Evening Edition

Making his first trip to the region since he was named to take over the helm of the British energy giant, Dudley said with no oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico for two weeks the company’s focus was shifting to long term recovery.

“We’ve had some good news on the oil… but that doesn’t mean we’re done. We’ll be here for years,” Dudley told reporters in Mississippi, one of the five states hit by the massive oil spill.

The rate was sharply down from the first three months of the year, slamming the brakes on an already tepid rebound, although it was only slightly lower than the 2.5 percent expected by analysts.

In the first quarter, gross domestic product was revised to 3.7 percent, up substantially from a previously reported 2.7 percent.

Mayor Boris Johnson, himself a keen cyclist, said the scheme was a “new dawn” for pedal power in London, adding he hoped the bikes would become as common a sight on its streets as black cabs and red double-decker buses.

A total of 5,000 bicycles are available from 315 docking stations across the capital, many of them near landmarks such as Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament and the Tower of London.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer appealed against a judge’s injunction stripping the most contentious sections from the legislation, as angry protestors were met by scores of police in riot gear.

Civil rights groups marched through Phoenix, the capital of Arizona, to denounce the new law, even though a judge has temporarily stripped it of key powers allowing police to spot check the immigration status of all suspects.

After months of acrimony, Berlusconi late Thursday demanded that Fini leave his post, which the speaker categorically refused as around 30 lawmakers have indicated they are to join his breakaway movement.

A major defection of People of Freedom (PDL) lawmakers would end the absolute majority that the party and its coalition partner — the anti-immigration Northern League — enjoy in parliament.

BA, which is looking to merge with Spain’s Iberia, said losses after tax rose 15 percent to the equivalent of 146 million euros or 191 million dollars in the three months to June compared with a year earlier.

“Despite both revenues and cost being hit by the closure of UK airspace following the Icelandic volcanic eruption and the impact of industrial action, our financial performance improved during the quarter from underlying revenue increases and further cost reductions,” BA chief executive Willie Walsh said.

Incoming BP Chief Executive Bob Dudley said the company would attempt a “static kill” operation on Tuesday to try to plug the broken undersea Macondo well that caused the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

“We want to absolutely kill this well. The static kill will be attempted on Tuesday. The relief well by the end of the month (August),” said Dudley, BP’s top executive on the Gulf oil spill who will replace Tony Hayward as CEO on October 1.

Republicans warned the bill will slash U.S. oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico, a major supplier of domestic energy, and cut high-paying drilling jobs.

“The Obama moratorium on deepwater drilling has already costs thousands of jobs and this bill will eliminate even more American energy jobs, making it harder and more expensive to produce both energy on and offshore,” said Republican Representative Pete Sessions.

Depending on how fast its exchange rate rises, China is on course to overtake the United States and vault into the No.1 spot sometime around 2025, according to projections by the World Bank, Goldman Sachs and others.

China came close to surpassing Japan in 2009 and the disclosure by a senior official that it had now done so comes as no surprise. Indeed, Yi Gang, China’s chief currency regulator, mentioned the milestone in passing in remarks published on Friday.

The fastest rate of business spending in four years would normally be associated with increased confidence in the economy, but analysts said cash-flush companies were merely making up for ground lost during the recession.

Another factor pointing to anemic growth in coming quarters was a big rise in inventories. Against a backdrop of tepid consumer demand, the increase implied businesses probably have too much stock on their shelves and in their warehouses.

“Obviously I have no intention of resigning,” Gianfranco Fini told a news conference a day after Berlusconi effectively booted him out of the party they founded jointly two years ago, raising the specter of early elections.

A combative Fini attacked Berlusconi for “having not exactly a liberal concept of democracy” and for trying to run a government like an autocratic CEO, “which has nothing to do with our democratic institutions.”

