.

On Barataria Bay off the coast of Louisiana, thick globs of oil that washed onto marshy islands a week ago had disappeared, leaving a mass of stained bushes and partly yellowed grasses.

Blackened lengths of boom surrounded the islands, which were still teeming with brown pelicans, gulls and other seabirds, some with visible signs of oil on their plumage. Nearby, shrimp boats that have been transformed into skimmers hauled absorbent booms across the water's surface, collecting some of the remaining oil.

Crews aboard Navy and Coast Guard boats teamed with local fishermen using booms to funnel oil into a vessel and haul it away.

This is the area's new economy - dependent as ever on the sprawling bay, but now those who made their living harvesting its bounty are focused on its healing.

"It looks 10 times better than it did a week ago," said Carey O'Neil, 42, a commercial fisherman idled by the spill who now provides tours of the damaged areas for media and government observers in his 23-foot boat anchored in Grand Isle. "But what impact will this have for the future - two, three, four, even 10 years? That's what worries me."

The number of oil-soaked birds in the area is down significantly, from 60 or 70 a day at the triage center on Grand Isle to more like seven or eight, said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

"We've been sending 55 boats a day out pretty much since day one, when the oil hit this area, and so we feel like we've really made inroads," he said.