LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. cable news television network MSNBC and its top anchor, Keith Olbermann, abruptly parted ways on Friday, less than three months after the liberal broadcaster was suspended for campaign donations to Democrats.

Olbermann, who had two years left on his contract, signed off for the last time on his "Countdown with Keith Olbermann" political affairs program on Friday night.

"This is the last edition of "Countdown," Olbermann said on the program, which drew over 1 million viewers a night.

"MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract," the network said in a statement. Neither Olbermann nor MSNBC gave a reason for the move.

His departure came just over two months after MSNBC briefly suspended Olbermann for giving money to three Democratic politicians during the congressional election campaign, including Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was coincidentally shot and wounded in an assassination attempt on January 8 in Tucson, Arizona.

"MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network statement said.

Olbermann, whose talks with MSNBC management about his future at the company had been going on for some time, seemed to suggest during his signoff that the decision to leave MSNBC had not been entirely his own.

"I think the same fantasy popped into the head of everybody in my business who has ever been told what I have been told, this will be the last edition of your show," he said.

He then mentioned the 1976 movie "Network," where a news anchor declares, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" and persuades viewers to yell out their windows.

Olbermann's program helped define MSNBC as a liberal voice in cable television and a counterpoint to Fox News' largely conservative bent. MSNBC is now second in cable news ratings behind Fox News and ahead of CNN.

The outspoken former sportscaster with ESPN went to work for MSNBC in 2003. He had the highest-rated host on MSNBC. The New York Times said he signed a $30 million four-year contract extension in 2008.

Olbermann would often take aim at conservative politicians and commentators, in a segment he called "The Worst Person in the World." His targets included rival commentator Bill O'Reilly from Fox News and New York 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Carl Paladino.

MSNBC is a network in transition. Comcast Corp earlier this week won approval from the Federal Communications Commission and the U.S. Justice Department for its combination with NBC Universal, the company behind MSNBC.

Once the deal closes, Comcast will acquire a 51 percent stake in NBC Universal from General Electric Co.

Jeremy Gaines, a spokesman for MSNBC, said Comcast had nothing to do with Olbermann's departure.

Comcast said in a statement it did not yet have operational control of MSNBC.

"We pledged from the day the deal was announced that we would not interfere with NBC Universal's news operations," Comcast said. "We have not and we will not."

MSNBC said it would move its relatively new show "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell" to the 8 p.m. "Countdown" time slot.

(Additional reporting by Yinka Adegoke; Editing by Peter Cooney)

SAN ANTONIO, Tex. (Reuters) – The Catholic church on Friday said it would pay nearly a million dollars to a man allegedly sexually abused at age 16 by a priest, who then tried to cover it up and hire a hit man to kill the victim.

Archbishop c said that the Archdiocese of San Antonio would pay the man, who is now 19, $946,000 to settle his lawsuit against the church.

"This is a very sad thing and very painful for me, for the church, for the family," said Garcia-Siller, who was just appointed San Antonio Archbishop in November.

Former priest John Fiala is charged with plying the unidentified boy in his parish in rural southwest Texas with booze and giving him a car in an attempt to 'groom' the boy for sexual abuse in 2007 and 2008, according to court documents.

He allegedly sexually abused the boy on several occasions on church property, frequently threatening to kill the youngster if he told anybody about the abuse, and once pointing a gun at the teen, the documents say.

Fiala was first arrested on a charge of sexual assault of a child in Kansas last September, but was released on bond. He was arrested again in November on charges that he offered an undercover Texas Ranger $5,000 to kill the teenager.

He has not yet been tried on the criminal charges.

Father Martin Leopold, who investigated the case after local officials reported concerns about Fiala, said that after his ordination into the priesthood in Nebraska, Fiala moved to Texas with a clean recommendation. This was even though a teenager in the Archdiocese of Omaha, Nebraska had complained of Fiala making a sexual advance in 2002, three years before he moved to Texas.

Fiala served as a priest at Society of our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity church in the small town of Rocksprings, which is west of San Antonio not far from the Mexican border. Neighbors said Fiala organized a youth baseball league, and reached out to troubled teens including the boy he allegedly abused.

(Reporting and Writing by Jim Forsyth, Editing by Greg McCune)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Authorities arrested 119 organized crime suspects on Thursday in what the FBI called the largest single-day operation against the Mafia in history.

The roundup, conducted with the help of former mobsters turned informants, shows the Mafia remains a threat despite decades of crackdowns that have sent its hierarchies to prison but also that the famed "omerta" code of silence is largely a myth, officials said.

