WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Trash could pile up in the streets of the capital, the Statue of Liberty will close and astronauts will stay home if the U.S. Congress fails to reach a budget deal and the government shuts down.

Government services that are deemed as nonessential run out of funding at midnight on Friday without an agreement between Republicans and Democrats on spending for the rest of the fiscal year.

If lawmakers cannot break the logjam, some 800,000 employees will be sent home without pay when federal agencies close indefinitely.

The famed Yosemite National Park in California will be off limits to new visitors from Saturday, but will give tourists already in hotels and campgrounds until Monday to pack up and leave. Also closed to visitors will be the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor, a popular monument run by the National Park Service.

"There are thousands of people depending on this," said Commerce Department employee Trish Lister, who did not know if she would be furloughed. "I'm not worried for myself but I am disgusted by the children in Congress, particularly the Tea Party," she said.

With a midnight deadline looming, the White House and Congress scrambled to break the budget impasse.

Republicans, encouraged by the fiscally conservative Tea Party movement, pushed for deep cuts in the spending bill. They say the government needs to slim down to close the budget deficit of $1.4 trillion. President Barack Obama's Democrats say cuts that are too steep would hinder economic recovery.

A shutdown could be felt thousands of miles (km) away by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Military personnel will keep working but their paychecks would be delayed if a shutdown lasted past Tuesday.

"They will get paid but it's a disruptive thing when you've got young military families trying to make ends meet, sometimes living from paycheck to paycheck," Republican Senator Jon Kyl said.

The Pentagon warned it would not be able to pay death benefits to families of troops killed in the line of duty: a $100,000 payment used to cover funeral costs and household expenses once paychecks stop coming.

Basic visa services at U.S. embassies would be "severely curtailed" by a shutdown, the State Department said

Some astronauts, but not those in training for space station missions or active-duty military officers, would be affected by the shutdown.

"The astronaut corps, at large, will be furloughed," said Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters, spokeswoman at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Those remaining active and on duty would be about one-third of the 61-member astronaut corps.

WASHINGTON TRASH

Downtown Washington will be a lot quieter next week if there is a shutdown. Government agencies and prime tourist sites like the Smithsonian Institution museums will close.

Unlike other U.S. cities, the capital, whose government is overseen by the U.S. Congress, is prohibited from spending local dollars in the event of a federal budget impasse. It will not collect trash for the first week of a shutdown, and parking meters will not be routinely monitored, although police can still give tickets for illegal parking.

A group of Washington residents threatened to dump their garbage at House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner's basement apartment in the city in the event of a shutdown.

They warned of a protest on Saturday morning against the Republican lawmaker in a Facebook site named, "If Boehner shuts down the government I am taking my trash to his house."

Federal workers would be the worst affected. Unlike soldiers, they might never be reimbursed for the workdays they lose, although some agencies are expected to eventually pay federal employees who have to stay away from work.

Forecasting firm Macroeconomic Advisers said a weeklong shutdown would cut roughly 0.2 of a percentage point from second-quarter U.S. economic growth.

A Wall Street Journal/NBC poll found that voters would be split over who is to blame if the government does shut down. Thirty-seven percent would blame Republicans in Congress, 20 percent would blame Democrats and 20 percent would blame Obama. Seventeen percent would hold all of them responsible.

Unlike the last two shutdowns, both of which occurred in the 1990s, this one would take place during tax preparation and filing season. That would delay tax refunds to Americans who filed a paper -- rather than electronic -- tax return, which covers about 30 percent of the total number of returns.

(Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Irene Klotz in Cape Canaveral and Daniel Levine in San Francisco; Editing by Peter Cooney)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – The agency overseeing Wisconsin elections will not certify results of Tuesday's state Supreme Court race until it concludes a probe into how a county clerk misplaced and then found some 14,000 votes that upended the contest.

Michael Haas, Government Accountability Board staff attorney, told Reuters on Friday the watchdog agency was looking into vote tabulation errors in Republican-leaning Waukesha County which gave the conservative incumbent a net gain of more than 7,000 votes -- a lead his union-backed challenger seems unlikely to surmount.

"We're going to do a review of the procedures and the records in Waukesha before we certify the statewide results," Haas said.

"It's not that we necessarily expect to find anything criminal. But we want to make sure the public has confidence in the results,"

Unofficial returns in the statewide race had given the challenger, JoAnne Kloppenburg, a narrow 204 vote statewide lead over David Prosser, a former Republican legislator.

But late Thursday, the top vote counter in Waukesha County said votes she had failed to report in earlier totals resulted in a net gain of 7,582 votes for Prosser in the county.

News of the uncounted votes came as officials throughout Wisconsin were conducting county canvasses, a final review of voting records that allows the state to certify this week's bitterly contested elections.

The Supreme Court contest was widely seen as a referendum on Republican Governor Scott Walker and the curbs on collective bargaining he and his allies passed in the legislature.

Walker has defended the union restrictions, which eliminate most bargaining rights for public sector workers and require them to pay more for benefits, as a needed fiscal reform to help the state close a budget gap.

Critics saw the bill, which also eliminates automatic deduction of union dues, as a Republican attack on the single biggest source of funding for the Democratic Party.

