New legislation proposed by state lawmakers would temporarily eliminate a sales tax exemption on clothing, expand hours for video lottery machines and require online travel companies to collect sales taxes on hotel rooms — measures that the lawmakers said were needed to finalize a state budget.

The legislation, which Democratic leaders in the State Senate and Assembly drafted late Saturday after negotiations with Gov. David A. Paterson broke down again on Friday, will also subject the earnings of hedge fund managers who work in New York State but live elsewhere to the state’s income tax. The bill would also cap or delay an array of business tax breaks and shorten the period after which the state can seize abandoned property. Legislative officials estimated that this would raise $200 million.

But Mr. Paterson and the Legislature remained at odds on Sunday over whether the lawmakers’ measures would actually provide enough money to cover hundreds of millions of dollars in extra spending they are seeking. The legislators estimated that their proposals, taken together, would leave a gap of no more than $100 million or $200 million — a minor difference, they said, in a total budget that could now top out at $136 billion.

“The difference between us and him is $200 million,” said Sheldon Silver, the Assembly speaker, “$200 million over what will be a $135- or $136-billion budget, which I suggest to you is less than a tenth of 1 percent.”

Administration officials, however, said they believed the discrepancy was closer to $400 million — an amount certain to grow, because a federal Medicaid grant projected to be $1 billion is to be cut by at least several hundred million dollars and probably more.

The new revenue bill, which cannot be voted on until 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, includes elements of a competing bill introduced by Mr. Paterson on Sunday, like suspending the sales tax exemption on clothing and reducing the deductibility of charitable contributions made by the very wealthy. But it departs from his version in several significant areas, like the governor’s proposal to allow grocery stores to sell wine.

“The bills we introduced allow us to continue negotiations, move forward with gap-closing action and keep government working,” said John L. Sampson, the Senate Democratic leader.

Starting on Monday, lawmakers will be asked to choose between two sets of bills. One is the emergency budget bill submitted by Mr. Paterson on Sunday, which also includes annual budget appropriations for education, and which, under the law, cannot be amended. The other is the budget bill drawn up by Mr. Sampson and Mr. Silver, which includes even more money for education but leaves out some of the governor’s proposals to pay for it all. Lawmakers sent a clear message to the governor on Sunday night by refusing to accept the emergency budget bill.

By introducing their own bill, Mr. Sampson and Mr. Silver have stripped Mr. Paterson of the leverage he had by using emergency bills to pass regular budget appropriations; if lawmakers pass their own appropriations bills, there is no real threat of a government shutdown. If those bills pass, Mr. Paterson could, in turn, use his line-item veto to cut any spending authorized by the Legislature that exceeds the amounts laid out in his executive budget from January.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr. Paterson said that unless the Legislature enacted a contingency plan for the loss of the Medicaid money, he would use those powers to veto all of the lawmakers’ additional spending on education, as well as thousands of legislative earmark grants, known a member items.

“The Legislature is not listening to the signals from Washington,” Mr. Paterson said. “It’s as if they just stick their heads in the sand and ignore it.”

By design, the Legislature’s alternative legislation also omits two major proposals that Mr. Paterson included in his emergency bill: allowing the state’s public universities to set their own tuition rates and placing a flat cap on local property taxes. Both faced fierce resistance from some Democratic lawmakers, who complained that Mr. Paterson was trying to shoehorn his policy priorities into the budget process.

Mr. Paterson called lawmakers into an extraordinary session on Sunday evening to consider the higher education and tax cap bills separately. The rules that govern such sessions do not require lawmakers to vote on the matters put before them by the governor, however, and both the Senate and Assembly met for only a few minutes before adjourning without a vote on the governor’s proposals. The Assembly also adjourned.

Despite their criticism that Mr. Paterson was manipulating the budget process, the Legislature’s new revenue bill came bundled with some decidedly nonbudget-related measures. The most controversial would require New York’s prison inmates, most of whom are from Democratic-leaning New York City but are incarcerated in prisons in Republican-leaning districts upstate, to be counted as residents of their original homes.

That measure, which is likely to draw criticism from Republicans, would help Democrats in drawing more advantageous state legislative districts after the 2010 census is completed.

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The accident occurred on a glorious, postcard-ready summer afternoon in New York, free of the usual culprits of lightning or snow. A large, healthy tree branch, 30 feet above a well-traveled path just outside the Central Park Zoo, snapped, fell and killed a 6-month-old girl as horrified visitors looked on.

The accident, which occurred in one of the park’s most popular locales, could be viewed as a freak occurrence. But it is also the latest in a string of deadly episodes that have plagued the park in the past year, all involving tree branches that abruptly plummeted to earth, killing or seriously injuring passers-by.

It has been years since New Yorkers wondered whether Central Park is safe. But the alarming frequency of the accidents has turned a spotlight on the trees, and whether the entities that oversee the park are doing enough to safeguard the public.

On Sunday, the city’s parks department said it did not know why the branch had fallen, killing the 6-month-old, Gianna Riccuitti, and critically injuring her mother, Karla DelGallo, 33. Furthermore, the city acknowledged that it did not know who was responsible for the upkeep of the tree.

“The investigation as to why the limb fell is ongoing, as is a review of specific responsibility for tree maintenance,” Vickie Karp, a parks spokeswoman, said in a statement.

Generally, the park’s 26,000 trees are overseen by the Central Park Conservancy, the private nonprofit group that has maintained nearly full oversight of the park’s operations and horticulture since 1998, under a formal agreement with the city.

But officials at the conservancy, which counts many of the city’s political and financial elite as members, would not say on Sunday whether the tree was under their purview or if they were conducting their own investigation.

The group referred questions to the police or the zoo’s operator, the Wildlife Conservation Society, which is considered by the city to be responsible for the maintenance and operation of the zoo and its environs.

But the society would not say on Sunday whether it was responsible for the tree. Reached by telephone, a spokesman, Max Pulsinelli, said he could not comment beyond a brief statement expressing condolences for the accident’s victims. Ms. DelGallo remained in critical but stable condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center on Sunday.

Park officials have said that it is impossible to ensure the safety of every single tree in the park, and the conservancy spends upward of half a million dollars annually on tree maintenance.

“It should be minimized,” said Henry J. Stern, a former city parks commissioner. “It is impossible to prevent this completely.”

