Oil rises to 2-1/2 high on Mideast turmoil
Oil prices ended at 2-1/2-year highs on Thursday as supply worries tied to fighting in Libya and Middle East turmoil overshadowed demand concerns spurred by a boost in euro zone interest rates and as a major aftershock struck Japan.
Brent crude for May delivery rose for a sixth day, settling 37 cents higher at $122.67 a barrel, the highest since August 4, 2008.
U.S. May crude futures closed up $1.47 at $110.30 a barrel, the best since September 22, 2008, gaining for the fifth day in six sessions.
Brent's premium against U.S. crude, also known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), narrowed to $12.37 at the close, after ending at $13.47 on Wednesday.
Trading volumes remained lean. In London, Brent crude volume was 396,378 lots, 17 percent below the 30-day average at 3:10 p.m. EDT. In New York, U.S. crude volume hit 585,932, 9 percent below the 30-day average, with two hours left for trading.
U.S. crude rose after U.S. data showed claims for unemployment benefits fell, adding to signs of a strengthening labor market.
A major aftershock struck northeast Japan on Thursday. The latest quake added to concerns that oil demand would dip in Japan, the world's third largest economy that is already reeling from devastation caused by last month's quake and tsunami.
Analysts agreed that despite earlier divergence in Brent and U.S. crude prices, the market's upward momentum was intact as uncertainties in Libya and the Middle East continued to add to geopolitical risks.
Also of concern, OPEC member Nigeria postponed elections again in some areas, though polls will go ahead in most of the country on Saturday.
DEMAND WORRIES
As expected, the European Central Bank (ECB) lifted interest rates for the first time since the 2008 financial crisis and signaled readiness to tighten further if needed.
Dealers said markets may wobble as other central banks remove easy-money policies.
"At current crude oil prices, the risk is turning more and more to the amount of potential demand destruction,' Petromatrix analyst Olivier Jakob said.
Investors also cited worries over high euro zone debt levels and inflation as Portugal asked for an European Union bailout. A rise in euro zone rates would push up the cost of debt for countries already highly indebted.
"Products futures are high enough that too much more and it could trigger some demand destruction, especially for gasoline, with supplies pretty ample in the U.S. But the Middle East and Libya keep the uncertainty in the market," said Gene McGillian, an analyst at Tradition Energy in Stamford, Connecticut.
IMF says worth exploring borrowing from markets
The International Monetary Fund said on Thursday it was worth exploring ways that the global institution could borrow from financial markets at short notice to raise additional funding for its lending programs.
In a paper that looks at progress by the Group of 20 major economies in reforming the global monetary system, the Fund said building confidence in the IMF's ability to respond to crises may warrant looking at alternative ways of fund-raising, including turning to markets.
The G20 meets in Washington next week before semi-annual meetings of the IMF and World Bank where changes to the global monetary system will be discussed by finance ministers.
"A more secure and flexible global safety net might require mobilization of additional resources," the IMF said.
"This could have the added advantage of offering a relative safe haven asset during times of global market stress," it added.
The IMF boosted its resources in 2009-10 by turning to member countries for loans or by raising members' subscriptions through so-called quota increases. But the IMF paper noted that the process took time and may not always be politically feasible.
The IMF's largest contributors are facing rising public debts and slashing budgets at home to try to balance their budgets, making it politically difficult to make the argument to voters to lend to international financial institutions.
The IMF was called on recently to provide rescue loans alongside the European Union to Ireland and Greece as they faced market pressures to fix problems in their economies.
On Wednesday, Portugal indicated it was next to ask for financial help after its borrowing costs rose to unsustainable levels.
NEW ROLE FOR SDR
Among issues being explored to update the global monetary system is whether or not to include the Chinese renminbi in a basket of currencies that make up the IMF's special drawing rights -- an international reserve asset of the IMF.
The basket is currently made up of the dollar, euro, pound sterling and the yen. Created in 1969, it does not reflect the rising importance of China.
One of the biggest obstacles to the SDR playing a bigger role in the global financial system was technical challenges and a "great deal of consensus-building and policy coordination," the IMF report said.