More than 800 federal and local law-enforcement officials detained suspects in at least four states plus one in Italy, targeting New York's five Mafia "families," one in New Jersey and one in New England.

Sixteen grand jury indictments charged 127 suspects with murder, drug trafficking, extortion, gambling, loan-sharking and other crimes going back 30 years, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told a news conference in New York.

Five of those indicted were already in prison, putting the total number detained at 124, and three others were not in custody, the Justice Department said.

The Italian-American Mafia, also known as La Cosa Nostra with its roots in Sicily, maintains a hold on American popular culture thanks to decades of movies and television shows including "The Godfather" in 1972.

Some of the suspects were known by colorful nicknames typical of the Mafia such as "Tony Bagels," "Vinny Carwash" and "Junior Lollipops," according to the indictments.

But Holder called them "among the most dangerous criminals in our country."

"Some allegations involve classic mob hits to eliminate perceived rivals. Others involve senseless murders. In one instance, a victim allegedly was shot and killed during a botched robbery attempt. And two other murder victims allegedly were shot dead in a public bar because of a dispute over a spilled drink," Holder said.

The FBI said it worked with the Italian National Police to apprehend and charge one suspect in Italy.

STRENGTH OF MOB DISPUTED

Janice Fedarcyk, assistant director in charge of the FBI's New York Division, sought to dispel the notion that the Mafia had been debilitated or was less violent than in the past.

"Arresting and convicting the hierarchies of the five families several times over has not eradicated the problem," Fedarcyk said.

New York-based criminal defense attorney Bruce Barket disputed that claim, saying much of the strength of La Cosa Nostra was eliminated long ago and has been replaced by others such as Albanian and Russian organizations.

"Privately, law enforcement officials will tell you there isn't anybody left," Barket said. "Many of today's arrests are of older mobsters for crimes committed a long time ago."

Among those charged in New York were leaders of the Colombo and Gambino families including the Colombo street boss Andrew Russo, 76, acting underboss Benjamin Castellazzo, 73, and consigliere Richard Fusco, 74, authorities said.

Two of the Gambinos charged included consigliere Joseph Corozzo, 69, and ruling panel member Bartolomeo Vernace, 61. New England boss Luigi Manocchio, 83, was also arrested.

Howard Abadinsky, an organized crime expert from St. John's University in New York, said the sweep would likely only have a short-term effect.

"There are definitely dangerous people that have been taken off the streets," Abadinsky said. "But the sweeps provide an opportunity for the up-and-comers that have been toiling in the trenches to move up."

(Reporting by Bernd Debusmann Jr. and Jeremy Pelofsky, Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Xavier Briand and Christopher Wilson)

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – California Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of fiscal emergency on Thursday for the government of the most populous U.S. state to press lawmakers to tackle its $25.4 billion budget gap.

Democrat Brown's declaration follows a similar one made last month by his predecessor, former Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Democrats who control the legislature declined to act on Schwarzenegger's declaration, saying they would instead wait to work on budget matters with Brown, who served two terms as California's governor in the 1970s and 1980s.

Brown was sworn in to his third term early this month and has presented lawmakers with a plan to balance the state's books with $12.5 billion in spending cuts and revenue from tax extensions that voters must first approve.

Brown has said he wants lawmakers to act on his plan by March. His fiscal emergency declaration is meant to underscore that target, a spokeswoman said.

Brown's declaration, which is largely procedural, says it affirms Schwarzenegger's December declaration, giving lawmakers 45 days to address the state's fiscal troubles.

The 72-year-old governor also wants the legislature to back a ballot measure for a special election in June that would ask voters to extend tax increases expiring this year to help fill the state budget's shortfall.

Brown needs a handful of Republican votes to put the measure to voters. Republican leaders in the legislature have said they doubt those votes will come.

By contrast, the state senate president pro tem, Darrell Steinberg, told Reuters on Thursday he is backing Brown's budget plan and that he would press other lawmakers to do so as well: "I think the Brown framework is the right framework ... We intend to meet the March deadline."

(Reporting by Jim Christie; Editing by Gary Hill)

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – Representative Gabrielle Giffords can now stand with assistance, has tried to speak, and on Thursday got her first breath of fresh air since she was shot in the head 12 days ago, doctors and her husband said.

In a key turning point for her recuperation, the congresswoman is to be moved on Friday from the University Medical Center in Tucson, where she has been hospitalized since the shooting, to a special rehabilitation facility in Houston, Texas.

