Nation & World briefly

AP News in Brief at 5:58 p.m. EDT

House Democrats push ahead with compromise health overhaul over liberals' complaints

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Democrats pushed ahead with a compromise health overhaul Thursday over liberals' complaints, intent on achieving tangible - if modest - success on President Barack Obama's top domestic priority ahead of a monthlong summer recess.

"We've got to pass the bill. Not only do we have to, but we're going to," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, the last of three House committees to act on the sweeping legislation.

In the Senate, months of bipartisan negotiations were at a crossroads, Republicans balking at an agreement before lawmakers leave the Capitol for a month, Democrats considering whether to allow more time or possibly produce legislation crafted to their own specifications.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a statement the talks have made very good progress and may result in a deal. "But that'll never happen if Democrat leaders tell Republicans to take a hike by forcing the committee to move on an all-Democrat bill," he said.

Six Senate negotiators - three Republicans, including Grassley, and three Democrats - met late in the day.

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Obama says beer with police officer, professor is no summit, just 'opportunity to listen'

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama portrayed his much-anticipated chat Thursday evening with a black professor and the white police officer who arrested him as nothing more than "an opportunity to listen to each other."

"I noticed this has been called the 'Beer Summit.' It's a clever term, but this is not a summit, guys," Obama told reporters ahead of the gathering.

"This is three folks having a drink at the end of the day, and hopefully giving people an opportunity to listen to each other," the president said. "And that's really all it is. This is not a university seminar."

Obama was going to a have a beer - that all-American bonding gesture - with the two men he joined last week at the center of an uproar over race in America: Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Cambridge, Mass., police Sgt. James Crowley.

Just don't expect to hear much Thursday evening: The moment billed as teachable won't be that reachable for the masses.

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Police beat protesters in Iran as memorial held for victims of election violence

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian police fired tear gas and beat protesters to disperse thousands chanting "Neda lives!" Thursday at a memorial for victims of post-election violence held at the gravesite of the woman whose death made her an icon of the pro-reform movement, witnesses said.

The new wave of unrest showed the opposition's continuing ability to harness anger over the crackdown, and more protests could erupt around the inauguration next week of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose government has been virtually paralyzed by the crisis.

Thursday's memorial gathering marked the end of the traditional 40-day mourning period for Neda Agha Soltan, a 27-year-old music student who was shot to death June 20. Her dying moments were filmed and circulated widely on the Internet, making her name a rallying cry for the opposition.

"Neda is alive! Ahmadinejad is dead!" chanted protesters, many holding up single red roses tied with green ribbons, the signature color of the opposition.

Plainclothes forces dispersed the crowd with tear gas and batons - and with chants of "Death to those who are against the supreme leader," according to witnesses and state television.

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US adviser to Iraqi military says it's time for US troops to 'declare victory and go home'

WASHINGTON (AP) - A U.S. Army adviser to the Iraqi military command in Baghdad argues in an internal memo that the U.S. should "declare victory and go home" next year, 16 months ahead of schedule.

Col. Timothy R. Reese wrote that the years-long American effort to train, equip and advise Iraqi security forces has reached a point of rapidly diminishing returns, and that Iraqi forces already are good enough to defend the government against the weakened terrorist and insurgent forces that remain.

"The massive partnering efforts of U.S. combat forces with ISF (Iraqi security forces) isn't yielding benefits commensurate with the effort and is now generating its own opposition," Reese wrote in a memo early this month to a number of U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

Reese argued for ending the U.S. military mission in Iraq in August 2010. That is the date when President Barack Obama has said all combat troops will have withdrawn but a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 troops will remain to continue training and advising the Iraqi security forces until a final pullout by December 2011.

There are now 130,000 U.S. forces in Iraq.

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Police say leader of violent Islamist sect blamed for scores of deaths in Nigeria shot, killed

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) - The leader of the Islamist sect blamed for days of violence in northern Nigeria has been shot and killed while in police custody, officials said Thursday.

The police commander of Borno state announced on state radio that Mohammed Yusuf, the leader of the sect some call the Nigerian Taliban, has "died in police custody."

He gave no further explanation, but the state governor's spokesman Usman Ciroma told The Associated Press: "I saw his body at police headquarters. I believe he was shot while he was trying to escape."

Yusuf's death could provoke more violence, though his followers in the Boko Haram sect may be in disarray.

Troops shelled his compound in the northern city of Maiduguri on Wednesday, but Yusuf, 39, managed to escape with about 300 followers, some of them armed. His deputy, Bukar Shekau, was killed in the attack, according to Army commander Maj. Gen. Saleh Maina.

Troops killed about 100 militants by an AP reporter's count, half of them inside the sect's mosque. Soldiers then launched a manhunt, and Yusuf was reportedly found in a goat's pen at the home of his in-laws.

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DA say woman found with baby cut from womb had convinced family, friends she was pregnant

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - Prosecutors in Massachusetts say the woman found with an infant who had been cut out of her friend's womb had convinced her family and friends that she was pregnant.

Worcester District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. says Julie Corey's boyfriend told authorities that Corey was nine months' pregnant.

The body of Corey's friend, Darlene Haynes, was found Monday in her Worcester apartment by her landlord. Haynes was eight months' pregnant.

Corey had the 4-pound baby girl with her when she was arrested at a shelter in Plymouth, N.H., Wednesday. She is charged with kidnapping, but has not been charged in Haynes' murder. She is being held on $2 million bail in New Hampshire.

Early said authorities are still investigating whether anyone else was involved.

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In letter, SC gov explained desire to stave off divorce, predicted 'public humiliation'

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) - Less than a month before he traveled to Argentina to see his mistress, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford predicted in a letter to his spiritual adviser that "public humiliation" would follow revelations of his shattered marriage.

In a letter to Warren "Cubby" Culbertson, who at the time was running a series of religious counseling sessions for couples at the governor's mansion, the two-term Republican explained he was trying to head off a potential divorce from his wife, Jenny.

The message was obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request. Sanford's affair became public in June, when he confessed it after disappearing on a secret trip to Argentina. He had told his staff he was hiking the Appalachian Trail.

"I simply beg for the chance to figure it ought (sic) privately, please beg her for just the first month after the kids get out of school and if I cant get this done then there will be plenty of time for public humiliation and showing the world I am the guy in the wrong," Sanford wrote.

The governor worked on the letter on his state computer May 20, several weeks before Jenny Sanford moved with their four sons to the family's coastal home.

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Researchers measure oxidation in various lavas to learn about changes in Earth's mantle

WASHINGTON (AP) - Material from volcanoes where the Earth's plates squeeze together is more oxidized than in regions where the seafloor splits apart, a finding that helps shed light on some of the basic processes in the planet's mantle.

Using highly sensitive X-ray techniques researchers were able to measure the amount of reaction with oxygen that had occurred in minerals in various situations.

Oxidation, best known as rust when it affects metals, was low in materials erupting from mid-ocean ridges where the seafloor spreads apart, Katherine A. Kelley of the University of Rhode Island and Elizabeth Cottrell of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History report in Friday's edition of the journal Science.

But higher rates were found in lava produced by arc volcanoes, which occur in areas where the Earth's tectonic plates collide, with one sliding below another, they found.

"The seafloor is kind of like a rust conveyor belt," Cottrell said in a telephone interview. As material moves over millions of years from the mid-ocean ridges to the subduction zones it becomes increasingly oxidized.

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Police: NY tow truck driver was texting and talking on 2 cell phones before hitting car, pool

LOCKPORT, N.Y. (AP) - Police say a Buffalo-area tow truck driver was juggling two cell phones - texting on one and talking on another - when he slammed into a car and crashed into a swimming pool.

Niagara County sheriff's deputies say 25-year-old Nicholas Sparks of Burt admitted he was texting and talking when his flatbed truck hit the car Wednesday morning in Lockport.

The truck then crashed through a fence and sideswiped a house before rolling front-end first into an in-ground pool.

The 68-year-old woman driving the car suffered head injuries and was in good condition. Her 8-year-old niece suffered minor injuries.

Sparks was charged with reckless driving, talking on a cell phone and following too closely. It couldn't be determined Thursday morning if he has a lawyer.

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Red Sox star David Ortiz acknowledges he tested positive for drugs in 2003

NEW YORK (AP) - Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz says he was told by the baseball players' union that he tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

Ortiz says he's surprised by the news and intends to find out what drug was found in the tests that were supposed to remain anonymous.

The New York Times reported Thursday on its Web site that Ortiz and former teammate Manny Ramirez were among the more than 100 major league players who tested positive in 2003. The newspaper cited lawyers involved in pending litigation over the testing results who spoke anonymously because the information is under seal by a court order.

The Times did not say which drugs were involved.

Asked about the report, Ramirez told reporters to call the players' union.