The report said most of the ideas being considered to remake the global monetary system would require more collaboration among countries. In addition, some proposals would take time to implement, the report said, suggesting it could be a while before a new monetary system is rolled out.
Golf no longer Tiger and everybody else
Golf used to be Tiger Woods and everybody else.
About the only thing they had in common was how they described fair-to-middling rounds afterward, how a handful of near-misses could have changed everything. The difference, of course, was that Woods would go out the next day, and the next, and make almost everything in sight.
Now he not only sounds like everybody else, he plays like everybody else, too.
"I hit a lot of beautiful putts today and they were just skirting the edge. So hopefully," Woods said after an opening round 71 at the Masters, "those will start going in."
No one knows exactly what went wrong with his game since a stunning fall from grace some 16 months ago, perhaps least of all, Woods. Think back to a year ago here, when he was first slinking back into the game after months in hiding and a series of botched apologies. Woods finished tied for fourth, watched rival Phil Mickelson slip into a green jacket, then moved onto the next major and came even closer to winning another U.S. Open himself. Everything went downhill after that.
On Thursday, just as Woods was finishing up a three-putt bogey at No. 10, Mickelson was getting ready for the short walk from the practice putting green to the first tee.
Leading the way, his caddie, Bones Mackay, was wearing white coveralls with the coveted No. 1 on the left side of his chest, and the roar built slowly as fans on both sides of the roped-off walkway howled and leaned in for a look at the defending champion. Lefty strode into the maelstrom, waving awkwardly with his gloved right hand and wearing that goofy smile, soaking in the unqualified adulation that Woods once enjoyed and would probably kill to have again.
By any measurement, Mickelson probably had the tougher year of the two, even with the Masters win. Just as his wife and mother were recovering from bouts of breast cancer, Mickelson was afflicted with psoriatic arthritis, a setback that required him to balance his medication, diet and conditioning routine and cost him the entire second half of the season. Despite a dozen chances to supplant Woods as No. 1 in the world, he came away empty-handed.
Somewhere in the middle of that slide, Mickelson talked candidly about how hard it was to concentrate fully on golf, an admission of vulnerability that only won him more fans and the kind of thing you would never hear from Woods. Long a fan favorite, after a victory in Houston last week, Mickelson came here as the betting favorite as well, a spot Woods owned the previous 12 years. Both Mickelson, currently ranked third, and Woods, seventh, could get the top spot in world rankings with a win here.
"It would really mean a lot if he was No. 1 when I passed him," Mickelson said Tuesday in a pre-tournament interview. "That would really be cool.
"But he and I both," Mickelson added, "have some work to do on our games."
The biggest change in Woods, outwardly at least, was hiring new swing coach Sean Foley. Signs of progress have been few and far between, which might explain why, when Woods rifled his tee shot into the rough right of the third fairway and arrived a few minutes behind it, half the spectators encircling his golf ball were emboldened enough to suggest how he should hit the next shot.
"Punch out sideways," one called out.
"Hit the stinger," another said.
Woods' caddie, Steve Williams, fixed the crowd with a stare, asked for quiet and then patiently told a camera crew and spectators near the end of the clearing to move to one side or the other. Woods, meanwhile, tested how much hacksawing the bush behind him would allow, then hunkered down over the ball. He sent a low iron shot skidding back into the fairway and over the green, following it with a nifty wedge shot to set up a tap-in par. The rest of his day went much the same way — up and down.
Afterward, when someone asked Woods, "Do you walk away thinking what could have been?" he blinked.
"No," Woods replied. "I'm very pleased. I'm right there in the ballgame. I'm only six back and as I said, we've got a lot of golf left."
Pushing the same theme, another reporter asked, "What do you do when putts don't go in? Do you go to the practice green and work on it?"
"Today is one of those days where I hit beautiful putts," Woods said. "I was hitting my lines and they just weren't going in. That's fine. Its not like I was pulling or blocking it. I felt real comfortable today."
Dozens of other guys came off Augusta National on Thursday and said almost the same thing. None was as good, or likely will be as good, as Tiger Woods was once. It seems fair to start asking whether Woods will ever be that good again, too.
