FORT CAMPBELL, Kentucky (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, basking in U.S. public approval for the killing of Osama bin Laden, flew to a military base in Kentucky on Friday to thank special forces who carried out the deadly raid and led a rally filled with cheering troops.

With his poll numbers up and even Republican critics congratulating him for the bin Laden operation, Obama paid tribute to the elite military team in a secrecy-shrouded meeting at Fort Campbell five days after announcing the al Qaeda leader was dead.

Commandos who conducted the assault on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan gave Obama first-hand accounts of what happened, and he awarded them the highest presidential honor a military unit can receive, a U.S. official said.

"It was a chance for me to say on behalf of all Americans and people around the world: Job well done," Obama told a jubilant audience of soldiers just returned from tours of duty in Afghanistan.

Obama said "justice for Osama bin Laden" showed his Afghanistan war strategy was working and he repeated his pledge to start withdrawing troops from the country this summer.

Obama's visit, just a day after attending a somber wreath-laying ceremony at the Ground Zero site of the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York, came as questions grew about initial U.S. details of the airborne assault on bin Laden's hide-out.

U.S. acknowledgment that bin Laden was unarmed when shot in the head -- as well as the sea burial of his body, a rare practice in Islam -- has drawn criticism in the Muslim world and Europe, where some warn of a backlash against the West.

But most Americans regard the secretive special operations unit that killed bin Laden -- the mastermind of the September 11 hijack-plane attacks on the United States -- as national heroes, and Obama came to thank some of them personally.

Soldiers gathered in a giant aircraft hangar festooned with American flags and a band belting out rock 'n' roll tunes. A huge "Job well done!" banner hung from the wall.

The strike team for the bin Laden operation included SEAL commandos who underwent weeks of intensive training for the nighttime assault on bin Laden's high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

'NIGHT STALKERS'

The sprawling Kentucky base is home to the U.S. Army's 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, a unit nicknamed the "Night Stalkers" and whose helicopter pilots were reported to have flown the mission.

Obama's meeting with special forces operatives was held privately to protect the secretive nature of their work.

Secrecy was so tight that journalists traveling with Obama were removed from his motorcade and not even allowed to see the exterior of the special operations center where the meeting took place.

Obama is already reaping dividends from bin Laden's death, with most recent polls showing his job approval rating jumping above 50 percent since the raid.

But the boost could be short-lived as voters focus again on the struggling economy, lingering unemployment and high gasoline prices -- top public concerns considered crucial to Obama's re-election chances next year.

The killing of bin Laden will make it easier for Obama, however, to fend off criticism he is weak on national security, charges that Republicans have deployed effectively against Democrats for decades.

Although Obama has cautioned against triumphalism over bin Laden's death, even his political opponents seem willing to let him savor it.

"This has been an extraordinary week for our nation," he told the troops. "The terrorist leader who struck our nation on September 11 will never threaten our nation again." But he warned that "this continues to be a very tough fight."

White House spokesman Jay Carney insisted earlier that Obama was not "gloating" about bin Laden's demise and was mindful the war against al Qaeda was far from over.

Al Qaeda confirmed on Friday that bin Laden was dead and vowed to mount more attacks on the West.

Obama's visit was also a chance to try to rally support for the war effort in Afghanistan while reassuring Americans about his commitment to his long-standing pledge to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan in July.

With the demise of the man who came to symbolize Islamist militancy, Obama is already facing pressure from some lawmakers to speed up the U.S. exit from an unpopular war 10 years after Washington helped topple Afghanistan's Taliban for sheltering bin Laden and al Qaeda after the September 11 attacks.

But U.S. officials have insisted that while seriously weakened by the loss of bin Laden, al Qaeda remains a dangerous force and it is time to step up efforts to crush it.

(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Peter Cooney)

HOUSTON (Reuters) – Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her astronaut husband, Capt. Mark Kelly, dined out with friends at a Houston restaurant recently, another step in her gradual recovery from gunshot wounds, a spokesman confirmed on Friday.

Accompanied by security personnel, Giffords was taken by wheelchair into a private wine room at Grotto Ristorante, an upscale Italian restaurant in the Galleria area of Houston on Sunday, her spokesman, C.J. Karamargin said.

Giffords and Kelly dined with Tilman Fertitta, president and chief executive of Landry's Restaurants, and his wife Paige.

The dinner date was the first reported public outing since Giffords left Houston's Memorial Hermann Hospital rehabilitation facility to watch the final launch of the space shuttle Endeavour in Florida last week.

The launch was postponed but NASA has reset the launch date for May 16. Giffords' husband Kelly is scheduled to be on that mission.

A hospital spokesman confirmed that Giffords remains at The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research.

"As her doctors have said, one of the goals with her therapy was to get her prepared to attend the launch and with that, acclimated to life outside of (the hospital)," said James Campbell of Memorial Hermann Hospital.

Giffords was critically wounded in January as she held a public meeting with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. Authorities have accused Jared Lee Loughner, a troubled college dropout, of shooting Giffords in the head at point blank range in attempted murder.

(Editing by Greg McCune)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Mexican man who crossed into the United States illegally has been indicted for second-degree murder in the shooting death of a U.S. border patrol agent last December, U.S. prosecutors said on Friday.

Manuel Osorio-Arellanes was arraigned in a Tucson, Arizona courtroom for second degree murder as well as conspiracy to assault a federal officer and firearms possession charges, the Justice Department said.

The death of the border patrol agent, Brian Terry, has led to criticism of the Obama administration by Republicans over what they say is poor security on the U.S.-Mexican border. Drug cartels have battled each other on the Mexican side for years.

