Corzine blames predecessors for MF Global's fall

Corzine blames predecessors for MF Global's fall

Former New Jersey Gov. and Sen. Jon Corzine testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Thursday, Dec. 8, 2011, before the House Agriculture Committee hearing regarding the collapse of MF Global.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Jon Corzine told a congressional panel Thursday that he never intended to break rules requiring failed securities firm MF Global to safeguard client funds. He also said he doesn't know what happened to an estimated $1.2 billion that went missing.

Corzine testified before the House Agriculture Committee for nearly three hours about the firm's bankruptcy, which followed disastrous bets on European debt that were made while Corzine was CEO.

Corzine deflected blame for the company's collapse. He argued that he inherited a firm already doomed by his predecessors' bad financial decisions.

He appeared strained and at times grasped for words. But Corzine responded to every question posed, choosing not to exercise his Fifth Amendment right.

His answers were cautiously worded. He often said he couldn't recall or lacked access to materials needed for him to answer.

"I'm not in a position, given the number of transactions, to know anything specific about the movement of any specific funds," he said.

Still, Corzine said he accepts responsibility for the firm's risky bets and said its customers' losses weigh on his mind "every day - every hour."

The former U.S. senator was subpoenaed to explain how MF Global, which he led for about 20 months, collapsed into the eighth-largest bankruptcy in U.S. history and why an estimated $1.2 billion in client funds remains unaccounted for.

Testifying before a hearing of the House Agriculture Committee, Corzine apologized to "all those affected" by MF Global's failure. The company filed for bankruptcy protection on Oct. 31. Corzine resigned as CEO on Nov. 3 and hasn't spoken publicly since.

"I simply do not know where the money is, or why the accounts have not been reconciled to date," Corzine said.

He said he can't say whether there were "operational errors" at MF Global or whether other companies have held onto money that should be returned to MF Global.

Corzine defended his tenure at the firm. He said MF Global toppled, in part, because of a large quarterly loss caused by his predecessors' accounting moves. Rating agencies responded to the loss by downgrading the firm's credit rating, which panicked investors and trading partners.

"The marketplace lost confidence in our firm," he said.

He said he made the high-stakes bets only after discussions with company executives who traded European debt long before he arrived. And he said that he reduced MF Global's investment risks by some measures.

Some outside experts challenged that assertion.

Janet Tavakoli, an expert on the transactions MF Global specialized in, said Corzine's remarks divert attention from the firm's fundamental flaw: It lacked the cash to cover its bets after investors started to fear that a major European nation would default.

"His entire testimony looks like a very skilled way to try to detract from that key issue," said Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance.

Corzine, 64, said many people in his position would invoke their Fifth Amendment right to avoid answering questions at Thursday's hearing. But he said that as a former senator he recognizes the importance of congressional oversight and will try his best to answer the panel's questions.

Attempting to answer questions poses a risk for Corzine. Anything he might say could be used against him in a courtroom, should Corzine ever be charged in the case. The FBI and several federal regulators are investigating MF Global.

Lawmakers have heard from farmers, ranchers and small business owners in their districts who are missing money deposited with the firm.

Agricultural businesses use brokerage firms to help reduce their risks in an industry vulnerable to swings in oil, corn and other commodity prices. But MF Global increased risks by making big bets on European government debt - bets that proved disastrous.

In his remarks, Corzine disputed media reports that he personally pushed the company to make big, doomed bets on risky European debt using too much borrowed money.

Corzine said the company's revenue was "drying up" when he arrived because of competition from online and high-tech brokerages.

He also noted that the company worked with outside consultants on its strategic plan and internal compliance systems. And he said that much of his compensation was in stock options.

The amount of borrowed money used - known as leverage - decreased when he ran the company, he said, and he favored the trades that doomed it only after discussions with MF Global's senior traders.

Corzine noted that the European debt securities are all "at least A rated." Typically, that means the borrower is unlikely to default.

Legal experts say Corzine could be held personally liable for misrepresenting to investors the risks the firm had taken. Other top MF Global executives also could face legal jeopardy, they say. Corzine will say Thursday that the company's board signed off on the investments and was aware of the risks involved.

It's the first time in more than 100 years that Congress has subpoenaed a former senator to testify, according to Senate historian Don Ritchie. The occasion blends the two worlds Corzine has occupied for his professional life - Wall Street and public office.

A Democrat, Corzine represented New Jersey in the Senate from 2001 through 2005. He later served as the state's governor. Before entering politics, he was CEO of Goldman Sachs from 1994 to 1999.

Several class-action lawsuits on behalf of shareholders have been filed against Corzine and three other top executives. A bankruptcy court is consolidating the suits. They accuse the firm and its leaders of making false statements about MF Global's strength and cash balances.

US: No to over-the-counter morning-after pill

US: No to over-the-counter morning-after pill

President Barack Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius step off Air force One at Kansas City International Airport, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2011, in Kansas City , Mo.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a surprise move with election-year implications, the Obama administration's top health official overruled her own drug regulators and stopped the Plan B morning-after pill from moving onto drugstore shelves next to the condoms.

The decision by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius means the Plan B One-Step emergency contraceptive will remain behind pharmacy counters, as it is sold today - available without a prescription only to those 17 and older who can prove their age.

The Food and Drug Administration was preparing to lift the age limit on Wednesday and allow younger teens, who today must get a prescription, to buy it without restriction. That would have made Plan B the nation's first over-the-counter emergency contraceptive, a pill that can prevent pregnancy if taken soon enough after unprotected sex.

But Sebelius intervened at the eleventh hour and overruled FDA, deciding that young girls shouldn't be able to buy the pill on their own - especially since some girls as young as 11 are physically capable of bearing children.

"It is common knowledge that there are significant cognitive and behavioral differences between older adolescent girls and the youngest girls of reproductive age," Sebelius said. "I do not believe enough data were presented to support the application to make Plan B One-Step available over the counter for all girls of reproductive age."

The move will anger a pivotal part of Obama's Democratic base, and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, a member of the Senate leadership, quickly asked for Sebelius to explain her decision. The White House said Sebelius decided on her own.

But the move also could help Democrats make their case to independents, whose support will be critical in next fall's presidential election, that Obama is not the liberal ideologue Republicans claim. It followed Obama administration reversals this year on some environmental and other issues that irked Democrats.

It was the latest twist in a nearly decade-long push for easier access to emergency contraception, and the development shocked women's groups and maker Teva Pharmaceuticals, which had been gearing up for over-the-counter sales to begin by month's end.

"We are outraged that this administration has let politics trump science," said Kirsten Moore of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, an advocacy group. "There is no rationale for this move."

"This decision is stunning. I had come to believe that the FDA would be allowed to make decisions based on science and the public's health," said Susan Wood of George Washington University, who served as the FDA's top women's health official until resigning in 2005 to protest delays in deciding Plan B's fate. She said, "Sadly, once again, FDA has been over-ruled and not allowed to do its job."

But the decision pleased conservative critics of the proposal.

"Take the politics out of it and it's a decision that reflects the concerns that many parents in America have," said Wendy Wright, an evangelical Christian activist who has helped lead the opposition to Plan B.

"This is the right decision based on a lack of scientific evidence that it's safe to allow minors access to this drug, much less over the counter," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Major doctors' groups and contraception advocates say quicker access to morning-after pills could cut the nation's high number of unplanned pregnancies, but they have said they didn't expect that selling Plan B over the counter would prompt much more use by younger girls. For one thing, the pill costs about $50.

They argued that putting the pill next to the condoms and spermicides would increase access for more sexually active ages who normally browse those aisles and would learn about emergency contraception. Teva planned ad campaigns aimed at 18- to 30-year-olds.

"I don't think 11-year-olds go into Rite Aid and buy anything," said Dr. Cora Breuner of the American Academy of Pediatrics. "We want it to be available to both girls and boys who have made a serious error in having unprotected sex and should be able to respond to that kind of lack of judgment in a way that is timely as opposed to having to suffer permanent consequences."