Bulls charge past Celtics, close in on home-court advantage
The Chicago Bulls beat Boston 97-81 on Thursday to open up a four-game lead atop the Eastern Conference and move within a victory of clinching home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Chicago (58-20), winners of 17 of their last 19 games, closed out the third quarter with an 11-4 run to pull away from the Celtics (54-24).
The Bulls allowed the Celtics just four field goals in the fourth quarter and with just four games remaining look like genuine title contenders.
MVP candidate Derrick Rose led the Bulls with 30 points and eight assists and Luol Deng scored 18 of his 23 points in the second half.
The Celtics were led by Paul Pierce with 15 points while Kevin Garnett scored 10 and Rajon Rondo and Ray Allen were limited to seven each.
Source:Reuters
Portuguese trio, Villarreal shine in Europa League
Spanish side Villarreal and Portuguese giants FC Porto put their Europa League-winning credentials on show with 5-1 wins apiece in the first leg of the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Three Portuguese sides -- Porto, Benfica and Sporting Braga -- are among the last eight of Europe's second tier club competition for the first time, boosting the chances of an all-Portuguese final at the Dublin Arena on May 18.
While 2004 Champions League winners Porto impressed with a 5-1 crushing of Spartak Moscow, Madrid-based Villarreal were just as impressive on their way to the exact same scoreline against hapless Dutch side FC Twente.
Another Dutch side, PSV Eindhoven, were on the wrong side of a 4-1 defeat to Benfica while Sporting Braga did well to come away with a 1-1 draw during their visit to Dynamo Kiev.
All three Portuguese sides are now perfectly placed to qualify for the last four following the second leg of the quarter-finals on April 14.
However Villarreal -- who have never won the title -- showed they won't be easily discounted.
Currently fourth in Spain's La Liga, the 'Yellow Submarine' wasted no time in launching wave after wave of attack on the Dutch league leaders.
The hosts left for the half-time interval 3-0 ahead after goals from Carlos Marchena, Borja Valero and Nilmar, who scored the first of a brace on the stroke of half time.
Europa League top scorer Giuseppe Rossi grabbed his ninth of the competition with a 20-yard drive in the 56th minute while Nilmar struck again 10 minutes from full time.
A momentary lapse of concentration on the part of Villarreal's defence allowed Twente striker Marc Janko to head home a consolation goal in injury time.
Benfica joined in the suspense-killing with a 4-1 rout of PSV Eindhoven, winners of the old UEFA Cup in 1978.
Pablo Aimar opened the scoring in the 37th minute, with Eduardo Salvio giving the Lisbon side a huge boost with a quick-fire brace in the 45th and 52nd minutes.
Second half substitute Zakaria Labyad hit back for PSV in the 80th minute but by then it was too little too late. Diminutive Argentine forward Javier Saviola added a goal in the fourth minute of injury time.
Braga, who eliminated Liverpool in the last round of the competition, went behind to Andriy Yarmolenko's sixth-minute opener but were back on level terms when Oleh Gusev turned into his own net seven minutes later.
Porto, who are already assured of winning the Portuguese title, won the UEFA Cup in 2003, and went on to win the Champions League a year later under the leadership of current Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho.
The northern Portuguese side staked an early claim for a place in the final thanks to a hat-trick from Colombian forward Falcao, who scored his last two goals in the final 10 minutes.
Earlier Silvestre Varela and Maicon had added one apiece, leaving Spartak Moscow, who scored a late consolation through Kirill Kombarov, virtually out of the competition.
Before deliberating, Bonds' jurors get an earful
The eight women and four men sat in the jury box for more than 4 1/2 hours, listening to angry arguments from federal prosecutors and Barry Bonds' attorneys at the end of a 12-day trial that exposed the dark world of baseball's Steroids Era.
Now, Bonds' fate is up to them.
After listening to tawdry accusations of drug use, theft and body parts that grew (Bonds' head) and shrank (his testicles), the 12-member panel gets to decide whether the home run king will become a convicted felon.