Still, the question of how closely the trees are tracked has now been raised in the courts. A lawsuit, filed by the family of a Brooklyn man who was killed by a falling branch in February, claims that the conservancy was negligent in removing the tree, which stood at the east side of the park near 69th Street.

The family’s lawyer, Alan M. Shapey, said the tree had been deemed dangerous by the conservancy in December 2009 and had been given a high priority for removal. But the American elm stood untreated for two more months, until the day of the death of the man, Elmaz Qyra, according to the lawsuit. Officials at the conservancy did not respond on Sunday to those claims.

“Why would that tree be there two and a half months after it should have been removed?” Mr. Shapey said in an interview. “Are they waiting for funds? For equipment?”

“I can’t be walking through Central Park looking up at the trees, wondering which one is going to hit me,” he added. “Do I have to wear a hardhat?”

A lawsuit is also pending in the case of Sasha J. Blair-Goldensohn, 33, a Google employee who was struck in the head in July by a rotting four-inch-thick branch on the west side of the park. He survived but suffered from brain and spinal damage.

On Sunday, the mood on the zoo’s promenade was nearly back to normal. Many parkgoers did not appear to notice the broken tree limb above the site of Saturday’s accident.

“The other trees should be roped off,” said Gary Frumberg, 72, who was seated on a nearby bench. “You would think there would be a more concerted effort to inspect all the branches.”

Mr. Frumberg, who said he often brought his grandchildren to the zoo, said he was now nervous about making future visits. “When I come here now, I’m going to be looking up at the trees,” he said.

Johnnie Lacend, 51, said the accident would not keep him from making the trip to the zoo with his daughter and grandson. But the death “did freak us out,” he said.

Mr. Stern, who served as parks commissioner for 16 years, said he could not recall three such accidents in Central Park in a single year.

Recalling his own stewardship of the park, Mr. Stern said its trees could be an unpredictable bunch.

“The trees that you think are the problem trees are not the ones that fall,” he said. “It’s not predictable. When there was an accident, it was some tree we had never thought about.”

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Obama also said that he believed a review of the "messy and unfair" U.S. tax code should be considered as part of a plan to deal with long-term budget problems.

"I'm serious about it," Obama said when asked at a news conference at the Group of 20 summit in Canada if he believed he could meet his deficit reduction goals.

The G20 summit was dominated by a debate among the G20 leaders about how quickly to shift from a focus on economic stimulus toward deficit reduction.

The United States has warned against withdrawing stimulus too quickly, saying the world economy remains fragile but U.S. officials have also said it is important to keep in mind the need for fiscal prudence.

Obama has proposed freezing spending on an array of domestic programs for the next three years and has named a special commission to recommend ways to curb spiraling debt and deficits. The panel is to report back by December 1. Obama will review the recommendations and decide how to go forward sometime early next year.

"I'm doing it because I said I was going to do it," Obama said. "People should learn that lesson about me, because next year, when I start presenting some very difficult choices to the country, I hope some of these folks who are hollering about deficits and debt step up, because I'm calling their bluff."

Amid the worst recession since the Great Depression, the U.S. budget deficit hit $1.4 trillion last year. It is projected to come in at about $1.6 trillion this year.

Obama has said the deficits are a legacy of the Bush administration, but Republicans have tried to cast Obama as a big spender and have attacked last year's $862 economic stimulus package.

Republicans hope to use the issue to put Obama's Democrats on the defensive ahead of the November congressional elections.

Despite the political wrangling over deficits, Obama said he has been hearing both from Democrats and Republicans that "there's been a serious conversation" about budget deficits and the need to address them.

Obama said structural budget problems were looming as the aging of the U.S. population pushes up spending for health and retirement programs.

"Even if we had not gone through this financial crisis, we'd still have to be dealing with these long-term deficit problems," Obama said.

He listed the tax code as another structural problem.

"We've got to look at a tax system that is messy and unfair in a whole range of ways," Obama said.

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Leaders of the world's biggest economies acknowledged there is no one-size-fits-all solution to the world's economic troubles, agreeing in Toronto to halve the budget deficits of most industrialized nations by 2013, while giving each country the leeway to cut spending at its own speed.

The compromise was the result of divisions between the Obama administration, which emphasizes the need to continue stimulating growth and job creation, and some of its principal allies, which have grown alarmed over soaring debt levels.

For much of the weekend, discussions around the gathering of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing nations focused on whether leaders should stay the course they set last year, when they agreed to try to jump-start the economy in large part through government investment.

But the summit's final communique reflected the strong concern about continued borrowing and spending held by many European leaders, whose countries have been battered in recent weeks by financial markets worried about their high debt levels. They came to Toronto pushing an agenda of austerity, and succeeded in securing the pledge to aggressively slash spending.

"Honestly, this is more than I expected, because it is quite specific," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a leading voice for deficit reduction. "It's a success that industrialized countries as a group accepted this."

However, the communique also included some language echoing President Obama's concerns about ending current economic stimulus plans too quickly. "To sustain recovery, we need to follow through on delivering existing stimulus plans, while working to create the conditions for robust private demand," it said.

The communique offers each country flexibility in deciding when to begin reducing its deficit and avoided specific targets for each nation advocated by some participants. A White House statement said deficit reduction "needs to be calibrated … and tailored to national circumstances."

"Here is the tightrope we must walk," said Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, the host of the summit, who found himself seeking common ground between deficit hawks and stimulus proponents.

"To sustain the recovery, it is imperative we follow through on existing stimulus plans," Harper said. "At the same time, advanced countries must send a clear message that as our stimulus plans expire, we will focus on getting our fiscal houses in order."

At his post-summit news conference, Obama stood behind the deficit target set by participants but still pressed his concern about the need for governments to stimulate economic growth.

"We must recognize that our fiscal health tomorrow will rest in no small measure on our ability to create jobs and growth today," he said. "This is my highest economic priority as president."

Vowing that the U.S. will not fund prosperity for the rest of the world, he pledged to even out trade imbalance around the world and end the "undue advantage" some countries have over others in the global marketplace.

That means a fair playing field for American exports and currency, Obama said, announcing a goal of doubling U.S. exports over the next five years as well as a renewed push for currency values that are driven by the market.

