HAVANA (Reuters) – An American aid contractor who worked in a U.S. program aimed at undermining Cuba's communist government went on trial on Friday, accused of crimes against the state, but no verdict was reached and testimony will continue on Saturday, trial observers said.

Alan Gross, 61, faces a possible 20-year sentence if convicted in a case that halted a brief period of improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations and could damage them for years if Gross is imprisoned for long.

He is accused of supplying Internet equipment, including sophisticated satellite phones, to dissidents in violation of Cuban law.

Gross spoke on his own behalf in the trial, making "a free declaration" and responding to questions from his attorneys, prosecutors and the panel of judges hearing the case, according to a Cuban government statement.

Gross and his Cuban lawyers "presented a vigorous defense today," said Peter Kahn, his U.S. lawyer, in a separate statement.

But, he said, "We respectfully urge the Cuban authorities to free Alan immediately."

The government said other witnesses also testified and evidence from investigators was presented.

Kahn attended the trial with wife Judy Gross, but Gross' defense is being conducted by Cuban lawyers.

U.S. consular officials attended the trial, but neither they nor a U.S. spokeswoman could comment. The foreign press was not allowed in the court.

The United States, at odds with Cuba for more than five decades, said he provided Internet service to Jewish groups but committed no crimes.

A casually dressed Gross was seen on Friday morning arriving at the court, located in a former residence in a Havana suburb, in a black car accompanied by a caravan of Cuban security agents. The same car and caravan were seen leaving immediately after testimony ended.

Verdicts are usually rendered quickly in Cuban trials but decisions on sentencing can take several days.

Prosecutors said they would seek a sentence of 20 years for Gross, jailed since his arrest in Havana on December 3, 2009.

POLITICAL SOLUTION?

Some observers believe a political solution will be reached that will allow Gross to go free soon.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Washington the United States was "deeply concerned" about the case and called for his release.

"He's been unjustly jailed for far too long," she said. "We call on the government of Cuba to release him and unconditionally allow him to leave Cuba and return to his family to bring an end to their long ordeal."

Judy Gross has pleaded with Cuba for his release for humanitarian reasons because their 26-year-old daughter and Alan Gross' 88-year-old mother have cancer.

Gross was a contractor for a U.S. Agency for International Development program to foster political change in Cuba.

The programs have been criticized in the United States for doing little more than provoking the Cuban government, but supporters say they are helping fight Cuba's one-party state.

Cuba was expected to use the trial to put a spotlight on U.S. activities on the island. Cuban leaders view Gross' work as part of long-standing U.S. efforts to sabotage the communist government put in place after Fidel Castro rose to power in a 1959 revolution.

In a recently leaked video of a Ministry of Interior briefing, an Internet expert equated Gross to the "mercenaries" who took part in the 1961 U.S.-backed Bay of Pigs invasion.

Internet access is limited in Cuba but the expert said the Internet is the newest front in the long ideological war between the two countries.

U.S. Jewish organizations have appealed for Gross' release but Cuban Jewish leaders have kept their distance from him. There have been reports Cuban Jews may testify against him.

"We don't need the sophisticated equipment that supposedly Gross brought to Cuba. We have legal Internet," Cuban Jewish leader Adela Dworin told Reuters.

(Additional reporting by Rosa Tania Valdes, Nelson Acosta and Esteban Israel in Havana, and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Writing by Jeff Franks; Editing by Todd Eastham and Jackie Frank)

HOUSTON (Reuters) – A U.S. Army official has recommended that the Army major charged in the 2009 shooting rampage at a Texas Army base face a court martial and possible death penalty charges, the Army said on Friday.

Major Nidal Malik Hasan, a 40-year-old Army psychiatrist who U.S. officials linked to a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen, is charged in a shooting spree at Fort Hood that killed 13 people and wounded 32 others on November 5, 2009.

Colonel Morgan Lamb, a Fort Hood brigade commander, forwarded his non-binding recommendation to Lieutenant General Robert Cone, the Fort Hood commander who will have the final word on setting a possible court martial.

"We can confirm that Lamb did recommend that the charges pending against Hasan be sent to a general court-marital authorized to consider capital punishment," the Fort Hood public affairs office said in a statement.

The statement did not set a deadline for Cone to act. Retired Colonel John Galligan, Hasan's attorney, could not be reached to comment.

Hasan did not speak during evidentiary hearings held at Fort Hood in October 2010. Instead, he silently watched the proceedings from his wheelchair. He was paralyzed from the chest down by bullet wounds inflicted by civilian police officers during the shooting.

In the rampage at the world's largest military facility, victims recalled hearing Hasan, who is Muslim, shout "Allahu Akbar" -- Arabic for "God is Greatest" -- just before opening fire on a group of soldiers undergoing health checks before being deployed to war zones in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The incident has raised concerns over the threat of "home-grown" militant attacks. U.S. officials said Hasan had exchanged e-mails with Anwar al-Awlaki, an anti-American al Qaeda figure based in Yemen.

Fort Hood is a major deployment point for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

(Editing by Jackie Frank)

DENVER (Reuters) – A 12-year-old boy was charged on Friday with murdering his parents and gravely wounding two of his siblings in a shooting and stabbing rampage in an eastern Colorado farming town.

Robert Watson, the district attorney for Kit Carson County, filed two counts of first-degree murder against the boy for the killing of his parents, Marilyn Long, 51, and her husband, Charles, 50, earlier this week.

Watson said in a telephone interview that the crime has rocked the residents of Burlington, Colorado, a rural town of 4,400 near the Kansas state line.

The filing of criminal charges against the boy, he said, will add to the grief of the community and the victims' family.

"The (Long) family is going be hurt even more," Watson told Reuters. "There is not going to be a happy ending."

Prosecutors also lodged attempted murder and aggravated assault charges against the boy for the shooting and stabbing of his nine-year-old brother, Ethan, and the slashing of his sister, Sara, 5.

The two small children remain hospitalized in Denver with serious wounds, but are expected to recover.

Because of the boy's age, the case was filed under a "juvenile petition," meaning if he is tried as an adult, those are the criminal charges he would face.

Police said the 12-year-old boy called 911 Tuesday night to report that three people were shot at his home in Burlington on the plains of Colorado, about 165 miles east of Denver.

When police responded to the residence they discovered the parents dead and the two small children with critical injuries.

Detectives questioned the boy for several hours the following day before arresting him.

A juvenile court judge on Thursday ordered the boy held without bond, and he was transferred to a youth detention facility.

Watson said he has not decided whether to try the boy as an adult. That determination, he said, will be based on psychological reports, family history, the boy's maturity level and a number of other factors.

Should prosecutors seek to try the 12-year-old as an adult, a juvenile court judge must rule to move the case to adult court, Watson said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb)

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker warned on Thursday that unless the state legislature approves a plan to reduce the power of public sector unions he will soon begin preparing layoff notices to state workers.

Speaking to reporters during a tour of the state, Walker stepped up the pressure on 14 Wisconsin Senate Democrats who have left the state to prevent a vote quorum for the union measure.

"If we fail to have the Senate Democrats come back and we fail to achieve those savings, we have to start preparing (layoff) notices by the end of this week," Walker said.

The notices could affect some 1,500 workers who would be let go in order to achieve savings to balance the budget in fiscal 2011, Walker has said.

Walker's statement increased the stakes in a bitter battle between Wisconsin Republicans, and Democrats supported by organized labor.

Walker's proposal -- to strip public sector unions of most collective bargaining rights and force them to take a vote of membership every year to continue to exist -- has sparked mass protests and a national debate on labor relations.

His proposal was approved by the state Assembly but remains stalled by the Democratic exodus from the Senate.

Labor unions and their supporters fear the anti-union measures could be adopted in other states, dealing the biggest blow to the labor movement since then-president Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

Ohio on Wednesday advanced a proposal to curtail unions and several other states are considering similar measures.

Absent Senate Democrats in Wisconsin said they are in talks with the majority Republicans about possible compromises to end a stalemate over a bill, but no deal has been reached.

Republicans on Thursday passed a resolution in the Senate that would compel the Democrats' return to Madison, and authorizes the missing senators be taken into custody if they are found in the state.

Republicans admit they have no way of enforcing the resolution.

They have also agreed to levy a $100-a-day fine on absent senators.

One of the boycotting Senate Democrats told Reuters in an interview on Thursday he remains hopeful a compromise will be reached.

"We are dealing with a matter of principle here, a matter of people's rights, and so we remain hopeful that as a consequence of our talks with Senate Republicans that there is some middle ground," state Senator Jim Holperin said.

(Reporting by Jeff Mayers and David Bailey; Writing by Andrew Stern; Editing by Greg McCune)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – Lawyers for Tucson shooting rampage suspect Jared Lee Loughner are seeking to block federal prison officials from furnishing psychological records and information about his behavior to the FBI and prosecutors while he remains in custody.

Defense attorneys filed a request for a court order against the federal Bureau of Prisons late on Wednesday, accusing the agency of violating its own guidelines through release of such information. They also say the bureau may have breached Loughner's constitutional rights to due process and protection from self-incrimination.

Loughner, a college dropout described by investigators as having a history of mental problems, is accused of opening fire at a meet-and-greet event for Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords outside a supermarket in Tucson on January 8.

Six people were killed, and 13 others, Giffords among them, were wounded. Authorities say Giffords was Loughner's primary target. She remains hospitalized at a rehabilitation center in Houston, recovering from a bullet wound to the head.

Loughner, who pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, has been in federal custody without bail since January 10.

During that time, federal prison officials have gathered and recorded "a significant amount of information" about him every day, including "privileged medical and psychological data," his legal team said in its filing.

According to their motion, Loughner has been questioned numerous times by prison staff, including psychologists, who have prepared reports containing his "verbal and nonverbal responses to their questions."

"The reports also detail his behavior, demeanor, affect, sleeping patterns, eating habits, facial expressions and other visual observations of him recorded at 15-minute increments 24 hours a day," the defense filing states.

Moreover, prison staff have "carefully memorialized visits with Mr. Loughner by his attorneys and defense team members, to include observations of what took place during some of those visits," they wrote.

The defense motion says "much of this information already has been shared by (prison officials) with FBI agents" investigating the case. His attorneys have asked the court to bar any further such disclosures and to order all materials so far provided to law enforcement by the prisons bureau to be sealed.

Robbie Sherwood, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in Phoenix, said prosecutors "would provide a response in due time."

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns has not yet ruled on the defense request.

(Editing by Steve Gorman and Greg McCune)

TRENTON, New Jersey (Reuters) – New Jersey Governor Chris Christie on Thursday recommended teachers be rated on the basis of student performance, adding to the debate over job evaluations as states look to layoffs to address budget gaps.

The release of the Christie administration's blueprint for schools, relying heavily on teacher evaluations based on student achievement, comes on the heels of his proposed fiscal 2012 budget seeking increased pension and health-care contributions from state employees.

New Jersey faces a deficit projected at $10.5 billion.

The question of how teachers are evaluated -- helping determine who is in line to be laid off -- has grown acute as states grapple with the costs of unionized public employees.

"You walk into a school, and everybody knows who the good teachers are and who the bad teachers are," Christie said at a news conference at the statehouse.

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg advocates a system of laying off teachers based on performance rather than the more traditional basis of seniority.

Christie, a rising star in the Republican Party, has been at odds with the state's unions, including the teachers' New Jersey Education Association. Union leaders say they are open to higher payments but say Christie has demonized them.

"Their charge is to protect the worst teachers," Christie said on Thursday.

As Christie spoke, shouts from a rally outside of police officers and firefighters could be heard, voicing concern over Christie's proposed budget.

Asked by reporters what impact the demonstration had on him, Christie replied: "Zero."

Christie said he is not against collective bargaining -- a hot-button issue in other states struggling to close budget gaps -- but he said he preferred state-wide contracts rather that contracts with each of the state's municipalities.

In Wisconsin, which has been leading the charge in the battle over public sector unions, Gov. Scott Walker is proposing to strip them of most collective bargaining powers.

(Additional reporting by Edith Honan; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – Ohio joined Wisconsin on Wednesday in advancing a plan to restrict public sector unions, posing a new threat to labor union power in one of the most politically and economically important states.

The Republican-controlled Ohio state senate approved a proposal to curb the collective bargaining rights of public employees and forbid government workers from going on strike.

The vote followed the Wisconsin Assembly's approval last week of a similar proposal, which has sparked mass protests and a national debate over labor relations.

In both states, the plans still must be passed by a second chamber of the legislature and signed by the states' governors. Republicans, who have been pushing the anti-union proposals, hold the governorships and legislative majorities in both Wisconsin and Ohio.