Bonds' trial on charges he lied to a grand jury more than seven years ago when he denied knowingly using performance-enhancing drugs ended Thursday with closing arguments from both sides that were filled with virulence and self-righteousness.
"There's a real irony to this case," Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Parrella concluded. "These substances that the defendant took to make himself strong — he wasn't strong. He was weak. He was too weak to tell the truth despite all the anabolic steroids."
And with that, at 3:51 p.m. PDT, U.S. District Judge Susan Illston turned to the jury box and said: "At this point ladies and gentlemen, we're turning it over to you."
The jury's first order of business when it starts deliberations Friday — the day the World Series flag is raised at nearby AT&T Park, home of Bonds' San Francisco Giants — is to elect a foreman. Then it must sort through the testimony of 25 witnesses and hundreds of exhibits that include syringes, vials and dizzying computer graphs of drug tests.
A seven-time MVP regarded as among the greatest hitters ever, Bonds is charged with three counts of making false statements and one count of obstruction of justice. His lawyers ridiculed the prosecution as being celebrity obsessed and willing to cut deals with anyone who would implicate perhaps the top player of his generation.
"It's part of an effort to demonize Barry Bonds, and it's very wrong," lead defense lawyer Allen Ruby said.
Cristina Arguedas, another of Bonds' attorneys, repeatedly took off her glasses and pointed them contemptuously at Jeff Novitzky, the tall, bald federal investigator who was seated at the prosecution table.
"They have the power to end careers and to ruin lives," she said to the jury, her voice quavering. "And nobody gets to test that evidence unless they have the wherewithal and internal strength to come to a jury trial — to you."
Bonds is charged with lying when he denied knowingly receiving steroids and human growth hormone from personal trainer Greg Anderson and for saying he allowed only doctors to inject him. An obstruction count lists four additional statements the government alleges were made to evade or mislead the grand jury.
Each count carries a possible sentence of 10 years in prison, but federal guidelines indicate a recommended total sentence of 15 to 21 months. For convictions for similar offenses in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) case, Illston sentenced two people to home confinement.
Bonds doesn't dispute that he took steroids but testified to the grand jury that Anderson told him they were flaxseed oil and arthritic balm. Parrella, in his 51-minute rebuttal that ended the trial, compared that to a teenager who arrives home glassy eyed on a Saturday night and tells his parents "I went to a bar and they told me it was just Coke."
Parrella said Bonds' plan at the grand jury was to "sell the little lie and hide the big lie" that his exploits — including the record for home runs in a season (73 in 2001) and, later, in a career (762) — were built on steroids.
"It all makes sense when you realize the defendant lied in the grand jury because he wanted to protect his secret," the prosecutor said. "It would have been embarrassing and humiliating for him to acknowledge it."
"But you know what?" he added. "Other players did."
Former AL MVP Jason Giambi, Jeremy Giambi, Marvin Benard and Randy Velarde all testified to receiving drugs from Anderson and said they knew what they were getting. Anderson has been jailed for refusing to testify, and the jurors will have to decide what to make of his absence.
Wearing a dark blue suit, light blue shirt and yellow tie, Bonds sat at the defense table, watching and listening. When the defense presentation ended, he gave lead lawyer Allen Ruby an appreciative tap on the left shoulder. Arguedas walked over to the first row of spectator benches and gave a hug to the player's mother, Pat.
While there previously had been empty spectator seats on most days in the 19th-floor courtroom, there was a line down the hallway of people waiting to get in.
After Illston read the jury instructions, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nedrow spent nearly an hour and a half summing up the government's case. He began with Bonds' appearance on Dec. 4, 2003, before the BALCO grand jury which was investigating steroid distribution to athletes.
"All he had to do was tell the truth," Nedrow said. "He chose not to tell the truth, and that's why he's here."
He said Bonds' testimony to the grand jury was unbelievable.
"He makes $17 million a year and doesn't know what he's taking," Nedrow asked rhetorically.
Ruby, speaking for 64 minutes divided by a lunch break, pointed out how Nedrow and Ross Nadel, another Assistant U.S. Attorney, switched off asking the questions 36 times during Bonds' grand jury appearance.