"After years of taking on too much debt, Americans cannot — and will not — borrow and buy the world's way to lasting prosperity," Obama said. "No nation should assume its path to prosperity is paved with exports to America. Indeed, I've made it clear that the United States will compete aggressively for the jobs and industries and markets of the future. "

The weekend of meetings, both of the Group of 8 leading industrialized nations in a nearby resort town and of the G-20 in Toronto, were tense within and without. A day after protesters smashed windows and attacked police cars, authorities detained hundreds of demonstrators in an attempt to contain the disruption.

Leaders reached consensus on a number of fronts, including on the question of limiting the emission of greenhouse gases.

In a last-minute turn, G-20 negotiators agreed to more ambitious plans to trim government subsidies to oil companies, part of their broader effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Earlier in the week, negotiators were working out an agreement that called for each of the 20 countries to take "voluntary" measures to cut oil production and consumption incentives. But under private pressure from the Obama administration over the last two days, the group is preparing to sign an agreement that omits the word "voluntary."

The delegates also addressed the oil spill now threatening the Gulf of Mexico's coastline, saying they recognize the need to protect the marine environment and prevent accidents related to offshore drilling and exploration.

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Here are some questions and answers about the problems confronting Obama ahead of meetings in Canada this week of the Group of Eight and Group of 20 nations.

WHAT IS OBAMA'S MOST PRESSING PROBLEM?

Obama has sought to assert leadership over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill since the oil rig explosion on April 20 killed 11 workers and the BP Plc well began spewing millions of gallons of oil.

The worst spill in U.S. history has wreaked environmental havoc, threatened tourism and fishing and generated criticism that Obama's handling of the crisis has been too slow.

Anger over what some Britons view as anti-British invective over BP is expected to complicate his first meetings with Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron.

Obama has said containing the spill is his highest priority, visited the Gulf four times and ordered a moratorium on deepwater drilling now under legal attack.

But after several failed attempts to stop the spill, all eyes are on whether a containment system can keep the oil in check until relief wells being drilled can finally stop it.

WHAT IS OBAMA'S MOST PERSISTENT PROBLEM?

The spill might be Obama's most pressing problem, but his most persistent is the economy, with unemployment that is still near 10 percent posing political problems for Obama and his Democratic party as they fight to preserve majorities in Congress in November elections.

Going into the G8 and G20, the administration is concerned about the potential fallout for the United States of the European debt crisis, which could dampen world growth and depress U.S. exports.

WHERE DO THINGS STAND WITH THE WARS?

AFGHANISTAN - The dismissal and replacement of General Stanley McChrystal on Wednesday after the general's disparaging comments to a magazine have added to uncertainty about the unpopular nine-year-old war.

Obama ordered 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan in December to try to break the momentum of the Taliban, but the insurgency is stronger than ever despite Obama's desire to start withdrawing U.S. troops in 2011.

IRAQ - Obama has declared the Iraq war will end for the United States by the end of 2011, when remaining U.S. troops will withdraw. Months after a March 7 parliamentary election, Iraq still does not have a government, raising fears that the delay could exacerbate sectarian tensions.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER ISSUES ON OBAMA'S DOMESTIC AGENDA?

Obama's plan to overhaul U.S. financial regulation looks likely to pass soon, and Obama wants to tout the changes as a model for other countries at the G20.

A House-Senate panel is hammering out a final bill after separate measures passed both houses of Congress, and administration officials say other members of the G8 and G20 already consider the sweeping overhaul passed.

Obama also signed a landmark overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system into law in March, notching a win on his top domestic priority.

But it is unclear how much healthcare will help Democrats in November. Obama has gone on the offensive over the bill, battering Republicans who attack the measure as an attempted government takeover of a major industry.

HOW DOES THE U.S. DEFICIT COMPLICATE THE PICTURE?

The debt woes of countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal have put a spotlight on the U.S. budget deficit, which is projected to hit $1.6 trillion this year.

Republicans have attacked Obama over the red ink, labeling him a big spender. The White House counters that the deficits are a legacy of fiscal mismanagement under the Bush administration and that Obama's programs will cut them back.

Some Democratic lawmakers have become more reticent about backing additional social spending amid indications U.S. voters are increasingly worried about the debt load.

White House officials are debating how far to go in emphasizing a message of budgetary restraint at home and at the G20, given the lackluster pace of economic growth remains a pressing concern.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER PRESSING INTERNATIONAL ISSUES?

The U.N. Security Council approved a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, a victory for Obama but one that is unlikely to halt Tehran's nuclear program.

Obama has made Middle East diplomacy a priority and had succeeded in reviving Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations through U.S.-mediated indirect talks.

But there has been next to no progress and prospects looked even more bleak after Israeli commandos stormed a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza, leaving nine dead and sparking an international outcry.

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It is the latest goal in US World Cup history. It was the difference between going home a total disappointment and moving into the round of 16 as the group winner. It came off the foot of none other than Landon Donavon.

On a fast break started by an amazing outlet from goalkeeper Tim Howard, Donavon raced up the sideline. He passed the ball to Jozy Altidore, who then sent a low cross through the box to Clint Dempsey. However Algeria goalkeeper Rais Bolhi was able to stuff the shot. But he couldn't keep the handle. With the ball bouncing in the 6 yard box, and the US hopes nearly gone, Donavon came racing in and calmly passed the ball into the back of the net.

The US team had plenty of opportunities throughout the game. They even scored, or so they thought, in the 21st minute. Dempsey appeared to have cleaned up a rebound given up by Bolhi, but was ruled offsides. Further review of the play had every commentator and analyst say it was a bad call. Dempsey also hit the post on a wide open goal in the 57th minute.

Up next for the US is Ghana, the runner-up in group D. That match will take place Saturday at 2pm EST and will be aired live on ABC.

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While people consider full-size pickup trucks quintessentially American, the Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado and MC Sierra missed the list this year. The F-150 is assembled in the U.S. but its proportion of domestic parts fell to 55%. In previous years it had a domestic parts content of around 80 percent, Cars.com says.

The Silverado and Sierra also used to be on the list regularly, but now their production is split between factories in the U.S. and Mexico. The latest models have only about 65% percent of their “content” from the U.S.

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President Barack Obama is chipping away at his long list of promises to gay voters but has yet to win the enthusiastic backing of the reliably Democratic voting bloc.

