Senior officials of the United States and Japan had talks on Tuesday with the two sides urging the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) to fulfill its promise to shut its major nuclear facility.

"We agreed that we must continue to expect North Korea to immediately fulfill its initial action agreements," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters after talks with her Japanese counterpart Taro Aso, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Japanese Defense Minister Fumio Kyuma.

The DPRK, which failed to shut down its main nuclear reactor by an April 14 deadline as agreed in six-party talks in February, insisted that its 25 million U.S. dollars frozen at Macao-based Banco Delta Asia (BDA) must be returned before closing the Yongbyon nuclear reactor and starting new negotiations.

The United States said in mid-April that it has agreed with other parties to the six-party talks to give the DPRK "a bit more time" to fulfill its promise to shut its major nuclear facility.

The DPRK funds were frozen after the United States blacklisted the Banco Delta Asia bank of Macao in September 2005 for allegedly helping Pyongyang launder money, an allegation the bank has denied. Pyongyang denies the U.S. charges.

Washington and the bank, Banco Delta Asia, said last month that the DPRK's accounts were no longer frozen. ?

Authorities have said Gaines and two others attacked Scotty Joe Weaver at his trailer in 2004.

Prosecutors said they beat, strangled and cut the 18-year-old before setting his body afire, and the extent of Weaver's injuries pointed to the attackers' distaste for his sexual orientation.

Gaines will not testify at the trial set to start May 7, but jurors will watch a video recording of his confession, defense attorney J. Clark Stankoski said. Lawyers have not said whether Gaines will testify against his two co-defendants, Robert Porter and Nichole Kelsay, who are scheduled to be tried separately later this year.

The slaying drew interest from gay rights groups, and hundreds of mourners attended a vigil for Weaver in Mobile after the killing. Anti-gay groups picketed outside the Crossroads Church of God, where Weaver's funeral was held.

Ms. Kramer has practiced law for nearly 30 years.  She is a member of McDermott’s Tax Department; head of its Financial Products, Trading and Derivatives Group; and co chairs its Energy Services Group.  She is active in Firm management, serving as chair of the Firm’s Gender Diversity Committee and a member of its Management Committee.  In addition to her many legal accomplishments and her family life, Ms. Kramer has found the time and energy to be extremely active in community and charitable activities.  Earlier this year in recognition of her outstanding community service, the Anti-Defamation League awarded her its Women of Achievement Award, and the Cook County Board of Commissioners awarded her its Unsung Heroine Award in 2004.  She serves on the board of DanceArt.  She recently co-founded the Women's Leadership and Mentoring Alliance and plays a leading role in the Chicago Bar Association's "Call to Action," designed to increase opportunities for women lawyers.

The mission of TWTC is to provide women with a continuum of care, recovery tools, and parenting skills to maintain a sober lifestyle as they rebuild their lives and futures and mend the bonds with their families.  The scope of this treatment includes social services, medical care and mental health services, which are offered without regard to race, creed, color, sexual orientation, disability, national origin or ability to pay.  TWTC is one of the few substance abuse programs in the United States that can accommodate children in residential treatment, making TWTC particularly responsive to the needs of chemically dependent mothers.  For more information, visit www.womenstreatmentcenter.org.

In papers filed in support of obtaining the injunction, the government alleged that Olympic deposited almost $28 million of customer funds into accounts that OBS maintained in its own name at commercial banks. Olympic allegedly used the funds to pays customers’ bills and expenses while promising to leave no paper trail.

Judge Lasnik’s order held that Arant “is or should be aware that courts have repeatedly held that warehouse banks are tax evasion schemes.” A California federal court in 2004 permanently closed a similar warehouse bank. Details about that case are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv04785.htm. In 2005 a federal court in Oregon sentenced operators of a warehouse bank to prison, after their criminal convictions. Details are available at http://www.usdoj.gov/tax/txdv05070.htm.

WWW.USDOJ.GOV

Delta Air Lines, the third-largest U.S. carrier, emerged from bankruptcy protection Monday after "a successful and efficient 19-month restructuring."

"Through our restructuring we have successfully repaired our balance sheet, improved the customer experience, expanded our international route system and built a platform for future success," said Delta chief executive Gerald Grinstein in a statement.

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York approved Delta's exit from bankruptcy on April 25, according to the statement.

Delta has a 2.5 billion-dollar exit financing package that will be used to repay the company's 2.1 billion-dollar credit used during the bankruptcy process.

The Atlanta-based carrier filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in September 2005. It lost 6.2 billion dollars in 2006 amid a 5.4-billion charge for reorganization.

In the first quarter of this year, Delta posted a loss of 130 million dollars, marking a big improvement from the net loss of 2.1 billion dollars recorded in the same period a year ago.

Under the Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, a company is free from the threat of creditors' lawsuits while it reorganizes its finances. The debtor usually retains control of the business and its assets.

In November last year, US Airways, the nation's sixth-largest carrier, announced a merger proposal to Delta "under which both companies would combine upon Delta's emergence from bankruptcy."

However, Delta said it planned "to emerge from bankruptcy as an independent airline."

"It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing," he said.

The Democratic-led Congress sent Bush the bill on the fourth anniversary of his "Mission Accomplished" speech, during which he declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended.

The war, however, has dragged on, and has claimed the lives of over 3,300 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis.

The bill, which would require the Bush administration to start withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq by Oct. 1, with a goal of ending U.S. combat operations there by next March, was designed to provide nearly 100 billion U.S. dollars for American military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year.

Bush said setting a deadline for withdrawal "is setting a date for failure," and that was "a prescription for chaos and confusion."

Urging the Democratic-led Congress to give his troops buildup plan in Iraq "a chance to work," Bush also expressed his desire "to work with the Congress to resolve this matter as quickly as possible."

Bush and congressional leaders from both parties would meet at the White House Wednesday on the spending bill.

He warned that without a war-funding bill, the military "has to take money from some other account or training program so the troops in combat have what they need" and to "consider cutting back on buying new equipment or repairing existing equipment."

Democrats immediately rebutted Bush's veto.

"The president may be content with keeping our troops mired in the middle of an open-ended civil war, but we're not -- and neither are most Americans," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Reid said the president's refusal to sign the war spending bill was "his right," but he "has an obligation to explain his plan to responsibly end this war."

"We had hoped that the president would have treated it with respect," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.

"Instead, the president vetoed the bill outright, and, frankly, misrepresented what this legislation does," she said.

Acknowledging there was "great distance" between the White House and Congress, Pelosi also expressed the wish to work with Bush to "find common ground" on the war funding bill.

Without sufficient votes in both chambers of Congress to override Bush's veto, Democrats were considering writing a new war spending bill that would provide funding to U.S. troops but also set certain benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet, news reports said.

Bush announced a reinforcement plan in January by sending over 20,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq to help quell escalating sectarian violence there, but his plan has met strong resistance from Congress, and the Iraq war, now in its fifth year, has become increasingly unpopular with the U.S. public.

A USA Today/Gallup poll conducted in April found that 57 percent of respondents now felt the Iraq war was a mistake, against 41 percent who said it was not.

In a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll released last week, 56 percent of those interviewed said they agreed more with the Democrats on a deadline for troop withdrawal, against 37 percent who said they agreed with Bush that there should not be a deadline.