"A lot of the venom in the government's pursuit here is because he wasn't intimidated," Ruby said in his deep baritone. "He was not subservient. He was Barry."
Ruby and Arguedas attacked the credibility of the three primary witnesses against Bonds: former business manager Steve Hoskins, former Bonds' personal shopper Kathy Hoskins (Steve's sister), and former Bonds' girlfriend Kimberly Bell.
"When the government forms alliances with some of the people you've seen here, things can go haywire," Ruby told the jury. "And the system relies on you to make sure the system doesn't go haywire."
The defense said Steve Hoskins made up stories about Bonds after the player went to the FBI and accused him of theft, and that Kathy Hoskins went along to back her brother. Bell was described as a mistress scorned who signed false statements to secure a mortgage and exaggerated to a grand jury about Bonds' alleged decrease in testicle size that prosecutors claimed was caused by steroids.
"This prosecution in its zeal to go after Barry Bonds will forgive anybody anything, including perjury and mortgage fraud," Arguedas said. "They will forgive it if somebody is willing to say something bad about Barry Bonds."
Parrella countered the witnesses could not have all gotten together to implicate Bonds. Prosecutors played a recording Hoskins secretly made of a conversation he had with Anderson in which the trainer discusses giving the player injections.
"Count the number of conspiracies the defendant alleges," Parrella said to the jury.
He also criticized Arguedas for her aggressive questioning of a tearful Bell.
"All they could do is mock Kim Bell. All they could do is snicker at her. All they could do is rage at her," he said. "It's up to you decide whether the manner of her cross-examination was professional."
Ruby, in turn, attacked the prosecution for not presenting any witness from the grand jury to back up the government's claim that the grand jury was misled. The jury must find Bonds' statements were material — that is, important — to the grand jury investigation of BALCO.
NFL, players disagree on who should oversee talks
A day after the judge handling the NFL lockout lawsuit urged the sides to go "back to the table," the players and owners both expressed a willingness to do so. The hitch: Each offered to meet for talks in a setting the other finds unpalatable.
A lawyer representing MVP quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning and other players suing the NFL wrote U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson on Thursday to say they're willing to engage in mediation overseen by her federal court in St. Paul, Minn.
And NFL executive vice president Jeffrey Pash sent a letter Thursday to another lawyer representing players, James Quinn, with a copy going to Nelson, proposing to resume talks about 1,000 miles from her courthouse — instead returning to the Washington office of federal mediator George Cohen.
Since filing suit in Minnesota on March 11, the players repeatedly have said they only are interested in meeting with the league to discuss settling the litigation. And since the lockout began at midnight later that night, the NFL repeatedly has said it only is interested in returning to mediated bargaining.
So Thursday's flurry of letters doesn't really represent meaningful progress. There were more, too, including a message to Nelson from NFL outside counsel David Boies that referred to a conference call with the court Friday "to discuss mediation."
Boies also wrote: "The purpose of the mediation would be to negotiate a settlement not only of the issues raised in the complaints, but also the many other issues that must be resolved to permit the upcoming season to be played and for the league to operate effectively."
In his letter to Quinn, the NFL's Pash said: "We are prepared to resume discussions as promptly as possible and to have significant ownership involvement in those discussions. Our thought would be to resume discussions under the auspices of George Cohen and his colleagues at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service. After spending the better part of three weeks with us, they know the issues, they know the parties, and I think we all agree that they were effective at getting both sides to look openly at each other's positions and try to find solutions."
Pash also told Quinn: "We understand that you will want appropriate assurances that the players will not compromise any legal position as a result of entering into those discussions. We are prepared to give reasonable and appropriate assurances to that effect."
Cohen mediated 16 days of negotiations in February and March that failed to result in a new collective bargaining agreement, and the old one expired. The union dissolved itself, saying it no longer represented players in bargaining under labor law, which allowed them to sue the league under antitrust law. Owners locked out the players, creating the NFL's first work stoppage since 1987.
Boies referred to the "head start over any other potential mediator" that Cohen would have, and added, "We cannot see any reason to start back at square one with a different mediator."
