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WASHINGTON (AP) — The government wants to dramatically reduce the allowable height of potentially thousands buildings near airports around the country — a proposal that is drawing fire from real estate developers and members of Congress who say it will hurt property values.

The Federal Aviation Administration proposal, supported by airports and airlines, is driven by encroaching development that limits safe flight paths for planes that might lose power in an engine during takeoff. Planes can fly with only one engine, but they have less power to climb quickly over obstacles.

Local business leaders, who see airports as a means to attract development, say they fear office towers and condominium complexes will have to be put on hold until developers and zoning boards can figure out what the agency's proposal means for their communities. In Tempe, Arizona, for example, local Chamber of Commerce President Mary Ann Miller said she fears almost any new building in the city's downtown would face new restrictions because the community is located near the edge of Phoenix Sky Harbor's runways.

"Coming out of a very long recession, we hate the idea of stopping some growth," she said.

But airlines have to plan for the possibility that a plane could lose the use of an engine during takeoff even though that doesn't happen very often. As more buildings, cellphone towers, wind turbines and other tall structures go up near airports, there are fewer safe flight paths available. Current regulations effectively limit building heights based on the amount of clearance needed by planes with two operating engines.

Airlines already must sometimes cut down on the number of passengers and the amount of cargo carried by planes taking off from airports in Burbank and San Jose in California, and in Honolulu, Los Angeles, Miami, Phoenix, and near Washington, D.C., among others, so they will be light enough to clear obstructions if only one engine is available, said Chris Oswald, vice president of the Airports Council International-North America.

The problem is exacerbated in hot weather when air is less dense and planes require more power during takeoff. Bigger planes that carry lots of passengers and cargo on lucrative international flights are especially affected.

Airports worry that the problem could cost airlines enough money that they'll find some routes unprofitable and eliminate service, Oswald said.

The FAA's proposal would change the way the agency assesses proposals to build new structures or modify existing structures near 388 airports to take into account the hazard that would be created to one-engine takeoffs. For example, under the proposal future buildings constructed 10,000 feet from the end of a runway and within a designated flight path would have a maximum allowable height of 160 feet instead of the current limit of 250 feet, according to an analysis by the Weitzman Group, a New York real estate consulting firm. As the distance from an airport increases, the allowable building height increases as well. The proposal could affect buildings as far as 10 miles from an airport.

Planes taking off usually follow one of about a half-dozen possible flight paths. To limit the number of buildings and other structures affected by the proposal, the FAA is recommending airports and local zoning boards work together to select a single flight path for each runway that planes can use in the event that an engine quits, said John Speckin, the FAA deputy regional administrator in charge of the proposal. The new height limits would only apply to structures in that path, he said.

"We're trying to create a balance of the aviation needs and the development needs in the local community," he said in an online briefing Wednesday.

But even with that limitation, thousands of existing and planned structures would be affected, said Peter Bazeli, who wrote the Weitzman analysis. Existing buildings along the path would not have to be altered, but a property owner who wanted to increase the height of a building or replace it with a taller building might be out of luck.

"Just one flight path could cover hundreds and hundreds of acres in densely developed areas," Bazeli said. "You are going to be bumping up against some very valuable property rights."

The FAA doesn't have the authority to tell owners how high a building can be. But property owners near airports are supposed to apply to the FAA before construction for a determination on whether a proposed building or renovation presents a hazard to navigation. Erecting a building that the FAA says is a hazard is akin to building in a flood plain — insurance rates go up, mortgages are harder to get and property values decrease. Local zoning laws often don't permit construction of buildings determined to be an aviation hazard.

The FAA's proposal has created "a real estate and developer firestorm," said Ken Quinn, a former FAA chief counsel who is representing several developers. "A single building can be worth $100 million and more. If you are talking about lopping off whole floors, you can ruin the economic proposition and you can destroy the viability of the building, so you are talking about easily a $1 billion in economic impact."

Cellphone tower owners and operators are also concerned.

"A change in the maximum allowable height of infrastructure surrounding airports ... could degrade wireless service coverage and capacity," PCIA, a trade association for the wireless industry, said Wednesday in a letter to House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee members.

The real estate and wireless industries want the FAA proposal to be put through a formal rulemaking process, which can take years to complete. When an agency proposes a new rule, it also has to show that the benefits outweigh the cost to society. That makes it easier for industries to challenge the rule. FAA officials have chosen instead to treat the proposal as a policy change, eliminating the need to meet rulemaking requirements.

A bill recently introduced by Democratic Rep. Jim Moran, whose Northern Virginia district includes densely populated areas around Reagan National Airport near downtown Washington, would require the FAA to conduct a formal rulemaking. In a letter earlier this year to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, Moran and three other lawmakers expressed concern that the proposal would have a "detrimental effect on the development and marketability of airports as well as hinder job creation and shrink the tax base of local governments."

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Federal Aviation Administration explanation of proposal http://www.faa.gov/news/updates/?newsId=77004

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Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy

WASHINGTON (AP) — Six-term Sen. Thad Cochran struggled against a challenge from state Sen. Chris McDaniel in Mississippi's Republican primary runoff Tuesday, testing the appeal of decades of delivering federal largesse against conservative demands to slash government spending.