On her last full day at UMC, she was taken on a brief stroll in a wheelchair to the hospital's helipad for some sunshine and fresh air to lift her spirits, accompanied by physical therapists and her husband, said Jo Marie Gellerman, a spokeswoman for the medical facility.

"It was a chance to see the mountains (around Tucson) one more time before she leaves to go to Houston tomorrow," Gellerman said.

Doctors said exposure to natural daylight also was important in their efforts to get Giffords, 40, back into a regular sleep pattern.

At a news conference earlier in the day, doctors said she had come a long way in a short time given the severity of her injury.

"She is beginning to stand with assistance, she is scrolling through an iPad -- these are all fantastic advances for her. They do show higher cognitive function," Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of neurology at UMC told reporters.

"But I do want to caution ... that she has a long road ahead of her," he added.

Giffords was shot through the head on January 8 when a gunman opened fire on a crowd of constituents gathered to meet her outside a Tucson supermarket. Six bystanders including a federal judge and a 9-year-old girl were killed, and 13 others were wounded, Giffords among them.

A 22-year-old college dropout, Jared Lee Loughner, is charged with the shooting.

Giffords' husband, astronaut and shuttle commander Mark Kelly, said at the news conference he is confident his wife ultimately will "make a full recovery."

"I've told her that," he said. "She'll be walking and talking in two months. You'll see her walking through the front door of this building."

Kelly said he believes his wife already has tried to speak but remains unable to do so because of the breathing tube inserted into her windpipe through her neck.

"I feel she's made some attempts," he said. "She has a tracheostomy. Intellectually, she knows that's there, She knows what that means. In my mind, she's made some attempts."

Kelly also said he and his spouse are tremendously thankful for the outpouring of support they have received, especially from fellow residents of Tucson.

"One of the first things Gabby's going to want to do as soon as she's able is to start writing thank-you notes, and I've already reminded her of that."

Dr. Peter Rhee, the hospital's trauma medical director, was vague when asked how much Giffords is believed to know about the circumstances of the shooting. He said she has not been told much about the attack and doctors are unsure what if anything she remembers of the incident.

On Friday, Giffords will be transported to the TIRR Memorial Hermann Institute for Rehabilitation and Research in Houston, a world-class facility that treats people for conditions ranging from brain and spinal cord injury to multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.

The plan is to drive her from UMC to an airport in Tucson, then fly her by air ambulance to Houston, where she likely will be flown by helicopter to the Memorial Hermann facility, doctors said.

Memorial Hermann is regarded as one of the leading facilities of its kind in the nation. Kelly said its relative proximity to Houston, where he has family and where NASA has a major presence, were also considerations in its selection.

(Writing and additional reporting by Tim Gaynor, Steve Gorman and Alex Dobuzinskis, Editing by Greg McCune)

TUCSON, Arizona (Reuters) – A federal grand jury in Arizona indicted Jared Lee Loughner on Wednesday on charges of attempting to assassinate Democratic Representative Gabrielle Giffords and the attempted murder of two of her staff members.

Loughner, 22, is accused of opening fire on Giffords and a crowd of bystanders outside a grocery store on January 8, killing six people, including a federal judge, and wounding 13 others. He is expected to face additional federal and state charges.

Authorities have said Giffords, who remains hospitalized with a bullet wound to the head, was the gunman's primary target.

"Today's charges are just the beginning of our legal action. We are working diligently to ensure that our investigation is thorough and that justice is done for the victims and their families," U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke said in a statement.

The indictment did not include any murder charges for two other federal employees who were slain -- Judge John Roll, the chief federal judge in Arizona who had stopped at the supermarket store to talk to Giffords, or Gabe Zimmerman, the lawmaker's director of community outreach.

A five-count criminal complaint filed the day after the shooting included two first-degree murder charges for the deaths of Roll and Zimmerman. But an indictment frees the government from the need to present its case to a judge in a preliminary hearing in order to proceed to trial.

Loughner, who is being held in a medium-security prison north of Phoenix, is due to next appear in court on Monday, according to Burke's office.

The initial charges in the indictment against Loughner carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. But if he is indicted later for murder and convicted, he could face the death penalty.

JUDGES RECUSE THEMSELVES

All federal judges in Arizona have recused themselves from hearing the case against Loughner, leading to the appointment of a federal judge from California, District Judge Larry Burns from San Diego, to handle the proceedings.

The shooting spree has sparked a national debate about whether stricter gun-control measures should be adopted, including a renewed ban on high-capacity ammunition clips, and whether vitriolic political discourse was encouraging violence against politicians.