The Obama White House has accomplished more than any other on gay rights, yet has drawn sharp criticism from an unexpected constituency: the same gay activists who backed the president's election campaign. Instead of the sweeping change gays and lesbians had sought, a piece-by-piece approach has been the administration's favored strategy, drawing neither serious fire from conservatives nor lavish praise from activists.

Obama on Tuesday planned to tick through some of the accomplishments at a meeting with grass-roots gay activists at the White House. His administration planned to announce Wednesday that the Labor Department would order businesses to extend unpaid leave for gay workers to care for newborns or loved ones.

The move, coming less than five months before November's congressional elections, seems likely to incite conservatives and Republicans who stood in lockstep against the Obama administration's earlier efforts to repeal a ban on gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. It also appears likely to be popular with loyal Democrats and organized labor.

Just not with some gay activists, who long ago stopped giving Obama the benefit of a doubt.

"We still need laws passed that achieve what these minimal efforts attempt to do piecemeal," said Lane Hudson, a gay activist who last year interrupted Bill Clinton as he defended his administration's handling of gays and lesbians in the military.

"The little things that the Beltway crowd pays attention to — and the White House uses to say 'We're making so much progress' — that doesn't translate outside the Beltway," Hudson said.

The White House boasts a long list of accomplishments to tout during meetings with gay and lesbian organizations, but their reach is limited.

For instance, Obama signed a hate crimes bill into law, expanded benefits for partners of State Department employees and ended the ban on HIV-positive persons from visiting the United States. He referenced families with "two fathers" in his Father's Day proclamation last week and devoted 38 words of his State of the Union address to repealing "don't ask, don't tell," the ban on gays serving openly in the military.

"There've been some mixed signals from his staff from time to time, but at the end of the day we're on the path toward repeal," said Aubrey Sarvis, the executive director of the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which is trying to end the military ban.

"Initially, we saw the president and his team were a bit cautious and measured, I think in large part because they didn't want to repeat the mistakes of the Clinton administration. That was understandable. But we're long past that," he said.

There's reason for the frustration.

Obama's campaign pledged to repeal "don't ask, don't tell," yet that goal remains years away. His Justice Department invoked incest in a legal brief defending the traditional definition of marriage, prompting some gay donors last year to boycott the Democratic National Committee. And just last week, a committee at his Health and Human Services Department recommended the nation retain its policy barring gay men from donating blood.

"Two wars, a financial crisis, now an oil spill, plus a fundamental unwillingness to act boldly on gay rights, have rendered Obama agenda-less on this issue," said Richard Socarides, who advised Clinton on gay policies.

Obama's allies say the small-bore changes are the best activists can hope despite Democrats controlling the White House, the Senate and the House.

"The reason why these policy changes are important is because we do not have ironclad LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) majorities in either house of Congress," said Fred Sainz, a vice president at the Human Rights Campaign, Washington's largest gay rights organization.

"People wrongly assume that having Democratic majorities in Congress means that your legislative goals will be met. That's not the case," Sainz said.

Gay constituents are hardly the only member of the Democratic bloc to come up disappointed with this White House. Environmental groups groan as a comprehensive climate bill has languished on the Hill. Organized labor saw its signature legislation, which would make it easier for workers to form unions, go nowhere without the White House's backing. And women's groups were in open revolt during the debate over the health care overhaul because of anti-abortion provisions.

It's small consolation for gay rights activists.

"The people in the White House have to realize that issues of equality are not controversial," Hudson said.

A Gallup poll last month found 70 percent of American favor allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. That same poll, however, included a reminder: 53 percent opposed legalizing gay marriage.

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The government can prosecute private citizens for giving advice to a foreign organization - on how to negotiate peace or take its case to the United Nations, for example - if the group is on the U.S. terrorist list, the Supreme Court ruled Monday.

In the most important foreign policy and civil liberties case of their 2009-10 term, the justices ruled 6-3 that a law prohibiting "material support" of foreign terrorist organizations can be used against people who claim to be providing only peaceful, humanitarian assistance.

Any tangible support - money, legal aid or political advice - "frees up other resources within the organization that may be put to violent ends," Chief Justice John Roberts said in the majority opinion.

"It also importantly helps lend legitimacy to foreign terrorist groups - legitimacy that makes it easier for those groups to persist, to recruit members, and to raise funds - all of which facilitate more terrorist attacks," Roberts said.

Dissenting Justice Stephen Breyer protested that the majority's interpretation "would deny First Amendment protection to the peaceful teaching of international human rights law," on the grounds that it might enable terrorists to conduct sham negotiations.

Those who intend to aid terrorism should be prosecuted, but any broader use of the law would violate free speech, argued Breyer, whose dissent was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor. The majority included liberal Justice John Paul Stevens as well as the court's conservatives - Roberts and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Furious debate

The ruling touched off a furious debate over the government's power to prevent dissidents from helping blacklisted organizations. The ban on "material support" for foreign terrorists was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1996 and was expanded in the USA Patriot Act that President George W. Bush signed in 2001.

Under Monday's decision, "human rights advocates, providing training and assistance in the nonviolent resolution of disputes, can be prosecuted as terrorists," said David Cole, lawyer for organizations and individuals who challenged the law.

The plaintiffs sought to train members of two groups on the State Department's terrorist list - the Kurdish Workers Party in Turkey and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in Sri Lanka - in peaceful conflict resolution and advocacy before the United Nations.

Those forms of assistance to such "deadly groups" could lead to prosecution, the court said Monday, while insisting it was not restricting free speech. "Plaintiffs may say anything they wish" on their own behalf, Roberts said.

Carter concerned

Civil liberties advocates said they also feared repercussions for U.S.-based critics of the Israeli government, who might be charged with aiding Hamas, which Washington has designated as a terrorist group. One such critic is former President Jimmy Carter, whose private Mideast diplomatic efforts have included contact with Hamas.

The ruling "threatens our work and the work of many other peacemaking organizations that must interact directly with groups that have engaged in violence," said Carter, whose organization filed arguments with the court.

On the other side, Annemarie McAvoy, a Fordham law professor and former federal prosecutor, said the court recognized the "reality factor" of a world in which groups such as al Qaeda thrive on aid funneled through charities.

"By helping the terrorists, even tangentially, they're freeing up the terrorists to focus on other things, such as violent attacks," McAvoy said.

During arguments in February, Solicitor General Elena Kagan, now President Obama's nominee to the court, defended the law and urged a broad interpretation that would allow prosecution of a U.S. citizen who filed a legal brief on behalf of a terrorist organization.