FDA Commissioner Dr. Margaret Hamburg made clear that the decision was highly unusual. She said her agency's drug safety experts had carefully considered the question of young girls, and that she had agreed that Plan B's age limit should be lifted.

"There is adequate and reasonable, well-supported and science-based evidence that Plan B One-Step is safe and effective and should be approved for nonprescription use for all females of child-bearing potential," Hamburg wrote.

Part of FDA's consideration was a Teva-funded study that tracked 11- to 17-year-olds who came to clinics seeking emergency contraception. Nearly 90 percent of them used the pill safely and correctly without professional guidance, said company Vice President Amy Niemann. However, Teva wouldn't say how many of the youngest girls were part of the study.

"We commend the FDA for making the recommendation ... and we are disappointed that at this late date, the Department of Health and Human Services has come to a different conclusion," the company said in a statement. It was determining next steps.

Already, the FDA's age limits have gone to court. In 2009, a federal judge said the agency had set them initially based on politics, not science, and ordered the agency to reconsider. A hearing was scheduled for next week to consider whether the FDA should be held in contempt of court for not doing so earlier.

Plan B One-Step is a single pill that contains a higher dose of the female progestin hormone that is in regular birth control pills. Taking it within 72 hours of rape, condom failure or just forgetting regular contraception can cut the chances of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. But it works best within the first 24 hours. There are two other emergency contraception pills, a generic version named Next Choice that is sold like Plan B and a prescription-only pill named ella.

If a woman already is pregnant, the pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg. According to the medical definition, pregnancy doesn't begin until a fertilized egg implants itself into the wall of the uterus. Still, some critics say Plan B is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it may be able to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus.

DA dropping death penalty against Mumia Abu-Jamal

DA dropping death penalty against Mumia Abu-Jamal

FILE - In this July 12, 1995 file photo, Mumia Abu-Jamal leaves Philadelphia's City Hall after a hearing. District Attorney Seth Williams announced Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011 that prosecutors will no longer pursue the death penalty against the former Black Panther, meaning he will spend the rest of his life in prison for gunning down a white police officer nearly 30 years ago. Abu-Jamal, who has been incarcerated in a western Pennsylvania prison, has garnered worldwide support from those who believe he was the victim of a biased justice system.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Prosecutors on Wednesday abandoned their 30-year push to execute convicted cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal, the former Black Panther whose claim that he was the victim of a racist legal system made him an international cause celebre.

Abu-Jamal, 58, will instead spend the rest of his life in prison.

Flanked by police Officer Daniel Faulkner's widow, Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams announced his decision two days short of the 30th anniversary of the white patrolman's killing.

He said that continuing to seek the death penalty could lead to "an unknowable number of years" of appeals, and that some witnesses have died or are unavailable after nearly three decades.

"There's never been any doubt in my mind that Mumia Abu-Jamal shot and killed Officer Faulkner. I believe that the appropriate sentence was handed down by a jury of his peers in 1982," said Williams, the city's first black district attorney. "While Abu-Jamal will no longer be facing the death penalty, he will remain behind bars for the rest of his life, and that is where he belongs."

Abu-Jamal was originally sentenced to death. His murder conviction was upheld through years of appeals. But in 2008, a federal appeals court ordered a new sentencing hearing on the grounds that the instructions given to the jury were potentially misleading.

After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to weigh in two months ago, prosecutors were forced to decide whether to pursue the death penalty again or accept a life sentence without parole.

Williams said he reached the decision with the blessing of Faulkner's widow, Maureen.

"Another penalty proceeding would open the case to the repetition of the state appeals process and an unknowable number of years of federal review again, even if we were successful," the district attorney said.

Widener University law professor Judith Ritter, who represented Abu-Jamal in recent appeals, welcomed the move.

"There is no question that justice is served when a death sentence from a misinformed jury is overturned," Ritter said. "Thirty years later, the district attorney's decision not to seek a new death sentence also furthers the interests of justice."

According to trial testimony, Abu-Jamal saw his brother scuffle with the patrolman during a 4 a.m. traffic stop in 1981 and ran toward the scene. Police found Abu-Jamal wounded by a round from Faulkner's gun. Faulkner, shot several times, was killed. A .38-caliber revolver registered to Abu-Jamal was found at the scene with five spent shell casings.

Over the years, Abu-Jamal challenged the predominantly white makeup of the jury, the instructions given to the jurors and the accounts of eyewitnesses. He also complained that his lawyer was ineffective, that the judge was racist and that another man confessed to the crime.

His writings and radio broadcasts from death row put him at the center of an international debate over capital punishment and made him the subject of books and movies. The one-time journalist's own 1995 book, "Live From Death Row," depicts prison life and calls the justice system racist.

He garnered worldwide support from the "Free Mumia" movement, with hundreds of vocal supporters and death-penalty opponents regularly turning out for court hearings in his case.

His message resonated on college campuses and in Hollywood. Actors Mike Farrell and Tim Robbins were among dozens of luminaries who used a New York Times ad to call for a new trial, and the Beastie Boys played a concert to raise money for Abu-Jamal's defense.

Faulkner's widow labored to ensure her husband was not forgotten.

"My family and I have endured a three-decade ordeal at the hands of Mumia Abu-Jamal, his attorneys and his supporters, who in many cases never even took the time to educate themselves about the case before lending their names, giving their support and advocating for his freedom," she said Wednesday. "All of this has taken an unimaginable physical, emotional and financial toll on each of us."

Amnesty International, which maintains that Abu-Jamal's trial was "manifestly unfair and failed to meet international fair trial standards," said the district attorney's decision does not go far enough. Abu-Jamal still has an appeal pending before the Pennsylvania Supreme Court over the validity of ballistics evidence.

"Amnesty International continues to believe that justice would best be served by granting Mumia Abu-Jamal a new trial," said Laura Moye, director of the human rights group's Campaign to Abolish the Death Penalty.

Members of Philadelphia's police community stood with Williams and Maureen Faulkner as the decision was announced. Former police union president Rich Costello blasted the courts for ordering a new sentencing hearing.

"Where do Maureen and the Faulkner family go for a reduction in their sentence?" Costello said. "For 30 years now, they have been forced to suffer grief, anguish, abuse, insults, intimidation, threats and every other sort of indignity that can be visited on a family already in grief."

Faulkner lashed out at the judges who overturned the death sentence, calling them "dishonest cowards" who, she said, oppose the death penalty. The widow also vowed to fight any special treatment for Abu-Jamal behind bars, saying he should be moved to the general population after being taken off death row.

"I will not stand by and see him coddled, as he has been in the past," Faulkner said. "And I am heartened that he will be taken from the protective cloister he has been living in all these years and begin living among his own kind - the thugs and common criminals that infest our prisons."

Megachurch's future uncertain after pastor leaves

Megachurch's future uncertain after pastor leaves

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long speaks at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Megachurch leader Long has announced he's taking time off to focus on his family after his wife filed for divorce. Long's spokesman, Art Franklin, said that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader told his congregation Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, that he will continue to serve as senior pastor at the church in Lithonia, an Atlanta suburb. But Long said he needs a sabbatical.

ATLANTA (AP) -- When Bishop Eddie Long was accused of sexual misconduct by former church members, his congregation rallied around him and his wife stood by his side. About a year later, the Atlanta megachurch pastor is headed for divorce and stepping away from the pulpit.

Long announced Sunday at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church that he needed a break from preaching to focus on his family. The hiatus leaves New Birth, which once boasted 25,000 members, at a crossroads, its reputation battered and membership dwindling. Their pasts inextricably linked for nearly a generation, both Long and his church face an uncertain future.

"A church is bigger than its pastor," said Goldie Taylor, who has attended New Birth in the past. "For too long, the New Birth family has acted as if it is smaller than its pastor. Its challenge going forward will be its ability to flip that and become a church without walls again."

For many members, Long has been the only pastor they have ever known. He became senior pastor in 1987, taking the helm of a flock of only a few hundred members. Not long after he arrived, the former Ford salesman and Honeywell executive dismissed New Birth's board of directors and took unilateral control of the church, ensuring that he would be the one to determine the date of his departure.