Loughner had ammunition clips that held nearly three dozen bullets, whereas traditional clips hold far fewer, according to law enforcement officials.

During the congressional debate last year over healthcare reform legislation, several lawmakers received death threats, and prosecutors filed charges in several cases.

Despite suffering a gunshot wound to the head at point-blank range, Giffords' doctors have described her survival as nothing short of a miracle. She is in serious condition at Tucson's University Medical Center.

Her congressional office issued a statement on Wednesday saying she is expected to be moved from the hospital to a rehabilitation facility in Houston on Friday, so long as her health allows.

Her medical condition was upgraded on Sunday from critical to serious after doctors removed a breathing tube that went down her throat. They replaced it with a tube inserted through her neck and directly into her windpipe.

The tracheotomy and a feeding tube prevent her from speaking, and doctors described her over the weekend as largely incommunicative. But close relatives insist she is aware of her surroundings and socially interactive.

Giffords unfastened her husband's tie and unbuttoned the top button of his shirt after he had attended a memorial service for one of the other shooting victims, and she has begun reading cards sent by school children, CNN reported Wednesday, citing an email from Giffords' mother to family and friends.

(Writing by Jeremy Pelofsky, Editing by Steve Gorman and Philip Barbara)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – U.S. leaders took meaningful steps to reduce smoking over the past year, increasing treatment options and giving the U.S. Food and Drug Administration new power to regulate tobacco, a major health group said on Thursday.

States, on the other hand, "failed miserably" at protecting citizens from the burden of tobacco use, according to the American Lung Association, which issued its annual report card on U.S. tobacco control efforts.

"President (Barack) Obama and our leaders in the 111th Congress enacted what will be regarded as the strongest tobacco control policies thus far in American history," Charles Connor, president and chief executive of the American Lung Association, said in a statement.

"While we still have a long way to go, for the first time, the administration and the Congress joined forces to squarely confront the tobacco epidemic."

But Connor said states are "failing miserably" at combating tobacco-caused disease.

"Despite collecting millions of dollars -- and in some cases billions -- in tobacco settlement dollars and excise taxes, most states are investing only pennies on the dollar to help smokers quit," he said.

The group praised work by the FDA to begin implementing tobacco control legislation, but wanted tougher action on marketing tactics being used by the tobacco industry, including the use of color-coded packaging to suggest their products are less harmful.

The American Lung Association praised the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' move to make smoking prevention and cessation efforts key elements of the government's health and wellness plans.

In contrast to progress on the federal level, states lagged well behind, with Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia getting failing marks.

And while no state got high marks, Arkansas, Montana, Maine, Oklahoma and Vermont did the best job at providing support to smokers trying to kick the habit, the group said.

The American Lung Association said states continue to raise taxes on cigarettes, but many fail to invest that money in smoking cessation programs.

"Most states are ducking the responsibility to help smokers quit," Connor said.

Each year, 443,000 people die from tobacco-related illnesses and secondhand smoke exposure, making tobacco the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Smoking costs more than $193 billion a year in health costs and lost productivity.

(Editing by Maggie Fox and Doina Chiacu)

LONDON (Reuters) – An American Christian preacher who caused global uproar by threatening to burn the Koran has been barred from visiting Britain, the British government said on Wednesday.

Florida Pastor Terry Jones, whose threat to burn Islam's holy book on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks last year provoked widespread condemnation, had been invited by a group that is critical of Islamic immigration into Britain.

"The government opposes extremism in all its forms which is why we have excluded Pastor Terry Jones from the UK. Numerous comments made by Pastor Jones are evidence of his unacceptable behavior," a spokesman for Britain's Home Office (interior ministry) said.

"Coming to the UK is a privilege, not a right, and we are not willing to allow entry to those whose presence is not conducive to the public good," he said. "The use of exclusion powers is very serious and no decision is taken lightly or as a method of stopping open debate."

Jones, who heads a tiny church called the Dove World Outreach Center, told Britain's Sky News he was "disappointed" by the ban.

"We would ask it be reconsidered and the ban lifted," Jones said.

"We feel this is against our human rights to travel and freedom of speech."

A group called "England Is Ours," on its website, said it had invited Jones to visit Britain and "join us in a series of demonstrations against the expansion of Islam and the construction of Mosques here in the UK."

Other groups had urged the British government to ban Jones.

Jones dropped his Koran-burning plan after it provoked outrage across the Muslim world and President Barack Obama said the action would have helped al Qaeda.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Michael Roddy)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Congressman Gabrielle Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, says he is certain his wife recognizes him and is making her awareness of his bedside presence known more than a week after she was shot through the head.