Quinn, meanwhile, replied to Pash by saying: "Your invitation to 'resume' discussions in front of Mr. Cohen makes no sense as collective bargaining between the NFLPA and the NFL is over."
During Wednesday's hearing in St. Paul on the players' request for a preliminary injunction that would lift the lockout, Nelson recommended court-supervised talks, saying such negotiations should take place at "not the players' table, not the league's table, but a neutral table, if you will."
"This is really a matter that should be resolved as soon as possible," added Nelson, who said she would take "a couple of weeks" to rule on the players' bid for an injunction.
Nelson said she "would be glad to facilitate" negotiations, if the sides were interested.
"As class counsel on behalf of the Brady class, we think this is an excellent suggestion and are prepared to engage in such mediation without delay," an attorney for the players, Barbara Berens, wrote to Nelson on Thursday. "Our agreement is, of course, contingent on the NFL defendants' agreement that they will not attempt to use this, our willingness to mediate, against the Brady class in some way, for example by arguing that such mediation efforts constitute 'collective bargaining' or otherwise arise out of a 'labor relationship.'"
Also Thursday, Nelson received yet another letter accepting her offer of facilitating mediation — this one from a lawyer representing Hall of Famer Carl Eller and other retired players whose case was combined with the Brady case.
Shutdown talks yield no deal as clock ticks
Time growing short, President Barack Obama and congressional leaders failed to reach agreement Thursday night on a compromise to cut spending and head off a midnight Friday government shutdown that no one claimed to want.
Obama, House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid all said the differences had been narrowed in a pair of White House meetings during the day. They directed their aides to work through the night in pursuit of a deal.
"I expect an answer in the morning," Obama said in an appearance in the White House briefing room shortly after his second sit-down of the day with the lawmakers.
The comments capped a day in which the president, Reid, D-Nev., and Boehner, R-Ohio, bargained and blustered by turns, struggling to settle their differences over spending cuts and other issues while maneuvering to avoid any political blame if they failed.
With the economy just now beginning to create jobs in large numbers, the president said a shutdown would damage the recovery. "For us to go backwards because Washington couldn't get its act together is just unacceptable," he said. The White House announced he had postponed a scheduled trip to Indianapolis for the morning.
But agreement remained elusive, and Republicans passed legislation through the House at mid-day to fund the Pentagon for six months, cut $12 billion in domestic spending and keep the federal bureaucracy humming for an additional week. "There is absolutely no policy reason for the Senate to not follow the House in taking these responsible steps to support our troops and to keep our government open," said Boehner.
Obama flashed a veto threat even before the bill passed on a 247-181, mostly party-line vote. The administration issued a statement calling it "a distraction from the real work" of agreeing on legislation to cover the six months left in the current fiscal year, and there was no indication Reid would allow a vote on it.
As they left the White House after the evening meeting, Reid and Boehner issued a brief written statement that said they had narrowed their disagreements and said they would "continue to work through the night to attempt to resolve" the remaining ones.
Republicans want deeper spending cuts than the Democrats favor and also are pressing for provisions to cut off federal funds to Planned Parenthood and stop the EPA from issuing numerous anti-pollution regulations.
"They're difficult issues. They're important to both sides and so I'm not yet prepared to express wild optimism," said the president.
For all the brinksmanship — and the promise of more in the Senate on Friday — there was agreement that a shutdown posed risks to an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.
The political fallout was less predictable, especially with control of government divided and dozens of new tea party-backed Republicans part of a new GOP majority in the House. Twin government shutdowns in the mid-1990s damaged Republicans, then new to power in Congress, and helped President Bill Clinton win re-election in 1996.
This time, individual lawmakers worked to insulate themselves from any political damage. Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Ben Nelson, D-Neb., both seeking new terms in 2012, became the latest to announce they would not accept their congressional salary during any shutdown. "If retroactive pay is later approved, I'll direct my part to the U.S. Treasury," said Nelson.
One day before the shutdown deadline, events unfolded in rapid succession.
In a shift in position, Obama said he would sign a short-term measure keeping the government running even without an agreement to give negotiations more time to succeed.
