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NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Thirteen people have been killed in overnight attacks by gunmen in two counties on the Kenyan coast, where last month al-Qaida-linked militants claimed responsibility for killing 65 people, the Kenya Red Cross said Sunday.

The Sunday attacks took place in the towns of Hindi in Lamu county and Gamba in Tana River, the Kenya Red Cross chief Abbas Gulet said. Al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants from Somalia claimed responsibility for the attacks.

According to the Lamu county commissioner Njenga Miiri, a group of about 15 gunmen raided the Malamandi village of Hindi and started shooting at residents.

Kenya has suffered a spate of gun and explosive attacks since deploying its troops in Oct. 2011 to fight al-Shabab militants.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for an attack last month on the town of Mpeketoni on the Kenyan coast and another attack the following day on a nearby village.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Paul Mazursky has died at the age of 84. As seen in his films Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice and An Unmarried Woman, Mazursky had a way of mixing comedy and drama that captured the 1960s and '70s.

EAU CLAIRE, Mich. (AP) — When it comes to pit spitting in southwestern Michigan, it's tough to beat the Krause family.

Brian Krause has won the 41st International Cherry Pit Spitting Championship on Saturday with a distance of 80 feet, 8 inches.

His father, Rick, placed second with 77 feet, 7 inches.

Brian's win made it 26 of 41 for the Krause family since Tree-Mendus Fruit Farm owner Herb Teichman launched the tournament in 1974 as a lark — but also to mark the region's tart cherry harvest.

Last year's big winner was Matt "BB Gun" Krause with a distance of 41 feet, 6 inches.

Brian Krause holds the record spit of 93 feet, 6 inches set in 2003 at the farm in Eau Claire, just north of the Indiana border.

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Online:

http://www.treemendus-fruit.com

The extremist Sunni group released a video they say shows their leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in his first public appearance, giving the Friday sermon at a mosque in Iraq's northern city of Mosul.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Police say Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon was arrested and charged with driving while intoxicated after speeding down a street in Raleigh.

Police spokesman Jim Sughrue said Gordon was taken into custody after being pulled over for going 50 mph in a 35 mph zone on U.S. 70 in northwest Raleigh around 3 a.m. Saturday.

Gordon was released on bail. Court records did not list an attorney.

The 23-year-old Pro Bowl wide receiver has been in trouble before off the field. He missed two games last season for violating the NFL's substance-abuse policy and reportedly failed another drug test during the offseason, which could lead to a season-long ban.

Browns General Manager Ray Farmer said the team is aware of the arrest and is disappointed. He didn't comment further.

BEIJING (AP) — Rescuers on Sunday worked to free 17 miners trapped following a gas explosion at a coal mine in western China, the country's official news agency reported.

The blast at the mine 120 kilometers (70 miles) from Urumqi, the capital of the sprawling Xinjiang region, happened on Saturday evening, according to the Xinhua News Agency. It said three other people working inside the mine at the time had been rescued.

China has the world's deadliest mines, although the safety record has been improving in recent years as regulators have strengthened enforcement of safety rules.

Xinhua said the pit is mined by Dahuangshan Yuxin Coal Mining Co. Ltd., owned by the sixth agricultural division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. It is a paramilitary organization that was revived by the central government in the 1980s to aid the region's construction and development.

Calls to the organization rang unanswered on Sunday. A duty officer at Xinjiang work safety bureau said he had no information about the incident.

MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A swimmer was bitten Saturday by a juvenile great white shark that grew agitated trying to free itself from a hook a fisherman had thrown into the water off Southern California's Manhattan Beach Pier, officials said.

The man, who was with a group of long-distance swimmers when he swam into the fishing line, was bitten on a side of his rib cage around 9:30 a.m., said Rick Flores, a Los Angeles County Fire Department spokesman. The man's injuries were not life-threatening and he was taken to a hospital conscious and breathing on his own, Flores said.

Witnesses said the approximately 7-foot shark was thrashing around in the water for more than 30 minutes before biting the swimmer about 300 yards off the beach.

Eric Martin told KABC-TV that the shark's mouth opened and closed as if it was trying to shake the hook.

"We think the swimmer just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time," Martin said.

The fisherman cut the line, and a surfer put the injured swimmer on his board, taking him ashore with the help of Los Angeles County lifeguards. Paramedics began treating the man.

The victim's identity was not released. Flores described him as a middle-aged man.

The shark remained in the area for the next 20 minutes and then disappeared into the murky water, Flores said. The beaches remained open, but a mile-long stretch was temporarily off-limits to swimmers. Police also prohibited fishing from the pier until Tuesday as a precaution.

Shark sightings are on the rise at some Southern California beaches, especially in the waters off Manhattan Beach, which is a popular spot for surfers and paddle boarders. The beach also attracted large crowds on the holiday weekend.

"There's a sighting almost on a daily basis out here," Flores said.

Marine biologists say many of the sharks are juveniles learning to feed and fend for themselves.

Capt. Tracy Lizotte, a Los Angeles County lifeguard at the beach, told the Los Angeles Times that sharks usually avoid people and said the animal accidentally bit the swimmer because it had gotten agitated.

Shark attacks are rare. Since 1950, there have been 101 great white shark attacks on humans off California — 13 of them resulted in deaths, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

It's illegal to fish for great white sharks. It wasn't immediately clear whether the department was investigating the accident. A call to a department spokeswoman wasn't immediately returned.

HARROGATE, England (AP) — Marcel Kittel of Germany won the first stage of the Tour de France in a crash-marred bunch sprint in front of royalty in the English countryside on Saturday.

After sprint rival Mark Cavendish fell in a late crash, Kittel won the 190.5-kilometer (118-mile) run along rocky, grassy hills from Leeds to Harrogate. The German raised his arms skyward and cried after he edged Peter Sagan of Slovakia in second, and Ramunas Navardauskas of Lithuania in third.

With fewer than 400 meters to go, and the speedsters rushing ahead, Cavendish veered slightly to his left and bumped Australia's Simon Gerrans. The two came crashing down alone, with Cavendish landing hard on his right shoulder.

After lying briefly on the ground, Cavendish got up gingerly and cruised over the finish line — cradling his right arm.

Many British fans were hoping for a win by Cavendish, a native of the Isle of Man, whose mother is from Harrogate. Prime Minister David Cameron, Princes William and Harry, and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, were among throngs of British fans who lined the route, a testament to the cycling craze in the U.K.

England hosts the first three stages of this 101st Tour before riders enter France on Tuesday. In all, the 198 riders are to cover 3,664 kilometers (2,277 miles) of road before the July 27 finish in Paris.

KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina's popular beach towns began returning to the business of recreation Saturday, after Arthur lashed the state's coast with forceful winds and heavy rain and then churned northward without leaving a trail of significant damage.

Arthur was downgraded to a tropical storm early Saturday, but the storm's near-hurricane strength winds slammed into Canada's maritime provinces, causing 113,000 customers of Nova Scotia Power to lose electricity. The utility in New Brunswick reported 86,000 outages. The storm has caused flight cancellations and delays at the region's largest airport in Halifax.

New England was largely spared from damage spawned by the storm, but some 19,000 people in Maine and 1,600 in Vermont were without power after high winds and heavy rains pounded the region. There were reports of localized flooding in coastal areas of Massachusetts and the Nova Star Ferry suspended service Friday and Saturday morning because of dangerous seas. No injuries or deaths have been reported.

The hurricane's effects in North Carolina were mostly confined to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, and some vacationers were already back on beaches to the north and south on Friday. But the ocean churned by Arthur remained dangerous Saturday with the risk of rip currents able to wash the strongest swimmer to sea. That didn't stop thousands of people from enjoying the sun and sand and leaving lifeguards to remind beach-goers of the danger.

"We're going to try to keep people out of the water and keep them safe," said David Elder, lifeguard supervisor for the town of Kill Devil Hills. "However, if conditions abate, I'd be glad to drop" the no-swimming warning. More than 600 of the 700 lifeguard rescues by Elder's department last year were required because of rip currents, he said.

The only road onto Hatteras Island was reopened to all traffic on Saturday afternoon, hours after permanent residents were first allowed to return. The island had been closed to visitors since early Thursday. With many weeklong cottage rentals running Saturday to Saturday, local businesses were hoping to salvage the second half of the holiday weekend.

A small section of fragile North Carolina Highway 12 buckled after being submerged by churning waters during the Category 2 hurricane. Officials also tested the two-mile-long Bonner Bridge onto the island to ensure it was safe for traffic. The road also suffered extensive flooding in some areas and officials warned drivers to watch for pockets of sand on the highway.

Farther south, Ocracoke Island's electricity distribution system was badly damaged by Arthur, leading officials to order residents to quit using air conditioners and water heaters so that generator-supplied power could provide refrigeration and other necessities during a cycle of planned outages. A nightly curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. was declared until power was fully restored. Vacationers were being coaxed to leave with the offer of free ferry rides out.

Parts of Rodanthe and Salvo were flooded on Friday across nearly the entire width of Hatteras Island from the ocean to the sound. Trailers toppled in campgrounds where they were left, pictures from a Coast Guard helicopter that flew over the island showed.

Josh Fiscus was still cleaning up the mess at his Salvo home Saturday.

"We had about two feet of water here in my garage," he said.

Jackson Whitley, 14, was back to another day of picking up wind-blown debris and fallen tree limbs from around his family's Buxton home much as he did Friday. Apart from the lack of normal summertime crowds, he said streets were pretty much back to normal.

Linda Savage, 65, said she and a neighbor collected a small refrigerator and a trash can with lid intact left behind by flood waters about three feet deep. The flooding rose almost to the front door of her Salvo home without seeping inside, but Arthur's winds of almost 100 mph caused other damage.