Earlier this year the struggle over the issue made Wisconsin a focal point of a national debate over labor relations, with massive protests at the state capital and protracted maneuvering in the state legislature.

Several states are considering proposals similar to Wisconsin, and union supporters fear the laws curbing collective bargaining could spread across the country.

If Prosser wins, Kloppenburg has the right to ask for a recount -- though based on the current tally, Wisconsin law may require she pay for it herself.

In a statement, Kloppenburg said her campaign had filed an open records requests "for all relevant documentation related to the reporting of election results in Waukesha County, as well as to the discovery and reporting of the errors announced by the County."

Under Wisconsin law, county clerks have until next Friday, April 15, to complete the canvass and report the results to the GAB.

Once results from all 72 counties are in, a three-day period begins for candidates to request a recount.

If there are no delays connected to a recount, the board's deadline for certifying the results is May 15.

(Editing by Jerry Norton)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A looming government shutdown would be felt thousands of miles away by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and there could be a high political cost for the lawmakers who let it happen.

Soldiers will not get their paychecks for the duration of the shutdown, leaving their families at home struggling to pay the bills.

Some relatives are already furious.

"Thanks for sending my husband to war and not paying him in return," the wife of one soldier exclaimed on a website, fearing delayed pay in the case of a shutdown.

The sharp reaction among military families underscores the political dangers for Republicans and Democrats if they fail to reach agreement on funding the government for the remainder of fiscal 2011 by midnight on Friday.

It also shows how U.S. troops have become a lightning-rod issue in the bitter budget battle in Washington.

Americans may be able to stomach most other fallout from the threatened government shutdown, like closed national parks or museums. But delaying paychecks to troops after nearly a decade of war likely would trigger a visceral response among voters, looking ahead to the 2012 presidential elections.

Many Americans know members of the military, and often count them in their families. There are about 2.2 million active duty, National Guard and reserve members of the armed forces.

CHEERS AND BOOS

Republicans and Democrats were desperate on Thursday to shift the blame for any fallout on troops.

Democrats slammed Republicans for rejecting a measure that would have funded troops while negotiations continued.

"Republicans said no," said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

Republicans in the House passed a stop-gap spending measure that would have, among other things, ensured continued funding for the Pentagon. But President Barack Obama has said he would veto it because it also included $12 billion in additional federal spending cuts.

"If you vote against this bill, you are voting against the troops who are engaged in three wars," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers to a chorus of cheers and boos.

Democrats pushed back. The White House warned that failure to reach a deal would likely delay troops' pay, a message that Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered to troops personally in Iraq on Thursday.

Gates told a U.S. soldier in Iraq that the degree of delay would depend on the length of the shutdown.

Soldiers are usually paid twice a month. If the shutdown begins on April 8, he said, soldiers' initial paychecks would be halved. If the shutdown lasted until April 30, they would miss an entire check. They would only be repaid later.

"I hope this thing doesn't happen, because I know it will be an inconvenience for a lot of troops," Gates said.

ANGRY REACTION

Many U.S. troops live paycheck to paycheck, with the average junior enlisted member -- typically with just a high school degree -- drawing a salary of about $43,000 per year.

The online comment section of Stars and Stripes, the leading Defense Department news publication, was full of angry reaction.

"My wife is back home working and all alone. I am not there to protect her and tell her everything is going to be OK," said one service member deployed abroad.

"There are half a million troops deployed to some ragged country who depend on their paycheck. Taking that away will turn our military upside down," wrote one service member in Afghanistan on the Stars and Stripes website.

Another service member stationed in Germany with his family fretted over the impact.

"Thanks a lot Uncle Sam; you're now the black sheep in the military family," he wrote.

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan in Baghdad, Thomas Ferraro, Andy Sullivan and Alister Bull in Washington, editing by Xavier Briand)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A looming government shutdown would be felt thousands of miles away by U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and there could be a high political cost for the lawmakers who let it happen.

Soldiers will not get their paychecks for the duration of the shutdown, leaving their families at home struggling to pay the bills.

Some relatives are already furious.

"Thanks for sending my husband to war and not paying him in return," the wife of one soldier exclaimed on a website, fearing delayed pay in the case of a shutdown.

The sharp reaction among military families underscores the political dangers for Republicans and Democrats if they fail to reach agreement on funding the government for the remainder of fiscal 2011 by midnight on Friday.

It also shows how U.S. troops have become a lightning-rod issue in the bitter budget battle in Washington.

Americans may be able to stomach most other fallout from the threatened government shutdown, like closed national parks or museums. But delaying paychecks to troops after nearly a decade of war likely would trigger a visceral response among voters, looking ahead to the 2012 presidential elections.

Many Americans know members of the military, and often count them in their families. There are about 2.2 million active duty, National Guard and reserve members of the armed forces.

CHEERS AND BOOS

Republicans and Democrats were desperate on Thursday to shift the blame for any fallout on troops.

Democrats slammed Republicans for rejecting a measure that would have funded troops while negotiations continued.

"Republicans said no," said Nadeam Elshami, a spokesman for House of Representatives Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.