That was one of the options available to Reid, although Boehner said he was confident Democratic lawmakers would persuade "Reid and our commander in chief to keep the government from shutting down" by signing the House-passed bill.
At the White House, a senior budget official said the impact of a shutdown "will be immediately felt on the economy."
It also would be felt unevenly, said Jeff Zients, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget. Military troops would not receive their full paychecks, but Social Security recipients would still get monthly benefits, he said.
"National parks, national forests and the Smithsonian Institution would all be closed. The NIH Clinical Center will not take new patients, and no new clinical trials will start," he added in a roll call of expected agency closings.
But the air traffic control system would stay up and running, the emergency management agency would still respond to natural disasters and border security would not be affected.
There was no indication Reid planned to bring the House-passed stopgap bill to a vote, and he accused Republicans of blocking a deal by demanding anti-abortion provisions and a blockade on Environmental Protection Agency regulations on greenhouse gas and other pollutants.
"We don't have the time to fight over the tea party's extreme social agenda," he said.
It was unclear whether the day's maneuvering marked attempts by negotiators to gain final concessions before reaching agreement, or represented a significant setback to efforts to avoid a shutdown.
Either way, Boehner pointed out that the current clash was only the first of many likely to follow as the new, conservative majority in the House pursues its goals of reducing the size and scope of government.
"All of us want to get on with the heavy lifting that is going to come right behind it, dealing with the federal debt and putting in place a budget for next year," he said.
For all the tough talk, it did not appear the two sides were too far from a deal.
Officials in both parties said that in the past day or so, Democrats had tacitly agreed to slightly deeper spending cuts than they had been willing to embrace, at least $34.5 billion in reductions.
Agreement on that point was conditional on key details, but it was a higher total than the $33 billion that had been under consideration.
It also was less than the $40 billion Boehner floated earlier in the week — a number that Republicans indicated was flexible.
There also were hints of Republican flexibility on a ban they were seeking to deny federal funds to Planned Parenthood. Officials said that in talks at the White House that stretched on after midnight on Wednesday, Republicans had suggested giving state officials discretion in deciding how to distribute family planning funds that now go directly from the federal government to organizations such as Planned Parenthood.
That would presumably leave a decision on funding to governors, many of whom oppose abortion, and sever the financial link between the federal government and an organization that Republicans assail as the country's biggest provider of abortions.
Democrats seemed unlikely to accept the proposal, and it was not clear whether it might form the basic framework for an agreement.
But Republicans quickly circulated a list of previous instances in which Obama had signed a similar provision or Reid and House Democratic leaders had supported it as part of a larger measure.
Legislation passed by the House six weeks ago called for $61 billion in cuts and dozens of non-spending provisions.
The Senate has yet to pass an equivalent bill of its own, but Congress has passed a pair of short-term measures in the intervening time to keep the government running, approving a total of $10 billion in spending cuts at the same time.
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Source:Associated Press
Trump hammers away at Obama's citizenship question
Real estate tycoon Donald Trump said Thursday he isn't convinced that President Barack Obama was born in the United States, but says he hopes the president can prove that he was.
Officials in Hawaii have certified Obama's citizenship, but "birthers" have demanded additional proof. And Trump, who is weighing whether to seek the Republican presidential nomination, says not all the questions have been answered.
In an interview broadcast Thursday, Trump told NBC News he plans to decide by June whether to run, and said that if he is the GOP nominee, "I'd like to beat him straight up," not on the basis of the question of where Obama was born.
Trump insisted he didn't introduce the citizenship issue, but he isn't letting go of it either. Since he was asked about it during an interview several weeks ago, the real estate executive said, he's looked into it and now believes "there is a big possibility" Obama may have violated the Constitution.
"I'd like to have him show his birth certificate," Trump said. "And to be honest with you, I hope he can."
Asked in the interview how genuine his presidential ambition is, Trump said, "I always take things seriously, but I've never taken it seriously like this. I wish I didn't have to do it."
"I wish this was the greatest place in the world," Trump said. But he said the United States is losing respect in the world at a time when jobs at home are vanishing. He accused Obama of giving the country "a terrible presidency."