An Army intelligence officer, already under arrest, is at the center of an investigation into the leak of more than 90,000 secret records to WikiLeaks, one of the biggest security breaches in U.S. military history, U.S. officials have said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates declined to comment on the probe but said he could not rule out more leaks of classified information. He also announced plans to tighten access to sensitive intelligence data.

Lawyers for Governor Jan Brewer and Arizona asked the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco to lift an injunction blocking the most intrusive parts of the law, known as SB 1070, and asked for the appeal to be handled quickly.

Tensions over the law have inflamed a national debate over immigration, which has festered for decades and promises to play into the elections in November, when President Barack Obama’s Democrats are fighting to retain control of Congress.

Tens of thousands of people – many of them idled fishermen – have been involved in the cleanup, but more than two weeks after the leak was stopped there is relatively little oil on the surface, leaving less work for oil skimmers to do.

Bob Dudley, who heads BP’s oil spill recovery and will take over as CEO in October, said it’s “not too soon for a scaleback” in the cleanup, and in areas where there is no oil, “you probably don’t need to see people in hazmat suits on the beach.”

There were several signs Friday that the era of thousands of oil-skimming boats and hazmat-suited beach crews is giving way to long-term efforts to clean up, compensate people for their losses and understand the damage wrought. Local fishermen are doubtful, however, and say oil remains a bigger problem than BP and the federal government are letting on.

Other people contend the impact of the spill has been overblown, given that little oil remains on the Gulf surface, but Bob Dudley, who heads BP’s oil spill recovery and will take over as CEO in October, rejected those claims.

Six more Americans were reported killed in fighting in the south – three Thursday and three Friday – pushing the U.S. death toll for July to a record 66 and surpassing June as the deadliest month for U.S. forces in the nearly nine-year war.

U.S. officials confirmed the latest American deaths Friday but gave no further details. Five of the latest reported deaths were a result of hidden bombs – the insurgents’ weapon of choice – and the sixth to an armed attack, NATO said in statements.

Brewer spokesman Paul Senseman confirms that the governor called top legislative leaders to broach the possibility of changing provisions of the law on Thursday, a day after U.S. District Judge Susan Bolton issued a preliminary injunction.

Senseman says the possibility of having legislators meet in special session to consider changing the law is merely being explored. He says Brewer is still pressing ahead with her appeal of Bolton’s order.

The internal draft written by officials at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services outlines ways that the government could provide “relief” to illegal immigrants – including delaying deportation for some, perhaps indefinitely, or granting green cards to others – in the absence of legislation revamping the system.

It’s emerging as chances fade in this election year for a measure President Barack Obama favors to put the nation’s estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants on a path to legal status, and as debate rages over an Arizona law targeting people suspected of being in the country illegally.

The House ethics committee has a range of punishments it can administer or recommend to the full House. A reprimand is simply a vote by the House to express displeasure with a member’s conduct, and would follow a finding of guilt in a trial.

Rep. Gene Green, D-Texas, said the two Democrats and two Republicans on the panel that investigated Rangel for two years were not unanimous in bringing all 13 charges against him, and “the recommendation we had was a reprimand.” Green is one of the Democrats on the panel.

In a speech in Grenoble, the site of recent urban unrest, Sarkozy said that the current list of causes for revoking French nationality would be reevaluated and “rights and benefits” accorded to illegal immigrants would be reviewed.

Meanwhile, a video posted on the Internet showing riot police roughly rousting African immigrant squatters, including one visibly pregnant woman, from an encampment at a housing project prompted shocked reactions around the country.

Americans spent less and businesses thought twice about restocking their shelves in the past three months, making for a sluggish spring. And the government now says the recession was a deeper hole to climb out of than previously known.

The gross domestic product, the broadest measure of U.S. economic output, grew at an annual rate of 2.4 percent from April to June, down from 3.7 percent the quarter before and the weakest showing in nearly a year. Many economists say the economy is growing even more slowly now.

The composition of the “Idol” judges’ panel seems to be changing by the minute, in flux like a lunch counter during the noon rush.