If enacted, Ohio would become the biggest U.S. state so far to impose sweeping restrictions on public sector unions.

What began three weeks ago as a dispute between Wisconsin's newly elected Republican Governor Scott Walker and state unions has blown up into possibly the biggest challenge to the labor movement since President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

Republicans say the moves are needed to rescue recession-battered state budgets from debt, but Democrats and union supporters say the proposals are an attack on organized labor that could linger into the 2012 elections.

While Wisconsin has gained more national attention, Ohio is far more important to the union movement. It has the sixth largest number of public sector union members among all U.S. states, twice the number of Wisconsin.

The Ohio proposal was narrowly approved on a Senate vote of 17 to 16, with six majority Republicans joining Democrats to vote against it.

"SHAME ON YOU"

After the vote, workers listening to the proceedings outside the Ohio Senate chambers shouted "Shame on you" and "We'll remember this."

Ohio Republican Governor John Kasich hailed the Senate vote and said it would help local governments get the economy back on track. "This is a major step forward in correcting the imbalance between taxpayers and the government unions that work for them," Kasich said.

More than 8,000 protesters converged on Ohio's capital on Tuesday to demonstrate against the proposal, which would affect workers including public school teachers, firefighters and police.

In Wisconsin, the curbs on public unions that passed the Assembly last week exempted police and firefighters.

At a news conference in Columbus with Ohio Democrats, representatives of fire and police unions complained the Ohio bill would take away their ability to bargain for safety equipment, such as bullet-proof vests.

"This bill provides for our safety to be contracted out to the lowest bidder," said Jay McDonald of the Ohio Fraternal Order of Police.

The Ohio house will debate the bill next week.

The Wisconsin proposal has been hung up in a stalemate between Walker and Senate Democrats, who fled the state on February 17 to prevent a quorum and block a vote.

The Wisconsin state Senate on Wednesday approved a resolution to fine the missing Democrats $100 a day for boycotting the vote, hoping to pressure the runaways into returning.

Walker, who proposed a two-year budget on Tuesday with deep spending and job cuts, said he was willing to compromise with Democrats on his budget plan but did not offer to negotiate on the union restrictions.

Ohio only requires a simple majority to vote on bills, so it would do the Ohio Democrats no good to leave the state.

Several other states also are considering measures affecting public sector unions, including Indiana, Tennessee, Idaho and Kansas.

But the Indiana state assembly has also stalled on a measure aimed at unions after most of its 40 Democrats left the state for neighboring Illinois, depriving Republicans of the quorum needed to pass bills.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey. Writing by Greg McCune. Editing by John Whitesides and Peter Bohan)

SEATTLE (Reuters) – A U.S. Army soldier was sentenced to 60 days of hard labor and a discharge on Wednesday after a military judge found him guilty of serious misconduct, including desecrating a corpse, beating up a fellow soldier and smoking hashish while deployed in Afghanistan.

Army specialist Corey Moore, 22, was one of a dozen 5th Stryker Brigade soldiers charged with misconduct in connection with what has become the most serious prosecution of alleged atrocities by U.S. military in Afghanistan since the war there began in late 2001.

Moore was found guilty by U.S. Army Judge Lieutenant Colonel Kwasi Hawks of stabbing a corpse and beating up Private Justin Stoner, an alleged whistle-blower who threatened to reveal the platoon's drug use.

Moore, of Redondo Beach, California, is one of seven Stryker Brigade soldiers charged with lesser crimes. Five others face murder charges in upcoming court-martial hearings.

Hawks, at Washington state's Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, ruled that after the hard labor Moore will be discharged because of bad conduct but not jailed.

He forfeits no pay and his rank is not reduced, Army spokeswoman Kathleen Turner said.

Hawks convicted Moore of unlawfully striking another U.S. soldier, conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline, and wrongfully using a Schedule 1 controlled-substance.

The judge found Moore innocent of conspiracy to commit assault and battery against Stoner and of impeding an investigation.

The Stryker Brigade cases have gained notoriety because dozens of photos, including 15 to 20 deemed by Army prosecutors to be highly sensitive because they could potentially inflame public sentiment in Afghanistan against U.S. soldiers, remain sealed from public view.

A video showed Moore stabbing a corpse, according to court documents.

Moore is the fifth soldier to be sentenced in the case.

In a related case, the court-martial of a key suspect, 22-year-old Army Specialist Jeremy Morlock, was postponed on Wednesday due to a death in his defense attorney's family.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Bohan)

COALINGA, California (Reuters) – The man serving a life sentence for the 1968 assassination of Robert F. Kennedy was denied parole for a 13th time on Wednesday, California corrections officials said.

Sirhan Sirhan's latest bid for freedom was rejected after a hearing before the Board of Parole Hearings at Pleasant Valley State Prison in Coalinga, California, where he is being held.

Sirhan, 66, will be eligible for another parole review in five years, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said.

The board did not immediately say why it denied Sirhan parole.

His lawyer, William Pepper, said that Sirhan was innocent of the assassination and has been treated unfairly.

"From what we've seen this afternoon, we're very disappointed and we're very hurt for a man whose been spending time confined when he met every one of the criteria for suitability to be released," Pepper said.

"They ignored everything we had to say and went on the emotional kick of losing a presidential candidate and loss of a national leader," he said.

Sirhan was wrestled to the ground with a gun in his hand after Kennedy was shot to death on June 4, 1968, at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, the night he won the California Democratic presidential primary.

Sirhan, who moved to the United States with his family as a child, was initially sentenced to death for the assassination of the senator, brother to slain President John F. Kennedy.

That sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972, after the California Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional.

It was Sirhan's 14th appearance before a parole board, but it was the 13th time that he was eligible for release on parole and was denied, said Doug Roberts, a spokesman for the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

At a 2003 hearing where he was also denied parole, a state Board of Prison Terms panel found Sirhan's anger and ability to cope had worsened, and that he would pose a risk to society if released. He was denied parole again in 2006.

Pepper, has suggested that Sirhan was brainwashed to target Kennedy, telling ABC News in an interview earlier this week: "There is no question he was hypno-programed."

At his trial, Sirhan declared that he killed Kennedy "with 20 years of malice aforethought."

The Palestinian-born Sirhan's motive was said to have been anger about U.S. policy in the Middle East.

(Writing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Dan Whitcomb. Editing by Peter Bohan)

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Wisconsin Republican Gov. Scott Walker unveiled a budget that makes deep cuts in spending on Tuesday, and he said the cuts could be even worse if Democrats continue to block his plan to curb the power of public sector unions.

Walker, whose proposal to restrict collective bargaining sparked huge protests and a nationwide debate, said his budget would reduce state spending by 6.7 percent and slash more than 21,000 state jobs.

He said the cuts would reduce the state's structural budget deficit by 90 percent to $250 million by the end of fiscal 2013, the lowest in recent history.

The reception Walker received from lawmakers was welcoming despite the rancorous debate raging in the Capitol for the last two weeks. Protesters were not allowed in the chamber.

Democratic state senators fled Wisconsin nearly two weeks ago to avoid voting on the measure to curtail collective bargaining for most government workers. The Democratic gambit has stalled the proposal but not killed it.

Representatives for the 14 Democratic senators who decamped to neighboring Illinois met with Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Monday but they did not return for the budget address.

"If the 14 Senate Democrats do not come home, their local communities will be forced to manage these reductions in aid without the benefit of the tools provided in the repair bill," Walker told a joint session of the legislature.

But one of those boycotting Democrats, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller, blasted the governor, saying the cuts would be devastating.

"The Governor's budget bill is quite simply balancing the budget on the backs of the middle class and working families; seniors, people with disabilities, children and small businesses," he said.

What began as a dispute in Wisconsin between a Republican governor and state labor unions has grown into what could be the biggest confrontation with organized labor since President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

President Barack Obama weighed in on behalf of the unions and Republican leaders have told him to butt out. Unions have been reliable supporters of Democrats for decades.

While only seven percent of private sector workers are unionized in the United States, more than a third of the public sector is unionized and nearly half in Wisconsin.

Outside the Capitol, protesters chanted "Hey, Hey, ho, ho, Scott Walker has got to go" during the speech, and this could be heard inside the chamber, although it did not drown out the governor's speech.

One fear of unions is that if Wisconsin approves restrictions, other states will follow and deal a serious blow to remaining union power.

In Ohio, the Republican-dominated legislature on Tuesday considered a bill like the one in Wisconsin to curtail some collective bargaining rights for public sector workers and eliminate their right to strike.

Supporters of the measure said it was needed to close the state's $8 billion two-year budget deficit, which Republicans blame on excessive promises to unionized workers.

"This isn't about deficits. This is about union-busting," said Evan Goodenow, 46, an unemployed man who was among some 8,000 protesters at the Capitol, in Columbus.

A group of 40 Democratic lawmakers in Indiana who adopted the tactic of leaving the state like their colleagues in Wisconsin, showed no inclination to return on Tuesday. They object to bills introduced by Republicans in Indiana that would give parents vouchers for private schools and restrict collective bargaining for state employees.

(Additional reporting by Karen Pierog, and James Kelleher; Writing by Andrew Stern and James Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune)

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) – More than 8,000 protesters converged on Ohio's state capital on Tuesday as state lawmakers considered a bill similar to one proposed in Wisconsin to curtail the power of public sector unions.

Republican supporters of the Ohio proposal said the limits to public workers' ability to bargain are necessary to give local governments flexibility and help reduce the state's two-year budget deficit of about $8 billion.

"In terms of people protesting, more power to them, this is democracy," said State Sen. Kevin Bacon, the Republican chair of the senate's Insurance, Commerce and Labor committee, which received a revised version of the bill Tuesday. But Bacon said "how much noise" people make isn't the issue.

Labor unions and Democrats have protested that the bill goes too far in sacrificing public workers' rights.

One unemployed protester, Evan Goodenow, 46, from Bellevue, Ohio, said he was raised by a single mother who was a union meter maid. "She would be rolling over in her grave if she knew what was going on now."

"This isn't about deficits. This is about union-busting," he said.

Bacon presided over a committee hearing Tuesday that introduced about 100 pages of amendments to the bill, and took less than 30 minutes. Democrats protested that they needed more time to review the amendments, and the hearing was adjourned until Wednesday morning. The full Senate may vote on the bill this week.

The amended bill is softened from its original form, which would have prohibited collective bargaining for 42,000 state workers in addition to 19,500 workers in the state's university and college system. This would have gone even further than the controversial collective bargaining bill being debated in Wisconsin and end a right established in 1983 for Ohio's public-sector workers.

For local governments that bargain with unions representing some 300,000 workers including police, firefighters, and public school teachers, the bill removes health care and some other benefits from the negotiating process.

The amended bill would restore collective bargaining power for public employees on wages, but also prohibit striking for any public employee on the state and local level.

Senate Republican spokesman Jason Mauk said the changes bring the bill more in line with the views of Republican Gov. John Kasich, who wanted to preserve some collective bargaining but did not want to allow strikes.

Wisconsin is in its third week of protests over its proposed collective bargaining bill. Republicans there have offered no compromises on the bill.

Like Wisconsin, Ohio has a new Republican governor and Republican majorities in both legislative houses. Democratic senators in Wisconsin have left the state to prevent Republicans from having a quorum, thus delaying a vote on the collective bargaining bill.

But Ohio only requires a simple majority to vote on bills, so it would do Ohio Democrats no good to leave the state.

"They'd be happy if we did because then they wouldn't have to listen to us," said Democratic State Sen. Joe Schiavoni, the labor committee's ranking minority member. He planned to meet with Bacon Tuesday evening and go over the amendments "with a fine-toothed comb" before the committee hearing Wednesday. "We're going to have plenty of questions tomorrow."

One of the Columbus protesters, Ann Furek, 50, of Dresden, a retired public school teacher, said she had voted Republican in the past but voted against Kasich, adding that Republicans she knows who felt Kasich would be pro-education are "disappointed."

(Editing by Jerry Norton and Greg McCune)

CAMP VERDE, Ariz (Reuters) – An Arizona jury on Tuesday heard how participants in a sweat lodge became delirious and passed out in scorching heat at a seminar hosted by self-help guru James Arthur Ray where three people died of heat-related causes.

Ray is charged with three counts of manslaughter in the deaths of three participants in his October 2009 personal growth seminar, near scenic Sedona, Arizona, a popular destination for New Age retreats.

The 56 participants in Ray's "spiritual warrior" retreat were crammed into a four-foot tall sweat lodge, packed with superheated rocks.

In an opening statement for the prosecution, Yavapai County Attorney Sheila Polk said instead of finding "enlightenment," the three participants "found death" at the five-day retreat, for which they paid nearly $10,000 each.

Polk played an audio tape made at the retreat, where Ray warned participants they should expect "the most intense heat" they had ever experienced.

"You will feel as if you are going to die. I guarantee that," he said in the recording. "... You will have to get to a point where you surrender, where it's OK to die."

Polk said the jury would hear testimony about one sweat lodge participant who screamed he was having a heart attack, and passed out as he tried to crawl outside for fresh air.

Other participants were in distress, vomiting or delirious during the sauna-like cleansing, Polk said. One man slipped and burned himself on hot rocks, which left his arm with "chunks of flesh falling off," the prosecutor said.

"Despite of all this chaos, Mr. Ray did not stop the ceremony," Polk said. "Mr. Ray continued to bring in more superheated rocks, more water and more ... steam."

"A TRAGIC ACCIDENT"

Luis Li, an attorney for the California-based motivational speaker on trial, in opening arguments said participants were sent waivers months before joining the ceremony at the Angel Valley Retreat Center, so they knew what the seminar involved.

"I am here to say they died as a result of a tragic accident, not a crime," he told jurors.

The attorney added that participants were "all adults," and could make decisions for themselves.

"They were doctors, dentists, regular folks," Li said. "Nobody was coerced."

On the day in question, 21 participants in the seminar were taken for treatment to nearby hospitals, where James Shore, 40, and Kirby Brown, 38, were pronounced dead. Liz Neuman, 49, died several days later in hospital.

Television news images of the sweat dome showed a windowless structure, covered in black roofing material.

Sweat or medicine lodges -- smaller domed or oblong structures warmed with heated stones -- have traditionally been used in ceremonies by some Native American cultures.

Li said doctors initially reported that they suspected toxins from treated wood involved in construction of the dome could have been involved, and accused the prosecution of failing to pursue the possibility.

The trial continues this week and is expected to last three to four months.

(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Greg McCune)

MADISON, Wisc. (Reuters) – Republican Governor Scott Walker on Monday gave absent Democratic lawmakers an ultimatum to return to Wisconsin within 24 hours and vote on a proposal to reduce the power of public sector unions or have the state would miss out on a huge debt restructuring.

Wisconsin Democrats meanwhile drew fresh support from President Barack Obama and a big union filed a legal complaint against the governor, as a poll suggested he would lose to his Democratic opponent if the 2010 election were held now.

Walker stepped up the pressure on 14 Senate Democrats who fled the state to avoid a vote on his bill. On Tuesday he will unveil a two-year state budget he said cuts $1 billion from funding to local governments and schools.

What began as one small state trying to rewrite the rules of labor relations has blown up into what could be the biggest confrontation with American labor unions since then-President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers in 1981.

For the second time since the controversy erupted, President Obama weighed into the debate on Monday, criticizing the Wisconsin plan without mentioning it by name.

"I don't think it does anybody any good when public employees are denigrated or vilified or their rights are infringed upon," Obama told the nation's governors gathered in Washington.

"We're not going to attract the best teachers for our kids, for example, if they only make a fraction of what other professionals make," the president said.

In response, Walker said through his press secretary that Obama misunderstood the situation, and "most federal employees do not have collective bargaining for wages and benefits while our plan allows it for base pay ... the average federal worker pays twice as much for health insurance as what we are asking."

PROTESTERS SHIVER, STAY WARY OF DEALS

Some pro-union demonstrators continued to occupy the State Capitol building after refusing to leave the previous day, but Wisconsin authorities and police barred most protesters from entering the building on Monday, leaving hundreds massed outside in frigid temperatures.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the closing "presumptively unconstitutional" and urged the Wisconsin Department of Administration to reopen the Capitol Building to the general public.

Officials plan to restrict access again on Tuesday, the day Walker gives his budget address.

"There will be some limited access," said Cullen Werwie, press secretary to Walker. Detailed plans for access will be announced on Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of protesters had occupied the building from February 15, and many were allowed to camp on the marble floors overnight once again on Sunday, defying capitol police.

Walker's budget proposal brought out an estimated 70,000 protesters on Saturday, the biggest protest crowd in the capital since the Vietnam War, and a poll released on Monday suggested that if the 2010 election could be replayed the Wisconsin governor might lose.

The Public Policy Polling survey found Walker's Democratic opponent Tom Barrett now getting 52 percent and Walker 45. Walker won with 52 percent in November. The shift came mainly from union households.

Walker's proposal would require public sector employees to pay more for pensions and health care, strip some of their unions of bargaining rights except for wages up to the rate of inflation, and require yearly union recertification votes.

It was approved by the state Assembly last week but is stalled in the Senate because of the 14 Democrats' absence.

The proposal includes a restructuring of state debt Walker says would save $165 million. He said this deal was in doubt if the Democrats did not return and that could mean more painful and aggressive spending cuts in the very near future.

Under Walker's proposal, Wisconsin's general obligation bonds would be restructured and that would push debt service payments due by March 15 into future years.

Democrats criticized Walker's estimates, quoting a report from a state fiscal analyst saying the restructuring would add more than $42 million of interest payments over the long term.

Walker has said he hoped to delay sending layoff notices to state workers if the legislature makes progress on fixing the budget deficit, according to website wispolitics.com.

But to postpone the layoffs, Walker said it will be necessary that his budget repair bill, including the move to end collective bargaining, go into effect by April 1. There has been speculation he would send out layoff notices to more than 1,000 state workers if no progress was made soon.

In a complaint filed on Monday with a state employment commission, the Wisconsin State Employees Union (WSEU) accused Walker of unfair labor practices for refusing to bargain.

"Instead of trying to find real solutions to the challenges facing the state, the governor is attempting to dictate terms. This not only in ineffective, it's against the law," AFSCME Council 24 Executive Director Marty Beil said in a statement.

The union asked the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission to require the state to bargain with the WSEU and to extend the current contract until the matter is resolved.

(Additional reporting by Stefanie Carano in Madison and Wendell Marsh in Washington; Editing by Jerry Norton)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" movie star Jane Russell, who became a controversial Hollywood sex symbol, died on Monday at the age of 89, her family said.

Russell, best known as the buxom star of 1940s and 1950s movie, died of respiratory failure at her home in Santa Maria, central California, her family said.