Questions have also arisen as to whether the guns used in the shooting came from an U.S. undercover operation aimed at cracking down on weapons being smuggled across the border into Mexico.

Osorio-Arellanes was part of an armed group of illegal immigrants who had crossed into Arizona and exchanged gunfire with border patrol agents, according to U.S. prosecutors. Osorio-Arellanes was wounded in the firefight and arrested.

"Today's indictment is an important step in this case, but it is only a first step to serving justice on behalf of Agent Brian Terry, his family and the other agents who were with Terry and their families," said Dennis Burke, U.S. Attorney for Arizona, said in a statement.

Others were charged for the death, but those names remained under seal. U.S. prosecutors said the individual who is believed to have fired the fatal shot fled the scene and is still being sought.

"This is an active ongoing investigation that is making more and more progress every day," Burke said.

A trial date was set for June 17 in U.S. District Court in Tucson. If convicted of second degree murder, Osorio-Arellanes faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.

(Reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky and Tim Gaynor; editing by Anthony Boadle)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Al Qaeda considered attacking the U.S. rail sector on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, U.S. government officials said on Thursday in describing intelligence from Osama bin Laden's hide-out in Pakistan.

They said some evidence was found indicating the al Qaeda leader or his associates had engaged in discussions or planning for a possible attack on a train inside the United States on September 11, 2011.

"We have no information of any imminent terrorist threat to the U.S. rail sector, but wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting," spokesman Matthew Chandler said of an intelligence message the Department of Homeland Security sent on Thursday.

The department and other U.S. agencies have been reviewing the treasure trove of information from bin Laden's compound in Pakistan seized by the United States during the raid this week that killed the al Qaeda leader.

An initial review of the information by U.S. intelligence analysts indicates that bin Laden, while in Abbottabad, played a direct role for years in plotting terror attacks, and was not just an inspirational figure to al Qaeda, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

"He wasn't just a figurehead," the Times quoted a U.S. official as saying. "He continued to plot and plan, to come up with ideas about targets, and to communicate those ideas to other senior Qaeda leaders."

The information on plotting against the U.S. rail sector indicated one possible tactic for attacking a train was trying to tip it somehow off its tracks, one official said.

The official said it appeared from the information that this was an idea that bin Laden or his associates considered, but there was no indication now from the intelligence that further plans were drawn up for the scheme or that steps were taken to carry it out.

Another official said al Qaeda in February last year contemplated the rail attack to occur on the 10th anniversary of the hijacked plane attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, but the group was not tied to that exact date.

Since the raid, the Department of Homeland Security has taken a number of steps in reviewing measures at all potential terrorist targets, including transportation systems across the country. It added more officers at airports and at the borders.

Chandler said the alleged al Qaeda plot was based on "initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change."

He added, "We remain at a heightened state of vigilance," but said there were no plans to raise the national threat level.

Officials have long been concerned that al Qaeda might try to carry out attacks on the U.S. rail system.

In 2008, U.S. authorities warned of a possible al Qaeda threat to transit systems in and around New York City over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

Last year, an Afghan immigrant pleaded guilty in New York to plotting a suicide bombing campaign on Manhattan's subway system in what U.S. authorities described as one of the most serious threats since the September 11 attacks.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham and Vicki Allen)

MEMPHIS, Tenn (Reuters) – The rising Mississippi river lapped over downtown Memphis streets on Thursday as a massive wall of water threatened to unleash near record flooding all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

Water lapped over Riverside Drive and onto Beale Street in Memphis, and threatened some homes on Mud Island, a community of about 5,000 residents with a river theme park. The island connects to downtown Memphis by a bridge and causeway.

Emergency officials in Millington near Memphis were "going door-to-door, asking people to leave," according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

Large amounts of rain and melt from the winter snow has caused a chain reaction of flooding from Canada and the Dakotas through Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. It is expected to soon hit Mississippi and Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

"The flood is rolling down, it is breaking records as it moves down and it is one of those wait-and-see type of things as to how massive it is going to be when it's all said and done," said Charles Camillo, historian for the Mississippi River Commission and the Mississippi River and Tributaries Project.

In Arkansas, westbound traffic on a section of one of the nation's major trucking arteries, Interstate 40, was closed for a second day due to flooding.

The White River was expected to crest at its highest ever level of 40 feet at Des Arc, Arkansas on Thursday night, breaking a 1949 record.

A levee overflowed near the White River, forcing a mandatory evacuation of the town of Cotton Plant, the Arkansas Department of Emergency Management said.

Officials at the Shelby County Office of Preparedness, that includes Memphis, predicted that the flood could affect 2,832 properties if it crests at 48 feet this coming weekend.

A crest of 48 feet would be the river's highest level since 1937, according to the National Weather Service. The service currently puts the river level at Memphis at 45.21 feet, with an expected rise to 47.6 feet by Monday morning.

The flooding is also affecting towns not directly on the Mississippi. Residents in south Dyersburg, Tenn., about 20 miles from the Mississippi, have been asked to evacuate because of the projected crest of the North Fork of the Forked Deer River, which runs into the big river.

North of Memphis upstream, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blew up a third section of a Missouri levee Thursday afternoon to let flood waters back into the Mississippi.

The Corps blew up a two-mile section of the Birds Point levee Monday night to help ease flooding in Illinois and Kentucky. The levee destruction resulted in the flooding of 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland. The Corps then blew up two smaller sections of the levee Tuesday and Thursday to let water back in the river.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared parts of Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee as disaster areas due to flooding. Missouri Governor Jay Nixon Thursday requested that Obama make a major disaster declaration for the state as a result of high winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 19.