"What Congress decided," Kagan told the court, "is that when you help Hezbollah build homes, you are also helping Hezbollah build bombs."

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Barack Obama is a "treacherous, bloodthirsty" president who won't prevent a terror attack on the United States, U.S.-born al-Qaida operative Adam Gadahn said.

Addressing Obama as "Barack," Gadahn released his comments and a video on the Internet Sunday, the Middle East media Research Institute reported. CNN, saying it couldn't confirm the transcript or video's veracity, reported the text and video were posted on several Web sites supportive of, or backed by, terrorist groups.

"I know that as you slither snakelike into the second year of your reign as a purported president of change, you are finding your hands full with running the affairs of a declining and besieged empire and -- in the process -- proving yourself to be nothing more than another treacherous, bloodthirsty and narrow-minded American war president … ," Gadahn said.

Gadahn criticized what he called U.S. "aggression and interference" in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, as well as transferring "captive brothers" from detention centers around the world to "Muslim-only concentration camps in Illinois, Bagram (Airfield, Afghanistan) and elsewhere -- all in the name of protecting the American people from the threat of Muslim retaliation for American crimes."

The Obama administration is considering housing terror detainees in a maximum-security correctional facility in Thomson, Ill.

U.S. efforts against terrorists won't succeed in improving security and protecting the United States, Gadahn said, adding, "they are actually detrimental to America's safety and stability."

"And honestly, Barack, as a president who has proven himself to be incapable of keeping intruders out of his own executive mansion, do you really expect anyone to believe that you will be successful in your attempts to keep the mujahedin away from an entire continent?" the video asked.

In March, Gadahn reportedly was arrested by Pakistani investigators after Web sites posted a video of him lauding the suspect in the Fort Hood, Texas, massacre in November. However, the Pakistani government later backed away from the reports.

CNN reported the U.S. government has offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the capture of Gadahn, the first American charged with treason since 1952.

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Andrew Schad was on his way home Sunday, traveling north on the Red Line after a late lunch downtown, when the train began to fill with smoke.

Some seated beside him began to cough and choke, and Schad put up the rim of his collar to cover his nose and mouth. By the time the train reached the next stop at the Clark/Division station, so much smoke had consumed the underground station that passengers were fleeing for the exits.

"We were given no instruction. We didn't really know what was going on," said Schad, 23. "I never saw flames, but there was a lot of smoke. Visibility was really bad."

Investigators worked late into the night Sunday to figure out what had sparked an extra-alarm fire on an underground track that sent 19 people to hospitals for smoke inhalation and respiratory problems.

Five people were transported with serious injuries, Chicago Fire Department spokesman Richard Rosado said. The injured included a 10-year-old boy who was being held overnight at Children's Memorial Hospital for smoke inhalation. The extent of their injuries was not known Sunday night.

"The smoke was so thick you couldn't see across the aisle," said passenger Dillon Johnson, 23. "We all started to sit down on the floor where the smoke wasn't as bad."

Fire officials said railroad ties caught fire just before 5 p.m. on the northbound track between the Red Line stops at Chicago Avenue and Clark/Division. Black smoke could be seen billowing from several subway grates and vents in the area, including near Gibsons Bar and Steakhouse on Rush Street. Red Line trains and several bus routes were redirected while firefighters fought the small underground blaze.

Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford said it's unclear what sparked the fire, but that railroad ties occasionally catch fire during the summer heat.

"It's more common on the elevated trains," Langford said. "It's rare on the subway. But it does happen occasionally."

By the time firefighters had controlled the fire at 6:18 p.m., hundreds of people were milling near the entrance to the Clark/Division stop and paramedics were taking some away in ambulances and assisting others with oxygen masks.

By 8 p.m., service had been restored to both the Red Line's northbound and southbound routes. It's not likely the damage will affect Monday morning commuters, CTA spokeswoman Catherine Hosinski said.

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• The Los Angeles Lakers overtook the Boston Celtics by a score of 83-29 in the final game of a nail-biting series to earn their 16th NBA title. Asked what the victory meant to him, the always sportsmanlike Kobe Bryant—who was dubbed most valuable player—said, "Just got one more than Shaq[uille O'Neal]."

• In an interview with an Ecuadorian TV station, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed President Obama's intention to have the Justice Department sue the state of Arizona over its controversial new immigration law.

• Convicted murderer Ronnie Lee Gardner was executed by firing squad in Utah yesterday. Asked if he had any final words, Gardner said, "No, I do not."

• Boycotting BP gas stations, as many Americans are doing, doesn't so much hurt the maligned oil giant as the individual station owners. So if you really want to get back at the company, make its top executives squirm before a congressional committee and force them to cough up $20 billion.

• Smirnoff was apparently behind the demise of brosicingbros.com, the Web site popularizing the practice of ironically/unironically forcing people to down bottles of Smirnoff Ice on one knee. If true, the move dispels suspicions that the phenomenon was a guerilla marketing tactic by the company. Incidentally, it's hilarious to read Ad Age describe the concept of icing.

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President Barack Obama has asked America's G-20 trading partners to work closely him "to safeguard and strengthen the recovery" from the near collapse of the global economic system in the fall of 2008.

Looking ahead to the coming G-20 summit in Toronto, Obama noted in a letter that "significant weaknesses" linger among the major and developing economic powers. He told his summit partners "it is essential that we have a self-sustaining recovery that creates the good jobs that our people need." The White House released a copy of the letter on Friday.

In it, Obama said that the June 25-27 summit should also focus on efforts to stabilize public debt, while at the same time saying nations must be careful about withdrawing stimulus programs too quickly during times of slack demand and general business sluggishness.

He gave this message to Congress this week in trying to preserve legislation aimed at adding to the $787 billion stimulus law that lawmakers approved last year. But Obama was thwarted in this initiative, as the Senate rejected long-sought legislation to provide stimulus spending and a reprieve for doctors about to get hit with a big cut in their Medicare payments.

The failed measure, killed by a GOP filibuster, would have provided further jobless aid for the long-term unemployed, $24 billion in aid to cash-strapped state governments and the renewal of dozens of popular tax breaks for businesses and individuals.

Earlier this month, Obama reissued a plea for more stimulus spending as insurance against another recession. But the measure instead fell victim to election-year anxiety over huge federal deficits despite being pared back by Democratic leaders.