"I lost a tremendous amount of shingles from my roof," Savage said.

She planned to shop for groceries Saturday, and hoped the cable television and Internet would be restored soon.

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Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio.

More than half of 16-year-olds in the United States have tried alcohol. While many of them learn to drink responsibly, some go on to binge on alcohol, putting themselves at risk for trouble as adults. Researchers still aren't sure why that is.

But it may be possible to predict with about 70 percent accuracy which teens will become binge drinkers, based on their genetics, brain function, personality traits and history, according to a study published Wednesday in Nature.

And as prediction tools get better, the researchers say, we'll be better able to warn and help those who are most at risk.

"It's sort of a deep mystery — why do some people become addicted and others don't," says Hugh Garavan, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Vermont and the study's senior author.

To try to answer that question, the researchers took brain scans of about 700 14-year-olds from all over Europe. They also analyzed these high-schoolers' personality traits, life experiences and genetics, as well as their drinking habits. Two years later, the researchers followed up.

Shots - Health News

Legal Drinking Age Of 21 Saves Lives, Even Though It's Flouted

WASHINGTON (AP) — First ladies typically avoid getting into public scraps, but Michelle Obama has jumped into perhaps her biggest battle yet.

She's fighting a House Republican effort to soften a central part of her prized anti-childhood obesity campaign and says she's ready "to fight until the bitter end."

Mrs. Obama even mocked the GOP effort in an opinion column and argued her case on Twitter.

"Remember a few years ago when Congress declared that the sauce on a slice of pizza should count as a vegetable in school lunches?" she wrote in The New York Times. "You don't have to be a nutritionist to know that this doesn't make much sense. Yet we're seeing the same thing happening again with these new efforts to lower nutrition standards in our schools."

Mrs. Obama lobbied largely behind the scenes four years ago for the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, which requires more fruit, vegetables and whole grains in school meals, along with less sodium, sugar and fat. It was a major achievement, the first update to school lunch rules in decades designed to make school meals more nutritious.

The School Nutrition Association, an industry-backed group that represents school cafeteria workers and originally supported the standards, has now turned against them. The association says it fully supports getting kids to eat healthier but says many districts are losing money because students aren't buying the healthier lunches.

More than 1 million fewer students eat lunch at school each day since the first round of standards went into effect in 2012, following decades of steadily increasing participation, said Diane Pratt-Heavner, a spokeswoman for the association, citing federal data. A second round of rules, including standards for school breakfasts, took effect July 1.

"How can we call these standards a success when they are driving students away from the program?" she said.

Her group wants more flexibility for districts that are losing money. A House bill to fund the Agriculture Department next year would give districts a chance to apply to skip the requirements for one year.

Rep. Robert Aderholt of Alabama, the Republican author of that measure, said the lunch rules go too far and came too fast for school districts to handle.

"As well-intended as the people in Washington believe themselves to be, the reality is that from a practical standpoint these regulations are just plain not working out in some individual school districts," he said after a House panel approved the bill. A vote by the full House is expected after its July Fourth break.

The first lady and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, whose department runs the school meals program, oppose changing the law.

Critics of the association say the about-face is motivated not only by overburdened school officials but also by the food industry. Food companies are some of the association's highest-paying members and supply schools with most of their food. The industry largely has kept silent through the debate but will spend millions of dollars to reformulate many products to meet the new standards.

"The last thing that we can afford to do right now is play politics with our kids' health, especially when we're finally starting to see some progress on this issue," Mrs. Obama said at the White House, where she met with a group of school nutrition experts, all of whom were friendly toward the standards.

The association requested a meeting with Mrs. Obama and Vilsack. Instead it was invited to sit down next week with Vilsack and Sam Kass, a White House chef who is executive director of the first lady's anti-obesity initiative, along with representatives from a dozen other organizations that favor the standards.

The first lady's publicly aggressive approach against Congress and the school nutrition association stands in stark contrast to the quiet lobbying she did early on, and to her handling of earlier controversies. Her approach has been to bite her tongue and not comment in the heat of the moment.

"She very, very strongly believes in the anti-obesity initiative, and I think she sees the attempt by Congress to roll back the 2010 legislation as just being anathema after trying very hard to change the culture of what we see going into these institutional lunches," said Myra Gutin, who studies first ladies at Rider University.

Mrs. Obama says the requirements are based on sound science and that 90 percent of schools are meeting them. The association says districts are unprepared to meet the newest standards.

"I'm going to fight until the bitter end to make sure that every kid in this country continues to have the best nutrition that they can have in our schools," the first lady said at a White House event where she showcased elementary school students preparing and then eating a salad lunch using vegetables they had planted in her garden on the South Lawn.

The White House has threatened to veto the House bill. The Senate version does not include the one-year waiver.

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Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

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Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap

BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil (AP) — Brazil star Neymar says his World Cup may be over because of a fractured vertebra but his World Cup dream of celebrating the title with his teammates at the Maracana Stadium next Sunday is still alive.

In a video released by the Brazilian football confederation on Saturday, Neymar thanked fans and everyone else for the support in this "very difficult moment."

"I don't have words to describe what has been going through my head and my heart," said Neymar, trying to stay upbeat but still sporting a subdued look on his face. "I just want to say that I will be back as soon as possible. When you least expect I'll be back."

Wearing a black T-shirt and a black hat turned backward, he spoke in a low tone of voice, his eyes still heavy.

"My dream is not over yet," he said. "It was interrupted by one move, but it will continue and I'm certain that my teammates will do whatever possible so I can fulfill my dream of being a champion. I won't be able to fulfill the dream of playing in a World Cup final, but I'm sure they will win this one, they will become champions, and I will be there with them, and all of Brazil will be celebrating together."

It was the first time Neymar had spoken publicly since fracturing a vertebra late in Brazil's 2-1 win over Colombia in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The video was made just before the striker was airlifted from Brazil's training camp in a medical helicopter to be treated at home for the back injury that ruled him out of the last two games of the World Cup.

Brazil doctor Jose Luiz Runco guaranteed the injury will not have long-term effects on Neymar's career and said the player could even travel to Belo Horizonte to watch the semifinal against Germany on Tuesday if he is not feeling a lot of pain.

Runco said he believes Neymar can return to action in about 45 days, and that Barcelona doctors were informed of the player's conditions from the beginning.

"He was extremely moved when I gave him the news that he was out of the World Cup," Runco said. "He cried a lot, which was a natural reaction at that moment. But I told him that although his dream was being cut short, he was still a 22-year-old with a lot in front of him. It was still a 'good' type of injury."

Neymar was on a stretcher when he was transferred from an ambulance into the helicopter that took off Saturday afternoon from one of Brazil's practice pitches in the city of Teresopolis, about an hour from Rio de Janeiro.

Sports channels broadcast live as Neymar — who is a star on the field and a celebrity off of it — waved briefly from his stretcher inside the helicopter before the doors were closed and the aircraft flew away.

Medical staff spent several minutes securing the Brazilian striker inside the helicopter as his father and the president of the Brazilian football confederation, Jose Maria Marin, watched closely.

Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff published a letter of support to "a great warrior."

"Your expression of pain on the field yesterday (Friday) hurt my heart and the hearts of every Brazilian," she said. "I know that as a Brazilian you never give up, and sooner than expected you will be back filling our souls with happiness and our history with success."

Several players and many Brazilian celebrities also showed their support to the Brazilian star through social media.

Neymar had flown back to Rio de Janeiro with the rest of his Brazil teammates after the match in Fortaleza, then rode in an ambulance the rest of the way to the team's training camp in Teresopolis.

When the plane arrived in Rio early Saturday, teammates came one by one to embrace him as he sat in a wheelchair waiting to be taken into the ambulance.

The 22-year-old Neymar broke his third vertebra after being kneed in the back by Colombian player Juan Camillo Zuniga in the 86th minute at the Arena Castelao.

Neymar was carried off the field in tears on a stretcher and "screamed in pain in the dressing room" before being taken to a hospital for tests, the Brazilian confederation said in a statement.

Neymar had been one of the standout players of the World Cup, scoring four goals in the team's first three games.

Fans attending both of Saturday's quarterfinals chanted Neymar's name several times.

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Follow Tales Azzoni at http://www.twitter.com/tazzoni

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) — An autopsy showed an Arab teenager who Palestinians say was killed in a revenge attack was burned to death, officials said Saturday, while Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward a major southern city deeper into Israel than any other attack in the current round of violence.

The Israeli military said its "Iron Dome" defense system intercepted the rockets that were aimed at Beersheba. The military also said at least 29 other rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel over the weekend. It said it had retaliated with airstrikes on militant sites in Gaza.

Clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters spread early Saturday from Jerusalem to Arab towns in northern Israel as hundreds of people took to the streets and threw rocks and fire bombs at officers who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, police said.

Palestinian Attorney General Abdelghani al-Owaiwi said he received initial autopsy results from a Palestinian doctor who was present at the autopsy in Tel Aviv. He said it shows that 16-year-old Palestinian Mohammed Abu Khdeir, whose death has sparked large protests in his east Jerusalem neighborhood, suffered burns on "90 percent of his body."

"The results show he was breathing while on fire and died from burns and their consequences," al-Owaiwi said.

His account provided the first details of the preliminary findings to be made public. The Israeli Health Ministry could not be reached for comment.

The autopsy found evidence that Abu Khdeir had breathed in the flames as burns were found inside his body, in his lungs, bronchial tubes and his throat, al-Owaiwi said.

He also said the young man had suffered wounds on the right side of his head apparently from impact with a rock or another hard object.