New Birth grew quickly under its charismatic, dynamic young leader, swelling to 8,000 members in five years. A decade later New Birth boasted 18,000 members and the church paid cash for the land and sprawling property it currently occupies in DeKalb County - including a 10,000-seat sanctuary. In addition to its Lithonia, Ga., headquarters, the church has satellites in several cities including Miami, Charlotte and Denver and television and international ministries.

Many who joined the church under Long's tenure were attracted to the prosperity gospel that he preached and practiced. It was a message that mirrored an emerging black middle class in and around Atlanta. Unlike the traditional Southern Baptist preacher, Long owned a $350,000 Bentley and private jet, lived in a $1.4 million house with six bedrooms and nine bathrooms, adorned himself with diamond jewelry and read his sermons on an iPad.

Long's spiritual swagger inspired a loyal and protective congregation. In September 2010, when accusations swirled that he used his lavish lifestyle to seduce four young men into sexual relationships in exchange for cars, clothes and trips, New Birth members supported around their embattled leader, who vowed he was innocent and would fight the cases.

Long settled out of court eight months later for an undisclosed amount and has never admitted any wrongdoing. After that, some changed their opinion of him.

"Once the money was paid, it was like you're hiding something," said Donielle Marshall, who joined New Birth as a college student in 1999. "Did you lie to us? I look at him as just a common man, full of fault, but also a disgrace."

KaCey Venning said she left New Birth about a month after the allegations because she wanted a smaller church. She believes New Birth can get past its challenges "if they are able to stick together and not rally behind somebody in blind support."

"They need to focus getting back to their outreach, getting out in the community," Venning said. "If the focus is going to be around this particular person, if there's no New Birth without him ... there might be a problem."

Long's wife, Vanessa, filed for divorce last week after 21 years of marriage. The couple has three children and a fourth from Long's first marriage. In a statement released by the church, Vanessa Long said she may reconsider her decision to divorce, but her filing followed "attacks in the media that frustrated and overwhelmed me."

The Rev. Kenneth Samuel, who preceded Long, said the allegations hurt.

"With New Birth being as large and prevalent as it is, every church in the area has felt the impact," Samuel said. "And rightly so. I think there has to be a level of accountability. I think it's certainly possible for the church to carry on. My prayer is for growth and progress and to become more committed to open, honest dialogue and discussion."

Marshall said the church can be healed, but also thinks Long needs to step down permanently.

"All things can be renewed, but I think he needs to leave," she said. "Why continue to lead people when you are being dishonest? It shames the church, it shames the followers, and it shames him."

First-class mail: Just a little bit s-l-o-w-e-r

First-class mail: Just a little bit s-l-o-w-e-r

Mail carrier Zack Wyscarver delivers mail in freezing temperatures in Omaha, Neb., Monday, Dec. 5, 2011. Unprecedented cuts by the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service will slow first-class delivery next spring and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Already mocked by some as "snail mail," first-class U.S. mail will slow even more by next spring under plans by the cash-strapped U.S. Postal Service to eliminate more than 250 processing centers. Nearly 30,000 workers would be laid off, too, as the post office struggles to respond to a shift to online communication and bill payments.

The cuts are part of $3 billion in reductions aimed at helping the agency avert bankruptcy next year. They would virtually eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day, a change in first-class delivery standards that have been in place since 1971.

The plan technically must await an advisory opinion from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission, slated for next March. But that opinion is nonbinding, and only substantial pressure from Congress, businesses or the public might deter far-reaching cuts.

Many postal customers will be upset.

"The post office is a mainstay of America, and the fact that these services will no longer be available is absolutely crazy," said Carol Braxton of Naperville, Ill., as she waited in line at a mail sorting center Monday with the holiday shipping season picking up steam.

"Well I'm not happy about them, but what else can you do with this economy? If they're getting ready to go bankrupt, it's better to cut back than to go totally bankrupt," said Deborah Butler of Brandywine, Md., who was at a Washington, D.C., post office. "You still need them. Because everybody can't afford the other ones, like express mail and things like that. .Even though the world is computer literate, everybody doesn't have computers."

At a news briefing in Washington, postal vice president David Williams said the post office needs to move quickly to cut costs as it seeks to stem five years of red ink amid steadily declining mail volume. After hitting 98 billion in 2006, first-class mail volume is now at less than 78 billion. It is projected to drop by roughly half by 2020.

The agency already has announced a 1-cent increase in first-class mail to 45 cents beginning Jan. 22.

Williams said in certain narrow situations first-class mail might still be delivered the next day - if, for example, newspapers, magazines or other bulk mailers are able to meet new, tighter deadlines and drop off shipments directly at the processing centers that remain open.

But in the vast majority of cases, everyday users of first-class mail will see delays. The changes could slow everything from check payments to Netflix's DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order prescription drugs and even threaten the existence of newspapers and time-sensitive magazines delivered by postal carrier to far-flung suburban and rural communities.

The Postal Service faces imminent default - this month - on a $5.5 billion annual payment to the Treasury for retiree health benefits and expects to have a record loss of $14.1 billion next year.

"Are we writing off first class mail? No," Williams said. "Customers are making their choices, and what we are doing is responding to the current market conditions and placing the Postal Service on a path to allow us to respond to future changes. We have to do what's in our control to put the Postal Service on sold financial ground."

The cuts would close 252 of the nation's 461 mail processing centers beginning next spring. They would result in the elimination of roughly 28,000 jobs. The number of employees varies by processing facility but generally ranges from about 50 to 2,000. Cincinnati, Boston and New Orleans are home to some of the largest centers.

Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards. Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one to three days. That would lengthen to two to three days, meaning mailers no longer could expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take two to nine days.

About 42 percent of first-class mail is now delivered the following day. An additional 27 percent arrives in two days, about 31 percent in three days and less than 1 percent in four to five days. Following the change next spring, about 51 percent of all first-class mail is expected to arrive in two days, with most of the remainder delivered in three days.

The Postal Service initially announced in September it was studying the possibility of closing the processing centers and published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments. Within 30 days, the plan elicited nearly 4,400 public comments, mostly in opposition.

Catalogue companies worry they won't be able to predict when their catalogues will arrive and therefore when to add staff to handle increased call volumes. Small business owners say sluggish first-class mail will slow their businesses because merchandise and payments will spend more time in transit.

On Monday, postal customers said they valued having mail service but also acknowledged the realities of the Internet in everyday life.

"The post office services that we need as a nation are just too big at this point, so things have to be cut and there is nothing that can be done to change it other than email goes away," Ron Connor of Naperville, Ill., said as he walked into a local post office branch.

Lily Ickow, from Silver Spring, Md., said the post office needs to find other ways than wide-scale cuts to reach profitability. "It's definitely too bad," she said at a Washington post office. "I think the Postal Service is necessary personally. ...It would be useful to see if there are ways that they could innovate and come up with other types of services."

Separate bills that have passed House and Senate committees would give the Postal Service more authority and liquidity to stave off immediate bankruptcy. But prospects are somewhat dim for final congressional action on those bills anytime soon, especially if the measures are seen in an election year as promoting layoffs and cuts to neighborhood post offices.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe has been pushing for congressional changes that would give the agency more authority to reduce delivery to five days a week, raise stamp prices and reduce health care and other labor costs. But the agency also opposes current provisions in the House and Senate measures that would require additional layers of review before it could close post offices and processing centers.

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive tax money, but is subject to congressional control on major aspects of its operations. The changes in first-class mail delivery could go into place without permission from Congress.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate committee that oversees the post office, believes the agency is taking the wrong approach. She says service cuts will only push more consumers to online bill payment or private carriers such as UPS or FedEx, leading to lower revenue.

And Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, a member of the House committee that oversees the agency, said he would fight the changes.

"This privatization plan is bad for Americans, bad for businesses, bad for the economy and bad for workers. We can do better than to dismantle the Postal Service and privatize its operations," he said.

Ruth Goldway, chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission, said the commission will be reviewing the proposal closely to ensure that the Postal Service can continue its mission of providing adequate, effective service in a fair manner to all parts of the U.S. She said, "I think if the Postal Service does not respond to public concerns, it will bear the consequences of that itself."

Eddie Long taking time off from Ga. megachurch

Eddie Long taking time off from Ga. megachurch

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 26, 2010 file photo, Bishop Eddie Long speaks at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga. Megachurch leader Long has announced he's taking time off to focus on his family after his wife filed for divorce. Long's spokesman, Art Franklin, said that the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader told his congregation Sunday, Dec. 4, 2011, that he will continue to serve as senior pastor at the church in Lithonia, an Atlanta suburb. But Long said he needs a sabbatical.

LITHONIA, Ga. (AP) -- Megachurch leader Bishop Eddie Long announced Sunday he's taking time off to focus on his family after his wife filed for divorce.

Long's spokesman, Art Franklin, said the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church leader told his congregation during church services that he will continue to serve as senior pastor at the church in Lithonia just outside Atlanta. But Long said he needs a sabbatical.

Franklin declined to say how long the pastor's sabbatical from the church would be. He said Long and his family "are asking for privacy and sensitivity to their family."

Long's wife, Vanessa Long, filed a petition for divorce Thursday in DeKalb County Superior Court to end her 21-year marriage to the embattled minister. The church sent out a press release Friday morning saying Vanessa Long planned to withdraw her petition, but her attorney said later in the day that she had changed her mind.

In her petition, Vanessa Long indicated that the marriage is "irretrievably broken" and that there was "no hope of reconciliation of the parties." She asked the court for temporary and permanent alimony, as well as attorneys' fees and an equitable division of marital and non-marital property.

"Vanessa and I are working together in seeking God's will in our current circumstances," Eddie Long said in a written statement.

According to the divorce petition, the couple is "currently living in a bona fide state of separation."

The split comes more than a year after allegations last year that Eddie Long used his lavish lifestyle and position of spiritual authority to lure four young men into sexual relationships. Eddie Long settled the cases but has never admitted to any wrongdoing.

Details of the settlements were not disclosed.

The allegations attracted national attention, took a toll on Long's reputation and distracted from his international ministry.

The Longs were married March 10, 1990. The couple has three children together and has another child from Long's previous marriage.

Postal cuts to slow delivery of first-class mail

Postal cuts to slow delivery of first-class mail

FILE - In this Sept. 15, 2011, file photo Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe speaks at a news conference on changes to the Postal Service that could potentially save as much as $3 billion in Washington. The estimated $3 billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail on Monday, Dec. 5, 2011, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the Postal Service to quickly trim costs and avert bankruptcy. While providing short-term relief, the changes could ultimately prove counterproductive, pushing more of America's business onto the Internet.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Facing bankruptcy, the U.S. Postal Service is pushing ahead with unprecedented cuts to first-class mail next spring that will slow delivery and, for the first time in 40 years, eliminate the chance for stamped letters to arrive the next day.

The estimated $3 billion in reductions, to be announced in broader detail on Monday, are part of a wide-ranging effort by the cash-strapped Postal Service to quickly trim costs, seeing no immediate help from Congress.

The changes would provide short-term relief, but ultimately could prove counterproductive, pushing more of America's business onto the Internet. They could slow everything from check payments to Netflix's DVDs-by-mail, add costs to mail-order prescription drugs, and threaten the existence of newspapers and time-sensitive magazines delivered by postal carrier to far-flung suburban and rural communities.

That birthday card mailed first-class to Mom also could arrive a day or two late, if people don't plan ahead.

"It's a potentially major change, but I don't think consumers are focused on it and it won't register until the service goes away," said Jim Corridore, analyst with S&P Capital IQ, who tracks the shipping industry. "Over time, to the extent the customer service experience gets worse, it will only increase the shift away from mail to alternatives. There's almost nothing you can't do online that you can do by mail."

The cuts, now being finalized, would close roughly 250 of the nearly 500 mail processing centers across the country as early as next March. Because the consolidations typically would lengthen the distance mail travels from post office to processing center, the agency also would lower delivery standards for first-class mail that have been in place since 1971.

Currently, first-class mail is supposed to be delivered to homes and businesses within the continental U.S. in one day to three days. That will lengthen to two days to three days, meaning mailers no longer could expect next-day delivery in surrounding communities. Periodicals could take between two days and nine days.

About 42 percent of first-class mail is now delivered the following day. An additional 27 percent arrives in two days, about 31 percent in three days and less than 1 percent in four days to five days. Following the change next spring, about 51 percent of all first-class mail is expected to arrive in two days, with most of the remainder delivered in three days.

The consolidation of mail processing centers is in addition to the planned closing of about 3,700 local post offices. In all, roughly 100,000 postal employees could be cut as a result of the various closures, resulting in savings of up to $6.5 billion a year.

Expressing urgency to reduce costs, Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said in an interview that the agency has to act while waiting for Congress to grant it authority to reduce delivery to five days a week, raise stamp prices and reduce health care and other labor costs.

The Postal Service, an independent agency of government, does not receive tax money, but is subject to congressional control on large aspects of its operations. The changes in first-class mail delivery can go into place without permission from Congress.

After five years in the red, the post office faces imminent default this month on a $5.5 billion annual payment to the Treasury for retiree health benefits. It is projected to have a record loss of $14.1 billion next year amid steady declines in first-class mail volume. Donahoe has said the agency must make cuts of $20 billion by 2015 to be profitable.

It already has announced a 1-cent increase in first-class mail to 45 cents beginning Jan. 22.

"We have a business model that is failing. You can't continue to run red ink and not make changes," Donahoe said. "We know our business, and we listen to our customers. Customers are looking for affordable and consistent mail service, and they do not want us to take tax money."

Separate bills that have passed House and Senate committees would give the Postal Service more authority and liquidity to stave off immediate bankruptcy. But prospects are somewhat dim for final congressional action on those bills anytime soon, especially if the measures are seen in an election year as promoting layoffs and cuts to neighborhood post offices.

Technically, the Postal Service must await an advisory opinion from the independent Postal Regulatory Commission before it can begin closing local post offices and processing centers. But such opinions are nonbinding, and Donahoe is making clear the agency will proceed with reductions once the opinion is released next March.

"The things I have control over here at the Postal Service, we have to do," he said, describing the cuts as a necessary business decision. "If we do nothing, we will have a death spiral."

The Postal Service initially announced in September it was studying the possibility of closing the processing centers and published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comments. Within 30 days, the plan elicited nearly 4,400 public comments, mostly in opposition.

Among them:

-Small-town mayors and legislators in states including Illinois, Missouri, Ohio and Pennsylvania cited the economic harm if postal offices were to close, eliminating jobs and reducing service. Small-business owners in many other states also were worried.

"It's kind of a lifeline," said William C. Snodgrass, who owns a USave Pharmacy in North Platte, Neb., referring to next-day first-class delivery. His store mails hundreds of prescriptions a week to residents in mostly rural areas of the state that lack local pharmacies. If first-class delivery were lengthened to three days and Saturday mail service also were suspended, a resident might not get a shipment mailed on Wednesday until the following week.

"A lot of people in these communities are 65 or 70 years old, and transportation is an issue for them," said Snodgrass, who hasn't decided whether he will have to switch to a private carrier such as UPS for one-day delivery. That would mean passing along higher shipping costs to customers. "It's impossible for many of my customers to drive 100 miles, especially in the winter, to get the medications they need."

-ESPN The Magazine and Crain Communications, which prints some 27 trade and consumer publications, said delays to first-class delivery could ruin the value of their news. Their magazines are typically printed at week's end with mail arrival timed for weekend sports events or the Monday start of the work week. Newspapers, already struggling in the Internet age, also could suffer.

"No one wants to receive Tuesday's issue, containing news of Monday's events, on Wednesday," said Paul Boyle, a senior vice president of the Newspaper Association of America, which represents nearly 2,000 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada. "Especially in rural areas where there might not be broadband access for Internet news, it will hurt the ability of newspapers to reach customers who pretty much rely on the printed newspaper to stay connected to their communities."