The levee system in Mississippi is holding for now but it has never been tested like this before, officials said.

"Compared to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 this flood is going to be a lot nastier," said Marty Pope, senior hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson, Miss.

The river is predicted to crest at 64.5 feet on May 17 in the Vicksburg, Miss. area. Vicksburg has a flood stage of 48 feet, which means the river will crest more than 16 feet above normal, according to flood experts at the National Weather Service.

The flood waters will reach more than a foot above the Yazoo Backwater Levee near Yazoo City, Miss. and this will flood thousands of acres of farmland, said Pope.

There were major floods on the Mississippi in 1927, 1937, 1973, 1993 and 2008. The 1927 flood caused up to 1,000 deaths and left 600,000 homeless. Floodways were adopted as a response.

Camillo said it was too early to estimate expected damage from the 2011 flooding. He noted that much has changed since the 1927 flood, including the structure of the levees and the addition of dozens of reservoirs throughout the Mississippi River basin and floodways.

The Mississippi has four floodways: Birds Point and three spillways in Louisiana.

"There is a very good possibility that we would operate three floodways ... and we have never done that before," Camillo said.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey in Minneapolis, Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Suzi Parker in Little Rock and Leigh Coleman in Biloxi, Mississippi; Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Names of all 2,982 people who died in the September 11 attacks will be grouped as friends, work buddies and families on bronze panels at a national memorial opening in New York, organizers announced.

Rather than an alphabetical listing or purely random collection, the names will be arranged in what organizers described as "meaningful adjacencies" at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.

"They died as friends and co-workers and will be remembered together as friends and co-workers," Joe Daniels, the president of the memorial, said in a statement on Thursday.

"They died as brothers and will be remembered as brothers -- or as sisters, mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters. The arrangement of the names, forever etched in bronze, expresses the bonds that could not be broken by the murderous attacks of that day," Daniels said.

Tickets to enter the memorial, which are free, can be reserved online starting this summer. The site opens to families of the victims on the tenth anniversary of the attacks and to the general public on September 12.

Arranging names by relationships "helped us infuse the memorial with meaning and depth," said memorial architect Michael Arad.

The grouping was based in part on more than 1,200 requests made by victims' families. An electronic guide to the location of each name is available now on the memorial's website -- 911memorial.org -- and soon as a smartphone app. The guide also includes brief biographical information and, in many cases, photographs of each victim.

The memorial is being built in lower Manhattan in the two footprints of the twin towers, which collapsed after being struck by hijacked planes. Each will become a large square pool fed by waterfalls and surrounded by the panels bearing the victims' names.

The memorial will commemorate all those who died in the 2001 attacks, including first responders and building occupants at the Pentagon and the World Trade Center as well as the passengers and crew of all four hijacked planes, one of which crashed in a Pennsylvania field.

It also honors the victims of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

The memorial and nearby museum will be the first areas of Ground Zero to reopen to the public in the decade since the attack. Construction continues on the skyscrapers that will replace the fallen twin towers.

President Barack Obama visited the site on Thursday to mark the success of a military operation last weekend in which Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the attacks, was killed.

(Editing Barbara Goldberg and Jerry Norton)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The reported use of "Geronimo" as a codeword in the operation that led to Osama bin Laden's killing has angered some native Americans and threatens to become an embarrassment for the Obama administration.

Geronimo was an Apache warrior leader who fought for tribal lands against U.S. and Mexican forces in the 19th century and who, like bin Laden, evaded capture for many years. He was held as a U.S. prisoner of war from the time he was captured in 1886 until his death in 1909.

Bin Laden, the al Qaeda leader who masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, was shot in the head by U.S. forces who stormed his compound in Pakistan on Monday after a decade-long manhunt.

It has been widely reported that U.S. forces said "Geronimo EKIA (Enemy Killed in Action)" to confirm bin Laden's death.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will discuss on Thursday concerns raised over "the linking of the name of Geronimo, one of the greatest Native American heroes, with the most hated enemy of the United States," said the committee's chief counsel Loretta Tuell.

While the Geronimo codeword for the bin Laden operation has been widely reported, the Pentagon has not confirmed it. Pentagon officials did not immediately respond to requests for reaction to the objections by Native Americans.

"To equate Geronimo or any other Native American figure with Osama bin Laden, a mass murderer and cowardly terrorist, is painful and offensive to our Tribe and to all native Americans," wrote Jeff Houser, chairman of the Fort Sill Apache Tribe, in a letter to President Barack Obama.

Houser said that while he was certain the naming of the operation was based on "misunderstood and misconceived historical perspectives of Geronimo and his armed struggle," he demanded a formal apology from Obama.

"What this action has done is forever link the name and memory of Geronimo to one of the most despicable enemies this country has ever had," he wrote.

"Unlike the coward Osama bin Laden, Geronimo faced his enemy in numerous battles and engagements," Houser said.

Geronimo is also a motivational catchcry of U.S. Army paratroopers after a member of the first experimental parachute unit yelled "Geronimo" in 1940 as he leaped from a plane, inspired after watching a 1939 movie about the Apache warrior, historians said.

SENATE HEARING ON CONCERNS

Chester Rodriguez, 55, an Apache descendant of Geronimo in Bisbee, Arizona, said it was not right to use Geronimo's name for the bin Laden operation.

"Geronimo wasn't a terrorist, he was a good man, he spoke the truth about the white man and what they did to his people ... He wasn't like that (bin Laden) at all," said Rodriguez, whose Apache name is Eagle Bone.