"Jane Russell passed away peacefully today at home surrounded by her children at her bedside," Russell's son Buck Waterfield said in a statement.

Russell, who later in life was the "full-figured girl" in television bra ads, was at her best in comedies that, subtly or not, spoofed her sexpot image and focused on her figure.

Multimillionaire producer-industrialist Howard Hughes discovered Russell and put her in her first movie, "The Outlaw," which stuck her with the sexpot image based on her bosom, the bra for which reportedly was size 38-D.

In the photos, the sultry Russell languished on a bed of straw, looking petulant as her tight-fitting peasant blouse slipped off one shoulder. Censors held up "The Outlaw" for almost three years before a limited release in 1943.

"Except for comedy, I went nowhere in the acting department," Russell said in her autobiography. "The truth is that, more often than not, I've been unhappy about the pictures I've been in."

The promotional material was so striking that in one poll Russell was voted "favorite actress" before the voters had even seen her act. Reviews of "The Outlaw" and many of her films were less kind, with one critic calling her "the queen of motionless pictures."

In 1978, she made headlines by being jailed for four days for drunken driving and began her successful battle against alcoholism.

At the age of 60, Russell's figure once again gained the attention of millions -- this time on television screens advertising a brand of bras for "full-figured" women.

Russell once told an interviewer that "Christians have bosoms, too, you know," and in her autobiography she talked about the conflict between her religious faith and her image. She also expressed regret over her extra-marital affairs, her divorce and her alcoholism.

Russell was born June 21, 1921, in Bemidji, Minnesota, and grew up in Southern California's San Fernando Valley.

Bob Hope, who once introduced the actress as "the two and only Miss Russell," teamed with her in 1948 in the Western spoof "The Paleface," which led to a sequel.

In 1953 Russell paired with Marilyn Monroe in her biggest hit, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes." "Jane tried to convert me (to religion) and I tried to introduce her to Freud," Monroe said.

Russell also had a hit with Clark Gable in "The Tall Men" in 1955. But many of her movies were quickly forgotten.

In 1952, however, as a dance hall girl in "Montana Belle," Russell sang, which led to a career singing in nightclubs and on television.

By her own account, Russell's marriage to football hero Bob Waterfield was tempestuous. They had no biological children, due to an inept back-alley abortion Russell underwent in her youth, and instead adopted three children.

She divorced Waterfield after 25 years and married actor Roger Barrett but he died three months later. In 1971, Russell married John Peoples, a retired Air Force colonel who died in 1999.

LUBBOCK, Texas (Reuters) – Calmer winds on Monday allowed an airborne assault on West Texas wildfires that destroyed dozens of homes and a dog kennel and forced hundreds of residents to evacuate.

The 50-mile-per-hour winds whipping up the blazes that scorched 120,000 acres of bone-dry grasslands subsided and helicopters and tanker planes supported firefighters on the ground employing trucks and bulldozers. But it may take days to gain control of the several separate fires, authorities said.

"It just takes so long get around those larger fires," the Texas Forest Service's Tom Spencer said.

Fires destroyed 80 homes, many around Amarillo in the Texas Panhandle, the Forest Service said. Evacuations emptied a nursing home in Colorado City and a hospital in San Angelo, and the town of Matador.

"It's just overwhelming, I just panicked," said a woman in the town of 700 who lost her home to the flames.

A 40,000-acre fire licking at the town 80 miles northeast of Lubbock was about 75 percent under control, and Matador reopened to residents on Monday, said John Gonzalez of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

One sheriff's deputy was injured in the Amarillo area, and an unknown number of dogs perished in a kennel fire as firefighters attempted a rescue.

"They stayed as long as they could, and then they just had to open up the kennels," Amarillo Fire Captain Wes Hall said.

Authorities have not determined the cause of the blazes, but the National Weather Service warned tinder-dry conditions would continue through Thursday. Dry conditions in central and southern Texas raised the fire risks there.

A 5-year-old girl died on Sunday in a highway traffic accident near Midland blamed on blinding smoke. Authorities closed a 60-mile stretch of smoke-choked Interstate highway 20 between Odessa and Big Spring, after several pile-ups.

Major fires were reported in five West Texas counties, and a mandatory evacuation order was in place in the panhandle.

Rescue workers drove down dusty back roads to ensure residents were out of the way of the fast-moving flames, said Jim Meador, an official in Motley County.

"The immediate concern right now is the homes that are out in the county, in rural areas, to make sure them folks are all right," Meador said.

(Reporting by Elliott Blackburn in Lubbock and Jim Forsyth in San Antonio; Editing by Andrew Stern and Jerry Norton)

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Dozens of protesters against proposed legislation to weaken state public unions refused to leave the Wisconsin state capitol building on Sunday and police said they would be allowed to stay the night.

Hundreds had remained in the Capitol from a massive protest rally on Saturday, with hundreds more outside in chill winter weather. Police had announced they would close the building at 4 p.m. for cleaning and custodial work.

Many filed out of the capitol building as ordered. But about 200 refused to leave, with many mingling with assembled local police and building workers. Floor polishing and other work started and protesters did not interfere.

"They are allowed to stay tonight, but we are going to go back tonight and evaluate our procedures," Charles Tubbs, head of Capitol Police, told reporters.

He said there had been no arrests for violations and the Capitol building would open again for normal business hours on Monday at 8 a.m. after maintenance with stricter rules.

"Mattresses and all the other items, they will not be allowed in here tomorrow," Tubbs said.

He said the decision to allow protesters to stay was made based on the cooperation he'd seen and the fact that "we had a large number of people who were not planning on leaving."

"We have asked and the citizens have cooperated," he said.

Protesters, some who have camped in the building since February 15, greeted the news happily, with some dancing under the rotunda.

Earlier, demonstrators outside the Capitol greeted those exiting with chants and support on Sunday afternoon.

"Let us in!" chanted the crowd. "We are Wisconsin, the whole world is watching!"

"It's cold outside, not as cold as Gov. Walker," read one sign held by a protester.

A crowd estimated at more than 70,000 people on Saturday waved American flags, sang the national anthem and called for defeat of a plan by newly elected Republican governor Scott Walker to curb public sector union collective bargaining that has galvanized opposition from the American labor movement.

Wisconsin's state Assembly approved Walker's plan early on Friday morning but Senate Democrats have fled the state to prevent a vote in that chamber, which also must pass the bill.

Walker says the plan is vital to close a budget deficit of $137 million for this fiscal year.

On Sunday, Walker said he would not back down in his confrontation with the public sector unions and repeated his threat to lay off state workers if the standoff continues.

"If we do not get these changes and the Senate Democrats do not come back, we're going to be forced to make up the savings in layoffs and that to me is unacceptable," Walker said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Protesters on Sunday rejected Walker's arguments.

"It's not about the budget," said one protester, Kevin Logan, a 36-year-old union worker from Illinois. "Everybody's made concessions. They meet what they need as far as the budget goes. It's just a ploy to bust unions, that's all it is."

Crowds thinned around the capitol after exit doors were locked. But one group continuing their calls, "The people united will never be divided."

Car horns blared in support as vehicles drove past. One demonstrator said they, as a group, will continue their actions until tomorrow. Others mentioned coming back tomorrow.

The rotunda remained full, with protesters banging drums amid chants of "Tell me what democracy looks like." Outside, a man with an accordion was laying polkas and people waiting to enter the building were chanting "Whose house?" "Our house!"

The options on the leaflets include leave peacefully, allow themselves to be escorted out, or go limp and be carried out. But police and demonstrators reported no incidents.

Hattie Chamberlin, 18, a college student from nearby Sauk Prairie who wants to be a teacher, said the people did not want to give police, a public union themselves, a hard time.

"We don't want to put them in a position where they are struggling to decide what to do," Chamberlin said. "They're fighting the same fight we are."

(Writing by David Bailey; Editing by Peter Bohan)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Frank Buckles, believed to be the last surviving U.S. veteran of World War One, has died at age 110, according to media reports Monday.

The Washington Post, quoting his daughter, said Buckles died Sunday at his farm in West Virginia.

Buckles, who celebrated his 110th birthday on February 1, lied about his age to join the army at age 16. The Missouri native was among nearly 5 million Americans who served in World War One in 1917 and 1918.

"I knew there'd be only one (survivor) someday. I didn't think it would be me," he was quoted as saying in recent years.

Buckles drove an ambulance during the war. In 1941, while working as a civilian in Manila, he was captured by the invading Japanese and held prisoner for 38 months during World War Two.

The Post said that with Buckles' death, only a 109-year-old Australian man and a 110-year-old British woman were believed to survive from the estimated 65 million people who served in the 1914-1918 war.

(Writing by Peter Cooney; editing by Tim Pearce)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – The Mexican Navy said on Sunday it arrested the alleged regional head of the feared "Zetas" drug gang in connection with this month's murder of a U.S. customs agent by a drug gang.

The Navy said in a statement that Marines arrested Sergio "El Toto" Mora, the alleged head of the Zetas in San Luis Potosi, in a Sunday morning raid in the northern city of Saltillo.

Mora was to be transported to Mexico City and handed over to the federal prosecutors' office for interrogation.

The statement did not provide further details of Mora's suspected role in the killing.

A news conference where Mora was to be presented to journalists in Mexico City was canceled shortly before it was supposed to begin Sunday evening.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Jaime Zapata died and his partner was wounded when they were ambushed in broad daylight on a major highway outside of the city of San Luis Potosi earlier this month by alleged drug gang members.

It was one of the worst attacks on U.S. law enforcement personnel in Mexico in more than a decade.

Mexico's federal prosecutors' office believes the attack was due to a mistaken identity, but it has come under heavy diplomatic pressure from Washington to capture Zapata's killers.

Security forces have already arrested six men, four women and a minor in connection with the attack, all of whom are allegedly linked to the Zetas.

Nine of those arrested were ordered held in prison for 40 days on Sunday by a Mexican judge to allow prosecutors more time to collect evidence against the suspects before they were charged.

The Zetas, formed by renegade Mexican special forces soldiers who deserted to become the armed wing of the Gulf Cartel, have grown in power. They turned on their former masters last year to battle for control of lucrative drug smuggling routes in northern Mexico.

Escalating drug violence in Mexico, a top U.S. trade partner, has caused alarm in Washington, which is providing $1.3 billion in funding and training to help battle the local cartels.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon has made crushing the cartels a top priority of his government and has sought to enhance cooperation with U.S. authorities in his fight.

More than 34,000 deaths are blamed on drug violence since Calderon took office in late 2006 and launched his army led campaign against the gangs.

(Reporting by Robert Campbell; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Paul Simao)

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) – A crowd estimated at more than 70,000 people on Saturday waved American flags, sang the national anthem and called for the defeat of a Wisconsin plan to curb public sector unions that has galvanized opposition from the American labor movement.

In one of the biggest rallies at the state Capitol since the Vietnam War, union members and their supporters braved frigid temperatures and a light snowfall to show their displeasure.

The mood was upbeat despite the setback their cause suffered earlier this week when the state Assembly approved the Republican-backed restrictions on union collective bargaining rights over fierce Democratic objections.

"I'm deeply honored to be here with you," said Peter Yarrow, a veteran of many social protests during his 50-year folk music career and a founding member of the group Peter, Paul and Mary. "If you persist, you will prevail."

What began two weeks ago as a Republican effort in one small U.S. state to balance the budget has turned into a confrontation with unions that could be the biggest since then President Ronald Reagan fired striking air traffic controllers nearly 30 years ago.

Republicans still must push the measure through the state Senate, which has been unable to muster a quorum for a vote because of a Democratic boycott.

If the plan is approved in Wisconsin, a number of other states where Republicans swept to victory in the 2010 elections could follow. Already, other legislatures including Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Idaho, Tennessee, and Kansas are working on union curbs.

Unlike previous protests, the rally on Saturday brought out thousands of union workers not directly affected by the bill, including the state's firefighters, exempted along with police from the Republican proposal. Dozens of private sector unions were represented as well at the event.

No "Tea Party" supporters of the proposal championed by Republican Gov. Scott Walker were spotted on Saturday. They staged a smaller rally of their own in Madison a week ago.

PARTY ATMOSPHERE

The rally felt more like a party than a protest.

"This is one of the largest sustained protests we have seen in Madison since the Vietnam War. And to my knowledge there were absolutely no problems," Madison Police spokesman Joel DeSpain said.

Scott Sumer, a teacher from Rockford, Illinois, just south of the Wisconsin state line, said he hoped the sustained and broad-based opposition to the Wisconsin bill would discourage lawmakers in other states from considering similar measures.