Trump said that if the current fight over budget issues forces a shutdown, "I think the president will be blamed."
He accused Obama of conducting a confusing policy on the civil war in Libya, saying "nobody knows what's happening, and now it looks like (Libyan strongman Moammar) Gadhafi is going to beat the United States."
"I'm only interested in Libya if we get the oil," Trump said. He said Obama "doesn't have a doctrine (on foreign affairs.) Foreign affairs is, we take care of ourselves first"
Of Obama, he said, "I want him to do well. ... I love this country, but this country is going to hell. ... The world laughs at us. They won't be laughing if I'm elected president."
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Strongest aftershock since Japan tsunami kills 2
A strong aftershock ripped through northeastern Japan, killing two, injuring dozens and piling misery on a region still buried under the rubble of last month's devastating tsunami.
The quake late Thursday was the strongest tremor since the March 11 jumbo and did some damage, but it did not generate a tsunami and appeared to have spared the area's nuclear power plants. The Fukushima Dai-ichi complex — where workers have been frantically trying to cool overheated reactors since they lost cooling systems last month — reported no new abnormalities. Other facilities retained a connection to the grid or switched to diesel generators after the 7.1-magnitude quake knocked out power to much of the area.
Many people in the area have lived without water and electricity for nearly a month, and the latest tremor sunk more homes into blackness: In total, around 3.6 million households — about 60 percent of residents in the area — were dark Friday, said Souta Nozu, a spokesman for Tohoku Electric Power Co., which serves northern Japan.
Five conventional plants in the area were out, and it was not clear when power would be restored, he said.
Matsuko Ito, who has been living in a shelter in the small northeastern city of Natori since the tsunami, said there's no getting used to the terror of being awoken by shaking.
"I was almost as scared as much as last time," said the 64-year-old while smoking a cigarette outside. "It's enough."
She said she started screaming when the quake struck around 11:30 p.m.
"Something has changed," she said. "The world feels strange now. Even the way the clouds move isn't right."
Thursday's quake initiated a tsunami warning of its own, but it was later canceled. Two people were killed, fire department spokesman Junichi Sawada reported Friday. A 79-year-old man died of shock and a woman in her 60s was killed when power was cut to her oxygen tank. More than 130 people were injured, according to the national police agency.
The temblor's epicenter was in about the same location as the original 9.0-magnitude tremor, off the eastern coast and about 40 miles (65 kilometers) from Sendai, an industrial city on the eastern coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It was strong enough to shake buildings for about a minute as far away as Tokyo, about 200 miles (330 kilometers) away.
At a Toyota dealership in Sendai, most of a two-story show window was shattered, and thick shards of glass were heaped in front of the building. Items fell off store shelves and a large automated teller machine crept across the floor at a FamilyMart convenience store.
Police directed cars through intersections throughout the city on Friday because traffic lights were out. Small electrical fires were reported.
While the city is far enough inland that it largely escaped tsunami damage, people there lived without regular services for weeks. Within an hour of Thursday's quake, they rushed convenience stores and cleared shelves of ice, water and instant noodles — items that were in short supply after the bigger quake.
The operator of the tsunami-ravaged Fukushima Dai-ichi plant said there was no sign the aftershock had caused new problems there. Workers briefly retreated to a quake-resistant shelter in the complex and suffered no injuries.
After the March 11 quake knocked out power in the region, the wave flooded the plant's diesel generators, leaving the complex without any electricity. Workers have been struggling to stem a tide of radiation since, using makeshift methods to pump cooling water into the reactors. That work continued uninterrupted after the latest quake, according to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.
Other facilities along the northeastern coast remained connected to a power source Friday, and the agency said they were all under control. Backup generators kicked in at two — Rokkasho and Higashidori.
At a third north of Sendai — which has been shut down since the tsunami — one of three power lines was supplying electricity, and radiation monitoring devices detected no abnormalities. The Onagawa power plant's spent fuel pools briefly lost cooling capacity, but it resumed because a power line was available for electricity.
"It's the way it's supposed to work if power is lost for any reason," said David Lochbaum, director of the nuclear safety project for the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists.