President Bush, in a statement, said he was "deeply disappointed that a handful of United States senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate."

"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."

Bush gave Bolton the job temporarily in August 2005, while Congress was in recess. Under that process, the appointment expires when Congress formally adjourns, no later than early January.

The White House resubmitted Bolton's nomination last month. But with Democrats capturing control of the next Congress, his chances of winning confirmation appeared slight. The incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware, said he saw "no point in considering Mr. Bolton's nomination again."

Petty Officer 3rd Class Ariel J. Weinmann, 22, of Salem, Oregon, faces a sentence of life in prison without parole, a dishonorable discharge from the Navy and forfeiture of all pay.

Under a plea agreement, Weinmann pleaded guilty to one count each of espionage, desertion, failing to properly safeguard and store classified information, copying classified information, communicating classified information to a person not entitled to receive it, and stealing and destroying a government computer.

Weinmann pleaded guilty to trying to transmit classified information related to national defense to a representative of a foreign government on October 19, 2005 while he was in or near Vienna, Austria.

He pleaded not guilty to two additional espionage counts, one accusing him of giving classified information to an agent of a foreign government in March of 2005 in Bahrain and another accusing him of trying to deliver confidential information on March 19, 2006 in Mexico City.

Weinmann told the judge, who had yet to accept the plea, that he deserted the Navy in July 2005 because the service did not meet his expectations.

"I had a very idealized view, basically what amounted to a World War II Navy," Weinmann told the judge.

Weinmann, a fire control technician, had been stationed on the Connecticut-based submarine USS Albuquerque.

He said he did not report for duty aboard his submarine on July 3, 2005. He moved to Austria and never planned to come back to the United States, but changed his mind and was arrested in March at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

Weinmann told the judge he believed his actions could hurt morale and security.

"I believe if it fell into the wrong hand, sir, the information could be detrimental to the United States," Weinmann said.

He said he made copies of classified material on a laptop computer, which he brought with him to Austria. He said he printed one document and copied other information onto CDs and said he had unclassified, classified and secret information sitting on a table in his apartment in Austria.

The military has not said what it believes Weinmann might have sought in exchange for the information.

A Philippines trial court Monday convicted one US Marine and acquitted three other Marines on charges of raping a 23-year-old Filipino woman at a Navy base in Manila last year. The verdict is subject to an automatic appeal. Lance Corporal Daniel Smith will serve a 40 year sentence in a Filipino prison and will pay around $2,000 in compensation to the victim. The Marines were charged within the framework of the US-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), which requires US personnel to "respect the laws of the Republic of the Philippines," and provides the Philippines with "jurisdiction over United States personnel with respect to offenses committed within the Philippines and punishable under the law of the Philippines." The US retains the power to enforce the US Military Code as appropriate and to punish all acts that are punishable under US but not Philippine law.

This case was the first tried under the VFA since it was ratified by both countries in 1999. The VFA was motivated in part by the large number of reported rape incidents in the 1980s involving US soldiers stationed in the Philippines, which resulted in zero convictions.

Some 30,000 Serbs gathered in front of the US embassy in Belgrade on Saturday insisting that the United States and the United Nations are trying to kill ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader and war crimes defendant Vojislav Seselj. Seselj is currently on the twenty-second day of his hunger strike; he had been refusing medical attention but on Friday agreed to a medical exam by an "independent" team of doctors. The SRS, which denied the protest is a pre-election stunt, accused the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) of acting on American instructions and "jeopardizing Seselj's life". SRS Deputy Leader Tomislav Nikolic described the hunger strike as a "fight against injustice and humiliation."

Seselj was transferred to a Dutch prison hospital adjoining the tribunal's detention center at Scheveningen near The Hague Wednesday so that his medical condition could be more closely monitored. When Seselj went on hunger strike in early November, he demanded that the ICTY dismiss his court-appointed lawyers, who he calls "actors" and "spies," and allow him to conduct his defense to nine war crimes charges. The court later stripped Seselj of his right to defend himself after he failed to appear in court. Seselj is accused of establishing rogue paramilitary units affiliated with the SRS, which are believed to have massacred and otherwise persecuted Croats and other non-Serbs in the Balkan Wars of the 1990s. Seselj has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The won-dollar rate Monday fell briefly to its lowest level in nine years and one month on the Seoul currency market as weak dollar sentiment continued throughout the day.

The rate dropped to as low as 926.50 won per dollar at one point, the lowest level since Oct. 23, 1997, when the won traded at 921.0 won per dollar.

The won extended its gains for the fourth consecutive day to close at 927.60 won per dollar, down 1 won from the previous close.

``The dollar’s value is expected to fall for the time being on expectation that the United States may move to lower its interest rates early next year,’’ said Song Jin-kyong, an analyst at Daeshin Securities. ``In addition, the country’s strong exports may accelerate the dollar’s fall.’’

Song expected the won-dollar rate to move in a range between 920 won and 930 won despite currency authorities’ stepped-up intervention to prevent the won’s sharp gains.

The Korean currency has gained ground against the greenback over the past few weeks as dollar sentiment has turned weak as a series of economic indices point to a slowdown in the world’s largest economy.

Speculation is rampant in the market that the U.S. Federal Reserve may decide to lower its key short-term rate early next year to prop up its slowing economy.

Currency dealers said Korean authorities continued to buy dollars. The country’s foreign exchange reserves soared in November from a month earlier as a global slide in the value of the U.S. dollar boosted the dollar conversion value of foreign currencies, according to the Bank of Korea.

The bank said the nation's foreign reserves were tallied at $234.3 billion as of the end of November, up $4.8 billion from a month earlier. That is a much sharper rise than the $1.2 billion increase in October.

The highly charged debate on global warming reached the US Supreme Court Wednesday, prompting the justices to question the impact of auto and truck emissions on the environment, what must happen to rescue the world's coastlines, and whether the Environmental Protection Agency has to help stop the damage.

In the first case of its nature to reach the high court, the justices grilled both James R. Milkey, the top environmental lawyer in the Massachusetts attorney general's office, and Gregory G. Garre , the deputy solicitor general representing the Bush administration, on their views on global warming. The justices also probed the unsettled science of climate change and even weighed foreign policy considerations of the EPA setting limits on carbon dioxide pollution by new motor vehicles.

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia set the tone for the sharp-edged debate when he interrupted Milkey barely two minutes into the hearing.

"When is the predicted cataclysm?" Scalia asked.

Global warming hasn't reached a cataclysmic phase, Milkey answered, but is in a stage of "ongoing harm," referring to warming temperatures leading to rising sea levels and erosion along Massachusetts' 200 miles of coastline and shores worldwide. Failure to limit greenhouse gases, he said, was like lighting "a fuse to a bomb."

The merger has already been approved without reservation by the US Department of Justice Antitrust Division following an eight-month investigation that concluded that AT&T's proposed acquisition of BellSouth was not likely to "substantially reduce competition" in the US telecom market. In an October letter, the Democratic FCC commissioners said that serious questions remained about whether the merger would serve the public interest, especially against the backdrop of other forms of consolidation and concentration in the telecommunications industry.