Everyone but Larry King and Kate Gosselin is rumored as a candidate to replace tart-tongued Simon Cowell (out the door to create his own talent competition), Ellen DeGeneres and who knows who else.

The singer-dancer-actor was close to signing a deal to join Fox TV’s hit singing contest, a person familiar with the negotiations said late Thursday. The person, who was not authorized to comment publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fox declined comment. Phone and e-mail messages for Lopez’s representatives were not immediately returned.

Touring Chrysler and General Motors assembly plants, Obama argued that his administration’s unpopular $60 billion bailout of the two companies – essentially government-funded forced bankruptcies – was paying off. Clear evidence that he sees an opening to appeal to recession-weary voters, Obama will continue to press the same case next week when he tours the Chicago plant where Ford Motor Co. builds the Taurus sedan and plans to assemble a new Explorer sport utility vehicle.

Few disagree that the intervention helped keep the firms afloat.

With its proposed amendment, is the Obama administration merely clarifying a statute or expanding it? Only time and a suddenly on guard Congress will tell.

Federal law requires communications providers to produce records in counterintelligence investigations to the FBI, which doesn’t need a judge’s approval and court order to get them.

Republican Roy Blunt and Democrat Robin Carnahan have been campaigning against each other for almost a year and a half in Missouri’s U.S. Senate race, since shortly after four-term Republican Kit Bond announced he would not seek re-election.

On Tuesday, they may finally become their parties’ official nominees.

Scalia offered these insights and many others during an appearance in Montana this week that provided a unique glimpse into the beliefs of the Supreme Court justice.

He said the Supreme Court should abandon the notion of a “living constitution” – an approach the court adopted in the last half of the 20th century that has resulted in the nation’s charter being rewritten time and again by unelected judges who are unqualified to make decisions on morality.

Obama administration officials said the investigation into the release of 76,911 documents could extend beyond members of the military. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said posting the war logs on the Web jeopardized national security and put the lives of Afghan informants and U.S. military personnel at risk.

Asked what the Obama administration could do to stop the disclosure of more war secrets, Gibbs said, “We can do nothing but implore the person that has those classified top secret documents not to post any more.”

As it turns out, the feud isn’t completely over.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson is considering granting a posthumous pardon to Billy the Kid, angering descendants of Garrett who call it an insult to recognize such a violent outlaw.

Summerville Councilman Walter Bailey, worried there is a void in immigration laws, has proposed an ordinance that goes farther than state law, which was sharpened two years ago to allow police to identify illegal immigrants for deportation.

The proposal would prevent illegal immigrants from living in the town of 45,000, which calls itself “Flower Town in the Pines,” and in most cases prevent them from working here.

Sherrod was forced to resign last week as director of rural development in Georgia after Andrew Breitbart posted the edited video online. In the full video, Sherrod, who is black, spoke to a local NAACP group about racial reconciliation and overcoming her initial reluctance to help a white farmer.

Speaking Thursday at the National Association of Black Journalists convention, Sherrod said she would definitely sue over the video that took her remarks out of context. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has since offered Sherrod a new job in the department. She has not decided whether to accept.

Missouri on Tuesday will become the first state to the test the popularity of President Barack Obama’s top policy accomplishment with a statewide ballot proposal attempting to reject its core mandate that most Americans have health insurance.

The legal effect of Missouri’s measure is questionable, because federal laws generally supersede those in states. But its expected passage could send an ominous political message to Democrats seeking to hang on to their congressional majority in this year’s midterm elections.

But there’s one thing Malia Obama hasn’t done, until now, her dad says, and it’s a rite of passage countless kids have experienced: a summer at camp, bunking with a bunch of other girls in a wooden cabin or tent, sharing chores, swatting away mosquitoes and giggling the night away.

It’s a wonderful time – lumpy cots and all – say advocates of the camp experience, who are thrilled with the presidential decision to let Malia partake in a classic American tradition.