The Onondaga Nation Council of Chiefs in New York state said that using Geronimo as the code name for the bin Laden mission was "reprehensible."

"To compare him to Osama bin Laden is illogical and insulting," the Council of Chiefs said in a statement.

"The name Geronimo is arguably the most recognized Native American name in the world, and this comparison only serves to perpetuate negative stereotypes about our peoples. The U.S. military leadership should have known better," they said.

The U.S. Senate committee needs to look at the prevalence in American society of "these inappropriate uses of Native American icons and cultures," said Tuell.

"The impacts to Native and non-Native children are devastating," she said.

The U.S. government recognizes 565 Native American tribes whose members lived on the land for centuries before the United States, Canada and Mexico existed, speaking their own languages and following beliefs centered on the natural world.

But there has long been problems with the use of American Indian symbols, particularly by sports teams. In 2009 the Supreme Court rejected an appeal by six American Indians in their long-running legal challenge of the Washington Redskins' football team name, which they find racially offensive.

(Additional reporting by David Alexander in Washington and Tim Gaynor in Phoenix, editing by Martin Howell)

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Government engineers will blow up a third section of a Mississippi River levee on Thursday to manage flooding, as a wall of water roared down the nation's largest river system, threatening towns and cities all the way to the Gulf of Mexico.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers blew up a two-mile section of the Birds Point levee Monday night, inundating about 130,000 acres of Missouri farmland in a desperate attempt to ease flooding in towns in Illinois and Kentucky.

Water levels did recede but a second, smaller section was detonated Tuesday afternoon to allow water back into the river. A third and last blast was scheduled for Wednesday but was delayed until 1 p.m. on Thursday by "logistical difficulties," the Corps said in a statement on Wednesday night.

The Corps, which is responsible for the system of locks and dams along the Mississippi River, would then turn its attention to the growing threat further south.

"The entire system is experiencing flooding and we will continue our fight downstream," said Major Gen. Michael J. Walsh, president of the Mississippi River Commission, in a statement.

President Barack Obama on Wednesday declared parts of Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee as disaster areas due to flooding, freeing up federal aid to help those affected.

Arkansas closed a 15-mile stretch of westbound lanes of one of the busiest road arteries in the nation, Interstate 40, for the time ever due to flooding, according to the state's transportation department. More than 31,000 vehicles travel daily through the section of road closed, and 65 to 70 percent of those are trucks, said Glenn Bolick, Arkansas Transportation

Department spokesman.

Highway officials were diverting traffic onto rural roads but even some of these were flooded, they said.

Further downstream in Mississippi, some residents of the historic Civil War town of Vicksburg were moving to higher ground on Wednesday to avoid the rising flood waters.

"We are not going to stay here," said Vicksburg resident Harold Manner. "The families all around us are taking what they can and moving out of here, at least for now."

The levee system in Mississippi is holding for now but it has never been tested like this before, officials said.

"Compared to the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 this flood is going to be a lot nastier," said Marty Pope, senior hydrologist for the National Weather Service in Jackson.

Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour has had sandbags delivered to his Yazoo City home to prevent it from flooding.

Large amounts of rain and melt from the winter snow has caused a chain reaction of flooding from Canada and the Dakotas through Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Arkansas and Tennessee. It is expected to soon hit Mississippi and Louisiana at the mouth of the Mississippi River.

(Additional reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Miriam Moynihan in St. Louis; Leigh Coleman in Biloxi, Mississippi and Suzi Parker in Little Rock; Writing by Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Greg McCune and Peter Bohan)

PORTLAND, Ore (Reuters) – A train derailed and smashed into a parked train carrying ethanol outside Portland, Oregon on Wednesday, sparking an intense fire that forced homes and businesses to evacuate.

The flames were so fierce that firefighters were withdrawn from the immediate area and attacked it from turrets from across a highway, Portland Fire and Rescue Bureau spokeswoman Alisa Cour told Reuters.

Crews dumped water on the blaze for about three hours before putting it out about 4 p.m. local time, Cour said.

Homes and businesses were evacuated for a one-half mile radius but no injuries were reported.

Firefighters were still spraying water after the fire was out "to make sure there are no residual flames," Cour said.

Several agencies are on the scene evaluating the area around the accident for possible environmental issues.

Cour estimated that between 30-40 trucks from Portland, Scappoose Fire Department and Tualatin Valley Fire and Rescue were at the scene.

Three of the 13 tanker cars carrying ethanol were burning, said Michael Williams, director of corporate communications for Genesee & Wyoming Inc., which owns the railroad.

Highway 30, which runs parallel to the train tracks, was closed.

The cause of the derailment is not yet known, Williams said.

Cour had no estimate of how long it would take to douse the fire.

(Reporting by Teresa Carson; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

CHARLESTON, Missouri (Reuters) – The effort to protect river towns in Illinois and Kentucky from rising floodwaters by blowing open a levee and inundating more than 100,000 acres of Missouri farmland appeared to be slowly working on Tuesday.

The controversy surrounding the extraordinary demolition continued, with farmers affected by it filing suit.

Dick Durbin, a Democratic Senator from Illinois, also cautioned that the endangered river towns, including Cairo at the southern-most tip of Illinois, were "not out of the woods yet."

The National Weather Service said the river gauge at Cairo, Illinois, where the Mississippi and Ohio rivers meet, showed water levels had dropped more than a foot-and-a-half since 10 p.m. last night, when the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers blasted a hole in a protective embankment downriver from the historic town.