Abu Khdeir's charred body was found in a forest Wednesday after he was seized near his home. Palestinians immediately accused Israeli extremists of killing him to avenge the deaths of three Israeli teens who had been abducted and killed in the West Bank. Israeli police said an investigation is still underway and they have not yet determined who killed the boy or why.

Israeli leaders have widely condemned the killing of the Palestinian youth, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed those responsible would be brought to justice.

Palestinians took to the streets in protests after news of the boy's death on Wednesday and clashed with police in east Jerusalem. Riots erupted in east Jerusalem Friday as thousands of Palestinians massed for the boy's burial.

Near the town of Qalansawe, protesters also pulled over a car driven by an Israeli Jew on Saturday, pulled him out and set the vehicle on fire, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. The driver was not injured. Several other Israeli cars were also torched, she said. Dozens of protesters were arrested across the country throughout the day.

Protests subsided by noon but resumed in the evening with violent demonstrations in several Arab towns in the north of the country, police said.

Israel's public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, visited areas of friction and said police would display "zero tolerance" toward those "who take the law into their own hands and harm innocent people."

Israeli Arabs, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold citizenship rights. But they often face discrimination and mostly identify with the Palestinians. Even so, violent riots like these are rare.

Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem also used an electric saw to damage the light rail that connects the heavily Arab populated eastern sector of the city with the mostly Jewish West, Samri said.

President Shimon Peres spoke with Arab leaders Saturday night in Israel urging calm. "We must unite to prevent tragedies and loss of life. Together we can lower the flames and protect the innocent people, he said.

The chaos began after three Israeli teenagers, one of whom was a U.S. citizen, were abducted in the West Bank on June 12, sparking a huge manhunt that ended with the gruesome discovery of their bodies earlier this week.

In a separate incident, relatives told The Associated Press that Abu Khdeir's 15-year-old cousin Tariq, a U.S. citizen who goes to school in Florida, was beaten by police during clashes on Thursday ahead of the funeral. The U.S. Consulate had no immediate comment on the report.

The Florida chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations called on the U.S. Department of State to demand that Israel immediately release Khdeir.

In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said an official from the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem had visited Khdeir on Saturday.

"We are profoundly troubled by reports that he was severely beaten while in police custody and strongly condemn any excessive use of force," the spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said in a statement released Saturday. "We are calling for a speedy, transparent and credible investigation and full accountability for any excessive use of force."

She also expressed concern about "the increasing violent incidents" and urged Israelis and Palestinians "to take steps to restore calm and prevent harm to innocents."

Khdeir's parents, Suha and Salah, said Tariq was detained but had been treated at an Israeli hospital. They released photos showing his face swollen and badly bruised.

Samri, the Israeli police spokeswoman, said that Tariq Abu Khdeir had resisted arrest and attacked police officers. He was detained with a slingshot in his possession used to hurl stones at police, along with six other protesters, including some armed with knives, she said, adding that several officers were hurt in that specific protest, one of many that day.

Tariq's father said he witnessed his son's arrest and insisted the boy was not involved in the violence.

Amateur video of what he said was the beating aired on a local television station, and he said he could recognize his son from his clothing.

The channel that aired it, Palestine Today, is funded by Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad, a militant group that has carried out suicide bombings and other attacks aimed at civilians.

Other footage shows uniformed men dragging someone on the ground.

The face of the person cannot be seen in either video, and the circumstances leading up to the beating are not shown.

Israel's justice ministry said an investigation had been opened over the footage.

The rocket fire on Beersheba Saturday was the first since 2012, which came during intense fighting between Israel and Gaza militants.

Israel launched a massive crackdown on the Islamic militant group Hamas after the abduction of the Israeli teens, while retaliatory Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli airstrikes intensified. The military says Palestinian militants have fired more than 150 rockets at southern Israel, and it has responded with airstrikes on more than 70 targets in Gaza.

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Associated Press journalist Yousur Alhlou in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit fell in May as U.S. exports hit an all-time high, helped by a jump in exports of petroleum products. Imports dipped slightly.

The trade deficit narrowed 5.6 percent in May to $44.4 billion after hitting a two-year high of $47 billion in April, the Commerce Department reported Thursday.

Exports of goods and services rose 1 percent to a record $195.5 billion in May while imports fell a slight 0.3 percent to $239.8 billion.

A lower trade deficit boosts overall economic growth when it shows U.S. companies are earning more in their overseas sales. Economists are looking for a smaller trade deficit in the April-June quarter to help propel growth in output after the economy shrank in the first quarter at a 2.9 percent rate.

Many analysts expect growth will rebound to a healthy rate between 3 percent and 3.5 percent, helped in part by stronger exports.

In 2013, the trade deficit declined 11.3 percent to $476.4 billion. That reflected in part a boom in U.S. energy production that cut into America's dependence on foreign oil while boosting U.S. petroleum exports to a record high.

The larger trade gap in the first three months of this year, compared to the fourth quarter, shaved 1.5 percentage points from growth. That was a big factor in helping to push the economy into reverse. In addition to a higher trade deficit, the economy was held back by severe winter which dampened consumer spending.

In May, the U.S. trade deficit with China rose 5.4 percent to $28.8 billion. Through the first five months of this year, America's deficit with China is running 3.2 percent ahead of last year's record pace.

Officials from both countries will meet in Beijing next week for annual high-level talks covering economic and foreign policy issues. Previewing the discussions on Tuesday, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the Obama administration would push China to allow its currency to rise against the dollar. The Chinese yuan has declined by about 2.4 percent against the dollar so far this year.

American manufacturers contend the Chinese currency is undervalued by as much as 40 percent and the Chinese government is manipulating the value to gain trade advantages. A weaker yuan makes Chinese goods cheaper in the United States and U.S. products more expensive in China.

Lew said that computer security would be another issue discussed. In May, the Justice Department charged five Chinese military officers with hacking into U.S. companies' computer systems to steal trade secrets.

SALVADOR, Brazil (AP) — Tim Krul came on as a substitute in the final minute of extra time and then saved two penalties in a 4-3 shootout victory over Costa Rica on Saturday, giving the Netherlands a spot in the World Cup semifinals.

Krul saved spot kicks from Costa Rica captain Bryan Ruiz and Michael Umana after the match had finished 0-0.

"We had a lot of chances but it didn't go in," Krul said on Dutch television. "Then I come in, stop two penalties and here we are."

In another stroke of tactical genius at this year's World Cup, Netherlands coach Louis van Gaal pulled Jasper Cillessen moments after the Ajax goalkeeper had saved a shot from Marcos Urena in extra time.

"The trick is good," said Krul, who plays for Newcastle. "A lot of preparation went into it."

The Dutch team will next face Argentina in the semifinals on Wednesday in Sao Paulo.

Krul looked super confident during the shootout at the Arena Fonte Nova, saving the second and fifth penalties by diving to his left and sticking out his hand.

When Krul stopped Ruiz's penalty, Cillessen, watching from the sideline, punched the air in celebration.

When he saved the second to win the match, Cillessen out-sprinted the rest of the bench to get to Krul, who was already being mobbed by jubilant teammates who had watched from the halfway line.

Costa Rica goalkeeper Keylor Navas had kept his team in the match with a string of great saves in the first half and again in extra time. When Wesley Sneijder twice beat him late in regulation and again in the second half of extra time, the woodwork made the stop.

Sneijder hit the post with a free kick in the 80th minute and sent a curling shot over Navas and off the crossbar before the penalty shootout.

At the end, however, Navas could not stop any of the four Dutch penalties as veterans Robin van Persie, Arjen Robben, Sneijder and Dirk Kuyt all scored.

The Krul substitution will only boost Van Gaal's reputation as a coach who leaves nothing to chance and who has a golden touch with replacements. And it kept his tenure with the Netherlands alive for two more matches before he becomes the manager at Manchester United next season.

DENVER (AP) — An obscure, chicken-sized bird best known for its mating dance could help determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the U.S. Senate in November.

The federal government is considering listing the greater sage grouse as an endangered species next year. Doing so could limit development, energy exploration, hunting and ranching on the 165 million acres of the bird's habitat across 11 Western states.

Apart from the potential economic disruption, which some officials in Western states discuss in tones usually reserved for natural disasters, the specter of the bird's listing is reviving the centuries-old debates about local vs. federal control and whether to develop or conserve the region's vast expanses of land.

Two Republican congressmen running for the U.S. Senate in Montana and Colorado, Steve Daines and Cory Gardner, are co-sponsoring legislation that would prevent the federal government from listing the bird for a decade as long as states try to protect it.

"Montanans want locally driven solutions," Daines said in an interview. "They don't want bureaucrats thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C., dictating what should happen."

Environmentalists and the two Democratic senators being challenged, John Walsh in Montana and Mark Udall in Colorado, oppose the idea. They say they don't want a listing, either, but that the threat of one is needed to push states to protect the bird.

"A bill like what some in the House are proposing that would delay listing the bird would actually undermine locally driven efforts," said Udall spokesman Mike Saccone.

The greater sage grouse is described in the journals of explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, and it once roamed widely across the massive sagebrush plateaus of the West's interior.

The bird is perhaps best known for its unusual springtime mating dance, during which it puffs its bulbous chest and emits odd warbles. But livestock grazing eroded the bristly plant that the bird depends upon, development chopped up its habitat and energy exploration erected towers that chased it away from its home range.

Rachel Carson warned in 1962 of the bird's possible demise in "Silent Spring," her classic environmental book.

Three environmental groups sued to force the federal government to protect the bird after the government declined to list it as endangered in 2005. In a 2010 settlement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to decide on listing by September 2015.