Republicans in the House passed a stop-gap spending measure that would have, among other things, ensured continued funding for the Pentagon. But President Barack Obama has said he would veto it because it also included $12 billion in additional federal spending cuts.

"If you vote against this bill, you are voting against the troops who are engaged in three wars," said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers to a chorus of cheers and boos.

Democrats pushed back. The White House warned that failure to reach a deal would likely delay troops' pay, a message that Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered to troops personally in Iraq on Thursday.

Gates told a U.S. soldier in Iraq that the degree of delay would depend on the length of the shutdown.

Soldiers are usually paid twice a month. If the shutdown begins on April 8, he said, soldiers' initial paychecks would be halved. If the shutdown lasted until April 30, they would miss an entire check. They would only be repaid later.

"I hope this thing doesn't happen, because I know it will be an inconvenience for a lot of troops," Gates said.

ANGRY REACTION

Many U.S. troops live paycheck to paycheck, with the average junior enlisted member -- typically with just a high school degree -- drawing a salary of about $43,000 per year.

The online comment section of Stars and Stripes, the leading Defense Department news publication, was full of angry reaction.

"My wife is back home working and all alone. I am not there to protect her and tell her everything is going to be OK," said one service member deployed abroad.

"There are half a million troops deployed to some ragged country who depend on their paycheck. Taking that away will turn our military upside down," wrote one service member in Afghanistan on the Stars and Stripes website.

Another service member stationed in Germany with his family fretted over the impact.

"Thanks a lot Uncle Sam; you're now the black sheep in the military family," he wrote.

(Additional reporting by Missy Ryan in Baghdad, Thomas Ferraro, Andy Sullivan and Alister Bull in Washington, editing by Xavier Briand)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New claims for jobless benefits fell last week and retailers racked up much stronger-than-expected sales in March, signs that high fuel prices have not knocked the economy off its growth path.

Initial claims for state unemployment aid slipped 10,000 to 382,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday, a touch below economists' expectations and firmly beneath the 400,000 level associated with steady jobs growth.

Other data showed shoppers shrugged off higher gasoline prices last month to boost sales at many retailers as improving labor market conditions encouraged discretionary spending.

Same-store retailer sales had been expected to decline for the first time since August 2009, in part because Easter falls three weeks later than last year, delaying some spending.

"The claims report is one more piece of evidence that the general labor market is improving," said Patrick O'Keefe, head of economic research at J.H. Cohn in Roseland, New Jersey.

"The economy is growing and employers are no longer laying off workers because of a weakening in the general economic conditions but rather they doing so for normal business reasons."

The claims data underscored the strengthening labor market tenor and came on the heels of a report last week showing employers added 216,000 jobs in March, with the unemployment rate falling to a two-year low of 8.8 percent.

Last week, the four-week average of unemployment claims, a better measure of underlying trends, fell 5,750 to 389,500.

With the labor market conditions firming, consumers are feeling a little more confident to loosen their purse strings.

Sales at stores open at least a year rose 1.7 percent in a tally of 25 retailers, topping expectations of a 0.7 percent decline, according to Thomson Reuters.

GASOLINE TO DISTORT RETAIL SALES

The stronger-than-expected same-store sales bode well for the government's overall retail sales report for March, which is scheduled for release next week and is expected to be heavily influenced by the high gasoline prices.

They offered some relief after other data on consumer spending suggested a moderation in the pace of economic growth early in the year after a fairly brisk pace in the fourth quarter.

Consumer spending -- which accounts for about 70 percent of U.S. economic activity -- got off to slow start in the first two months of 2011 -- held back by bad weather. Rising gasoline prices also took spending away from other sectors.

The stronger-than-expected same-store sales were little boosted by inflation, given the nature of the merchandise which economists said was less sensitive to the high energy prices.

"Consumers have held back for a long time, there is a certain amount of pent-up demand. Wage growth isn't much, but we are also seeing an increase in income because of an increase in job growth," said Steve Blitz, a senior economist at ITG Investment Research in New York.

"Job growth also means that for those who are employed there is reduced concern about being laid off so the pent up demand is coming out."

With the latest fall, initial claims for jobless benefits are now beneath the 400,000 level, which is generally associated with steady job growth, for four weeks in a row.

The four-week average has held below that mark for the sixth straight week. Economists say both measures need to drop to about 300,000 to signal a strong labor market recovery.

Signs of improvement in the jobs market were also evident in the number of people still receiving benefits under regular state programs after an initial week of aid, which fell in the week ended March 26 to the lowest level since October 2008.

However, long-term unemployment remains a major problem.

A total of 8.52 million people were claiming unemployment benefits under all programs in the week ended March 19, the latest week for which data is available.

"While the labor market has stabilized and employment may be increasing, it's not increasing so rapidly that previously unemployed people who were claiming benefits are returning to work at a fast clip," said J.H. Cohn's O'Keefe.

(Additional reporting by Jessica Wohl in Chicago; Editing by Neil Stempleman)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The Arizona House on Thursday approved a landmark bill allowing guns on campuses, making it only the second state in the nation to allow firearms to be carried at colleges and universities.

The Republican-led House voted 33 to 24 to allow firearms to be carried in the open or concealed in public rights of way, such as campus streets and roadways.