-AT&T, which mails approximately 55 million customer billing statements each month, wants assurances that the Postal Service will widely publicize and educate the public about changes to avoid confusion over delivery that might lead to delinquent payments. The company is also concerned that after extensive cuts the Postal Service might realize it cannot meet a relaxed standard of two-to-three day delivery.

Other companies standing to lose include Netflix, which offers monthly pricing plans for unlimited DVDs by mail, sent one disc or two at a time. Longer delivery times would mean fewer opportunities to receive discs each month, effectively a price increase. Netflix in recent months has been vigorously promoting its video streaming service as an alternative.

"DVD by mail may not last forever, but we want it to last as long as possible," Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said this year.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, the top Republican on the Senate committee that oversees the post office, believes the agency is taking the wrong approach. She says service cuts will only push more consumers to online bill payment or private carriers such as UPS or FedEx, leading to lower revenue in the future.

"Time and time again in the face of more red ink, the Postal Service puts forward ideas that could well accelerate its death spiral," she said, urging passage of a bill that would refund nearly $7 billion the Postal Service overpaid into a federal retirement fund, encourage a restructuring of health benefits and reduce the agency's annual payments into a retiree health account.

That measure would postpone a move to five-day-a-week mail delivery for at least two years and require additional layers of review before the agency closed postal branches and mail processing centers.

"The solution to the Postal Service's financial crisis is not easy but must involve tackling more significant expenses that do not drive customers," Collins said.

In the event of a shutdown due to bankruptcy, private companies such as FedEx and UPS could handle a small portion of the material the post office moves, but they do not go everywhere. No business has shown interest in delivering letters everywhere in the country for a set rate of 44 cents or 45 cents for a first-class letter.

Ruth Goldway, chair of the Postal Regulatory Commission, said the planned cuts could test the limits of the Postal Service's legal obligation to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. "It will have substantial cost savings, but it really does have the potential to change what the postal service is and its role in providing fast and efficient delivery of mail," she said.

Accuser's lawyers: Sandusky account 'unconvincing'

Accuser's lawyers: Sandusky account 'unconvincing'

FILE - This Nov. 5, 2011 file photo provided by the Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General shows former Penn State football defensive coordinator Gerald "Jerry" Sandusky, who sexually abused a boy more than 100 times, then threatened his family to keep him quiet about the encounters, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 that details new accusations not included in criminal charges against him.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Attorneys for one of the alleged sex abuse victims of former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky say his New York Times interview contains an "unconvincing denial and a series of bizarre explanations" for Sandusky's behavior.

In a written statement released Saturday, the attorneys for one of Sandusky's eight accusers say the former coach's comments wrongly cast Sandusky as a "victim," which further harms their client and the other alleged victims.

David Marshall, one of the attorneys, says Sandusky's interview also "goes a long way" toward corroborating the accusers' version of events because Sandusky acknowledged showering and wrestling with the boys.

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

Former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky said he never spoke with Joe Paterno about any suspected misconduct with minors, the New York Times reported Saturday.

Sandusky has been charged with 40 counts of molesting eight boys over 15 years and is free on bail while awaiting a preliminary hearing Dec. 13. A grand jury investigating Sandusky said in a report that some of the allegations occurred in the team showers, including a 2002 allegation in which a graduate assistant testified he saw Sandusky assaulting a young boy.

University trustees fired Paterno on Nov. 9, four days after charges were filed against Sandusky, amid mounting pressure that school leaders should have done more to prevent alleged abuse.

During a lengthy interview at his lawyer's home, Sandusky in an interview with the Times painted a picture of chaotic but friendly scenes involving children he described as extended family at his State College, Pa., home. The descriptions sharply contrast the shocking allegations involving children outlined in a grand jury report.

Sandusky told the newspaper he and Paterno never spoke about the alleged 2002 incident or a 1998 child molestation complaint investigated by Penn State campus police.

"I never talked to him about either one," Sandusky said. "That's all I can say. I mean, I don't know." He worked for Paterno for nearly 30 years.

Messages left Saturday by The Associated Press seeking comment from representatives for Paterno were not immediately returned.

Paterno testified before the grand jury looking into the abuse allegations that a graduate assistant told him in 2002 that he witnessed in the team shower in the team locker room, and that he relayed the report to his superior, athletic director Tim Curley.

The graduate assistant later met with Curley and Gary Schultz, a university vice president who oversaw campus police. But authorities said the allegation was not passed on to authorities.

Curley and Schultz are charged with failing to report the 2002 allegation and lying to the grand jury. Curley is on administrative leave, while Schultz has stepped down. Lawyers for both men have said their clients are innocent.

Prosecutors have said Paterno is not a target of the investigation.

Paterno's son, Scott Paterno, told the AP last month the first and only incident reported about Sandusky to Paterno was in 2002. Paterno has said in a statement that specific actions alleged to have occurred in the grand jury report were not relayed to him

Still, the state's top cop criticized the way school leaders handled allegations and said Paterno and other officials had a moral responsibility to do more.

The 84-year-old Paterno initially announced his retirement effective at the end of the season, saying that the scandal was "one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more." The trustees fired him anyway, about 12 hours later.

Sandusky said in the report he never sexually abused any child and that prosecutors have misunderstood his work with children. He described a family and work life that "could often be chaotic, even odd, one that lacked some classic boundaries between adults and children," the Times reported.

He described scenes in which his State College, Pa., home turned into a makeshift recreation center with wrestling matches and sleepovers. Children playing in their home with dogs after football games.

"It was, you know, almost an extended family," Mr. Sandusky said of his household's relationship with children from the charity he founded, The Second Mile. He characterized his experiences with children was close with as "precious times," and said the physical aspect of the relationships "just happened that way."

Allegations involving two victims occurred in Sandusky's home, according to the grand jury report.

"Victim One testified that Sandusky had a practice of coming into the basement room after he told Victim One that it was time to go to bed," the grand jury report said. "Victim One testified that Sandusky would `crack his back,'" which was described in the report as Sandusky getting on to the bed and "rolling under the boy."

Sandusky told the Times, "They've taken everything that I ever did for any young person and twisted it to say that my motives were sexual or whatever ... I had kid after kid after kid who might say I was a father figure. And they just twisted that all."

He is accused of mining the ranks of his Second Mile charity to find underprivileged boys to abuse. Sandusky also said that the charity never restricted his access to children until he became the subject of a criminal investigation in 2008.

He said he regularly gave money to the disadvantaged boys at his charity, opened bank accounts for them and gave them gifts that had been donated to the charity.

"I tried to reward them sometimes with a little money in hand, just so that they could see something," he said. "But more often than not, I tried to set up, maybe get them to save the money, and I put it directly into a savings account established for them."

The paper said he grew most animated when talking about his relationships with children and most disconsolate when he spoke of Paterno and Penn State, and the upheaval caused by his indictment.

"I don't think it was fair," he is quoted as saying.

During the interview, Sandusky said his relationships and activities with Second Mile children did cause some strain with Paterno. He told the paper he worried that having some children with him at hotels before games or on the sideline during games, could have been regarded as a distraction by Paterno.

Obama pushes payroll tax cut extension

Obama pushes payroll tax cut extension

President Barack Obama delivers remarks at the White House Tribal Nations Conference, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, at the Interior Department in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama wants voters to get involved in the debate over extending the reduced payroll tax and he's asking them to tell members of Congress to keep the cut in place.

"Let your members of Congress know where you stand," Obama said Saturday in his weekly radio and Internet address. "Tell them not to vote to raise taxes on working Americans during the holidays. Tell them to put country before party. Put money back in the pockets of working Americans. Pass these tax cuts."

Obama's address directs listeners to the whitehouse.gov website, where an online calculator lets them determine how much money it's worth to them to continue the 2 percent reduction in the payroll tax that took effect this year. A family with income of $50,000 a year would pay $1,000 more in payroll taxes if Congress does not act by the end of this year to extend that reduction.