"The plan performed as expected," Jim Pogue, a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spokesman, said in a telephone interview.

By 4 p.m. local time on Tuesday, the gauge at Cairo had dropped to 60.08 feet and was expected to continue dropping through the weekend.

The Cairo gauge topped out at 61.72 feet, its highest level since 1937, on Monday night before the Corps detonated the levee to allow the Mississippi River to cope with the rising waters of the Ohio River.

Both rivers have been rising as a result of days of rain and the melt and runoff of heavy winter snowstorms.

Carlin Bennett, a commissioner in the rural Missouri county that is bearing the brunt of the flooding, said it was a little early to make the call, but was afraid the operation would not drop the river the three to four feet the government wants.

"It's looking like all of our worst fears here," said Bennett, who has 80 acres himself that are being flooded. "Our land got flooded and they are not getting the flooding relief they expected."

NO CHOICE

Missouri farmers who returned Tuesday to survey the land they work found it beneath 8 to 10 feet of brown water.

Many, like Kevin Nally, 40, who farms 250 acres here, seemed resigned to the necessity of the extraordinary move, which continues to generate lawsuits against the Corp.

"They didn't have a choice," he said. "It was coming over the levee anyway."

Nally had already planted 80 acres of wheat, which was washed away when the waters poured in last night.

His losses will be covered by insurance. But he said he was worried about the long-term damage that might result if too much sand is left behind.

Legal efforts by the state of Missouri to stop the Corps from blasting the levee at Birds Point-New Madrid failed.

But on Tuesday attorneys filed a new private class-action complaint in the U.S. Court of Federal Claims on behalf of farmers whose land was flooded.

"In the process of breaching the levee, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also destroyed or is in the process of destroying 90 households and more than 100,000 acres of the country's richest farmland," said J. Michael Ponder, the attorney from Cape Girardeau, Missouri, who filed the suit.

"What these property owners and farmers are seeking is just compensation for the land and livelihood they have lost -- possibly forever or for decades."

The government blew a two mile hole in a 56-mile levee that holds back the Mississippi to relieve pressure and expects later on Tuesday to blow two smaller holes in the same levee downstream to allow the water to flow back into the river.

The effort was designed to save a number of towns along the Ohio River, first among them Cairo.

Located at the southern tip of Illinois between two states, Missouri and Kentucky, that still permitted slavery prior to abolition in the 19th century, Cairo was an important destination for runaway slaves during the Civil War.

Its population of around 3,000 is more than 60 percent African-American and a third of its residents have incomes below the poverty level.

Durbin said that while the levee breach had lowered water levels, the Corps was continuing to monitor "dangerous sand boils and weakened levees."

(Writing by James B. Kelleher; editing by Jerry Norton and Peter Bohan)

COTTONDALE, Ala (Reuters) – Mourners gathered at a church on Tuesday to say goodbye to a victim of last week's storms, another sad scene being repeated hundreds of times across the Southern states ravaged by deadly twisters.

Judy Sherrill, 62, lived in Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, the state's hardest-hit area where officials said at least 39 people died in severe weather on April 27.

At her funeral at Fleetwood Baptist Church in Cottondale, mourners learned that relatives searching through the debris at her home found note cards with to-do lists written on the front and scripture on the back.

"She was a pearl as a church member," said Pastor Rick Davis, who in his sermon told the mourners that God was in control and had not made a mistake.

"My friends, this didn't take God by surprise at all," he said. "I want you to understand the same God who has given has taken away."

As state officials continue to count the dead, the recovery effort for friends and relatives must include the painful task of burying them. Nearly 350 people died in seven states last week, the second-highest recorded death toll from tornadoes in U.S. history.

Some people have insurance to cover funeral costs, while others have turned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for help, said Paul Rollins, Jr., a funeral director at Rollins Mortuary in Tuscaloosa.

The mortuary is directing four funerals this week, all for residents who died during the tornado.

"Even though I am a funeral director and grew up in the business, I don't think anyone is prepared," Rollins said. "We will keep each other in prayer and help each other. That's all we can do."

In Rainsville, a town of 5,000 in northeast Alabama, two small funeral homes struggled without power to accommodate the 14 tornado victims in their town.

"We used an inverter hooked to a car and left it running," said Tom Wilson of W.T. Wilson Funeral Chapel, where the last of the victims will be remembered on Friday.

Gary Chandler, owner of the Rainsville Funeral Home, typically runs 15 funerals a month. With seven tornado victims and three natural deaths, he had nearly a month's work in three days.

Volunteers helped answer the phones as the funeral home extended its operating hours.

"Some of the victims were good friends," Chandler said. "One of the worst was a family of three, a husband, wife and his mother."

In the tightknit town of Smithville, Mississippi, where 14 people died, employees at the Smithville Cemetery and E.E. Pickle Funeral Home also said they were busy with multiple funerals this week.

Helping families cope amid the devastation was their main focus, said funeral home spokeswoman Margaret Toss.

"It has been hard enough on them," she said. "We are just trying to get through all of this."

(Additional reporting by Verna Gates and Leigh Coleman; Writing by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. immigration agents descended on Chipotle Mexican Grill restaurants on Tuesday, interviewing employees in about two dozen outlets in Los Angeles, Atlanta and other cities.

Roughly 500 undocumented workers have been fired as a result of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) audits of the popular burrito chain's hiring paperwork in Minnesota, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Tuesday's ICE interviews were part of a related criminal investigation and could suggest that government interest is intensifying.