"We're allowing people to defend themselves," said Rep. David Gowan Sr., a Republican, who voted for the bill.

"The purpose of carrying a gun with you is to defend yourself against that aggressor," he added.

The measure now goes to Arizona's Republican Governor Jan Brewer. She has not said if she will sign it into law but has been a strong gun-rights advocate in the past.

If the measure is enacted, Arizona would join Utah as the only states to specifically allow such gun rights. Utah goes one step further, allowing firearms inside campus buildings.

The move comes as opponents and supporters face off across the country over gun laws, with nine states this year seeking to broaden citizens' rights to tote firearms on campuses.

Supporters of Arizona's bill argue that a person's constitutional right to bear arms should not be taken away just because he or she is on a campus. They claim that allowing guns there could save lives in the event of a campus shooting.

But the bill faced widespread opposition from college and university administrators, faculty and law enforcement officials.

Opponents claimed it would put campus police at a dangerous disadvantage in trying to prevent campus shootings.

Faculty groups at the state's three universities passed resolutions against the bill.

Rep. Steve Farley, a Democrat, said the idea strikes at the heart of higher education and will make it hard to attract top-flight faculty and staff.

"I don't believe this is a good move for us," he told legislators during the vote. "I think it compromises the key core goal of our universities ... (to) have a free and unintimidating exchange of ideas."

Other lawmakers questioned the bill because it does not specifically define what constitutes public rights of way. They said a legal challenge is likely.

(Reporting by David Schwartz; Editing by Tim Gaynor and Ellen Wulfhorst)

BOSTON (Reuters) – Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney leads potential Republican primary opponents in the early voting state of New Hampshire, but celebrity candidate Donald Trump has substantial support, according to a new poll.

Public Policy Polling's survey, released on Tuesday, showed 31 percent support for Romney, who many see as the front-runner for the Republican nomination to go up against Barack Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

That was similar to the 32 percent that Romney received in the state's 2008 primary, when he finished second to John McCain, but down from 40 percent when the group last polled in November. Romney has not officially announced a bid.

"Mitt Romney's looked like the runaway favorite in all of our New Hampshire polling to date," said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling.

New Hampshire will hold its primary on Feb 14, 2012. Candidates jockey for position in the first-in-the-nation primary, which often sets the tone for the campaign season.

Behind Romney were former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee with 15 percent support, former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich at 13 percent, and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin and Texas Congressman Ron Paul, each at 10 percent.

Tim Pawlenty, former Minnesota governor, and Minnesota Congresswoman and Tea Party favorite Michele Bachmann each got 4 percent support, while 12 percent were undecided.

The surprise was Trump, real estate magnate and host of TV show "The Apprentice," who has hinted at a long-shot bid for the nomination.

If Trump were to run, some 21 percent of New Hampshire Republicans said they would vote for him, dropping support for Romney down to 27 percent and eating away at votes for most other candidates.

"Donald Trump's the first person to hold (Romney ) to a single digit lead. He really could prove to be a serious candidate if he gets into the race." Debnam said.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 384 usual New Hampshire Republican primary voters from March 31 to April 3. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

(Reporting by Ros Krasny)

MADISON, Wis (Reuters) – A routine election for a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat that became a referendum on the state's new curbs on unionized public employees appeared too close to call early on Wednesday with the incumbent clinging to a narrow lead.

With 98 percent of the state's precincts reporting and more than 1.44 million votes counted, incumbent Justice David Prosser, who was backed by Republicans, held onto a narrow lead over JoAnne Kloppenburg, a candidate backed by Democrats and organized labor, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel newspaper and WTMJ-TV.

As of 12:41 a.m. Central time, Prosser had garnered 727,208 of the votes cast while Kloppenburg had tallied 725,205.

Officials in Eau Claire, Wisconsin were hand-counting ballots into the night, according to the website WisPolitics.com, which also reported that a number of absentee votes still needed to be counted.

If Prosser, a longtime Wisconsin judge and former Republican legislator, holds onto his lead, it will keep the state high court's 4-3 conservative majority intact.

A Prosser victory would be a setback for Democrats, who channeled their anger about the union restrictions into the Supreme Court election campaign as a proxy vote on Walker's policies.

The race was the first statewide contest since Republicans approved controversial restrictions on the union rights of Wisconsin's public workers last month.

It took on extra importance when opponents of the anti-union measure sued to have the restrictions overturned, a legal challenge that is likely to eventually be heard by the state Supreme Court.

Walker has defended the union restrictions, which eliminate most bargaining rights for public sector workers and require them to pay more for benefits, as a needed fiscal reform to help the state close a budget gap.

Critics saw the bill, which eliminates automatic deduction of union dues, as a Republican attack on the single biggest source of funding for the Democratic Party.

Wisconsin became a focal point of a national debate over labor relations, with massive protests at the state capital and a protracted battle in the state legislature. Several states are considering proposals similar to Wisconsin and union supporters fear the laws curbing collective bargaining could spread across the country.

Under Wisconsin law, election recounts are not automatic no matter how close the race. Candidates must request a recount and the cost is free provided the vote difference is less than one half of 1 percent. For margins greater than that candidates have to pay part or all of the costs, according to Wispolitics.