A major factor will be whether the federal, state and local landowners whose land it inhabits protect the grouse. Many environmental groups say the bird is a stand-in for a vanishing Western ecosystem that needs preserving.

"This is the great landscape of America, when you travel west and see open spaces. This is all the stuff you grew up watching on television," said Randi Spivak of the Center for Biological Diversity in Tucson, Arizona, one of the groups that sued to force grouse protection. "And that land has been drilled, subdivided."

Industry groups and state governments worry about the cost.

A study by the Western Energy Alliance, a Denver-based trade organization of independent oil and gas producers, estimates that from 5,000 to 31,000 jobs could be lost should the federal government take steps to protect the grouse.

Kathleen Sgamma, the group's vice president of government and public affairs, said that as the federal government starts to draw up protections, energy leases are being deferred, drilling projects shut down and bureaucratic hurdles raised to any kind of development in the bird's range.

"It's another issue that's slowing economic growth and job development in the West," Sgamma said.

Local officials are alarmed, too.

Udall and other Colorado lawmakers pushed for the Obama administration to delay a decision on a far less prevalent species, the Gunnison sage grouse, until after the November elections. Federal land managers have already declared more than 400,000 acres off-limits to development to protect that bird. The Western Governors Association last month urged the federal government to defer to states on protecting the bird.

The administration announced last month that it would spend $32 million over 10 years helping ranchers in Nevada and California preserve the bird's habitat.

Industry leaders and environmental groups agree that the grouse can be protected without serious economic damage. Some point to Wyoming, the state with the greatest amount of both energy exploration and grouse, which has put in place a plan to conserve the bird's core habitat.

"It's based on sound science and helps us advance meaningful conservation of the species," said Jerimiah Rieman, energy and natural resources policy director for Gov. Matt Mead, R-Wyo.

Gardner, the Republican congressman from Colorado, and others opposed to a listing point to Wyoming as an example of why states should take the lead. "The states are working right now very diligently," Gardner said. "Once you list it, there's sort of a wall that comes down between people."

But environmentalists say the proposal amounts to a needless delay. Even Democrats who argue the federal government should defer to states don't support the Republican legislation.

Gov. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., has warned against listing the bird and led a task force of Western governors who are trying to deal with the issue. A spokesman said Hickenlooper doesn't support the legislation because it lacks adequate bipartisan support.

Brian Rutledge, vice president of the Audubon Society's Rocky Mountain Region, said no one wants the bird to be listed but that the Endangered Species Act is working as intended in this case, to push local agencies to do conservation.

He was dismissive of the Republican proposal. "A lot of this," he said, "is just pandering."

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Follow Nicholas Riccardi on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NickRiccardi

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Online:

Greater sage grouse: http://www.fws.gov/greatersagegrouse

Western Governors Association: http://tinyurl.com/l4nunhs

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (AP) — Billy Hurley III doesn't plan to lose much rest sitting on a third-round lead for the first time on the PGA Tour.

The former U.S. Navy officer shot a 3-under 67 on Saturday to extend his advantage to two strokes over Angel Cabrera entering the final round of the Greenbrier Classic.

"I've been working for a long time to win on the PGA Tour," Hurley said. "I figure if I shoot the lowest score tomorrow, I can't lose."

Hurley never relinquished the lead he has held since midway through the second round at Old White TPC. He birdied the par-5 12th and par-4 13th before dropping a stroke on the par-3 15th.

He had a 12-under 198 total. No third-round leader has won the Greenbrier Classic, now in its fifth year. Playoffs have decided the tournament twice.

Cabrera shot 64. He's looking for his first non-major win on the PGA Tour.

Kevin Chappell was third at 9 under after a 69. Steve Stricker had a 68 to top the group at 8 under.

There will be more than a trophy to raise and a $1.2 million winner's check available Sunday. The four best finishers not previously eligible for the British Open among the top 12 on the final leaderboard will earn spots in the July 17-20 tournament at Royal Liverpool.

Hurley finished his five-year Navy service in 2009 and would still be a naval officer if golf wasn't keeping him busy. He returned to the PGA Tour this year after playing on the Web.com Tour in 2013.

He said nerves won't play a part in how he gets ready for what could be a memorable Sunday.

"I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing," he said. "I just want to put my mind in position so that I can play well. I slept fine last night. The benefit of the Navy if you learn how to sleep anywhere. I think I'll sleep fine tonight, too."

Cabrera wore an Argentine blue shirt in the third round and is riding his country's momentum in the World Cup, including Saturday's 1-0 win over Belgium to advance to the semifinal round.

"I was very happy when I found out they won," Cabrera said, adding that he was equally as giddy when he started his round with four birdies on the first six holes.

Old White sets up nicely for Cabrera's long drives and he made four birdie putts of 19 feet or longer.

"I was able to get the speed of the greens, and that was the big difference," Cabrera said.

At the Wells Fargo Championship in May, Cabrera was the second-round leader but closed with a pair of 75s.

Another under-par round Sunday would mark the first time that he has had four rounds in the 60s since the 2010 Deutsche Bank Championship.

Chappell barely got anything going until making a 12-foot putt for birdie on the par-5 17th.

"I don't think I've had my best ball-striking day yet," he said. "Hopefully, my putter gets hot and (it) should be fun."

Joining Stricker in the group at 8 under were Michael Thompson (64), Cameron Tringale (64), Will Wilcox (65), Joe Durant (66), Camilo Villegas (67) and Chris Stroud (70).

Stricker, in his eighth tour event this year, will compete next week at John Deere and is leaning against going to the British Open unless he has one or more high finishes before then.

The highlight of Stricker's third round was a bending 42-foot putt for birdie on the first hole. He was 1 over on his round at the turn before making three birdies the rest of the day.

"Anything can happen and that's the truth," Stricker said. "There are not a lot of guys in between me and the lead ... but there are a ton of guys right behind us. So anybody can come out of the pack here."

SKOPJE, Macedonia (AP) — Macedonian police say they have arrested nine men suspected of creating fake websites for public utilities in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand to steal money from their customers.

Police spokesman Ivo Kotevski said Thursday that the gang made an estimated US$200,000 from utility customers whom they e-mailed claiming they owed money in unpaid power or water bills.

Their victims were directed to the fake utility websites, which charged their credit cards for the supposed bills.

The suspects have been charged with forming a criminal group and "misuse of credit card data."

NEW YORK (AP) — Property from the estate of noted horticulturist, philanthropist and heir to the Listerine fortune Rachel "Bunny" Mellon is going on the auction block this fall.

Over 2,000 paintings, jewelry, furniture and decorative objects are estimated to bring more than $100 million, according to Sotheby's.

The proceeds will benefit The Gerard B. Lambert Foundation, which supports The Oak Spring Garden Library in Upperville, Virginia. The library houses Mellon's collection of rare books, manuscripts and works of art related to landscape design, horticulture and natural history that is visited by scholars worldwide.

Mellon was the widow of philanthropist Paul Mellon. She died in March at 103.

The auction house did not provide details but said the objects were drawn from the couple's homes in the United States and abroad and would be offered in a series of sales in the fall.

Mellon was a self-taught botanist and close friend of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. In 1961, she redesigned the White House Rose Garden and later created another White House garden that was named for Kennedy after her death.

A private person, Mellon was thrust in the spotlight when John Edwards was indicted in 2011 for using what prosecutors alleged was campaign money, including $750,000 from Mellon, to hide his mistress during his 2008 presidential bid. He was later acquitted. Mellon was never accused of breaking any laws.

During their lifetimes, the Mellons donated hundreds of important artworks to museums, including the National Gallery of Arts. The Washington, D.C. museum was founded in 1937 by Paul Mellon's father, the Pittsburgh industrialist Andrew Mellon.

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt's prime minister on Saturday defended his government's decision to introduce a steep rise in fuel prices, saying energy subsidies have over the past decade cost the treasury a staggering 687 billion pounds (nearly $100 billion) that could have been used to bolster essential services.

The fuel price hikes of up to 80 percent came into force early on Saturday and follow promises to cut subsidies that eat up nearly a quarter of the state budget. They also come after an increase in electricity prices that were put in effect at the start of July.

Prime Minister Ibrahim Mahlab, addressing a televised news conference, said it would have been a "crime" if his government did not move to start lifting subsidies. He argued that 26.3 percent of Egypt's estimated 86 million people live in poverty and that overall unemployment stands at 13.6 percent, reaching above 50 percent for Egyptians aged between 20 and 30.

"There will have to be political, social and economic reforms," vowed Mahlab. "Debts are mounting and the question we must ask ourselves is whether we want to leave this legacy for future generations."

Mahlab said the partial lifting of energy subsidies would free 51 billion pounds (about $7 billion) to be spent on education, health care, pensions and raising wages.

Newly elected President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has said he would need to tackle the tough issue of subsidies and asked every Egyptian to be ready to sacrifice to help the country's battered economy after three years of turmoil.

The former military chief also asked the government to amend the largest budget in Egypt's history — at $115 billion — to reduce its deficit from 12 to 10 percent.

The fuel price rise was highest for 80 octane gasoline, used mostly by old vehicles that still fill Egyptian streets, with the price jumping 78 percent to 22 cents per liter. Diesel fuel, used by most of Egypt's public transport and trucks, increased 64 percent to 25 cents a liter. Gasoline that is 92 octane increased by 40 percent to 37 cents a liter.

Successive Egyptian leaders have balked at reducing energy subsidies, fearing unrest.

The decision to hike energy prices caused a rush on gas stations, with long lines forming and many motorists frustrated by the increase. Some drivers of microbuses used as communal taxis said they planned to hike fares, but Mahlab warned that authorities will intervene to stop them from introducing random increases.

Waiting in line on Saturday at one Cairo gas station, taxi driver and father of five Ebeid Ibrahim directed his frustration at the president. "When el-Sissi came to office he said he did not have a magical wand to make people's lives better. We do not want anything form anybody, but at least the status quo should have been left as it is. Where am I supposed to get money from?" said the 56-year-old Ibrahim.

In a separate development, judicial officials said a Cairo court on Saturday upheld death sentences against 10 members of the banned Muslim Brotherhood and sentenced 37 others to life, including the spiritual leader of the Islamist group. All 10 Brotherhood members whose death sentences were confirmed were tried in absentia, meaning there will be a retrial if they are arrested or turn themselves in.

Prosecutors had charged the defendants with rioting, murder, attempted murder, attacking security forces and blocking a main road north of Cairo last year, a statement from the prosecutor's office said.

Officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief reporters.

The verdicts are part of an ongoing crackdown against Islamists that began after the military, then led by el-Sissi, ousted President Mohammed Morsi last year.

Morsi, who hails from the Brotherhood, along with the group's spiritual leader Mohammed Badie and most of its leadership are in detention and face multiple trials.

BERLIN (AP) — Foreign ministers from Russia, Ukraine, Germany and France meeting in Berlin agreed Wednesday on a series of steps for a resumption of the ceasefire in eastern Ukraine to de-escalate a conflict that has taken over 400 lives since April.

The steps include reopening talks no later than Saturday "with the goal of reaching an unconditional and mutually agreed sustainable cease-fire" to be monitored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In the declaration issued after the evening talks, the ministers said they welcomed Russia's readiness to grant Ukrainian border guards access to Russian territory to take part in controlling two border crossings once the cease-fire is in place.

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has increased since the much-violated 10-day cease-fire expired late Monday. On Wednesday, four Ukrainian troops were killed as government forces carried out more than 100 attacks on rebel positions, a military official said.

National Security and Defense Council spokesman Andriy Lysenko said three troops died in rebel attacks on government vehicles and checkpoints and 10 were wounded. The federal border guards said one guardsman was killed when the Novoazovsk crossing point came under attack by rebels with mortars in the Donetsk region.

Donetsk is one of two eastern regions that have declared independence from the government in Kiev. Ukrainian officials said pro-Russian rebels had been forced out of three villages.

Border posts have become a key issue, since Ukraine and the United States say military equipment and reinforcements are flowing across the border from Russia. Moscow denies arming the rebels and describes Russian citizens fighting with them as volunteers.

Ukraine said it recaptured a key border post Tuesday at Dovzhanskiy, which rebels had mined with explosives.

Another main border crossing at Izvaryne was closed Wednesday because of fighting and an AP reporter saw plumes of black smoke rising above it. Ukrainian officials said rebels shelled Ukrainian troops in the area and a Ukrainian armored vehicle was destroyed by a mine.

At the small Sjevernyi border crossing to the north, Ukrainian border guards had abandoned their post, leaving three Russian border guards to process the several dozen Ukrainians who passed through Wednesday afternoon.

Fresh black caterpillar tread marks from two armored vehicles that had crossed the border were clearly visible on the one-lane road. It was impossible to determine which direction they had traveled, but there have been no reports of armored vehicles moving from Ukraine into Russia.

Fighting also was underway Wednesday in Luhansk, the other eastern region where separatists have declared independence. In the city of Luhansk, a stray missile hit a school near a rebel position but no injuries were reported.

To the north, a steady, deep rumbling could be heard from shelling near the town of Metalist.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she "cannot rule out that we will have to go further" in imposing sanctions on Russia.

The EU and the United States have already imposed targeted sanctions mostly hitting individual officials in Russia and have held off on more costly sanctions on entire industries.

"We will not let up ... in seeking diplomatic solutions to the conflict, but we are still far from where we would like to be," she said after meeting with NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, prior to the foreign ministers' meeting.

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Associated Press writer Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin and Balint Szkalo contributed from Luhansk.

Jean Kwok, the award-winning writer of Girl in Translation, has written a new book called Mambo in Chinatown, a Cinderella story about a 22-year-old Chinese-American torn between two cultures.

LEEDS, England (AP) — The 198 competitors in the 101st Tour de France have started their grueling three-week ride through four countries before ending the world's greatest cycling race in Paris on July 27.

Saturday's 190.5-kilometer (118.4-mile) Stage 1 takes the pack on a rolling loop along the bucolic English countryside from Leeds to Harrogate — a layout that could be tailormade for a sprinter to win.

Many enthusiastic Union Jack-waving fans on the course are hoping that Britain's Mark Cavendish, one of the world's great sprinters, will win this first of three tour legs in England before the race enters France. It would be Cavendish's first ever yellow jersey.

Kate, the Duchess of Cornwall, was expected to bestow the first race leader's yellow jersey at the day's awards ceremony. Watched by her husband Prince William and his brother Prince Harry, the duchess cut the race ribbon at the start of the first leg which also featured a flyover by aeronautical display team the Red Arrows.

Overall race favorites are defending champion Chris Froome, a 29-year-old Kenyan-born Briton who leads Team Sky, and two-time champ Alberto Contador.

In all, the riders will cover 3,664 kilometers (2,277 miles) of roads in England, France, Belgium and Spain.

LONDON (AP) — Petra Kvitova overwhelmed Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 in less than an hour Saturday to win Wimbledon for the second time.

The Czech left-hander completely outplayed the 20-year-old Canadian — playing in her first major final — with her big serve, aggressive returns and flat groundstrokes.

Kvitova, the 2011 champion, put on a clinic of power tennis, ripping baseline winners off both wings and leaving Bouchard looking helpless. Kvitova won the final seven games, finishing with another clean winner — a cross-court backhand.

Bouchard was the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam final.

She was named after Britain's Princess Eugenie, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. The princess was watching from the front row of the Royal Box.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories fell in May, ending three months of gains.

The Commerce Department reported that orders fell 0.5 percent, pulled down by falling demand for military and transportation equipment. That followed increases of 0.8 percent in April, 1.5 percent in March and 1.7 percent in February.

Excluding military hardware, factory orders rose 0.2 percent in May from April. Orders for transportation equipment fell 2.9 percent. Orders for computers and electronic equipment fell 2 percent, biggest monthly drop since December.

Orders for durable goods, meant to last three years or more, fell 0.9 percent in May. Orders for nondurable goods slipped 0.2 percent.

Factory orders were up 2.5 percent from May 2013.

U.S. factories have been busy. The Institute for Supply Management reported Tuesday that manufacturing expanded in June for the 13th straight month, though the pace of growth slowed from May.

A measure of employment showed that factories added jobs for the 12th straight month; the pace of hiring last month was the same as in May.

Manufacturers added 10,000 jobs in May as overall U.S. employers created more than 200,000 jobs for the fourth straight month, longest such stretch since 1999. The government's employment report for June comes out Thursday.

The U.S. economy shrank at a 2.9 percent annual rate from January through March. But economists blame the first-quarter drop on an unusually bitter winter and a sharp reduction in businesses' inventories. They expect economic growth to rebound to an annual pace of 3 percent or more the rest of the year, boosted by rising consumer demand and a rebound in U.S. export sales.

Economists have been worried about the fallout from slower economic growth in China. But a survey out Tuesday showed that Chinese manufacturing grew in June for the first time in six months, though the expansion was weak. HSBC Corp. said Tuesday its purchasing managers index for China rose to 50.7 from May's 49.4 on a 100-point scale. Numbers above 50 signal growth.

i i

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is facing mounting calls from Republicans to take a firsthand look at the immigration emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border, putting him on the spot concerning what he has called the "humanitarian crisis" of tens of thousands of unaccompanied children flooding in from Central America.

"If he doesn't come to the border, I think it's a real reflection of his lack of concern of what's really going on there," declared Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a possible GOP presidential candidate in 2016.

The White House said Thursday that Obama currently has no plans to visit the border when he travels to Texas next week, primarily to fundraise for Democratic congressional candidates. A trip to the border could result in awkward optics for the president, who would be unlikely to meet with youngsters he's seeking to deport and would risk upsetting immigration advocates who oppose the deportations if he were to meet with border patrol agents or other law enforcement.

Administration officials say that Perry and other Republicans are merely trying to score political points rather than working to resolve a major problem. But the political concerns aren't so easily dismissed for Obama.

The border crisis has put him in the difficult position of asking Congress for more money and authority to send the children back home at the same time he's seeking ways to allow millions of other people already in the U.S. illegally to stay.

The White House also wants to keep the focus of the debate in this midterm election year on Republican lawmakers whom the president has accused of blocking progress on a comprehensive overhaul of America's immigration laws. Obama announced this week that, due to a lack of progress on Capitol Hill, he was moving forward to seek out ways to adjust U.S. immigration policy without congressional approval.

Obama's options for that range from relatively modest changes in deportation procedures to broader moves that could shield millions of people in the U.S. illegally from deportation while giving them temporary authorization to work here.

Immigration advocates emerged from a meeting with Obama this week convinced that the president was at least considering the more aggressive approach.

"He's totally flipped from doing everything possible to give Republicans the space to get to 'yes' to doing everything possible to cement the reputation of the GOP as anti-immigrant and to bolster the Democratic Party's image as the party that's for them," said Frank Sharry, executive director of America's Voice, a leading advocacy group.

The advocates are pushing Obama to provide work permits to the up to 9 million people who would have been eligible for citizenship under a comprehensive immigration bill passed by the Senate a year ago that stalled in the GOP-led House. Short of that, advocates want Obama to extend a "deferred action" program to all immigrants in the U.S. illegally who have children who are American citizens because they were born in the U.S. That program currently allows many young immigrants who arrived in the United States as children before June 15, 2007, to apply for work permits and two-year reprieves from deportation.

Those proposals stand in stark contrast to the Obama administration's response to the influx of unaccompanied minors showing up at the border. The president has asked Congress for $2 billion in emergency spending to hire more immigration judges and open more detention facilities. He's also seeking the flexibility to speed up the youths' deportations.

Republicans have sought to draw a link between the current crisis and Obama's desire to use executive powers to change immigration laws. They point specifically to his 2012 deferred-action decision, saying it has left the impression in Central America that youngsters arriving in the U.S. alone would be allowed to stay.

"This is a disaster of President Barack Obama's own making," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Goodlatte spoke to reporters Thursday from Texas where he was finishing a trip to the border. He urged Obama to make his own visit next week.

Obama's advisers challenged the motivations of those calling for the president to add a stop at the border to an itinerary that currently has him visiting Dallas and Austin.

"The reason that some people are suggesting the president should go to border when he's in Texas is because they'd rather play politics than actually trying to address some of these challenges," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

Earnest noted that senior administration officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, have made trips to the border in recent weeks. Vice President Joe Biden also traveled to Guatemala last month as part of the White House's efforts to discourage adults from sending their children to the U.S. and to dispel the notion that they would be guaranteed entry.

Most of the 50,000 unaccompanied minors that have been caught at the border are arriving from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC and Erica Werner at http://twitter.com/ericawerner

LONDON (AP) — Petra Kvitova overwhelmed Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-0 in less than an hour Saturday to win Wimbledon for the second time.

The Czech left-hander completely outplayed the 20-year-old Canadian — playing in her first major final — with her big serve, aggressive returns and flat groundstrokes.

Kvitova, the 2011 champion, put on a clinic of power tennis, ripping baseline winners off both wings and leaving Bouchard looking helpless. Kvitova won the final seven games, finishing with another clean winner — a cross-court backhand.

Bouchard was the first Canadian to reach a Grand Slam final.

She was named after Britain's Princess Eugenie, granddaughter of Queen Elizabeth II. The princess was watching from the front row of the Royal Box.

BEIRUT (AP) — The military chief of Syria's main Western-backed rebel group warned Saturday that the country risked a "humanitarian disaster" if allies do not send more aid to help his moderate forces halt the advance of Islamic militants.

Extremist fighters of the Islamic State group control a swath of land straddling Syria and neighboring Iraq, mostly running across the Euphrates river, where they have established their self-styled caliphate. Most of the land was seized last month in a lightening push across Iraq.

In recent days, fighters from the group have been pushing into rebel-held territory around the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, close to the Turkish border. They are also consolidating their rule along a corridor of land in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour that leads to neighboring Iraq.

"We call on urgent support for the FSA with weapons and ammunition, and to avoid a humanitarian disaster that threatens our people," said Brig. Gen. Abdul-Ilah al-Bashir, commander of the Free Syrian army. "Time is not on our side. Time is a slashing sword," he said.

His statement underscored the distress many of the country's many rebel fighters, whose battle to overthrow President Bashar Assad has been overshadowed by the advance of Islamic State fighters.

In northern Syria, where the extremists have been pushing back rebels, Syrian government forces also seized a key industrial area, allowing them to choke off rebel-held parts of Aleppo, already brutalized by indiscriminate bombing.

Al-Bashir called on rebel allies, chiefly the United States, but also neighboring Turkey and regional supports Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to speedily send help. He said the Islamic State fighters will not halt at Syria's borders.

"If we do not receive support quickly, the disaster will not stop at the borders. We put the international community before its historic responsibility," he said.

Also Saturday, Syrian activists said that a father, mother and their six children were killed in a government airstrike in the southern town of Dael.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the eight civilians were killed in shelling early Saturday. The activist collective, the Local Coordination Committees, also reported the incident.

While the majority of deaths in Syria's civil war are combatants, civilians are frequently killed by indiscriminate shelling and strikes on rebel-held areas. Civilians in government-controlled areas are also at risk of indiscriminate mortar fire.

RIFLE, Colo. (AP) — Many stores and restaurants are telling people not to bring their guns inside, but one western Colorado restaurant not only embraces the practice of packing heat, it encourages its customers to carry openly — and its waitresses do, too.

As she takes your order at Shooters Grill in the town of Rifle — yes, Rifle — waitress Ashlee Saenz carries a pad, pen and a loaded Ruger .357 Blackhawk revolver holstered on her leg, Old West style.

It's loaded, and she knows how to use it.

Colorado is among the states where openly carrying a gun in public is legal. The issue has made headlines after gun rights activists carrying loaded rifles gathered in Target stores in Texas, Alabama and North Carolina to demonstrate their support of "open carry" laws. On Wednesday, Target Corp. asked its customers "respectfully" to not bring firearms into stores, even where allowed by law.

But in Rifle, Saenz, her co-workers and her customers at Shooters Grill are encouraged to bring their holstered guns in the restaurant, The Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports (http://bit.ly/1nOVk8R ).

State law allows local governments and businesses to prohibit guns in their buildings, but a sign on Shooters' front door reads: "Guns are welcome on premises. Please keep all weapons holstered unless need arises. In such case, judicious marksmanship is appreciated."

Shooters also hosts training that qualifies customers for Colorado and Utah concealed weapon permits. The $75 price tag includes dinner.

Shooters owner Lauren Boebert said she's simply allowing customers and employees to exercise their constitutional right to bear arms.

"We encourage it, and the customers love that they can come here and express their rights," Boebert said.

She chose the restaurant's name last year as a nod to its gun policy.

"I consulted with my Christian friends and everyone said 'Shooters' sounded like a bar or a strip joint," Lauren Boebert said with a laugh. "But I thought, this is Rifle — it was founded around guns and the Old West. We called it Shooters and started throwing guns and Jesus all over the place."

The restaurant offers American and Mexican fare, and it doesn't serve alcohol.

Customers on a recent morning had no problem with the presence of firearms.

Wayne and Martha Greenwald, visiting from Grand Marais, Michigan, welcomed the restaurant's policy.

"We think it's just fine. We're very positive about it," Wayne Greenwald said. "We carry guns ourselves and own a rifle, shotgun and handguns. We live in a very small town and we take care of our own crime problems."

A group that supporters gun restrictions told the newspaper it favors concealed carry over open carry because that requires the person to have training and meet other requirements to obtain a permit. Other Colorado laws, including universal background checks for gun sales, a 15-round limit on firearm magazines and a ban on online-only concealed-carry training, continue to be topics of intense debate.

"We stand behind the Second Amendment, but we don't encourage people to carry guns as a public display in places like stores or restaurants," said Jennifer Hope, the Colorado chapter leader for the national Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.

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Information from: Post Independent, http://www.postindependent.com/

Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks have agreed on what could be the final contract for the future Hall of Famer.

A person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday that Nowitzki would get a three-year contract worth roughly $30 million. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been announced.

New contracts can't be signed until next Thursday.

The 36-year-old Nowitzki is taking a big pay cut with a contract similar in value and structure to the one Tim Duncan signed with San Antonio two years ago.

Duncan, who also took a much lower salary, is exercising a player option to return for the final season of his deal after helping the Spurs win their fifth title since 1999.

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq's military spokesman says the prime minister has removed the chief of the army's ground forces and the head of the federal police from their posts.

Lt. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi says Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki signed the papers Saturday to retire Lt. Gen. Ali Ghaidan, commander of the army's ground forces, and Lt. Gen. Mohsen al-Kaabi, the federal police chief.

Al-Moussawi says both men leave their jobs with their pensions. No replacements have been named.

The dismissals are part of al-Maliki's shakeup of the security forces after their near collapse in the face of a sweeping militant offensive led by the Islamic State extremist group.

Last month, al-Maliki retired three generals who had been deployed in the north and ordered legal proceedings against them.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The storied former Las Vegas Hilton, famous for staging Liberace and more than 800 sold-out Elvis Presley concerts in the 1960s and 1970s, has a new name and owner.

Florida-based timeshare company Westgate Resorts announced it purchased the LVH hotel from Goldman Sachs and Gramercy Capital and would rename it Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. About 200 of the nearly 3,000 rooms and suites will be converted to timeshare villas, while others will remain open to regular hotel guests.

"We will be providing the best of both worlds on our resort property," said new owner David Siegel, who was hoisted up by a crane Tuesday with a worker removing the letters "LVH" from the hotel's giant marquee. "We are very excited to be taking this important part of Vegas history and reinventing it for the next generation of Las Vegas visitors."

A full renovation is planned, according to company officials.

With 1,500 rooms, the property was the largest hotel in the world when billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian opened it as The International Hotel in 1969. Barbara Streisand performed an inaugural series of concerts there before Elvis Presley began a 58-show series that broke Las Vegas attendance records.

He later went on to set up his own penthouse in the hotel and generated millions in ticket sales in the years before his 1977 death.

The hotel was the site of the famous 1978 fight in which Leon Spinks defeated Muhammad Ali for the world heavyweight championship. It was also the site of an arson that killed eight people in 1981, just 90 days after a fire at the nearby MGM Grand casino that killed 85 people.

The hotel, which is located in a quieter area close to the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center and about a block east of the bustling Las Vegas Strip, has been expanded over the years. It was renamed the Las Vegas Hilton in 1971 and retained the name for 40 years before its licensing agreement with the Hilton hotel chain expired.

The property struggled through the recession, defaulting on a $252 million loan in 2010. It was christened the Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, or LVH, in 2012.

The acquisition will significantly enlarge Westgate's portfolio. Before the buy, Westgate owned about 10,000 rooms at 28 other resorts, including the Westgate Flamingo Bay Resort in Las Vegas and others in Orlando, Florida, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Branson, Missouri, and Park City, Utah.

Westgate CEO Siegel and his wife Jackie are known for their attempt to build a 90,000-square-foot Florida mansion modeled after the Palace of Versailles. The recession stalled construction on the house, which will be the largest in the U.S. if it's completed.

Their homebuilding effort was detailed in the 2012 documentary "Queen of Versailles," which screened at the Sundance Film Festival.

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Palestinian attorney general says autopsy results of an Arab teenager who Palestinians say was killed by Israeli extremists in a revenge attack show he was burned to death.

The charred body of 16-year-old Mohammed Abu Khdeir was found in a forest after he was seized near his home in east Jerusalem. Palestinians have accused Israeli extremists of killing him to avenge the deaths of three Israeli teens who had been abducted and killed in the West Bank.

Abdelghani al-Owaiwi said Saturday that Abu Khdeir suffered burns on "90 percent of his body."

Israeli police said an investigation is still underway and they have not yet determined who killed the boy or why.

NPR Sports Correspondent Tom Goldman says Americans should still be watching the World Cup matches, even with their home team out of the running. He makes the case to NPR's Tamara Keith.

BRUSSELS (AP) — Google's removal of search results in Europe is drawing accusations of press censorship, as stories from some of the continent's most prominent news outlets begin vanishing. The U.S. internet giant said Thursday it is getting 1,000 requests a day to scrub results.

The U.S. firm must comply with a May ruling from the European Union's top court that enables citizens to ask for the removal of embarrassing personal information that pops up on a search of their names. Among links to vanish were stories on a soccer referee who resigned after a scandal in 2010, French office workers making post-it art, a couple having sex on a train and a lawyer facing a fraud trial.

At least three British media outlets, including the Guardian newspaper and public broadcaster BBC, said Google notified them search results in Europe would not contain some links to their publications.

"It is the equivalent of going into libraries and burning books you don't like," Daily Mail Online publisher Martin Clarke said.

BBC Economics Editor Robert Peston said the removal of his 2007 blog post, which was critical of Merrill Lynch's then-CEO Stan O'Neal, means "to all intents and purposes the article has been removed from the public record, given that Google is the route to information and stories for most people."

The company is only starting to implement the ruling on the "right to be forgotten" and so far the numbers are small: The Guardian cited six articles, the BBC said one critical blog entry was removed, while the Mail Online saw four articles hit. Several German media contacted Thursday said they had not yet received notifications from Google.

"It's not yet really clear what the magnitude of this is," cautioned Joel Reidenberg of Fordham University, currently a visiting professor at Princeton University. "Google may be choosing to go overboard to essentially create a debate about censorship."

The company said it had received more than 70,000 removal requests by the end of June. Each application on average seeks the removal of almost four links, meaning its experts have to individually evaluate more than a quarter-million pages.

Google does not explain the decision to remove a link or say who requested it. The company is not disclosing how many appear to fall into areas the court specified as potentially objectionable: results that are "inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant."

The purge of search results applies to Google's local search pages covering the EU's 28 member nations and four other European countries, encompassing more than 500 million people. The company has a 90 percent market share for searches in Europe. Those who switch to the firm's American domain, Google.com, will find unaltered search results.

The Mountain View, California, company finds itself in an uncomfortable position. It has no choice but to comply with the ruling by the EU top court, which cannot be appealed, but many decisions to remove search results are likely to draw criticism.

"This is a new and evolving process for us," Google spokesman Al Verney said Thursday. "We'll continue to listen to feedback and will also work with data protection authorities and others as we comply with the ruling."

Princeton's Reidenberg said while the court gave Google little practical guidance on how to implement its decision, it effectively gave the search engine a responsibility similar to those traditional publishers always had — judging whether an information is in the public interest, whether it will withstand legal challenges and whether an individual complaint against it is warranted.

"Google algorithms are already making value judgments all the time as to which information is relevant," he added.

Proponents of the court decision say it gives individuals the possibility to restore their reputation by deleting references to old debts, past arrests and other unflattering episodes. They also note that the court specified Google should not remove links to information when the public's right to know about it outweighs an individual's right to privacy — for example when a politician or public figure seeks to clean online records.

"The ruling has created a stopwatch on free expression — our journalism can be found only until someone asks for it to be hidden," author James Ball wrote on the Guardian's website.

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Follow Juergen Baetz on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/jbaetz

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Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin contributed reporting.

Dirk Nowitzki and the Dallas Mavericks have agreed on what could be the final contract for the big German.

A person with knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press on Thursday that Nowitzki would get a three-year contract worth roughly $30 million. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal has not been announced.

New contracts can't be signed until next Thursday.

The 36-year-old Nowitzki is taking a big pay cut with a contract similar in value and structure to the one Tim Duncan signed with San Antonio two years ago.

Duncan, who also took a much lower salary, is exercising a player option to return for the final season of his deal after helping the Spurs win their fifth title since 1999.

Nowitzki just completed a four-year deal worth $80 million, and he left money on the table in that deal hoping the Mavericks could get some pieces around him.

The pursuit of other stars is even more urgent with Nowitzki getting close to the end of what figures to be a Hall-of-Fame career. The 2011 NBA Finals MVP put off finalizing the deal until after the Mavericks met with free agent Carmelo Anthony, which happened Wednesday night.

Mavericks owner Mark Cuban recently acknowledged that he couldn't offer Anthony a max contract, so Dallas figures to be stressing the 2011 title led by coach Rick Carlisle, Nowitzki and center Tyson Chandler, who recently rejoined the team in a trade with the New York Knicks.

If the Mavericks miss out on Anthony, there are a number of other small forwards on their wish list, topped by Houston's Chandler Parsons. He is a restricted free agent, and the Rockets can match any offer.

Dallas also wants to re-sign point guard Devin Harris, and will target several others at that position if Harris goes elsewhere.

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Follow Schuyler Dixon on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apschuyler

David Greene has the Last Word in business.

ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Islamic militants have released some 30 Turkish truck drivers who they captured in Iraq last month, a private news reported Thursday.

Turkish Foreign Ministry officials were not immediately able to confirm the report by the private Dogan news agency, but the wife of one of the drivers told The Associated Press that she had spoken to her husband, Ramazan Simsek, who confirmed the truck drivers were freed.

Nihal Simsek, whose son was also captured, said the drivers were heading toward Arbil, in Iraq's northern Kurdish region and would cross into Turkey in the evening.

The militants from the al-Qaida-inspired group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant seized the truck drivers in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul on June 9.

They also seized 49 people from the Turkish consulate in Mosul three days later. There was no immediate word on any release for them.

BEIRUT (AP) — Islamic militants seized an eastern Syrian oil field near Iraq and inched closer to the Turkish border on Friday as they try to consolidate their control of an area along the length of the Euphrates river stretching through Syria and Iraq.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that fighters from the Islamic State group seized the al-Tanak oil field early Friday. Another group, the activist collective of Deir el-Zour, also reported the seizure.

The field is in the eastern Syrian province of Deir el-Zour, near Iraq, and it followed the Islamic State group's seizure of Syria's largest oil field on Thursday. Both oil fields were taken from other rebel groups.

The extremist Sunni Muslim group now has nearly full control over a corridor from the Syrian provincial capital of Deir el-Zour to the border town of Boukamal. The area neighbors parts of northern and western Iraq that it seized last month, allowing the group to flow freely between the two countries.

Over the past three days, the Islamic State fighters have been pushing strongly northwards up the Euphrates river toward Turkey, shelling a town just 11 miles (18 kilometers) from the border, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory. A local activist, who uses the name Ahmed al-Ahmed, also confirmed the information.

Their shelling of the rebel-held town of Akhtarin came after they seized another two communities around their nearby stronghold of al-Bab, called Zour Maghar and Badaydiyeh, the Observatory and al-Ahmed said.

The group is led by an ambitious Iraqi militant known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who this week declared the establishment of an Islamic state, or caliphate, in the lands it has seized in Syria and Iraq.

It proclaimed al-Baghdadi the head of its new self-styled state and demanded that all Muslims pledge allegiance to him.

Syria's uprising began in March 2011 as largely peaceful demonstrations against President Bashar Assad's rule. It escalated into an armed revolt after some opposition supporters took up arms to fight a brutal government crackdown on dissent.

As Islamic militants advanced, Syrian government troops seized control of an industrial area near the northern city of Aleppo, said state-run television. Control of the area allows Syrian troops to more easily blockade eastern parts of Syria's largest city, held by rebel groups.

That then turned into a civil war that has claimed more than 160,000 lives, about a third of them civilians, according to opposition activists. Al-Qaida inspired militants also entered Syria during the upheaval of conflict, seizing territory claimed by armed rebels, and ultimately becoming the Islamic State group.

The conflict has spilled over into Lebanon and Syria, generating a huge wave of refugees.

On Friday, a Syrian warplane carried out three airstrikes in an area about four miles (seven kilometers) within Lebanese territory, killing a 12-year-old boy, a police official said.

The airstrikes occurred near the northeastern town of Arsal. One impacted near a jeep, killing a boy and wounding the rest of his family while on their way to pick cherries. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't allowed to speak to the media.

Al-Manar, a television station affiliated with the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, said the strikes targeted gunmen.

Syrian warplanes occasionally strike inside Lebanon, with supporters claiming they target gunmen. Syria's conflict, now in its fourth year, has seeped into Lebanon with Islamic militants carrying out bomb attacks against Shiite and Hezbollah areas.

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With additional reporting by Albert Aji in Damascus.

MANTEO, N.C. (AP) — Businesses on two of North Carolina's barrier islands hoped to salvage the rest of the holiday weekend after Arthur clipped the state without causing major damage before churning north toward Canada and losing strength early Saturday morning.

Arthur was downgraded to a tropical storm early Saturday as its winds weakened to 70 mph (110 kph). Arthur was moving at about 22 mph and located about 65 miles southwest of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for Nova Scotia, Cape Breton Island, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick, from the U.S.-Canada border to Grand-Anse.

Meanwhile, in North Carolina, some homes and businesses were flooded, trees toppled and initially thousands were without electricity after Arthur raced through the Outer Banks on Friday, but no deaths or serious injuries were reported. Independence Day fireworks were postponed. About 20 feet of the fragile road connecting Hatteras Island with the rest of the world buckled and required repairs.

The hurricane's effects were mostly confined to Hatteras and Ocracoke islands, and some vacationers were already back on beaches to the north and south on Friday.

Gov. Pat McCrory expressed relief and started encouraging vacationers to return to the beaches, a message echoed by locals.

"This ain't no damage at all. Everybody will be able to come back probably," Lindell Fergeson of Manteo said after driving around to view the aftermath. "It just held up the Fourth (of July) for a little bit, but everything will be open again."

John Wilson was at work Friday sucking water off the floor of the flooded Manteo building he rents to an art gallery. He felt lucky that the building along the town's waterfront only took a foot of water.

"We'll be back in business in a day or two," Wilson said.

The storm that struck the state's southern coast late Thursday as a Category 2 hurricane quickly moved north Friday to cloud the skies over the Delaware and New Jersey shores. Rain from Hurricane Arthur disrupted some New York-area Independence Day celebrations but cleared in time for the nation's largest fireworks display in the East River between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for coastal areas as far north as Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and southeastern Canada. Forecasters predicted the storm would weaken before its center moved over western Nova Scotia in Canada early Saturday.

North Carolina officials worked to restore access to Hatteras Island on the island's only road. The state Transportation Department said it was aiming to restore traffic on North Carolina Highway 12 sometime Saturday, when many vacationers were due to start their weeklong cottage rentals.

Farther south, Ocracoke Island's electricity distribution system was badly damaged by Arthur, leading officials to order residents to quit using air conditioners and water heaters so that generator-supplied power could provide refrigeration and other necessities during a cycle of planned outages. A nightly curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. was declared until power was fully restored. Vacationers were being coaxed to leave with the offer of free ferry rides out.

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Associated Press reporter Jerome Bailey Jr. contributed to this report.

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Emery Dalesio can be reached at http://twitter.com/emerydalesio.

Analysts expect to see continued growth in the jobs report for June that will be issued this morning. The government is releasing the data one day early, due to the July 4 holiday.

Last month, the U.S. job market hit a milestone, finally surpassing pre-recession levels by gaining 217,000 jobs in May, the government said.

It's unclear whether that number will be outdone today; experts' estimates range from 215,000 jobs to 230,000. Stock markets have been rising on optimism ahead of the report. We'll update this post when the report emerges.

"The payroll processing firm ADP said yesterday that private employers added 281,000 jobs in June — a two-and-a-half year high," NPR's Jim Zarroli reports for today's Morning Edition. "The National Federation of Independent Businesses said hiring by small businesses increased for a ninth straight month."

AVIGNON, France (AP) — One of Europe's premier theater festivals is canceling some shows as French workers protest changes to their offseason unemployment benefits.

The director of the Festival d'Avignon, Olivier Py, told journalists in Avignon that two plays scheduled to run on Friday's opening night have been cancelled.

The CGT union announced a strike but it's unclear how many workers are taking part.

Hundreds of seasonal theater workers and other artistic workers have demonstrated in recent weeks against a plan by France's indebted government to streamline and reduce the unemployment benefits they receive in the offseason. The dispute threatens to disrupt arts festivals across the country this summer.

The Festival d'Avignon in Provence is a three-week smorgasbord of theater, dance and eclectic performances that draws visitors from around the world.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A south Arkansas woman celebrated her 116th birthday Friday with cake, a party and a new title — she's now officially the oldest confirmed living American and second-oldest person in the world, the Gerontology Research Group said.

Gertrude Weaver spent her birthday at home at the Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation in Camden, about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. This year's festivities included the new award from the Gerontology Research Group, which analyzed U.S. Census records to determine that Weaver is the oldest living American, rather than 115-year-old Jeralean Talley, who was born in 1899.

The research group, which consults with the Guinness Book of World Records, found that the 1900 Census listed Weaver as 2 years old — putting her birthday in 1898, said Robert Young, the research's group database administrator and senior consultant for Guinness.

That makes Weaver the second-oldest person in the world behind 116-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan and the 11th oldest person of all time, he said.

"Normally, 116 would be old enough to be the world's oldest person," Young said. "There's kind of heavy competition at the moment."

Weaver was born in southwest Arkansas near the border with Texas, and was married in 1915. She and her husband had four children, all of whom have died except for a 93-year-old son. Along with Census records, the Gerontology Research Group used Weaver's 1915 marriage certificate, which listed her age as 17, to confirm her birth year, Young said.

Although no birth record exists for Weaver, she celebrates her birthday each year on July 4 and did the same this year. At her 115th birthday party last year, Weaver was "waving and just eating it all up," said Vicki Vaughan, the marketing and admissions director at Silver Oaks.

"Most people want to know, 'Well, can she talk?'" Vaughan said. "Her health is starting to decline a little bit this year — I can tell a difference from last year, but she still is up and gets out of the room and comes to all of her meals, comes to activities. She'll laugh and smile and clap."

Weaver first stayed at the Camden nursing home at the age of 104 after she suffered a broken hip, Vaughan said. But Weaver recovered after rehabilitation and moved back home with her granddaughter, before returning to the nursing home at the age of 109.

Weaver cited three factors for her longevity: "Trusting in the Lord, hard work and loving everybody."

"You have to follow God. Don't follow anyone else," she told the Camden News this week. "Be obedient and follow the laws and don't worry about anything. I've followed him for many, many years and I ain't tired."

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After black voters helped Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran survive an intense Republican primary runoff against an insurgent conservative challenger, some civil rights leaders in the South want him to repay the favor.

Their request? Cochran should lead the charge in the Senate to renew a key section of the Voting Rights Act struck down last year by the Supreme Court's conservative majority.

"But for the Voting Rights Act, those African-Americans who turned out to the polls ... to support his re-election would not have had the opportunity to do so," said Mississippi NAACP President Derrick Johnson.

Cochran angered some conservatives with his unabashed appeal to Democrats in the June 24 runoff election against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who eked out a win with the support of tea party groups in the state's primary but didn't win the outright majority required to avoid a runoff against the six-term incumbent.

Black Mississippians, who AP exit polls have indicated overwhelmingly vote Democratic, have voted for Cochran in general elections in the past, but have never before been such a key voting bloc in a contested GOP contest. He must now ponder how to respond to that unusual primary coalition while mending fissures inside the state GOP, which is mostly supported by voters who are white.

That task is complicated by requests such as those made by Johnson, as well as a potential legal challenge from McDaniel. He and his supporters argue — so far without presenting any definitive evidence — that Cochran won because "liberal Democrats" voted in the June 3 Democratic primary and then in the Republican runoff three weeks later, violating the state's ban on what's called crossover voting. McDaniel said Friday on CNN that his campaign found at least 5,000 irregularities in voting, and he will mount a legal challenge "any day now."

It's just one more twist in an election that affirms politics in Mississippi and surrounding Southern states is sometimes still all about race, even a half century after President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

"One has to be careful what we ask the senator to do," said Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District of Columbia's envoy to Congress who worked in Mississippi during the civil rights movement as part of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

"Everyone expects to get votes from both sides, and he's been under attack from that," she said. "I wouldn't expect him to immediately stand up and make this his fight. His first task is to get himself back to the Senate."

Cochran was among the Republicans who generally celebrated the Supreme Court's decision a year ago to remove from the Voting Rights Act a requirement that governments in 15 states with a history of discrimination seek and win federal approval before making changes to their election laws and procedures — from polling hours to precinct borders.

"The court's finding reflects well on the progress states like Mississippi have made," Cochran said after the court ruled, adding "our state can ... ensure that our democratic processes are open and fair for all without being subject to excessive scrutiny."

Many voting rights advocates, particularly the NAACP and other minority advocacy groups, maintain that federal oversight is still needed. An effort is underway to address the court's concerns that the law was based on old data by restoring the "preclearance" requirement to four states with a recent history of voting discrimination — Georgia, Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi.

That legislation is caught in the same partisan gridlock that has stalled action on most issues in the current Congress, and Holmes said it's accepted on Capitol Hill there will be no votes before November's midterm election.

Cochran declined a request for comment about his position on that effort and hasn't said anything publicly about the Voting Rights Act since his come-from-behind win in a runoff election that featured a surge in turnout compared to the primary, particularly in counties where a majority of voters are black.

Francys Johnson, who leads the NAACP in Georgia, said he believes Cochran and his Republican colleagues in the Senate understand that minorities — and not just black voters — still need protections to ensure they can vote. But, he said, "they've got one eye on the tea party and one eye on the general population."

"Republicans have been at the heart of every major movement in civil rights in this country, whether it's in first Reconstruction after the Civil War or what I call the second Reconstruction after Jim Crow," he said. "If they don't step up, they risk losing that identity as a party of liberty."

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Barrow reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.

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On Twitter, follow Bill Barrow at https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP/ and Emily Wagster Pettus at https://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus/