‘‘I came to understand that providing payment services to online gambling businesses serving customers in the United States was wrong,’’ Lawrence said prior to entering his plea.

Lawrence, 47, faces as much as five years in prison on the charge. Sentencing is set for Oct. 29.

John David Lefebvre, another Neteller founder, and Lawrence were arrested and charged with conspiracy in the matter in January. Lefebvre is awaiting trial.

As part of his plea agreement with the government, Lawrence agreed to cooperate with its investigation and agreed to a forfeiture of $100 million.

Lawrence, who lives in the Bahamas, was Neteller’s chairman until May 2006 and left its board last October, while Lefebvre was the company’s president from October 2000 to 2002 and served on the board until December 2005.

Neteller, which is publicly traded in London, has said Lawrence and Lefebvre are no longer affiliated with the company. Neteller has stopped handling transactions involving online gambling from U.S. customers.

Electronic Clearing House Inc., another online payment processing company, entered a nonprosecution agreement with the government in March and agreed to disgorge $2.3 million. Neteller was one of its customers.

U.S. authorities have cracked down on online gambling in recent months, arresting executives of some overseas online gambling firms when they travel to the United States.

President Bush signed into law legislation in October that makes it illegal for banks and credit card companies to process payments from U.S. customers to online gambling sites.

Apart from Kim, the Chinese Foreign Minister also held a bilateral meeting with his North Korean counterpart, Pak Ui Chun, and met with Premier Kim Yong Il.

During the meetings, Yang reiterated Beijing's commitment to the six-party talks mechanism and supported the efforts for the implementation of the February 13 joint declaration on Pyongyang's nuclear disarmament, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang said.

The six-party talks involve the United States, North Korea, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia.

China was communicating and consulting closely with the other parties on the next steps in the talks, he said when asked for fresh dates for the next round of six-way talks, hosted by China.

North Korea last week announced the dispute with the United States over USD 25 million frozen in Macao's Banco Delta Asia (BDA) has been resolved, and vowed to start implementing the disarmament deal struck in Beijing on February 13.

Under the February deal, North Korea was supposed to shut down the Yongbyon reactor within 60 days in exchange for some 50,000 tonnes of heavy fuel oil or equivalent aid.

The financial dispute between the United States and North Korea over the return of the frozen assets held up progress of the talks for months.

“My family would be here had I known that weather radios existed,” said Kathryn Martin, who pushed heavily for the law after the tornado shattered the Eastbrook Mobile Home Park and killed dozens of people, including three of her relatives.

The Indiana regulation is one of hundreds of new laws taking effect on July 1, when most states begin their fiscal years. Among them are efforts to encourage alternative energy in Nevada and Minnesota, tougher rules against illegal immigrants in Georgia and Idaho, and higher minimum wages in Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

The Indiana tornado hit before dawn on Nov. 6, 2005, with winds estimated at 200 miles an hour. Twenty of the 25 victims of the storm were in mobile homes on the outskirts of Evansville, where emergency officials said few had radios or access to shelters.

The Indiana General Assembly responded last year, passing the weather-radio proposal with overwhelming support. A similar effort is under way on the federal level to make the radios a requirement nationwide.

The radios, which cost about $30, operate on frequencies dedicated to the weather service. Officials say they often broadcast warnings before regular radio and television stations.

More than 20 million Americans live in mobile homes, according to Census estimates. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has found that the fatality rate for residents of mobile homes is 10 times greater than those in homes with fixed foundations.

These are among other laws taking effect on July 1:

- Virginia will require convicted sex offenders to register e-mail addresses with the state.

- Nevada will force certain sex offenders to live at least 1,000 feet from schools and other places where children gather.

- Tennessee will require everyone buying beer at a store to show ID.

- California will ban sales of soda in schools during school hours and put new limits on sugar and fat content in school food.

- Colorado will ban abstinence-only sex education in all schools, except for one district, requiring schools to teach sex education based on scientific research and to include information on contraception.

In Indiana, people riding in back seats and in S.U.V.’s and pickups will have to wear seat belts. The mandatory belt law had a loophole for vehicles with truck plates.

Ice Miller LLP, Indianapolis' largest law firm, announced today the opening of an office in DuPage County, Illinois. The new office marks the Firm's expansion in the Chicago area and is the result of the attorneys from the Lisle, Illinois office of Chicago's Wildman Harrold joining Ice Miller. The attorneys, and staff, will broaden and strengthen Ice Miller's work in construction, general business, corporate transactions, intellectual property, higher education, labor and employment, litigation, private equity/venture services, estate planning, municipal finance and real estate.

"This strategic expansion will enable us to enhance our existing Illinois-based operations and expand our practices to serve a broader client base," stated Byron Myers, Managing Partner, Ice Miller LLP. "There is an enormous amount of synergy between the groups and we are fortunate to have found this talented group of individuals."

The DuPage County office includes fourteen attorneys, two paraprofessionals and seven support staff members. The group of attorneys joining Ice Miller have extensive experience in regulatory and legislative issues, complex business transactions, mergers and acquisitions, land development and development related litigation, trusts and estates, succession planning, public finance transactions, class actions, higher education and construction law. They have represented a diverse client base including Fortune 500 companies, private businesses, universities, hospitals, as well as municipalities and government entities.

Founded in 1910, Ice Miller is the largest law firm in Indianapolis. It is nationally recognized in many of its practice areas. With additional offices in Chicago and Washington, D.C., the Firm has over 250 lawyers, 40 paraprofessionals and 290 support staff members. The Firm represents a full portfolio of private and public companies, government entities and individuals. Ice Miller serves as legal counsel to many of the Midwest's leading businesses and to companies throughout the country and the world.

"DuPage County is home to some of the nation's most prestigious employers," stated Dean J. Leffelman, partner, Ice Miller. "We are delighted to join Ice Miller in bringing cost-effective, sophisticated legal services to the growing Chicago suburban area," concluded Leffelman. With a population approaching one million people and over 700,000 jobs, DuPage County is the second most populous county in the state of Illinois and one of the fastest growing.

"DuPage County is a business center of exceptional opportunity with a robust business mix of finance, retail, high tech, transportation and manufacturing," stated Bob Schillerstrom, partner, Ice Miller. "These world class companies offer Ice Miller a built-in client base that may be looking to expand their legal representation outside of the city of Chicago." Schillerstrom currently serves as the Board Chairman for DuPage County. He will be re-locating to the DuPage County office. In addition to Leffelman and Schillerstrom, the DuPage office will include partners Richard Johnson, Bart Murphy, David Hight, James Snyder and Michael Roth. They will be joined by James Durkin, Mark Baggio and Eric Singer as senior counsel, Laurie Miller and David Chroust as of counsel and Jenée Straub and Elizabeth McKillip as associates.

Ice Miller's lawyers and business professionals, through their understanding of businesses, industries, and government entities, help simplify the complexities faced by its clients. Ice Miller is committed to helping its clients achieve their legal and business goals. The Firm has offices in Indianapolis, Indiana; Chicago, Illinois; DuPage County, Illinois; and Washington, D.C. For additional information, visit www.icemiller.com.

"They've chosen confrontation rather than compromise or cooperation," Leahy said. "The bottom line on this U.S. attorneys investigation is that we have people manipulating law enforcement. Law enforcement can't be partisan."

At issue is whether the White House exerted undue political influence in the Justice Department's firing of prosecutors.

Leahy's hardening stance is pushing the Democratic-led investigation closer to a constitutional showdown over executive power and Congress' right to oversight.

The White House accused the committee of overreaching.

"After thousands of pages of documents, interviews and testimony by Justice Department officials, it's clear that there's simply no merit for this overreach," presidential spokesman Tony Fratto said.

He said Leahy "is seeking access to candid and confidential deliberations from the president's advisers - an intrusion he would never subject his own staff to. We have gone to great lengths to accommodate the committee in their oversight responsibilities."

Separately, the Senate has subpoenaed the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's office for documents related to the administration's legal basis for conducting warrant-free eavesdropping on people in the United States.

Leahy and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who heads the House Judiciary Committee, have demanded a White House explanation by next Monday as to its grounds for claiming executive privilege in refusing to turn over additional documents.

The two lawmakers say that regardless whether the White House meets the deadline, they would begin acting to enforce the subpoenas as appropriate under the law.

Four suspects were in police custody Sunday - and a fifth man was under guard in hospital - after a flaming Jeep crashed into a Scottish airport on Saturday and two car bomb plots were foiled in central London on Friday.

Police said Sunday's search was taking place in a residential area about seven miles west of central Glasgow, about a mile from the airport. The area around a two-story house in Houston, a small town just outside Glasgow, was cordoned off.

Scotland Yard said two people were arrested early Sunday on a major highway in Cheshire, northern England, in a joint swoop by specialist officers from London and Birmingham. Another person was arrested overnight in Liverpool, police said.

Police offered no further details on those arrested.

In Scotland, officers arrested two men - one of them badly burned - after a Jeep Cherokee rammed into Glasgow airport and burst into flames. The green SUV shattered glass doors at the terminal entrance, stopping within yard of where passengers were lined up at check-in counters.

Police and security officials said the attacks were clearly linked, adding all three vehicles carried large amounts of flammable materials - including gasoline and gas cylinders. The chaos over the past two days has raised fears that the type of car bomb attack that have become commonplace in Iraq has now reached European shores.

Britain on Saturday raised its terror alert to "critical" - the highest possible level - and the Bush administration announced plans to increase security at airports and on mass transit.

In an interview on British Broadcasting Corp. TV Sunday, Brown, who replaced Tony Blair as Britain's prime minister last week, said Britons face a "long-term and sustained" terrorist threat.

He said that Britain's message to the terrorists must be: "We will not yield, we will not be intimidated, and we will not allow anyone to undermine our British way of life."

Brown said it is "clear that we are dealing, in general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaida."

In a column in Sunday's News of the World newspaper, Lord Stevens, London's former police chief and Brown's new terrorism adviser, said: "This weekend's bomb attacks signal a major escalation in the war being waged on us by Islamic terrorists."