(Writing by James Kelleher; Editing by Greg McCune)

DENVER (Reuters) -A pot-growing trailer known as the "GrowBot" was stolen from a medical marijuana trade show in Denver over the weekend, and the owner on Tuesday offered a $5,000 reward for its return.

Greg Childre, who builds custom trailers for a variety of crops at his Georgia manufacturing plan, said the trailer was stolen from the High Times Medical Cannabis Cup in Denver late Sunday night.

The 28-foot long "GrowBot" trailer was driven out of the trade show parking lot in full view of security guards, Childre said.

Parking lot surveillance cameras captured the crime, but did not detect the license plates of the Dodge truck that hitched up the trailer and drove off, he said.

Childre told Reuters the trailer is computerized, and is stocked with grow lights and security devices.

"Anything you need to grow in a controlled environment," he said. "It has all the bells and whistles."

Childre said he builds the trailers for other crops, including mushrooms and blueberries, but most of his business is derived from the medical marijuana industry.

The trailer is valued at $50,000, and there was no marijuana inside the vehicle, he said.

(Reporting by Keith Coffman; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California man accused of abducting 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard in 1991 and holding her captive for 18 years will plead guilty this week, a lawyer for his wife and co-defendant said on Monday.

Phillip Garrido, 59, has agreed to plead guilty under a deal with prosecutors that will avoid a trial but likely send him to prison for life, attorney Steve Tapson, who represents Nancy Garrido, told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"He wants to not put Jaycee through a trial and he wants to help Nancy and he's already confessed to it anyway," Tapson said.

Tapson said Nancy Garrido, 55, was still set to stand trial despite his efforts to negotiate a plea deal that would spare her a life prison term.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the case and a public defender appointed to represent Phillip Garrido was in court on Monday afternoon and could not be reached.

The Garridos are charged with snatching Dugard, then 11, from a street near her South Lake Tahoe home on June 10, 1991 and holding her captive in a squalid compound behind their home near Antioch for nearly two decades.

Authorities say Phillip Garrido fathered two girls with Dugard and kept them concealed until the convicted rapist aroused the suspicion of police while proselytizing at a college campus.

Dugard's rescue at the age of 29 made international headlines.

Tapson said both Garridos had given "full confessions" to El Dorado County authorities.

He said Nancy Garrido should be shown some mercy by the court because she has no prior criminal record and was under her husband's sway at the time of the abduction.

The couple met at the federal prison in Leavenworth, where Phillip Garrido was serving time for rape and Nancy was visiting another prisoner.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb)

PHOENIX (Reuters) – The Supreme Court has granted a stay of execution for a convicted killer in Arizona who was due to die by lethal injection on Tuesday, but the inmate could still be executed this week if the court rejects a petition from his lawyers.

Daniel Wayne Cook, 49, was convicted in 1988 of first degree murder for the killings of Carlos Froyan Cruz-Ramos and Kevin Swaney, together with an accomplice, John Matzke.

He was due to be executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Florence, southeast of Phoenix, at 10 a.m. Tuesday, but the execution was canceled after the U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay on Monday, the Arizona Department of Corrections said in a statement.

The stay came in response to a petition arguing Cook did not have effective legal representation during his trial or appeals process, according to documents filed with the U.S. Supreme Court.

The state's death warrant is valid for 24 hours. If the U.S. Supreme Court rejects the petition, Cook could still be executed on Tuesday, Arizona Supreme Court spokeswoman Jennifer Liewer said.

However, if the execution is not carried out before 10 a.m. on Wednesday, a new date will have to be set, Liewer said.

On July 19, 1987, Cook and Matzke tortured Cruz-Ramos for several hours before crushing his throat with a metal pipe. All three shared an apartment and worked in the same restaurant.

When another co-worker arrived at the apartment, Cook and Matzke strangled him. Matzke pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and testified against Cook.

Cook lost an attempt to block his execution by lethal injection on Friday when a U.S. appeals court ruled authorities could use a controversial drug, sodium thiopental, as part of a lethal cocktail.

Cook's attorneys argued past inmates executed with the drug had their eyes open during their execution, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was not convinced that meant the inmates suffered severe pain.

(Reporting by Tim Gaynor; additional reporting by David Schwartz: Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama yielded to political opposition Monday, agreeing to try the self-professed mastermind of the September 11 attacks in a military tribunal at Guantanamo and not in a civilian court as he had promised.

Attorney General Eric Holder blamed lawmakers for the policy reversal, saying their December decision to block funding for prosecuting the 9/11 suspects in a New York court "tied our hands" and forced the administration to resume military trials.

His announcement was an embarrassing reversal of the administration's decision in November 2009 to try September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-conspirators in a court near the site of the World Trade Center attack that killed nearly 3,000 people.

That decision had been welcomed by civil rights groups but strongly opposed by many lawmakers -- especially Republicans -- and New Yorkers, who cheered Holder's announcement that the Obama administration had reversed course.

In moving the case back to the military system, the Justice Department unsealed a nine-count criminal indictment that detailed how Mohammed trained the 9/11 hijackers to use short-bladed knives by killing sheep and camels.