While doctors at University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, said over the weekend that Giffords remained mostly incommunicative, Kelly said his spouse is connecting with him through small, but distinct gestures.

"If I hold her hand, she'll play with my wedding ring," Kelly, a NASA space shuttle commander, told ABC News in his first television interview since his wife was gravely wounded in a shooting rampage on January 8.

"She'll move (the ring) up and down my finger. She'll take it off. ... She'll put it on her own finger. She'll move it to her thumb. And then she can put it back on my finger," he said.

Kelly's full interview was set to air on Tuesday night on a special edition of the prime-time program "20/20." ABC News released excerpts in advance. Portions also aired on ABC's "Good Morning America," "World News with Diane Sawyer" and "Nightline" broadcasts.

"The reason why I know that that means she recognizes me is because she's done that before," Kelly said. "She'll do that if we're sitting in a restaurant. She'll do the same exact movements."

Kelly told Sawyer in his interview that Giffords, 40, even managed to give him a 10-minute neck rub, "and I keep telling her, 'Gabby, you're in the ICU. You know, you don't need to be going this.'"

He added with a chuckle, "I'm pretty sure she wouldn't do that to somebody else. And she's looking me in the eye."

Kelly's anecdotes seemed at odds with the level of function described over the weekend by doctors, who said they had seen little sign of Giffords interacting despite upgrading her overall medical condition from critical to serious following removal of a breathing tube that ran through her mouth and down her throat.

That ventilator hose was replaced on Saturday with a tracheotomy tube inserted through her neck and into her windpipe but still leaves her unable to speak.

"She cannot socialize," Dr. Randall S. Friese, associate medical director of the hospital, told reporters on Monday.

Still, doctors said they were extremely pleased with Giffords' progress and that the next key milestone she faced would be her discharge from the hospital, marking her graduation from recovery to rehabilitation.

Giffords, a Democrat just elected to her third term representing Tucson and southern Arizona in the U.S. House of Representatives, was one of 19 people struck by gunfire at a meet-and-greet with constituents.

Six people were killed and 13 others wounded, Giffords being the most seriously hurt. A 22-year-old college dropout, Jared Lee Loughner, is in federal custody charged as the lone gunman in the attack.

Kelly acknowledged that his wife still has a difficult road ahead of her but called her a "really, really tough woman."

He also told Sawyer that he had worried for his wife's safety in the past and that they had discussed death threats she had received prior to the shooting.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Peter Bohan)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sargent Shriver, who spent four decades in public service as a member of the Kennedy family, the first director of the Peace Corps and a key warrior in Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty, died on Tuesday. He was 95.

Shriver, who had suffered from Alzheimer's disease in his final years, was surrounded by his five children and 19 grandchildren when he died in Suburban Hospital in Bethesda, Md., his family said in a statement.

Shriver, the Democratic substitute nominee for vice president in 1972 and briefly a presidential candidate in 1976, was an advocate for the poor and powerless who helped launch President Johnson's War on Poverty. He became the driving force behind social programs such as Head Start, Legal Services and VISTA.

Shriver, known as Sarge, helped his wife, Eunice Kennedy, who died on August 11, 2009, create the Special Olympics for mentally disabled children and adults in 1968. The Special Olympics, now run by their son Timothy, serves 1.4 million athletes in 150 countries.

It was Shriver's marriage in 1953 to Eunice, daughter of diplomat and businessman Joseph Kennedy, that inducted him into the legendary Kennedy family and its generations of politicians and activists.

Late in life he became a famous in-law on the other side of the political fence when his daughter, television journalist Maria Shriver, married actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who later became a Republican governor of California.

Despite his own achievements and interests, Shriver "was willing, at times, to dim his own bright star to accommodate the whole shimmering constellation of Kennedys," his biographer, Scott Stossel, wrote.

Shriver coordinated the crucial Wisconsin and West Virginia presidential primary campaigns for brother-in-law John Kennedy in 1960, and after the election he headed the search for administration appointments and staffers.

PEACE CORPS

Once Kennedy took office, Shriver prepared a report on how to spread peace and understanding between the United States and other nations by forming a volunteer corps that would work to improve the quality of life in other countries.

The report led Kennedy to sign an executive order creating the Peace Corps, a program that came to symbolize the idealistic activism of the 1960s, and Shriver became its first director.

Shriver continued to lead the Peace Corps after Kennedy's assassination in 1963 and helped to jump-start the War on Poverty before developing the plans for and directing the Office of Economic Opportunity, which provided a range of training, services and grants to the poor.

In that post, Shriver started programs such as Head Start, Job Corps, VISTA, Legal Services, Upward Bound, the Neighborhood Youth Corps and Community Action Program.

Shriver was ambassador to France from 1968 to 1970 and on his return to the United States traveled the country on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates in the 1970 election.

In 1972, Democratic presidential nominee George McGovern chose Shriver as his running mate after his first choice for the job, Missouri Senator Tom Eagleton, was revealed to have undergone electric shock therapy to treat depression.

McGovern and Shriver lost to incumbent President Richard Nixon and Vice President Spiro Agnew in a landslide.

Shriver was part of a crowded Democratic presidential field in 1976 in a race won by Jimmy Carter, who eventually defeated President Gerald Ford to win the White House.

"Over the course of his long and distinguished career, Sarge came to embody the idea of public service," President Barack Obama said in a statement.

Former President George W. Bush said Shriver left a "remarkable legacy of service."

"Mr. Shriver was a kind and compassionate man who dedicated his life to serving others. He represented the very best of America in all his endeavors," Bush said in a statement.

A Maryland native and Yale law school graduate, Shriver founded a group opposed to U.S. involvement in World War Two but later joined the Navy and renounced his anti-war stance.

After the war, he managed Joseph Kennedy's Chicago Merchandise Mart for 12 years and helped organize Illinois Governor Adlai Stevenson's unsuccessful Democratic presidential campaign in 1952.

Shriver began his public service in 1955 in Chicago, where he served as head of the Board of Education for five years and directed the Catholic Interracial Council, a group established for the desegregation of the city's schools.

Shriver and wife Eunice had five children. After he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Maria wrote a book, "What's Happened to Grandpa," to explain the disease to children.

(Additional reporting by Jo-Anne Allen, editing by Cynthia Osterman)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Nearly two-thirds of U.S. doctors surveyed fear healthcare reform could worsen care for patients, by flooding their offices and hurting income, according to a Thomson Reuters survey released on Tuesday.

The survey of more than 2,900 doctors found many predict the legislation will force them to work harder for less money.

"When asked about the quality of healthcare in the U.S. over the next five years, 65 percent of the doctors believed it would deteriorate with only 18 percent predicting it would improve," Thomson Reuters, parent company of Reuters, said in a statement.

The U.S. House of Representatives began debate on Tuesday on efforts to repeal President Barack Obama's overhaul of the U.S. healthcare industry. Repeal of the bill is likely to fail in the Senate.

Also on Tuesday, the Health and Human Services Department released a study predicting that up to 129 million Americans under 65 who have a pre-existing health condition would risk losing health insurance or be denied coverage if the bill is repealed.

Polls show consumers are divided about the impacts of healthcare reform and the House debate has presented an opportunity for many groups to make their arguments for or against it.

REIMBURSEMENT CONCERN

Thomson Reuters researchers and physician services company HCPlexus surveyed 2,958 doctors of varying specialties from 50 states plus Washington, D.C. via fax.

The survey found that 65 percent of the doctors predict healthcare quality will decline over the next five years, 18 percent say it will improve and 17 percent believe it will remain the same.

Most -- 74 percent -- believe the changes will make their reimbursement less fair, according to the survey, available at http://www.HCPlexus.com/survey.

HHS has predicted that 32 million Americans who do not currently have health insurance will receive it under healthcare reforms. When asked where most of these newly insured people would get care, 55 percent of the doctors said a nurse practitioner or physician assistant would provide care.

As for patients, 57 percent of doctors predicted the impact of the changes will be negative, 27 percent said they would be positive and 15 percent forecast a neutral effect.

"The National Physicians Survey tells us that physicians have not been enlisted in the healthcare reform process," said David Shrier, chief executive officer of HCPlexus.

"The message they've taken from healthcare reform appears to be 'Do more with less.' Doctors are telling us they feel disenfranchised and overburdened," Shrier added in a statement.

Doctors were also asked about electronic medical records, a major initiative of HHS and of healthcare reform.

There, opinions were split, with 39 percent saying electronic medical records would help patients, 37 percent saying the effect would be neutral and 24 percent saying they would hurt care.

"Our present survey suggests that greater attention should be paid to understanding the present opinions of the health care provider constituency before proceeding down a path of reform. Without the physicians supporting change it will be difficult to accomplish," the report concludes.

(Editing by Eric Walsh)