In the letter released to his G-20 partners Friday, Obama said: "I am committed to the restoration of fiscal sustainability in the United States and believe that all G-20 countries should put in place credible and growth-friendly plans to restore sustainable public finances."

"But it is critical that the timing and pace of consolidation in each economy suit the needs of the global economy, the momentum of private sector demand and national circumstances."

The recovery from recession in the United States has been erratic and uneven.

The economy is expanding, but at a weaker pace than in many previous recoveries. The Commerce Department reported that the nation's gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic output — grew at a 3 percent annual rate in the January-to-March quarter. That was down from the 5.6 percent pace in the fourth quarter of 2009.

After the last deep recession in the early 1980s, the economy grew at a pace of 7 percent to 9 percent for five straight quarters.

The national unemployment rate continues to cover near double-digit levels.

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President Obama will discuss the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and his vision for the nation's energy future at 8 p.m. ET in his first-ever address from the Oval Office. Think of it as the equivalent of the nation being called into the principal's office.

Whenever presidents invite us into their 101-year-old inner sanctum (President William Howard Taft was the first to use the Oval Office in 1909), it's generally not good news.

Some recent examples:

* July 15, 1979: Jimmy Carter discusses the nation's "erosion of confidence" in what later became known as the "malaise speech."
* January 28, 1986: Ronald Reagan addresses the nation on the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger.
* January 16, 1991: George H.W. Bush announces the opening of war in the Persian Gulf, as the U.S. and its allies attempt to repel Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
* December 16, 1998: Bill Clinton announces air strikes on Iraq.
* September 11, 2001: George W. Bush discusses the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Look for the president to detail his administration's effort to respond to what he's seen on this week's two-day trip to the Gulf, his fourth visit to the region since the BP-operated Deepwater Horizon oil rig blew on April 20. And look for him to renew his push for comprehensive energy legislation designed to move the nation away from fossil fuels.

On Monday, the president moved to activate his campaign network on the issue. In an email, he asked supporters to push for Senate passage of an energy bill sponsored by Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Joe Lieberman, I-Conn. "This is an issue that Washington has long ignored in favor of protecting the status quo," the president wrote. "If we refuse to heed the warnings from the disaster in the Gulf -- we will have missed our best chance to seize the clean-energy future we know America needs to thrive in the years and decades to come."

It's a two-speech day for the president. He's waking up in Pensacola, Fla., where he'll deliver remarks later this morning to military personnel at the Pensacola Naval Air Techical Training Center. Then he'll return to Washington to deliver his nationally televised address.

Our sister paper, the Pensacola News Journal, is reporting that Obama is expected to inspect the Pensacola beach before leaving town.

The president has done his bit to promote Gulf seafood on his latest tour of the region. Before arriving in Pensacola, he enjoyed his second fish feast of the day at Tacky Jack's Restaurant in Orange Beach, Ala.

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A man and a woman were taken into custody Monday evening after they tried to gain unauthorized access to MacDill Air Force Base outside Tampa, Fla., and weapons were found in their vehicle, military officials said.

The base is home to the United States Central Command, which oversees the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The pair tried to enter the base around 5 p.m. through the base’s Bayshore Boulevard gate, said Senior Airman Katherine B. Holt, a spokeswoman for the base. When they were unable to show proper identification, their vehicle was inspected and security personnel found military-style weapons and gear inside, officials said.

Members of the base’s fire department and an explosives unit were summoned, but no explosives were found, the base said in a statement. Later, officials said the Bayshore gate was closed, as it normally is at night, and the rest of the base was operating normally.

Officials did not identify the suspects or describe the weapons and gear in detail, and they did not say why the pair might have wanted to access the base. The base was investigating the incident and officials did not plan to release additional details overnight, Airman Holt said.

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The fate of one vulnerable incumbent -- along with the outcome of more than a dozen competitive primary contests -- will be decided by voters in 12 states today in an election that's being called the "Super Tuesday" of the 2010 political season.

When polls close today, the primary season will be at its midpoint, with 25 states having held official primaries and 25 states to go before the November. The general election will decide control of Congress and, possibly, the future of President Obama's agenda.

Recent elections in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia and a convention in Utah have reinforced what polls have been predicting for months: Voters are worried about the economy, fed up with Washington and wary of incumbents, often regardless of party. Today will provide insight into whether those concerns continue.

On the busiest primary day of the year, here are some of the races to watch:

Arkansas: Sen. Blanche Lincoln faces Lt. Gov. Bill Halter in a competitive runoff for the Democratic Senate nomination after neither candidate cleared the 50% vote threshold in May. Lincoln, a centrist, has come under fire from labor unions upset over some of her votes this year on Obama's health care plan (she supported the underlying measure but opposed a government-run health plan). Polls close at 8:30 p.m. ET.

California: There are several races of note. For starters, two wealthy Republicans – former eBay CEO Meg Whitman and state insurance commissioner Steve Poizner -- are spending millions of their own money for the GOP nomination for governor. Whoever wins will likely take on the state's Democratic Attorney General (and former governor) Jerry Brown.

For Senate, former Hewlett Packard executive Carly Fiorina is battling with former Rep. Tom Campbell and Tea Party favorite Chuck DeVore to take on Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer in November. Polls close at 11 p.m. ET.

South Carolina: Politics has gotten personal in the Palmetto State. State lawmaker Nikki Haley hopes to replace Mark Sanford as governor, but the race for the GOP nomination has turned tabloid with recent allegations of infidelity, which she denies. Polls have Haley ahead of Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, Rep. Gresham Barrett and Attorney General Henry McMaster.

In South Carolina's 4th Congressional District, six-term Republican Rep. Bob Inglis faces a challenge from former federal prosecutor Trey Gowdy. Like many intra-party fights on the GOP side, this race has turned partly on the 2008 bank bailout, which Inglis supported. Another issue that's come up in the race: Inglis voted to censure fellow South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson after he shouted "you lie" at Obama during an address to Congress. Polls close at 7 p.m. ET.

Nevada: The GOP Senate primary will determine who will take on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in November. Heading into the primary, Tea Party backed Sharron Angle appeared to have the lead against former party official Sue Lowden and businessman Danny Tarkanian. Polls close at 10 p.m. ET.

New Jersey: Former Philadelphia Eagle Jon Runyan is hoping to win the Republican nomination to take on Rep. John Adler, a Democrat elected in 2009 in a southern New Jersey district that tilts Republican. Polls close at 8 p.m. ET

Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Virginia and are also holding primaries (Georgia's race is a special runoff for a vacant House seat).

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WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says his talks with Gulf fishermen and oil spill experts are not an academic exercise. They're "so I know whose ass to kick."

One target for the presidential foot: Tony Hayward, the embattled chief executive of BP.

Obama was asked by Matt Lauer of NBC's "Today" about Hayward's past comments that "I want my life back," that the Gulf was "a big ocean" and that "the environmental impact of this disaster is likely to be very, very modest."

"He wouldn't be working for me after any of those statements," Obama said.

The interview, which was aired Tuesday on the "Today" show, was part of a stepped-up White House effort to show Obama is actively engaged in dealing with the worst oil spill in the nation's history, and to distance itself from the London-based oil giant, formerly known as British Petroleum. Polls have shown a majority of Americans believe Obama has handled the crisis poorly.

The administration isn't even using the same figures as BP any more for how much oil is flowing from the blown-out well and how much is being captured.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told a White House briefing Monday that a cap on the damaged oil well is now keeping up to 462,000 gallons of oil a day from leaking into the Gulf, up sharply from previous amounts.

But his figures conflicted slightly with BP's numbers. In a statement, BP put the amount being captured at 466,200 gallons. Allen said the government was using its own flow-rate calculations and no longer wanted to rely on those from BP.

Obama met Monday with his Cabinet and Allen for a briefing on the oil spill, which began April 20 with an explosion and fire that killed 11 workers on a BP-leased rig.

In remarks after that meeting, Obama sought to reassure the nation that the Gulf Coast would "bounce back" from the spill — but not without time, effort and reimbursement from BP. BP is the majority owner of the oil well that blew, but other energy companies are also partners and will bear proportionate financial responsibility.

Obama stepped up his rhetoric with NBC's Lauer while on a trip to Kalamazoo, Mich., to deliver a high-school commencement address.

He strongly defended his role in dealing with the crisis, including his three visits to the region since the spill began.

"I was down there a month ago before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf," Obama said.

The president said he has talked to a variety of "experts" on the oil spill in addition to the fishermen.

"I don't sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar, we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers — so I know whose ass to kick," the president said.

Asked about the damage the crisis was doing to his presidency, Obama said, "... I'm not concerned about my politics right now. I'm concerned about what's happening down in the Gulf. ... This is the largest federal response to an environmental emergency in history. From Day 1, we understood that it was going to be a major disaster."

He said he understood people's frustration over the problem, but said the pressure the administration is feeling can be explained in part by unrelenting television images of spewing oil, sullied beaches and soaked pelicans.

"I have to tell you, some of this is just the nature of the 24-hour news cycle," Obama said.

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A small undersea earthquake has struck off Santa Monica and was widely felt in the West Los Angeles area.

The U.S. Geological survey says the 3.6-magnitude temblor hit at 2:17 a.m. PDT Monday and was centered about four miles west of Redondo Beach at a depth of 8 miles.

The USGS website recorded hundreds of hits from respondents saying they felt the quake -- mainly people in oceanfront communities but some from central Los Angeles about 20 miles east.

A Santa Monica police spokesman said he felt a "very brief and mild jolt," but had not received any calls from the public.

Christopher Knight, a Scottsdale, Ariz., resident visiting in Marina del Ray, says the jolt lasted about a second. "It was very short shift from left to right."

Scientists say quakes of this magnitude, while often felt, are generally not strong enough to cause injury or damage

Two Americans were arrested Saturday night at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport as they allegedly prepared to travel to Somalia to join a terror group there.

U.S. authorities say the two men arrested as they prepared to board separate flights to Egypt are Mohamed Hamoud Alessa, age 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, age 26. According to Federal officials, their final destination was Somalia, where they planned to join a militant group, al-Shabab, which is linked to the al-Qaida terrorist organization.

Officials say the two men have been under investigation since 2006 and that they traveled to Jordan in 2007. According to a formal complaint filed by U.S. officials, an undercover New York City police officer recorded conversations with the men in which they spoke about carrying out jihad, or holy war, against Americans.

According to New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, the two men are American citizens. They live in the state of New Jersey, near New York City.

Federal authorities say the men face charges of conspiring to kill, maim and kidnap persons outside the United States. According to the formal government charges, the men physically conditioned themselves, engaged in tactical training and acquired military gear. The government also says the men discussed what they said was their obligation to wage violent jihad and expressed a willingness to commit acts of violence in the United States.

The two men are scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, on Monday.

Whether it was his vote against the health care legislation or his strategy to sidestep the state’s black political leadership, the decisive defeat of Artur Davis in his quest to become the first black governor of Alabama illustrates the limits of trying to replicate the strategy that helped carry President Obama to office.

Ron Sparks, the Alabama agriculture commissioner, seized a 24-point victory over Mr. Davis, a four-term congressman, in the Democratic primary for Alabama governor on Tuesday. Even Mr. Sparks was stunned by his winning margin, considering he was on the verge of leaving the race a few months ago to avoid an embarrassing loss.

“We worked hard, we fussed hard, we cried hard,” Mr. Sparks told his supporters who gathered in Montgomery. “Thank you for allowing me to be in the position I’m in.”

While Mr. Davis always had a challenging path to winning a general election for governor in Alabama, where 47 years ago George Wallace stood in the state capitol and proclaimed “segregation forever,” it was his failure to win over black voters that cost him the Democratic primary on Tuesday. He and the state’s four major black political groups have been at odds for years, and his strategy of bypassing the organizations failed.

“The black establishment, the iconic leaders from the civil rights era and the traditional black organizations, ironically and successfully deprived Artur Davis of the nomination,” said Glen Browder, a former Democratic congressman from Alabama. “But they felt he had shunned his own race and he could not win the general election.”

The unofficial vote count on Wednesday showed that Mr. Sparks defeated Mr. Davis 62 percent to 28 percent.

The voters of Alabama joined those in Mississippi and New Mexico in selecting their party’s nominees for House and Senate races who will compete in the midterm elections in November.

In New Mexico, immigration was a dominating issue in the race to succeed Gov. Bill Richardson, a Democrat, who has held the seat for eight years.

Susana Martinez, a county prosecutor who prevailed in a five-way Republican primary, was endorsed by Sarah Palin and supports the new Arizona law allowing the police to check the documents of anyone they suspect of being in the country illegally. Ms. Martinez’s Democratic opponent, Diane Denish, the lieutenant governor, opposes the measure, setting the stage for a fierce debate over the next five months.

The Democratic primary for governor in Alabama delivered the biggest upset, with Mr. Davis, 42, campaigning on bringing change to politics in his state by building a coalition of white and black voters — reminiscent of the strategy employed two years ago by Mr. Obama. Mr. Davis sought to play down race as a factor in the campaign and also worked to show his independence from Mr. Obama, including opposing the health care law earlier this year.

“This is not exactly the speech I’d planned to give tonight,” Mr. Davis told crestfallen supporters in downtown Birmingham. He added, “We need to fix things in Alabama and we need to go forward, and I urge you to get behind Sparks to make that happen.”

A variety of polls showed him with a 10-point lead in the race. His advisers attributed the defeat, in part, to low turnout among rank-and-file voters. But the 24-point loss signaled that his argument had fallen flat with Democrats and that he had failed to create a sense of enthusiasm among black voters, who make up close to 60 percent of the primary electorate.

Mr. Sparks campaigned aggressively for the endorsements of the state’s four major black political organizations and sharply criticized Mr. Davis’ vote against health care legislation earlier this year.

Mr. Browder, the former Alabama congressman who studies the politics of race in the state, said the victory by Mr. Sparks showed that the traditional black power structure that Mr. Davis tried to go around still carried significant weight in primary elections.

“Some may find this surprising and disturbing, but this is the way that blacks have maximized their influence in the South for decades,” Mr. Browder said, “and it looks like they will continue to control and channel black influence in the political process.”

Seven Republicans sought their party’s nomination for governor in a race that featured a heated debate over immigration and expanding gambling in the state, but none emerged with more than 50 percent of the votes. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Bradley Byrne had 28 percent of the vote, followed by Robert Bentley at 25 percent and Tim James at 25 percent. A runoff election on July 13 will decide the nomination.

A sitting Republican congressman, Parker Griffith, lost his primary challenge in Alabama. Last year, Mr. Griffith left the Democratic Party to become a Republican, hoping to improve his chances of winning re-election. But he fell short in a rematch with Mo Brooks, a county commissioner Mr. Griffith narrowly defeated two years ago when he was a Democrat.

The National Republican Congressional Committee followed its policy of supporting incumbents and backed Mr. Griffith, even though he had been a Republican for only five months. With nearly all precincts reporting, Mr. Brooks led Mr. Griffith 51 percent to 34 percent.

Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama easily prevailed in his Republican primary challenge from a Tea Party activist. Mr. Shelby, a four-term senator, was first elected as a Democrat in 1986, but changed parties in 1994 after Republicans won control of Congress. He is heavily favored in November against William Barnes of Birmingham, who was leading in the Democratic primary on Tuesday night.

Democrats also were watching to see which Republican would win the nomination to run against Representative Bobby Bright in the Montgomery-centered Second Congressional District. A city councilwoman, Martha Roby, was the Republican establishment pick, and the Tea Party candidate was a former Marine, Rick Barber, a political novice.

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Vice President Joe Biden hailed America’s fighting men and women yesterday as the “spine of this nation,’’ while President Obama’s Land of Lincoln tribute got washed out by a severe thunderstorm and high winds.

Biden made the more traditional appearance at Arlington National Cemetery on Obama’s behalf, saying the country has “a sacred obligation’’ to make sure its servicemen and women are the best equipped and best supported troops in the world.

“As a nation, we pause to remember them,’’ Biden said. “They gave their lives fulfilling their oath to this nation and to us.’’

Obama had readied a similar message of gratitude for his appearance at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Illinois, and actually had taken the podium to give the address when the skies opened up with a quintessentially Midwestern late-spring downpour: thunder, lightning, and high winds.

Under the cover of a large umbrella, he told thousands gathered before him that “a little bit of rain doesn’t hurt anybody, but we don’t want anybody being struck by lightning.’’ He asked people to return to their cars for their safety, and he retreated briefly to an administration building on the cemetery’s grounds. A few minutes later, Obama boarded a bus to greet military families that came for the event.

Within the hour, reporters who accompanied Obama to the cemetery in Elwood, Ill., were told the speech had been called off. Obama gave the speech instead upon his arrival at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington.

Before the storm hit, and in advance of his appearance, Obama had visited a section of headstones where two Marines awaited him. After laying a wreath, he bowed his head in a moment of silence, his hands tightly clasped. Then a lone bugler played taps.

At Arlington, Biden carried out the traditional wreath-laying at the Tomb of the Unknowns under brilliant sunshine.

The vice president, accompanied by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the country’s service members are “the heart and soul and, I would say, spine of this nation.’’

Also yesterday, historic aircraft escorted a B-17 as it dropped flowers over the Statue of Liberty in a Memorial Day tribute to seven CIA employees killed in Afghanistan. The CIA employees, including Harold E. Brown Jr. of Bolton, Mass., and a Jordanian intelligence officer were killed when a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a CIA base in Khost Province, southeast of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, US forces remembered friends and colleagues yesterday in Memorial Day ceremonies

As some soldiers paused, US-led NATO forces launched air strikes against Taliban insurgents who had forced government forces to abandon a district in Nuristan, Afghanistan. NATO also said it killed one of the Taliban’s top two commanders in the insurgent stronghold of Kandahar in a separate air strike.

At Bagram air field near Kabul, the largest US military base in Afghanistan, about 400 soldiers in camouflage and brown combat boots stood at attention for a moment’s silence as General Stanley McChrystal, the commander of some 94,000 US troops in the country, led the ceremony.

A steel construction beam from the World Trade Center destroyed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was unveiled. The beam was donated by the citizens’ group Sons and Daughters of America of Breezy Point, a suburb in Queens, N.Y., where 29 victims of the Sept. 11 attacks lived.

McChrystal praised the soldiers for their courage, given the likelihood that they will lose more friends during their tours.

“The fact that people are willing to stand up and do what’s difficult, they’re willing to stand up and do what’s frightening, and they’re willing to stand up and do what often costs, really is the measure of not just a person, but of a people,’’ McChrystal said.

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