Another of the five -- Walid bin Attash -- tested air security by carrying a pocket knife and wandering close to the doors of aircraft cockpits to check for reactions, said the indictment, which prosecutors asked the court to drop so the case can be handled by a military commission.

PRISON STILL HOLDS 172 PEOPLE

The decision to abandon civilian prosecution was an admission that Obama has not been able to overcome political opposition to his effort to close the prison for terrorism suspects and enemy combatants at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, a key 2008 campaign promise. It came on the day he kicked off his campaign for re-election in 2012.

James Carafano, a foreign policy expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, said a military trial for the five men was "the only rational course of action" and Obama was unlikely to be hurt politically by the decision.

"The (U.S.) public basically just ignores the issue these days. Even overseas, Europeans who were so critical before of Guantanamo have really gone to sleep on the issue," he said.

Obama has called the Guantanamo Bay facility, set up by his predecessor President George W. Bush, a recruiting symbol for anti-American groups and said allegations of prisoner mistreatment there had tarnished America's reputation.

He promised to close the prison by the end of his first year in office, but that deadline passed with no action as the administration confronted the hard reality of finding countries willing to accept custody of the inmates.

The prison still holds 172 people, down from 245 when Obama took office in January 2009.

DECISION WELCOMED

The decision to try the five men before military commissions was praised in New York and Washington. New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the cost of holding and securing the trials in Manhattan would have been near "a billion dollars" at a time of tight budgets.

Chuck Schumer, a Democratic senator for New York, called it "the final nail in the coffin of that wrong-headed idea."

Julie Menin, who spearheaded opposition to the trials in New York, said the decision was a "victory for lower Manhattan and my community."

But others, like Valerie Lucznikowska, said the use of military commissions was "just not satisfying to people who want real justice." The 72-year-old New Yorker, whose nephew died in the World Trade Center attack, said the military commissions could be viewed by the world as "kangaroo courts."

Holder said he still believed the 9/11 suspects would best be prosecuted in U.S. civilian courts, despite strong congressional opposition.

Captain John Murphy, the chief prosecutor of the office of military commissions, said his office would swear charges in the near future against the five suspects for their alleged roles in the 2001 attacks.

In addition to Mohammed, an al Qaeda leader captured in Pakistan in 2003, and bin Attash, the accused co-conspirators are Ramzi Binalshibh, Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Mustafa Ahmed al Hawsawi.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, James Vicini, Jeremy Pelofsky, Matt Spetalnick and Susan Cornwell in Washington and Basil Katz in New York; writing by David Alexander; Editing by Sandra Maler and Todd Eastham)

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla (Reuters) – Evidence of widespread fuselage cracks and fatigue were found on a Southwest Airlines Co jet that made an emergency landing in Arizona with a hole in the cabin, a U.S. safety investigator said on Sunday.

The incident on Friday prompted Southwest, the largest domestic airline by passengers flown, to ground planes and cancel hundreds of flights over the weekend so it could inspect its older model 737-300s.

Small subsurface fuselage cracks were found on two other planes, which may require repairs, Southwest said. Nineteen had been inspected and returned to service without any problems by Sunday.

Southwest anticipated 175 flight cancellations on Monday and hoped to complete the remaining inspections of 79 planes by late Tuesday.

The 737-300 represents roughly 20 percent of Southwest's all-737 fleet, the most popular commercial aircraft ever and a workhorse globally.

So far, the problem has been limited to Southwest, which paid a $7.5 million Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) fine for operating 737s without required fuselage structural inspections in 2006/07.

US Airways Group flies 19 737-300s and a spokesman said periodic inspections have turned up no fatigue-related problems.

Continental Airlines, now a unit of United/Continental Holdings, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines, a unit of AMR Corp, all fly newer model 737 that are not linked to the problem.

United Airlines does not fly any 737s.

The FAA is assisting the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) in the Southwest investigation of Flight 812, which was heading from Phoenix to Sacramento at 36,000 feet when a 5-foot tear opened in the fuselage 20 minutes after takeoff.

The plane landed safely at a military base in Yuma, Arizona, minutes later.

NTSB member Robert Sumwalt said at a news conference in Yuma on Sunday that post-flight inspections revealed "widespread cracking across" the damaged area.

"Was the aircraft well maintained and should it have been maintained better? That is exactly why we are here, to look at why this problem occurred," he said.

A Southwest official said the airline was in compliance with inspection requirements for the plane.

"What we saw with Flight 812 was a new and unknown issue," said Mike Van de Ven, Southwest's executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Sumwalt said the tear occurred in a concealed part of the plane and could not have been detected by the naked eye. He said the plane was most recently disassembled for heavy maintenance in March 2010, which would have been the last time such a fracture could have been detected.

(Reporting by Colleen Jenkins and John Crawley in Washington; Editing by Greg McCune and Paul Simao)

DENVER (Reuters) – Gale force winds and drought spawned raging wildfires across five states of the parched Southwest on Sunday, damaging dozens of homes and businesses and forcing a Kansas town to evacuate, authorities said.

Wildfires were reported in Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Kansas. In some cases, firefighters were struggling to bring them under control amid high and shifting winds.