In addition to the cities mentioned above, ICE agents also interviewed workers in Minnesota and Washington, D.C., said Robert Luskin, Chipotle's outside counsel and a partner at Patton Boggs in Washington.

Luskin said ICE gave Chipotle enough advance notice of the interviews by plain-clothed agents that the company had the opportunity to send a note to employees telling them it wanted them to cooperate.

"We've got nothing to hide," Luskin said. "We're absolutely convinced that nobody did anything wrong."

Chipotle's co-chief executive, Monty Moran, said on April 20 that the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. was overseeing the investigation and had asked for documents related to the ICE audits.

That request came hours after a Reuters story quoting fired immigrant workers who said that Chipotle, one of the highest-profile employers to fall under the scrutiny of immigrations authorities, ignored signs that pointed to the illegal status of some of its workers.

Luskin said the company has not received any subpoenas related to the criminal probe and that it is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

Tuesday's action "doesn't signal a broader or more serious or more substantial investigation," said Luskin, who added that he had no reason to expect that the investigation would be confined to audit areas.

ICE spokeswoman Cori Bassett said the agency "does not comment on ongoing investigations."

ENFORCEMENT SHIFT

U.S. immigration enforcement has shifted considerably in recent years. Notably, the Obama administration is cracking down on employers rather than illegal workers.

Carl Shusterman, a former prosecutor for ICE's predecessor agency, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said interviews like the ones ICE conducted at Chipotle on Tuesday show how the administration is ratcheting up pressure.

He also acknowledged that advance notification of upcoming ICE interviews might scare off any undocumented workers.

"I would imagine what happens is that the people who are illegal will never come to work again," said Shusterman, who now is in private practice in Los Angeles.

Denver-based Chipotle has won plaudits from Wall Street for its seemingly uncanny ability to hold down labor costs. That ability has been a major factor behind its six-fold increase in share price since late 2008. Chipotle shares fell 2.4 percent Tuesday to $260.40.

The immigration probe may inflate costs in the long run if it leads to more mass firings. That could be bad news for Chipotle, which like other restaurants, is grappling with rising prices for everything from beef to produce.

It is also a blow to the reputation of a restaurant chain that prides itself on serving "Food with Integrity."

Should the investigations uncover widespread disregard of immigration laws, co-chief executives Steve Ells and Monty Moran could face criticism for allowing the practice to spread through the 1,100-unit U.S. operation.

Unlike many rivals that sell franchises, Chipotle owns and operates its restaurants and is ultimately responsible for hiring.

The U.S. fast-food industry historically has offered relatively low pay and paltry benefits to legal workers and, as a result, has struggled with high employee turnover.

Experts say restaurant owners are attracted to illegal laborers because they work hard, are loyal and will go the extra mile to hold down a job.

It is hard to know the extent of hiring of illegal immigrants in U.S. restaurants. But immigrants, both legal and illegal, account for about a quarter of workers in the restaurant and food services industry and their numbers have climbed in recent years.

Their share fell from 24.5 percent in March 2006 to 21.4 percent in March 2008 -- before and during the recession -- but then recovered to 23.6 percent in March 2009 and March 2010, according to an analysis of the government's Current Population Survey (CPS) data conducted for Reuters by the Migration Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

The overall number of immigrants employed in the sector climbed from just over 1.7 million in 2008 to 1.8 million in 2010, according to this data, even as native employment fell from 6.4 million to 5.9 million.

The Pew Hispanic Center, whose demographic and labor market work is highly regarded, estimated in a 2009 report that 12 percent of the workforce in food preparation and serving in 2008 was undocumented.

(Graphic of immigrant workers and Chipotle share performance: http://r.reuters.com/nuh87r)

(Editing by Steve Orlofsky and Matt Driskill)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - – Survivors of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda attacks and relatives of victims welcomed his killing as the death of the devil on Monday but they also expressed anger and renewed grief for loved ones.

From Ground Zero where the Twin Towers were destroyed by hijacked planes in the September 11, 2001, attacks to a park outside the White House, people cheered the killing of the man most hated and reviled by Americans -- Osama bin Laden.

"Osama bin Laden had the devil's blood running through his veins and this is a joyous day for us," said Rosemary Cain, who lost her 35-year-old son at the World Trade Center.

Bin Laden was shot in the head by U.S. forces who stormed his compound in Pakistan after a decade-long manhunt during which he continually evaded capture.

Maureen Santora's 23-year-old son was killed in the 9/11 attacks but she said he was now "screaming and yelling and having a great time up in heaven today."

Some victims' family members also were upset bin Laden was living in apparent luxury and not cowed in a cave. They were angry, too, that his remains were disposed of respectfully, reminding them of unresolved fights over New York's memorial.

The news of bin Laden's death, announced by President Barack Obama late on Sunday, was greeted on American streets with jubilation, relief, closure and prayers for his victims.

"I never figured I'd be excited about someone's death," said firefighter Michael Carroll, 27, at Ground Zero, whose father, also a fireman, died in the September 11 attacks. "It's finally here. It feels good."

"HE MURDERED MY BROTHER"

There also was visceral hatred expressed bluntly.

"I would like to have pissed on his body ... He murdered my brother," said John Cartier, 42, an electrician who survived the attacks and was holding a picture of his brother James Cartier, who was 26 when he died at the World Trade Center.

At the site, which is still years from being rebuilt and where an emotional 10th anniversary is planned, hundreds sang "The Star Spangled Banner." Some popped champagne, others drank beer, some threw rolls of toilet paper.