"Other governors are going to see this and think, 'I don't want to go there.'" Sumer said. "The tenacity of this movement and civility here are impressive."

Demonstrators chanted "Hey hey, ho ho, Scott Walker has got to go," as they stood directly under the office window of the state's new governor, who introduced the controversial measure as part of a budget deficit cutting bill that is moving in the Wisconsin legislature.

The stakes are high for labor because more than a third of U.S. public employees such as teachers, police and civil service workers belong to unions while only 6.9 percent of private sector workers are unionized. Unions are the biggest single source of funding for the Democratic party.

Some of the demonstrators carried signs, others pushed baby carriages, and others walked with their dogs by their sides.

The overwhelming anti-Walker sentiment of the demonstration was telegraphed in many ways, including a sign that read: "Scott Walker for President ... of Libya."

U.S. labor groups also staged rallies across the country to show solidarity with Wisconsin in fighting the proposal they see as trying to break the union movement.

BETTER WEATHER

Wearing thick outerwear and her 10-month-old son strapped to her belly, Tamarine Cornelius, 36, carried a sign that read "If Wisconsin is gonna become Mississippi than I am gonna want better weather."

"I understand that there are tough times ahead, things are going to be difficult no matter what. I think most people understand that," said Cornelius, who works for the non-profit Wisconsin Council on Children and Families.

People in the state capital of Madison, which is home to unionized state government agencies and the University of Wisconsin, are overwhelmingly opposed to the governor's plan. But Republicans said they believe there is a silent majority who voted Walker into office, and support the efforts.

Republicans appeared defiant in the face of the union protests. In Phoenix, potential Republican presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty, a former governor of Minnesota, a neighbor of Wisconsin, drew applause from "Tea Party" activists when he blasted President Barack Obama for supporting the Wisconsin unions.

"It says in the Constitution: 'In order to form a more perfect Union.' ... Mr. President, that does not mean coddling out of control public employee unions," he told some 2,000 partisans gathered for a conference.

The Wisconsin changes sought by Walker would make state workers contribute more to health insurance and pensions, end government collection of union dues, let workers opt out of unions and require unions to hold recertification votes every year. Collective bargaining would be allowed only on wage increases up to the rate of inflation.

(Reporting by James Kelleher, David Bailey and Stefanie Carano in Madison; Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Greg McCune)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thousands of people rallied in cities across the United States on Saturday to express solidarity with Wisconsin public sector unions fighting a proposal to curb their power.

"We all support the people in Wisconsin and all over the country where labor is being threatened, and we know that the real agenda of the (Wisconsin) governor and many others is just to destroy unions," said New Yorker Judith Barbanel.

Barbanel, an English language teacher at the City University of New York, joined several thousand people at a "Save the American Dream" rally at City Hall to show solidarity with protesters in Wisconsin.

People waved signs reading "Cut bonuses, not teachers," "Unions make us strong," and "Wall St is destroying America," and wore stickers that read "We are all Wisconsin."

Anne O'Byrne, 44, a philosophy professor at Stony Brook University who brought her daughter Sophia, 2, to the New York rally, said she was disturbed by events in Wisconsin.

"If we don't have collective bargaining rights I don't know what's left for workers in America," she said. "It seems important to me to resist any attempt to take away those union rights that have in fact brought us so much over the years."

Wisconsin's state Assembly on Friday approved Republican Governor Scott Walker's proposal to strip public sector unions of most collective bargaining rights. The plan now needs state Senate approval, but Senate Democrats have fled Wisconsin to prevent a vote.

About 1,000 people turned out in Chicago at the Illinois state building to show support for the Wisconsin protesters, chanting "Save the American Dream." Up to 1,000 rallied in Columbus, Ohio, while a rally in Miami attracted only about 100 people.

Even in conservative Texas, several hundred people turned out for a rally at the State Capitol in Austin that coincided with a separate rally in support of abortion rights.

As Bill Oliver's band warmed up the crowd with folksy music, protester Doug Frank, 51, said he drove from his home in Crosby , three and a half hours away, to attend his first-ever rally.

"This is finally the one that pushed me over the edge," said Frank, an oil and gas laboratory technician. "What they're trying to do (in Wisconsin) is very heavy-handed; it's un-American."

In California, protesters held a rally in front of Los Angeles City Hall, and they organized another demonstration at the San Diego County Administration Building.

Organizers said more than 3,000 people attended the Los Angeles rally, but police declined to confirm that figure.

Denver saw another gathering in support of the Wisconsin workers with police estimating that crowd at more than 1,200 people.

In New York, John Cody, 26, of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, said unions were "under assault" in the United States and some protesters had drawn inspiration from the popular uprisings in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.

"Egypt is inspiring Americans and labor movements," he said. "Unions need to work like the corporations in some ways in that the world's become a globalized economy so unions need to show acts of solidarity not only across the United States but across the world."

(Additional reporting by James Kelleher and David Bailey in Madison, Christine Stebbins in Chicago, Jim Leckrone in Columbus, Thomas Brown in Miami, Alex Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Corrie MacLaggan in Austin; editing by John Whitesides and Greg McCune)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A federal judge ordered that Galleon hedge fund founder Raj Rajaratnam must reveal taped evidence to be used in his upcoming insider trading trial set for March 8, a court document said.

U.S. District Judge Richard Holwell, who will preside over the case, ordered taped evidence be released immediately but export testimony be provided by March 22.

"Rajaratnam shall immediately identify any wiretap or consensually recorded telephone calls that he presently intends to introduce into evidence at trial and provide the government with the expert disclosures," a court document stated.

"However, with respect to experts ... Rajaratnam shall provide such disclosures by March 22."

The trial, to be held in U.S. District Court in New York, is expected to last six to eight weeks.

One-time billionaire Rajaratnam is charged with conspiracy to commit securities fraud by working with others to trade in several publicly traded companies based on insider information. The charges carry a prison sentence of up to 25 years.

He was arrested and charged in October 2009, the central figure in what U.S. prosecutors describe as the biggest probe of insider trading at hedge funds on record.

The allegations of insider trading against Rajaratnam center on a total of 35 stocks, mostly of technology companies. Galleon had $7 billion under management at its peak.

Federal prosecutors accuse Rajaratnam of making as much as $45 million in trades from confidential information about publicly traded companies.

(Reporting by Christine Stebbins)