West of Fort Collins, Colorado a fire blackened 4,500 acres, destroyed 15 homes, and residents of another 336 homes remained under evacuation orders, authorities said.

The blaze, burning in mountain terrain about 65 miles northwest of Denver, is five-percent contained, Reghan Cloudman, a fire information officer with the U.S. Forest Service, told Reuters.

Wind gusts in excess of 90 miles per hour fanned the flames, which grew from 20 acres Saturday to more than 4,500 acres overnight, forcing the early-morning evacuations.

Most of Colorado was under threat from wildfires this weekend because of a lack of precipitation, high winds and record warm temperatures.

A snow storm moved into the area on Sunday, aiding the 250 firefighters battling the blaze.

"It (snowfall) has calmed the fire down a bit, but there are still many hot spots," Cloudman said.

Two air tankers and a helicopter have been called in to make fire retardant and water drops, she said.

High winds and extreme drought across Texas fed fires that scorched more than 7,000 acres on Sunday.

Fire officials evacuated 300 homes, a power plant and a sewage and water treatment facility as a 1,500-acre grass fire crossed a highway and burned outside of Odessa, 360 miles west of Austin.

The Texas Forest Service was using a helicopter and bulldozers to support seven other agencies battling the blaze, spokeswoman Jeanne Eastham said.

Crews had stopped the fire outside a water treatment plant just southeast of the city, she said.

"It has not crossed that road, and they're holding it there, at this point," Eastham said.

More than three quarters of the Texas was under severe or extreme levels of drought on Sunday. Wind gusts of up to 43 miles per hour fanned the flames outside Odessa in the afternoon, but conditions improved in the evening, National Weather Service Meteorologist Douglas Cain said.

In Oklahoma, more than 100 fires burned across the state, damaging homes near the panhandle town of Guymon and causing numerous highway wrecks, said Michaelann Ooten of the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management.

In southwestern Kansas, the 1,100 residents of Satanta, including the hospital and long-term care facility, were asked to evacuate after an out-of-control fire burned about 1,000 acres and threatened 250 homes in the community, the local emergency management office said.

In New Mexico, a 2,000-acre grass fire in Ruidoso has forced the evacuation of some residents near the well-known Ruidoso Downs horse racetrack. Four homes were burned by the fire which grew rapidly on Sunday because of high winds, according to local media reports..

(Additional reporting by Elliott Blackburn in Lubbock and Steve Olafson in Oklahoma City; Editing by Greg McCune)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – A new reality show has gone viral on the Internet featuring a life and death struggle, a love story and a birds eye view of -- an eagle family.

More than 11 million views from 130 countries have been recorded by a streaming video of a nesting bald eagle couple in Decorah, Iowa. The first egg was laid in February, the eggs were incubated for weeks and the eaglets finally emerged.

The idea was hatched by biologist Bob Anderson, who installed a live video feed from an 80-foot aerie, now showing at http:/www.ustream.tv/decoraheagles.

Anderson, 60, is the executive director of the Raptor Resource Project, a non-profit based in Decorah. He attributes the popularity to the clarity of the feed which allows a close view of the majestic birds with white feathers on their head and dark bodies, and the tiny, vulnerable, fuzz-ball eaglets.

"It is the wonder of having modern technology linking to the wonder of nature, and once people watch it they take ownership," Anderson told Reuters on Sunday from his post about 100 miles northwest of Dubuque, Iowa.

The first egg was laid on February 23 in the nest that is about six feet in diameter and four feet deep. The first eaglet started to emerge from its shell on Friday. The second hatched early Sunday morning and the final egg should hatch in next three days, Anderson said.

"The world loves it," said Anderson, who now operates dozens of bird cameras across the nation and receives funding from Minneapolis, Minn.-based energy company Xcel Energy.

Viewers riveted by every move of the newly-hatched eaglets witnessed a near-tragedy on Sunday afternoon.

"One of the adults was picking up broken egg shells and picked up one of the babies and actually lifted it out of the nest bowl," Anderson recounted. "The baby started crawling the edge of the nest and looked like it was going to fall down into the sticks and get trapped," Anderson said.

As the tension mounted and phone calls and e-mails from concerned viewers poured in, Anderson considered cutting the feed.

"It was ugly and grueling to watch," Anderson said. "But after about 20 minutes the baby crawled back to its mother and crawled underneath her," Anderson said, exuding relief.

(Reporting by Eric Johnson; Editing by Greg McCune)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Southwest Airlines could cancel 300 flights on Sunday as it continues to inspect 79 aircraft from its Boeing 737 fleet, after one of its planes with a gaping hole in the fuselage made an emergency landing, a company spokeswoman said.

This comes after the airline said it expects to cancel 300 flights on Saturday, a day after the emergency landing. The airline is planning for possible disruptions on Sunday due to the inspections, said Southwest spokeswoman Brandy King.

"We don't at this time know what the impact will be, but it's possible that it could be in the 300-flight range again tomorrow," King told Reuters.

Passengers aboard Southwest Flight 812 from Phoenix to Sacramento on Friday heard a loud noise and the hole appeared suddenly at about mid cabin. As a result, the pilot landed at a military base in Yuma, Arizona.