The 76-year-old Cochran, the former Senate Appropriations Committee chairman who has steered billions of dollars back home, was locked in a tight race against the tea party-backed McDaniel, who was born the year Cochran came to Washington as a congressman. When no clear winner emerged from the June 3 primary, it forced a three-week campaign dash for the nomination.

"I think it's very close, very doable," Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., said late Monday after campaigning for Cochran.

McDaniel, in a swipe at Cochran and John McCain of Arizona, a Cochran supporter, criticized "outrageous spending sprees" by the two establishment senators and pledged to stand with conservatives like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah.

The runoff is the headline race on a busy day of primaries in New York, Oklahoma, Maryland, Colorado and Utah. A special election in Florida will fill the U.S. House seat once held by Rep. Trey Radel, who resigned in January after pleading guilty to cocaine possession.

In New York, Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel, 84, who survived House censure in 2010 over financial wrongdoing, was seeking a 23rd term. State Sen. Adriano Espaillat, a Dominican-born legislator who lost by fewer than 1,100 votes in the 2012 primary, poses the toughest challenge in the majority Hispanic district that includes Harlem.

In closing arguments in Mississippi, Cochran backers portrayed him as experienced and a reliable ally for veterans and the military.

"We are facing a crisis with our veterans. We are facing a crisis internationally," McCain said after an appearance on Cochran's behalf. "His opponent has no experience or knowledge with those issues."

That pitch seemed to sway Shelia Stokley, a 55-year-old pharmacy technician who cast her ballot for Cochran Tuesday at the National Guard Amory in Morton.

"I just think he's the one we need for right now," said Stokley, 55.

Officials said more absentee ballots had been requested for Tuesday's elections than for the June 3 first round of voting, suggesting turnout might be heavier.

Outside groups, from tea party organizations to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have spent some $12 million on the race. Cochran appealed to Democratic voters — white and black — to cross over and back him, prompting tea partyers to promise to send observers to the precincts.

Conservative purists and the tea party movement, born five years ago in the fight over federal government spending and President Barack Obama's health care law, have had more losses than wins this election cycle, although the triumphs have rattled Washington.

Mainstream conservatives have turned back challenges in high-profile Senate and House races in Kentucky, North Carolina, Georgia and Idaho. Tea partyers prevailed in Texas' lieutenant governor race. Conservatives opposed to immigration reform scored a resounding win in Virginia, where little-known college professor Dave Brat knocked out House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in the Republican primary on June 10.

The Mississippi runoff was one of several internecine GOP contests.

In Oklahoma's Senate primary, two-term Rep. James Lankford, a member of the House Republican leadership, was battling T.W. Shannon, who was the state's first black House speaker and is a member of the Chickasaw Nation. National tea party groups and the Senate Conservatives Fund have backed Shannon, who also has the support of Sarah Palin and Cruz.

The winner in the solidly Republican state will replace Sen. Tom Coburn, who was diagnosed with a recurrence of prostate cancer. Coburn said a desire to focus on other issues, not his health, was the reason he was retiring with two years left in his term.

Lankford and Shannon could emerge from the crowded primary as the two candidates in an Aug. 26 runoff.

National Republicans are nervously eyeing Colorado's four-way gubernatorial primary, which includes 2008 presidential candidate Tom Tancredo, an opponent of immigration whose presence at the top of the ticket could undercut GOP prospects in November's Senate and House races.

Tancredo faces former Rep. Bob Beauprez, Colorado Secretary of State Scott Gessler and former state Sen. Mike Kopp for the right to challenge Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper, who is given the edge.

In Florida, voters in a strongly Republican district were choosing a replacement for Radel. Republican Curt Clawson, a former CEO of an aluminum wheel company, was favored to win against Democrat April Freeman and Libertarian Ray Netherwood.

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Associated Press writer Jack Elliott in Morton, Mississippi, and Philip Elliott in Washington contributed to this report.

LONDON (AP) — Wanted: Spymaster. Discretion an asset.

Britain's MI6 intelligence agency announced Thursday that director John Sawers will leave in November at the end of his five-year term.

It said the recruitment process for his successor would begin soon.

MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service, is Britain's foreign intelligence agency. Its most famous boss is the fictional M in the James Bond stories — although the real-life MI6 chief is known as C.

MI6 said Sawers — a former diplomat who advised Prime Minister Tony Blair on foreign policy — had done "an exceptional job as Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service." It did not elaborate.

Until the 1990s, the identity of the MI6 chief was kept secret. Sawers brought an unprecedented openness to the job, delivering speeches and appearing at televised parliamentary hearings.

His 2009 appointment brought allegations of a security lapse when his wife posted photos of the master spy in his bathing suit on a beach, along with personal information, on Facebook.

Then-Foreign Secretary David Miliband dismissed fears of a security breach, saying: "It's not a state secret that he wears Speedo swimming trunks."

Sawers' successor will lead an agency under increasing criticism in the wake of revelations by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is warning Mideast nations against taking new military action in Iraq that might heighten already-tense sectarian divisions.

Kerry, at a meeting of diplomats from NATO nations, was referring to Syrian airstrikes and Iranian surveillance drones in Iraq. He said Baghdad needs to take steps to ensure that Iraq's military can defend the country from a violent Sunni insurgency without relying on outside forces. The U.S. is sending 300 military advisers.

He said Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki appears to be standing by his commitment to start building a new government that fully represents its Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish population.

But he said the U.S. is watching closely to make sure any new political process does not repeat past mistakes of excluding Iraq's minorities.