"It was like a frat party. It was an excuse for people to ... proclaim ourselves as No. 1," said Sebastian Slayter, 22, who saw the 9/11 attacks from a few blocks away. "It didn't seem like anyone was searching for any knowledge ... we should be celebrating for the right reasons: The monster is dead."

But celebrations were tempered as old wounds reopened.

The Uniformed Firefighters Association of Greater New York noted a decade after the attacks, which killed 343 New York firefighters, more than 100 firefighters have since died from toxic exposures, and many others are chronically ill.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Americans to reject intolerance after a Portland, Maine, mosque was daubed with anti-Islam graffiti; "Osama today, Islam tomorow (sic)."

Stuart Kestenbaum of Maine, whose brother Howard died in the World Trade Center said, "There is a sense of closure but also of awe at all the loss that followed the original loss ... so I didn't feel celebratory, more reflective."

Nearly 3,000 people died when planes hijacked by bin Laden's followers flew into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and into a field in Pennsylvania. The attacks shocked the world and sparked a hunt for the plot's architect.

Bin Laden had been in hiding since he eluded U.S. forces and Afghan militia in the Tora Bora mountains of Afghanistan in 2001. He had taunted the West and directed militant Islamist activities with taped messages from his hideout.

The announcement of bin Laden's death and his speedy burial at sea had the potential to set off conspiracy theorists.

"It has unfortunately opened this up to the possibility of conspiracy theories," said Sally Regenhard, who lost her 28-year-old son on 9/11.

Survivors of other al Qaeda attacks were grateful.

"Very well done to the Yanks. They deserve their praise," Sean Cassidy, whose 22-year-old son Ciaran was killed in the 2005 London bombings, told the BBC.

Al Qaeda first struck in East Africa in 1998, killing hundreds, mostly Africans, in suicide bombing at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. "Kenyans are happy and thank the U.S. people, the Pakistani people and everybody else who managed to kill Osama," Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said.

Amid the euphoria, world leaders and security experts noted the threat of terrorism remained and urged vigilance.

John Falding, whose partner Anat Rosenberg was killed by a suicide bomber on a bus in Tavistock Square, London, told the BBC: "There are plenty more willing to fill his shoes."

Watching the flag-waving on television in New York, Donna Marsh O'Connor, whose pregnant daughter died in the September 11 attack, said she saw little reason to celebrate.

"Osama bin Laden is dead and so is my daughter," she said. "His death didn't bring her back."

(This story was corrected in paragraph 20 to say Sally Regenhard's son, not brother)

(Additional reporting by Vicky Buffery and Alexandria Sage in Paris, Avril Ormbsy in London and Basil Katz, Zachary Goelman and Daniel Trotta in New York, Mark Felsenthal in Washington; Writing by Mark Egan; Editing by Bill Trott)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The United States made the right decision to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, according to an online poll on www.reuters.com on Monday that also gives President Barack Obama a boost.

U.S. special forces killed bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday, bringing a dramatic end to the long manhunt for the man who was the most powerful symbol of Islamist militancy.

Seventy-nine percent who participated in the poll said Washington made the right decision to kill bin Laden, compared with 14 percent who said no and 7 percent who were not sure.

But only 25 percent said they felt safer after the death of the al Qaeda leader, compared with 59 percent who said they did not.

Obama got a fair amount of credit for killing bin Laden, with 37 percent saying he deserved the most credit, while 13 percent said his Republican predecessor, President George W. Bush, should get the credit. Some 50 percent said neither should get credit for the raid.

A slim majority of respondents, or 51 percent, said bin Laden's killing had not changed their perception of Obama's leadership. But 29 percent said it made them feel more favorable to him and 13 percent said they now feel much more favorable. Seven percent said the killing made them feel less so.

Forty-three percent voted that Obama is handling the war on terrorism effectively, compared with 26 percent who said he was handling it ineffectively. Thirty-one percent said they were not sure.

The poll questions were each answered by some 1,200 to 1,300 U.S. and foreign readers of Reuters.com.

(Writing by Patricia Zengerle; editing by Philip Barbara)

BIRDS POINT, Mo (Reuters) – Flames shot up and a loud boom was heard on Monday as the U.S. government blew a hole in a Mississippi River flood levee in a bid to save several towns in Illinois and Kentucky from being inundated.

A witness said water began to pour out of the hole after the explosion and is expected to eventually flood some 130,000 acres of farmland in Missouri in order to spare the towns.

The deliberate destruction of the levee after nightfall and during a driving rain, ended days of fierce debate and legal wrangling over how to cope with the rising flood waters of the Mississippi and nearby Ohio river.

Carlin Bennett, a commissioner in the rural Missouri county that will bear the brunt of the flooding, estimated the U.S. government action will cause $1 billion in property damage.

"It's going to be like a mini tsunami through here," he said. "We can't really imagine it right now."

The state of Missouri petitioned all the way to the Supreme Court in an unsuccessful attempt to stop the action. The states of Illinois and Kentucky opposed Missouri, joining the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in pushing for destruction of the levee in hopes of saving several towns in their states.

One town the Corps hopes to save is Cairo, an historic community of 2,800 people located at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi. The town was largely empty after a mandatory evacuation on Sunday.

Located at the southern tip of Illinois between Missouri and Kentucky, Cairo was an important destination for runaway slaves during the Civil War. Both Missouri and Kentucky were slave states and Illinois was a free state.

Its population is more than 60 percent African-American and a third of its residents have incomes below the poverty level.

"I'm very relieved," said James Wilson, spokesman for Cairo mayor Judson Childs. "I wish they could have done it 3 days earlier." He said some people in the nearby town of Olive Branch already have lost their homes to flooding.

But Deborah Byrne, a minister in Charleston, Missouri who owns 550 acres of the farmland in the path of the waters released by the explosion, said it would take years for the county to recover from the controversial operation.

"It's not just 130,000 acres and rich landowners. There are many families connected with these farms. This land has come down through many generations."

Witnesses near the spot where the levee was breached on Monday said the flood waters were already so high that it was hard to tell where the Mississippi River usually ends.

Trees were standing in water along the banks and water swelled along the sides of the highway. Flood waters covered farm fields and rain was relentless all day, with a cold wind.

On top of the levee, reporters in TV trucks waited along with army personnel. Across already flooded fields could be seen the lights of U.S. Army corps barges, where the explosives were detonated to blow up the levee. Flood water covered the road entering the town of Cairo.

(Additional reporting by Miriam Moynihan; writing by James B. Kelleher;)

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thousands of people poured into the streets outside the White House and in New York City on Monday, waving American flags and honking horns to celebrate the death of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Almost 10 years after the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 3,000 people, residents found joy, comfort and closure with the death of the mastermind of the murderous plot against Americans. For many, it was a historic, long-overdue moment.

"I'm thrilled. I really hope this is a turning point and a return to some kind of unity," said New Yorker Nick Kurczewski, who rushed to Ground Zero, the site of the World Trade Center Twin Towers that were destroyed by al Qaeda militants flying hijacked planes.

Washington residents began gathering at the White House fence soon after the first reports at 10:40 p.m. EDT (0240 GMT Monday) that bin Laden had been slain in Pakistan by U.S. special forces. The crowd swelled and were chanting "USA, USA, USA" by the time President Barack Obama formally announced the news in a televised address just before midnight.

"We had to be there to celebrate with everybody else. I'm very happy with the outcome of today's news," said Stephen Kelley, a Gulf War veteran and former U.S. Marine, who said he rushed to the White House after his wife texted him the news.

College students, who were just children when the attacks took place, turned out in huge numbers, like Jennifer Raymond, 18, wrapped in a huge U.S. flag outside the White House.

"We were all in our dorm rooms and everyone's Facebook was blowing up," said Raymond. "It's like 'Oh my God, Osama bin Laden's dead.' Everyone in the dorm was screaming. Everyone decided to come to the White House."

The celebration may well have been the biggest crowd to gather spontaneously outside the White House since Obama's election in November 2008.

'SOME CLOSURE AND COMFORT'

In New York City, Mayor Michael Bloomberg quickly issued a statement saying: "New Yorkers have waited nearly 10 years for this news. It is my hope that it will bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001."

Hundreds gathered after midnight in Times Square as a large police presence and firetrucks parked among the crowd. People cheered and drivers sent out staccato honking of horns.

Firefighters hold a special place in New Yorkers' memories of September 11, as hundreds died in the collapse of the Twin Towers while racing up flights of stairs to rescue trapped people on the upper floors.

"This is a tremendous moment, and hopefully it will bring us together, it doesn't matter if you're Muslim or Christian or whatever," said Patrice McLeod, a firefighter dressed in uniform. "We'll never give up."

It was also a night to remember the 100,000 or so U.S. troops deployed in Afghanistan, where bin Laden was believed to be hiding for many of the last 10 years. Elaine Coronado, 51, whose brother served a year in Afghanistan, said that joining the crowd outside the White House was a way of showing her support to U.S. military families.

"I was at home thinking I cannot stay at home tonight on such an historic evening. It's just an exciting evening. You have to be here," she said.

Amid the jubilation, some had words of caution about a terrorism threat that they felt was far from over.

"This is a wonderful day for our country, but it's not over. We have the next threat to think about," said Gwen Basaria, 30, who works in Washington and was visiting New York City, speaking after paying her respects at a fire department right next to Ground Zero.

(Additional reporting by Zachary Goelman, Mark Egan and Daniel Trotta in New York, and Toby Zakaria In Washington DC; writing by Mary Milliken; editing by Philip Barbara)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Sunday that he hoped the dramatic killing of Osama bin Laden, mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks that brought down the city's Twin Towers, would comfort those who lost loved ones that day.

"The killing of Osama bin Laden does not lessen the suffering that New Yorkers and Americans experienced at his hands, but it is a critically important victory for our nation -- and a tribute to the millions of men and women in our armed forces and elsewhere who have fought so hard for our nation," he said in a statement.

"New Yorkers have waited nearly 10 years for this news. It is my hope that it will bring some closure and comfort to all those who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001," he said.

In the city's Times Square neighborhood, where one year ago law enforcement foiled a botched attempt to blow up the area known for its Broadway theaters, hundreds gathered to celebrate after midnight with a large police presence and firetrucks parked among the crowd.

Crowds also quickly amassed to celebrate at what became known after the attacks as Ground Zero, the site in lower Manhattan where the Twin Towers had stood. Many shouted "bin Laden is dead, bin Laden is dead."

"After September 11, 2001, we gave our word as Americans that we would stop at nothing to capture or kill Osama bin Laden. After the contribution of millions, including so many who made the ultimate sacrifice for our nation, we have kept that word," Bloomberg said.

(Reporting by Dan Trotta, editing by Philip Barbara)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The State Department on Sunday warned Americans worldwide of "enhanced potential for anti-American violence" following the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

"Given the uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, U.S. citizens in areas where events could cause anti-American violence are strongly urged to limit their travel outside of their homes and hotels and avoid mass gatherings and demonstrations," the State Department said in a statement.

(Reporting by Andrew Quinn, Editing by Will Dunham)