The emergency aboard the Boeing 737-300 prompted the airline to examine other similar aircraft within its fleet, with a total of 79 inspections planned at five locations, Southwest said in a statement.

The inspections will occur over the next several days, Southwest said. Southwest normally has about 3,400 flights on Saturday, King said, so the cancellations accounted for nearly 9 percent of that total.

"We did our best to accommodate those passengers on other Southwest flights," King said.

A total of 931 Boeing 737-300s are operated by all airlines worldwide, with 288 of them in the United States, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The Southwest flight that was forced to make an emergency landing had 118 passengers and five crew members on board.

Southwest and Boeing engineers will inspect the grounded aircraft, and the airline is working with federal authorities to determine the cause of the incident, Southwest said.

The pilot made a rapid descent from about 34,400 feet to 11,000 feet, in accordance with standard practice, the FAA said. The purpose was to reach an altitude where supplemental oxygen is no longer required.

One flight attendant and at least one passenger were treated at the scene for minor injuries, Southwest said.

The Boeing 737 landed at 4:07 p.m. local time after declaring an emergency, said Ian Gregor, an FAA spokesman.

After the passengers deplaned at the Yuma Marine Corps Air Station, the airline arranged for another aircraft to take them to Sacramento, the company said.

Passengers described the harrowing scene to the CBS television affiliate in Sacramento, detailing the damage to the plane.

"They had just taken drink orders when I heard a huge sound and oxygen masks came down and we started making a rapid descent. They said we'd be making an emergency landing," a woman identified as Cindy told the station.

"There was a hole in the fuselage about three feet long. You could see the insulation and the wiring. You could see a tear the length of one of the ceiling panels."

(Additional reporting by David Schwartz in Phoenix and Lauren Keiper in Boston; Editing by Greg McCune)

BILOXI, Miss (Reuters) – The wife of Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, a possible contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, said in an interview that a bid for the presidency by her husband "horrifies me."

Speaking to the ABC television affiliate in Biloxi, Mississippi, Marsha Barbour admitted that the task of a presidential run would be "overwhelming" and is something she may not be quite ready for.

"It's been a lot to be first lady of the state of Mississippi and this would be 50 times bigger," she said in the interview aired on Friday by WLOX. "It's a huge sacrifice for a family to make."

Marsha Barbour said that she is wary of a 10-year commitment that comes with a presidential run -- a long campaign and two terms in office -- during "the last part of our productive lives." Haley Barbour is 63.

She said that she was doing plenty of praying on the matter and would ultimately support her husband despite her hesitation.

Marsha and Haley were high school sweethearts and married in 1971. As First Lady of the state, she dedicated herself to relief efforts along the Mississippi Gulf Coast after the 2005 Hurricane Katrina.

She spent seventy of the first ninety days after the storm on the Coast delivering emergency supplies, helping coordinate FEMA activities with those of the state and assisting people in returning to their homes. She served as Haley's eyes and ears and became the face of the state's disaster assistance, which was widely viewed as more organized and effective than neighboring Louisiana.

The Barbours have two adult sons, Sterling and Reeves, and four grandchildren.

Barbour has said he will announce if he is in or out of the race for president by the end of April.

(Reporting by Leigh Coleman; Editing by Greg McCune)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – London has Paddington Bear but New York now has a giant yellow teddy bear, a great sculptural masterpiece that could sell for more than $9 million at auction in May, Christie's said on Saturday.

A 23-foot (7-meter) high, bronze teddy bear slumped under a black bedside lamp will be on display for five months in midtown Manhattan from next week and be a highlight of the Post-War & Contemporary sale on May 11.

The 35,000 pound (15.8 metric tons) sculpture, Untitled (Lamp/Bear), is the work of New York-based Swiss artist Urs Fischer. Brett Gorvy, Christie's deputy chairman for Post-War and Contemporary Art, described Fischer as the Jeff Koons of his generation.

"We have seen contemporary sculpture works by Jeff Koons selling at $25 million and Urs Fischer is the leading pretender to the throne," he said. "He is considered the most important, the most provocative of contemporary artists today."

Gorvy said the U.S. collector selling the sculpture, whom he declined to name, had already turned down a private offer of $9 million.

"The anticipation is that it will make more than that," he said. "There's a very good chance it's going to go to a museum or a private institution."

The teddy bear, which has button eyes, is currently being assembled in the plaza of the architecturally acclaimed Seagram Building skyscraper on Park Avenue. Gorvy said getting the city permits to install the sculpture was a project in itself.

An added feature of the sculpture, according to the auction house, is that the table lamp above the bear's head works, so the bear can be lit up at night.

"A true landmark sculpture of this nature appeals to private collectors and museums around the world, but could be acquired by a city as a means of attracting cultural tourism," said Gorvy.

Christie's said the sculpture had been inspired by Fischer's own much-loved teddy bear. Fischer sewed together a one-foot tall teddy bear and scanned it with a 3-D laser to generate drawings to create the sculpture.

It is one of three created in 2005/06. The other two teddy bears are privately owned. U.S. collector Adam Lindemann has installed his sculpture on a bluff at his property on Long Island in New York.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Patricia Reaney)