Democrats want to expand the reduction in addition to extending it. Republican leaders say they're committed to passing an extension, fearing political fallout if payroll taxes rise on Jan. 1 on 160 million wage-earners. The GOP rank-and-file appears divided, with many Republican senators voting against an extension supported by their leadership this week.

There's also disagreement about how or whether to pay for any extension. Democrats favor a new tax on millionaires; Republicans prefer to cut federal spending.

"We're going to keep pushing Congress to make this happen. They shouldn't go home for the holidays until they get this done," Obama said in his address. "And if you agree with me, I could use your help."

Obama also took note of a new monthly jobs report out Friday that showed the economy added 120,000 jobs in November, a positive number. "We need to keep this growth going and strengthen it," the president said.

Republicans devoted their weekly address to promoting a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, which is headed for a vote in the Senate after failing in the House last month.

Democratic leaders worked aggressively to defeat the measure in the House, saying that such a requirement could force Congress to cut billions from social programs during times of economic downturn and that disputes over what to cut could result in Congress ceding its power of the purse to the courts. The result was that the amendment got majority support but fell short of the two-thirds needed to advance a constitutional amendment.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said "the impending vote to amend the Constitution represents a choice between changing business as usual in Washington or embracing the status quo that we can no longer afford."

"The real reason many lawmakers don't want a balanced budget amendment is the exact reason why it's so essential," Snowe said. "They don't want their hands tied; they want to continue to spend without restraint."

Like Obama, she asked listeners to make their views known.

"Contact your senators and urge them to support our balanced budget amendment," Snowe said, "so that we finally seize the fiscal reins and reclaim our future for our children and our grandchildren."

Ultraconservative Islamists make gains in Egypt

Ultraconservative Islamists make gains in Egypt

Protesters chant slogans during a protest in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011. Islamists appear to have taken a strong majority of seats in the first round of Egypt's first parliamentary vote since Hosni Mubarak's ouster, a trend that if confirmed would give religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.

CAIRO (AP) -- Egypt's ultraconservative Islamist party said Friday it plans to push for a stricter religious code in Egypt after claiming surprisingly strong gains in this week's initial round of voting for parliament, the first elections since Hosni Mubarak's ouster.

Egypt's election commission announced only a trickle of results Friday and said 62 percent of eligible voters cast ballots in the highest turnout in Egypt's modern history. Abdel-Mooaez Ibrahim, the head of High Election Commission, jokingly described it as "the highest since the time of pharaohs."

Preliminary counts leaked by judges and individual political groups indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm took the largest share of votes. Following closely behind, was the ultraconservative Islamist Nour Party and a coalition of liberal parties called the Egyptian bloc, according to those unofficial counts.

That trend - if confirmed and if extended over more rounds of voting - would give the religious parties a popular mandate in the struggle to win control from the ruling military that took over from Mubarak and ultimately reshape a key U.S. ally.

The Islamist Nour Party expects to get 30 percent of the vote, party spokesman Yousseri Hamad told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

A strong showing would put them in a position to influence policy, although it's unclear how much power the new parliament will have with the ruling generals still in overall control. For example, the military, which is not keen to see Egypt delivered to radical Islamists, maintains that it - not the largest bloc in parliament - will choose the prime minister and Cabinet once all parliamentary voting rounds are completed. It is also poised to closely oversee the drafting of a new constitution.

The Nour Party's purist pursuit of strict Shariah, or Islamic law, would also face tough opposition from a diverse array of youth activists in the streets, Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, as well as liberal and secular political parties pushing for more social and political freedoms - perhaps forcing it to veer less toward the large role that religion plays in Saudi Arabia.

The Nour Party is the main political arm of the hard-line Salafi movement, which was inspired by the Saudi-style Wahhabi school of thought.

Salafists are newcomers on Egypt's political scene. They long shunned the concept of democracy, saying it allows man's law to override God's. But they formed parties and entered politics after Mubarak's ouster to position themselves to try to make sure Shariah law is an integral part of Egypt's new constitution.

The more moderate and pragmatic Muslim Brotherhood, on the other hand, has been around since 1928 and has for decades been the largest and best organized opposition movement in Egypt, despite being officially outlawed until Mubarak's ouster.

Seeking to broaden its political appeal, the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party has described its election platform as civil but with an Islamic background, setting them up to be more rival than ally to the harder-line Islamists.

Hamad said his party is willing to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood as well as with secular and liberal forces "if it will serve the interest of the nation."

Still, Salafi groups speak confidently about their ambition to turn Egypt into a state where personal freedoms, including freedom of speech, women's dress and art are constrained by Islamic Shariah codes.

"In the land of Islam, I can't let people decide what is permissible or what is prohibited. It's God who gives the answers as to what is right and what is wrong," Hamad said. "If God tells me you can drink whatever you want except for alcohol, you don't leave the million things permitted and ask about the prohibited."

Their surprisingly strong showing worries many liberals and Coptic Christians, who make up about 10 percent of Egypt's population.

"We want democracy and what they want is anything but democratic," said Amir Fouad, a Coptic Christian who trained as an engineer but drives a taxi because he can't find another job. "They want Egypt to be like Saudi Arabia, all Islamic."

Fouad, 40, said he worries the Salafists will force Christian women to wear Islamic veils.

"I feel like it will be very hard for me to live in Egypt if they rule," he said. "They will take Egypt backward."

Even some religious Egyptians see the Salafists as too extreme.

"I am religious and don't want laws that go against my beliefs, but there shouldn't be religious law," said Ahmed Abdel-Rahman, a geography teacher. "I don't want anyone imposing his religious views on me."

The voting for Egypt's lower house of parliament is staggered over three stages. This week's vote, held in nine provinces, will determine about 30 percent of the 498 seats in the People's Assembly. Two more rounds, ending in January, will cover Egypt's other 18 provinces. Three more rounds before March will elect the less powerful upper house.

The ballots are a confusing mix of party lists that will gain seats according to proportions of votes and individual candidates.

Results announced Friday by the election commission showed only three of the individual candidates winning from the first round, while the rest must enter runoffs.

No other official results were announced Friday.

Ibrahim, of the election commission, described difficult conditions during the vote and the count, saying judges who oversaw the process labored in a cramped, dimly lit room where "it was impossible for anyone to do his job."

Calling the news conference to a close, Ibrahim said, "I'm out of gas," and told reporters pressing for more information that they should get the results themselves from material distributed by the election commission.

Hamad said the Nour Party appeared to lead the polls in the Nile Delta province of Kafr el-Sheik, in the rural area of Fayoum, which is known for high rates of illiteracy and poverty, and in parts of their longtime stronghold of Alexandria.

Hamad also said the party faced its toughest challenge in Cairo because of the small presence of Salafi supporters there.

Islamist victory in Egypt - long considered a linchpin of regional stability - would be the clearest signal yet that parties and candidates connected to political Islam will emerge as the main beneficiaries of this year's Arab Spring uprisings.

Tunisia and Morocco have both elected Islamist majorities to parliament, and while Libya has yet to announce dates for its first elections, Islamist groups have emerged as a strong force there since rebels overthrew Moammar Gadhafi in August. They also play a strong opposition role in Yemen.

Egypt's new parliament, in theory, is tasked with selecting a 100-member panel to draft Egypt's new constitution. The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which took control of the country after Mubarak's fall in February, has suggested that it will choose 80 of those members.

Meanwhile, new interim Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri, who was recently appointed by the military, formed a temporary Cabinet of 32 ministers, including 10 from the previous government. El-Ganzouri also served as a prime minister under Mubarak in the mid-1990s.

Protesters had demanded a new premier in response to a security crackdown on demonstrations before the elections that killed more than 40 people.

Also Friday, more than 5,000 protesters demonstrated in Cairo's Tahrir Square to call for a speedier transition to civilian rule and trials for security officers accused of killing protesters.

Large crowds marched into the square carrying dozens of coffins wrapped in Egyptian flags to represent those killed in clashes with the police near the square in the week before the elections.

"People haven't given up on the square just because there were elections," said Ibrahim Hussein, who voted this week for the Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. "They all have the same demands and they haven't been met yet."

A glimmer of good news for Obama in jobs report

A glimmer of good news for Obama in jobs report

President Barack Obama gestures while speaking in a building under construction in Washington, Friday, Dec. 2, 2011, part of his Better Building Initiative to promote energy efficient buildings.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Finally, a flicker of economic hope for President Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats, even if it's a faint one.

November's sharp drop in the unemployment rate shows that jobs are finally moving in the right direction and suggests the economy is on firmer footing as the country heads into a presidential election year.

The Labor Department reported the jobless rate fell to 8.6 percent in November from 9 percent the month before, a 2 1/2 year low.

That's still high unemployment by historical standards. And lots of problems still lurk - from Europe's debt crisis to congressional gridlock to the tens of millions of Americans still out of work or otherwise feeling economic distress. Furthermore, part of the improvement came because 300,000 people stopped their job searches and were no longer counted as unemployed.

But Friday's report, combined with other recent economic data showing advances in manufacturing and consumer spending, could give Obama momentum for the re-election campaign.

The White House and congressional Democrats were quiet in showing any enthusiasm they might have felt, instead using the new figures to step up criticism of anti-tax Republicans for blocking measures they said could help create even more jobs. Those include an extension of an expiring Social Security payroll tax cut that largely benefits the middle class.

"The unemployment rate went down," Obama said. "And despite some strong headwinds this year, the American economy has now created in the private sector jobs for the past 21 months in a row. That's nearly 3 million new jobs in all, and more than half a million over the last four months."

Said House Democratic Caucus Chairman John Larson of Connecticut: "Today's unemployment numbers, while encouraging, simply underscore the urgency for Congress to address the top issue facing American families- jobs."

Republicans were publicly unimpressed with the jobs report, insisting Obama hadn't done enough and emphasizing that the jobless rate was still higher than when he took office in January 2009, when it stood at 7.7 percent.

"Any job creation is welcome news, but the jobless rate in this country is still unacceptable. Today marks the 34th consecutive month of unemployment above 8 percent," said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

That view was echoed on the campaign trail.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, in a Fox News interview, acknowledged that the report was good news but said it wouldn't help Obama politically. "This is the slowest recovery we've seen since (President Herbert) Hoover," Romney said. "He's going to have a hard time putting perfume on this pig." Hoover held office from 1929 to early 1933, at the outset of the Great Depression.

Despite stimulus measures by the Obama administration, Congress and the Federal Reserve, unemployment has remained high, peaking at 10.1 percent in October 2009 and staying around 9 percent for most of 2011.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, another Republican seeking Obama's job, noted that a major part of the sharp drop in the unemployment rate was "not because entrepreneurs were creating new jobs" but because some 300,000 Americans "have simply given up looking for work."

"The Obama model of class warfare, government takeovers in the economy and creating fear and uncertainty for job-creators have failed," Gingrich asserted.

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., made a similar point about discouraged jobless workers and said, "My heart breaks as we approach the holidays for American families who have been abandoned by this president so that he can implement his radical agenda."

The president didn't try to take credit for the lower figures.

Asked about Obama's measured response, White House press secretary Jay Carney said: "We don't make much out of one month's numbers. We look for trends, and we know we have an enormous amount of work to do. 8.6 percent unemployment is way too high."

Still, "there's a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel" for gloomy Democrats, said Ross Baker, a political scientist at Rutgers University. "It's good news, but it's the kind of thing you have to rejoice about quietly. You don't want to hear the champagne corks popping. There's still so many people unemployed."

But Baker said that if Obama can demonstrate a "reasonable decline over time" in the jobless rate, people might give him the benefit of the doubt. "It doesn't have to get to historical lows to convince people that you're on the right track."

No president since Franklin D. Roosevelt has been re-elected with a jobless rate higher than 8 percent. Roosevelt won re-election in 1936 with a rate of 16.6 percent, and again in 1940 with a rate of 14.6 percent - but joblessness was on the way down from a peak of around 25 percent.

The jobless rate peaked at 10.6 percent during the brutal 16-month 1981-82 recession while Ronald Reagan was president. But on Election Day 1984 it had fallen to 7.2 percent.

Obama used a joint appearance with former President Bill Clinton on Friday to renew his call to a fractured Congress to extend and expand the cut in the payroll tax cut that finances Social Security and Medicare. The tax cut, due to expire at the end of the year, affects more than 160 million Americans.

Republicans favor extending the tax cut, but have blocked Democratic attempts to do so by paying for it with a new tax on households with more than $1 million in annual taxable income.

With polls showing most Americans favor higher taxes on the wealthy to help bring down soaring budget deficits, Obama and congressional Democrats are portraying Republicans as defenders of the wealthy at the expense of the middle class - a political theme they're sure to carry into the election year.

The jobs report comes during a week that saw solid stock market gains, including a near-500-point Dow Jones industrials rise on Wednesday, all potential good news for Obama.

"Let's say the stock market goes up another 500 or 600 points, and unemployment goes down below 8 percent by Election Day. That could allow for a big Obama surge," said Thomas Cronin, a presidential historian at Colorado College in Colorado Springs, Colo.

But that "if" is a big one.

The prospects of significantly bringing down the jobless rate to pre-recession levels anytime soon "remain slim," suggests University of Maryland business economist Peter Morici. "The economy must add 13.1 million jobs over the next three years-364,000 each month-to bring unemployment down to 6 percent."

Romney faces 2 big rivals: Gingrich and Obama

Romney faces 2 big rivals: Gingrich and Obama

FILE - In this June 13, 2011 file photo, Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney participate in a presidential debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, N.H. Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war. The Republican presidential contender has skated along for much of the year as GOP challengers surged and faded, but now he faces an unexpected, more serious threat from Newt Gingrich _ just as Barack Obama's team is sharpening its criticism of Romney, the president's likeliest foe next fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Suddenly Mitt Romney is fighting a two-front political war.

The Republican presidential contender has skated along for much of the year as GOP challengers surged and faded. But now he faces an unexpected, more serious threat from Newt Gingrich - just as Barack Obama's team is sharpening its criticism of Romney, whom the president's aides view as his likeliest foe next fall.

With only a month before the Iowa caucuses kick off the nominating fight, Gingrich's rise has forced Romney's campaign to evaluate a new reality: He no longer has the luxury of staying above the Republican primary fray, avoiding tough questions about his own record and hammering Obama at will while essentially ignoring his GOP rivals.

Well aware of the new challenge, Romney has started fighting back against two opponents from opposite ends of the political spectrum - no easy feat - while also defending himself from continuing criticism of reversals, equivocations and shifts on a range of issues.

What does he have to say now about Gingrich?

"He's a lifelong politician," Romney declared this week, signaling his intention to go after the former House speaker and long-time Washington insider in hopes of knocking him off course. Romney also is set to air his first television commercials on Friday in Iowa, where polls show Gingrich and Romney locked in a tight race. It's another indication of how seriously Romney is taking the Georgian's rise.

Gingrich sought Thursday to stay above board, telling The Associated Press while campaigning in Iowa, "I'm not going to focus on Romney or anybody else." He made the comment just days after saying in South Carolina that he was "a lot more conservative than Mitt Romney" and added: "It's wrong to go around and adopt radically different positions based on your need of any one election."

Romney also has started subtly contrasting his character with Gingrich's once rocky private life. He said on Fox News that he's a person "who has devoted his life to his family, to his faith, to his country."

At the same time, Romney intends to keep the heat on Obama, convinced that his best chance at clinching the GOP nomination is to persuade Republican primary voters that he's the strongest candidate to take on the Democratic incumbent on their biggest issue, the economy, next fall.

Romney's response was swift when the Democratic National Committee rolled out TV ads this week attacking Romney for flip-flopping on a series of issues, including abortion and health care.

The Republican's team quickly organized conference calls with top supporters in about a dozen states - a demonstration of organizing power meant to serve as a warning to both Gingrich and Obama.

"They don't want to see me as the nominee, that's for sure," Romney chided in response to the ads. "It shows that they're awfully afraid of facing me in the general election. They want to throw the primary process to anybody but me, but bring it on. We're ready for them."

Obama's aides privately say they see Romney as the Republican most likely to win the party's nomination and they have been flummoxed that no GOP rival has gone after him aggressively. By stepping up the heat, the president's aides hope to bloody Romney so he emerges from the GOP fight as a damaged nominee. Or, in what many Democrats view as a less-likely scenario, the Republicans would pick a candidate who would be weaker in the general election.

Gingrich has advantages of his own, in the primary fight or a general election. He's universally known within the GOP with broad grassroots support, and he has a deep grasp of policy issues.

"Conservatives now have a credible, nationally known alternative in Gingrich," said longtime GOP consultant Rick Wilson, who works in Florida. "That's more of a problem for Romney than some other candidates have posed."

But Gingrich lacks any significant campaign organization after his staff resigned en masse in June. His fundraising dried up, and his campaign is still paying off debts from earlier this year. He also carries personal baggage - including two divorces and acknowledged infidelity - that could turn off conservative Republicans in Iowa, where voters will first choose among Romney, Gingrich and their rivals. And he has some political problems, having backed proposals now considered conservative apostasy such as an individual mandate for Americans to buy health insurance.

All that opens the way for Romney to employ a strategy he used as other, more conservative alternatives to him have risen and fallen over the past six months. As in those cases, Romney's campaign expects the media to shine a light on Gingrich's long record. The campaign also has spent much of the year compiling research to criticize rivals who rise to challenge him - and never stopped plotting for Gingrich despite the former speaker's summer problems.

Romney allies say his campaign started picking up early on Gingrich's surge by noting he was frequently the second choice among Republicans who preferred a different conservative candidate to the former Massachusetts governor.

Either by coincidence or by design, other candidates also have started helping Romney.

Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a libertarian-leaning candidate with a big bank account, rolled out a blistering online video this week - that may eventually end up on TV - accusing Gingrich of "serial hypocrisy." The spot showed Gingrich alongside former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democratic boogeyman to Republicans.

But time is not on Romney's side as it was when other rivals - Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann and businessman Herman Cain among them - enjoyed bursts of momentum only to fall after missteps.

Until now, Romney's biggest challenge this year had come from Texas Gov. Rick Perry. He entered the race in August, months after signaling he probably would run. That gave Romney's campaign plenty of time to prepare. When Perry immediately rose to the top of polls, Romney castigated him as a career politician, much as he's doing with Gingrich now. If that didn't work, Romney still had four months before the Iowa caucuses to try to take Perry down. It helped that Perry was unknown to much of the primary electorate, so Romney could help define him in voters' minds.

Perry ended up fading without Romney having to seriously engage for much more than week.

But only four weeks remain before the Jan. 3 Iowa caucuses, and Gingrich, who has risen steadily in polls nationally and in early voting states, already is known nationally. That will make it much more difficult for Romney to define him.

Still, Romney is counting on his superior campaign organization, which is designed to keep him in the race for the long haul by winning significant numbers of key convention delegates even if he loses in a particular state.

As Romney faces more scrutiny in the coming weeks, one of his main challenges will be to keep his well-known defensiveness in check.

For the better part of a year, his campaign has executed a steady strategy vastly different from his reactive, aggressive and unsuccessful 2008 presidential bid. So far, Romney has been able to watch his rivals cut each other down on the debate stage and elsewhere, while he has barely been forced to defend himself. He kept his cool as one conservative rival after another rose to potentially challenge his long-held position as the GOP field's most plausible nominee.

But there are signs that Romney's temper may be rising along with the pressure of waging two political fights.

In a Fox News interview this week, anchor Bret Baier pressed Romney on being on both sides of issues, including climate change, immigration, abortion and gay rights. And Romney appeared irritated, telling Baier: "Your list is just not accurate. So, one, we're going to have to be better informed about my views on issues."

The coming weeks will tell whether Romney can withstand the scrutiny - and wage two fights at once.

Congress bickers toward year-end compromise

Congress bickers toward year-end compromise

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev., center, accompanied by Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Senate Majority Whip Richard Durbin of Ill., and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters about extending the payroll tax cut, Thursday, Dec. 1, 2011, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans and Democrats bickered and blustered Thursday toward eventual compromise legislation extending expiring Social Security payroll tax cuts and long-term jobless benefits through 2012, each seeking political advantage for elections almost a year distant.

The White House weighed in with a written statement opposing the GOP approach, which presidential press secretary Jay Carney said includes "window dressing" hung by Republicans seeking to cut costs by freezing federal workers' pay through 2015 and reducing the government bureaucracy.

By contrast, President Barack Obama and most Democrats in Congress want to extend and expand the payroll tax cut and pay for it by slapping a 3.25 percent surtax on incomes of $1 million or more.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Republican opponents "insist on helping the very wealthy while turning their back on the middle class," while another member of the leadership, Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois, said they "put up a transparent fig leaf" that would kill jobs rather than create them.

In remarks on the Senate floor, the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said the issue reflected poorly on both Obama and his allies in Congress.

"There's no reason folks should suffer even more than they already are from the president's failure to turn this jobs crisis around," he said. "But there's also no reason we should pay for that relief by raising taxes on the very employers we're counting on to help jolt this economy back to life."

That left both parties seeking the political high ground - Democrats accusing Republicans of siding with the rich, and Republicans countering that Democrats were taxing small business owners who create jobs - in advance of a pair of Senate test votes expected late Thursday or Friday morning.

Neither of two rival measures was expected to gain the 60 votes necessary for passage, a double-barreled rejection likely to clear the way for talks on a compromise.

Across the Capitol, House Republicans readied legislation of their own that aides said likely would include the tax cut extension as well as renewed benefits for long-term victims of the worst recession in decades and a painfully slow recovery.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, made clear that all costs must be paid for, and said higher taxes were a non-starter.

"Republicans are ready to work with the president and the Democrats to extend the payroll tax cut and unemployment insurance temporarily, but they must be offset with spending cuts elsewhere," he said.

There were other issues under negotiation as lawmakers looked toward the end of a highly partisan year, the first in a new era of divided government.

Boehner said lawmakers were discussing a bill to avoid a scheduled 27 percent cut on Jan. 1 in reimbursement rates for doctors treating Medicare patients.

The two parties also looked for agreement on a measure to fund the government through the Sept. 30 end of the budget year.

Boehner added that he likely would try to include some of the 20 House-passed bills that are part of a GOP jobs package in one of the year-end wrap-up bills. Most of the measures would block federal regulations on various industries, and are stalled in the Senate.

With unemployment hovering around 9 percent nationally, Obama urged Congress in September to renew and expand the Social Security payroll tax cut for workers that he signed a year ago, and called as well for an extension of benefits that can cover up to 99 weeks for the long-term jobless.

State unemployment insurance programs guarantees coverage for six months, but as in previous downturns, Congress approved additional benefits in 2008. Expiration of those payments would mean an average loss of $296 in weekly income for 1.8 million households in January, and a total of 6 million throughout 2012.

On the tax cut extension, Republicans prefer a simple one-year continuation of the existing law, jettisoning Obama's call to deepen the cut while expanding it to cover an employer's portion of payroll taxes.

To pay for the measure, Senate Republicans proposed freezing federal workers' pay through 2015 - extending a two-year-freeze recommended by Obama - and reducing the bureaucracy by 200,000 jobs through attrition.

The bill also would raise Medicare premiums for the wealthy, and take steps to deny unemployment benefits and food stamps to anyone with a seven-figure income.

Republicans circulated statistics from the Internal Revenue Service reporting that tax filers with $1 million or more in income received a total of $20.8 million in unemployment benefits in 2009, the latest year for which figures are available. Their bill would impose a 100 percent tax on those payments - an irony for a party that historically has opposed any tax increases.