In a retreat after an hours-long test of wills Wednesday, President Barack Obama agreed to deliver an address on jobs and the economy to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 8, yielding to House Speaker John Boehner, who had balked at Obama's request for a Sept. 7 speech.

Obama's address still gives him a grand stage to unveil his economic agenda, but it falls on the same evening as the opening game of the National Football League season. White House officials were working on the precise timing of the speech.

The change now will allow a planned Sept. 7 Republican presidential debate in Simi Valley, Calif., to proceed without Obama upstaging it.

Still, by seeking a rare joint session of Congress as his audience, Obama will get a nationally televised address that puts him face to face with Republican lawmakers who have bitterly opposed his agenda and who have vowed to vote down any new spending he might propose.

"It is our responsibility to find bipartisan solutions to help grow our economy, and if we are willing to put country before party, I am confident we can do just that," Obama wrote Wednesday in a letter to Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

With new August unemployment numbers ready to be released Friday, Obama is under pressure to lay out his plan. In seeking a joint session of Congress to deliver it, he is turning the effort into a public relations campaign.

The timing dispute created an inauspicious start to the jobs debate and introduced tensions before Congress even returns from its annual summer recess.

It began with the White House releasing the letter at noon Wednesday from Obama to Boehner and Reid requesting they convene a joint session of Congress for his address at 8 p.m. on Sept. 7.

Usually, presidential requests to address Congress are routinely granted after consultations between the White House and lawmakers.

In this case, the White House notified Boehner's office on the same day it released the letter requesting the session. A White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, said Boehner's office raised no objections or concerns.

But Boehner, in his formal reply, said the House would not return until the day Obama wanted to speak and that security and parliamentary issues might be an obstacle. The House and the Senate each would have to adopt a resolution to allow a joint session for the president.

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck said no one in Boehner's office signed off on the date and accused the White House of ignoring established protocol of arriving at a mutually agreed date before making public announcements.

Boehner's letter did not mention the Republican debate on Wednesday or Thursday night's NFL game between the New Orleans Saints and the Green Bay Packers, a game certain to draw a large television audience. Bu the political gamesmanship was clear.

Tweeted GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich: "From one Speaker to another ... nicely done John. "

In a message posted on the Twitter social network, Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said: "BarackObama request to give jobs speech the same night as GOP Presidential debate is further proof this WH is all politics all the time."

In the Senate, Republican Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina said he, for one, would object if Obama insisted on making his address on Wednesday.

"I'm planning to watch the Republican primary debate on the evening of Sept. 7, and the president should watch it too," he said in a statement.

Carney said the timing chosen by the White House was a coincidence.

Negotiations between the White House and Boehner's office ensued through the late afternoon and into the evening Wednesday

At about 9:15 p.m., White House spokesman Jay Carney issued a statement: "The president is focused on the urgent need to create jobs and grow our economy, so he welcomes the opportunity to address a Joint Session of Congress on Thursday, September 8th."

White House officials say all details of the president's address have not been decided.

Obama is expected to lay out proposals to increase hiring with a blend of tax incentives for business and government spending for public works projects. With July unemployment at 9.1 percent and the economy in a dangerously sluggish recovery, Obama's plan has consequences for millions of Americans and for his own political prospects. The president has made clear he will ask for extensions of a payroll tax cut for workers and jobless benefits for the unemployed. Those two elements would cost about $175 billion.

Ideas are under consideration include tax credits for businesses that expand their payrolls. The president has proposed a similar effort totaling $33 billion before. The White House also is looking at a school construction and renovation plan of up to $50 billion.

Joint sessions of Congress are typically reserved for presidential State of the Union addresses. But Obama also spoke to a joint session in September 2009 to press Congress to pass health care legislation. That speech, however, did not prompt quick action. A final bill did not pass Congress until March of 2010.

Using a joint session of Congress as a forum also places a hot spotlight on Obama's address and sets high and risky expectations for his jobs plan.

"The risks are you are upping the ante, and it's going to invite the response," said Patrick Griffin, former White House legislative director under President Bill Clinton. "All the action is in the reaction."

Or, as Rutgers University's congressional expert Ross Baker put it: "If you're going to set a table for a state banquet, you better have a pretty elaborate meal."

Obama and White House officials say he intends to propose measures that should receive bipartisan support because they contain ideas embraced by both parties. He has also issued an overt threat to take his case directly to the public if Congress does not act.

"If they see one side not willing to work with the other to move the country forward, then that's what elections are all about," Obama said in an interview with talk radio host Tom Joyner this week. "So we're going to be in a struggle for probably the next 16, 17 months."

Astronauts may need to take the unprecedented step of temporarily abandoning the International Space Station if last week's Russian launch accident prevents new crews from flying there this fall.

Until officials figure out what went wrong with Russia's essential Soyuz rockets, there will be no way to launch any more astronauts before the current residents have to leave in mid-November.

The unsettling predicament comes just weeks after NASA's final space shuttle flight.

"We have plenty of options," NASA's space station program manager, Mike Suffredini, assured reporters Monday. "We'll focus on crew safety as we always do."

Abandoning the space station, even for a short period, would be an unpleasant last resort for the world's five space agencies that have spent decades working on the project. Astronauts have been living aboard the space station since 2000, and the goal is to keep it going until 2020.

Suffredini said flight controllers could keep a deserted space station operating indefinitely, as long as all major systems are working properly. The risk to the station goes up, however, if no one is on board to fix equipment breakdowns.

Six astronauts from three countries presently are living on the orbiting complex. Three are due to leave next month; the other three are supposed to check out in mid-November. They can't stay any longer because of spacecraft and landing restrictions.

The Sept. 22 launch of the very next crew — the first to fly in this post-shuttle era — already has been delayed indefinitely. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft have been the sole means of getting full-time station residents up and down for two years. The capsule is parked at the station until they ride it home.

To keep the orbiting outpost with a full staff of six for as long as possible, the one American and two Russians due to return to Earth on Sept. 8 will remain on board at least an extra week.

As for supplies, the space station is well stocked and could go until next summer, Suffredini said. Atlantis dropped off a year's supply of goods just last month on the final space shuttle voyage. The unmanned craft destroyed Wednesday was carrying 3 tons of supplies.

For now, operations are normal in orbit, Suffredini noted, and the additional week on board for half the crew will mean additional science research.

The Soyuz has been extremely reliable over the decades; this was the first failure in 44 Russian supply hauls for the space station. Even with such a good track record, many in and outside NASA were concerned about retiring the space shuttles before a replacement was ready to fly astronauts.

Russian space officials have set up an investigation team and until it comes up with a cause for the accident and a repair plan, the launch and landing schedules remain in question. None of the spacecraft debris has been recovered yet; the wreckage fell into a remote, wooded section of Siberia. The third stage malfunctioned; a sudden loss of pressure apparently was noted between the engine and turbopump.

While a crew may well have survived such an accident because of safety precautions built into the manned version of the rocket, no one wants to take any chances.

One or two unmanned Soyuz launches are on tap for October, one commercial and the other another space station supply run. Those would serve as important test flights before putting humans on board, Suffredini said.

NASA considered vacating the space station before, following the space shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003. Back then, shuttles were still being used to ferry some station residents back and forth. Instead, the station got by with two-man crews for three years because of the significant cutback in supplies.

The space station's population doubled in 2009, to six. It wasn't until the space station was completed this year that science research finally took priority.

Even if the space shuttles still were flying, space station crews still would need Soyuz-launched capsules to serve as lifeboats, Suffredini said. The capsules are certified for no more than 6½ months in space, thus the need to regularly rotate crews. Complicating matters is the need to land the capsules during daylight hours in Kazakhstan, resulting in weeks of blackout periods.

NASA wants American private companies to take over crew hauls, but that's three to five years away at best. Until then, Soyuz capsules are the only means of transporting astronauts to the space station.

Japan and Europe have their own cargo ships and rockets, for unmanned use only. Commercial front-runner Space Exploration Technologies Corp., or SpaceX, plans to launch a space station supply ship from Cape Canaveral at the end of November. That would be put on hold if no one is on board to receive the vessel.

Suffredini said he hasn't had time to consider the PR impact of abandoning the space station, especially coming so soon after the end of the 30-year shuttle program.

"Flying safely is much, much more important than anything else I can think about right this instant," he said. "I'm sure we'll have an opportunity to discuss any political implications if we spend a lot of time on the ground. But you know, we'll just have to deal with them because we're going to do what's safest for the crew and for the space station."

Ancient humans fashioned hand axes, cleavers and picks much earlier than believed, but didn't take the stone tools along when they left Africa, new research suggests.

A team from the United States and France made the findings after traveling to an archaeological site along the northwest shoreline of Kenya's Lake Turkana. Two-faced blades and other large cutting tools had been previously excavated there along with primitive stone flakes.

Using a sophisticated technique to date the dirt, researchers calculated the age of the more advanced tools to be 1.76 million years old. That's older than similar stone-age artifacts in Ethiopia and Tanzania estimated to be between 1.4 and 1.6 million years old.

This suggests that prehistoric humans were involved in refined tool-making that required a higher level of thinking much earlier than thought. Unlike the simplest stone tools made from bashing rocks together, the early humans who shaped these more distinct objects planned the design and then created them.

This "required a good deal of forethought as well as dexterity to manufacture," said paleoanthropologist Eric Delson at Lehman College in New York, who was not involved in the research.

Results of the study, led by Christopher Lepre of Rutgers University and Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, appear in Thursday's issue of the journal Nature.

The stone tools, known collectively as Acheulian tools, are believed to be the handiwork of the human ancestor Homo erectus. The teardrop-shaped axes were "like a stone-age Leatherman or Swiss Army knife," said New York University anthropologist Christian Tryon.

The axes were suited for butchering animals or chopping wood while the thicker picks were used for digging holes.

Homo erectus walked upright like modern humans, but possessed a flat skull, sloping forehead and a smaller brain. It emerged about 2 million years ago in Africa. Most researchers think Homo erectus was the first to fan out widely from Africa.

There's archaeological evidence that the first to leave carried only a simple toolkit. The earliest sites recovered in Asia and Europe contain pebble tools and flakes, but no sign of Acheulian technology like hand axes.

Why that is "remains an open question," said anthropologist Sally McBrearty of the University of Connecticut, who had no role in the research.

Theories abound. Some surmise that the early humans could not find the raw materials in their new settlement and lost the technology along the way. Others suggest they later returned to Africa where they developed hand axes.

NYU's Tryon, who was not part of the study, has a different thought. Perhaps the early populations who expanded out of Africa didn't need advanced technology because there was less competition.

Early humans were "behaviorally flexible" and making hand axes "was something that they did as needed and abandoned when not needed," Tryon said.

The latest work does little to settle the issue, but scientists now have identified the earliest known site in the world containing Acheulian tools.

Geologists collected about 150 samples of sediment from the site in 2007. To come up with an age, they used a technique known as paleomagnetic dating, which takes advantage of the flip-flop of Earth's magnetic field every several hundred thousand years.

The tools were not too far from where the bones of Turkana Boy — the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric human — were unearthed in 1984.

The main ingredient in most of the homemade bombs that have killed hundreds of American troops in Afghanistan is fertilizer produced by a single company in Pakistan, where the U.S. has been pushing unsuccessfully for greater regulation.

Enough calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer for at least 140,000 bombs was legally produced last year by Pakarab Fertilizers Ltd., then smuggled by militants and their suppliers across the porous border into southern and eastern Afghanistan, according to U.S. officials.

The U.S. military says around 80 percent of Afghan bombs are made with the fertilizer, which becomes a powerful explosive when mixed with fuel oil. The rest are made from military-grade munitions like mines or shells.

The United States began talks a year and a half ago with Pakistani officials and Pakarab, one of the country's largest companies. But there is still no regulation of distribution and sale of calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer.

"If you have a host country that has a factory making a substance that ultimately becomes the problem, then that country has to contribute at least half the solution," said Democratic Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, who led a congressional delegation to Pakistan last week to press army and civilian leaders for action.

U.S. officials say Pakistan and Pakarab have expressed willingness to regulate the fertilizer, which is also widely used in the manufacture of bombs used by insurgents to kill thousands of soldiers and civilians inside Pakistan. They acknowledge the difficulties: 15 years after ammonium nitrate was used in the Oklahoma City bombings, the U.S. government only presented its proposals to regulate it on Aug. 2.

But with the death toll from homemade bombs rising almost daily inside Afghanistan, continuing inaction by Pakistani authorities will add more strain to a U.S.-Pakistani relationship already frayed by allegations that Islamabad is aiding Afghan insurgents on its side of the border.

"This is a test," Casey said. "The key thing now is to see results."

____

The only producer of calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer in Pakistan, Pakarab operates two factories in Punjab province, the country's agricultural heartland.

The largest is on the outskirts of Multan, an ancient city surrounded by thousands of acres (hectares) of mango orchards and cotton fields. A sprawling industrial complex of smoking chimneys, pipes and tanks surrounded by high walls, the 39-year-old facility churns out the chemical 24 hours a day when it's operating.

Lines of trucks wait outside to transport sacks of fertilizer to 2,000 distributors around the country, who then sell it to millions of Pakistani cotton, fruit and wheat farmers.

Around Multan, dealers sit in small shops in front of piled-up sacks of ammonium nitrate and other fertilizer, haggling with farmers. Most say they are aware ammonium nitrate can be used as an explosive, but none has been told to report suspicious purchases.

Pakistani fertilizer producers are not permitted to export to Afghanistan because they are subsidized by the government and their products are meant for domestic use only. But the low price of fertilizer in Pakistan, and a chronic shortage in Afghanistan, has meant that smuggling has long been rife.

The chemical, known as CAN, is often trucked into southern Afghanistan repackaged as a harmless fertilizer. Other times, it's hidden under other goods, often after border guards have been paid a bribe, according to smugglers at the Chaman border and U.S. officials.

One dealer, Mohammad Wassem, told The Associated Press wealthy people with links to the insurgents placed orders for all three fertilizers produced by Pakarab. They sold the two safer varieties domestically, then trucked the ammonium nitrate across the border.

Truck driver Ali Jan said he makes $20 each time he crosses the border with concealed sacks of fertilizer.

"I do not take banned items every time, but I make at least 10 trips a month across the border carrying bags of fertilizer under other stuff," Jan said.

Only a tiny fraction of the trucks that cross the border are searched, said one U.S. official, explaining it would be impractical to stop and search the many thousands of vehicles that cross the border each day.

______

Explosives can be made from a range of fertilizers, but it is easy to turn CAN into a bomb. Insurgents either grind or boil the small, off-white granules to separate the calcium from the nitrate, which is mixed with fuel oil, packed into a jug or box and then detonated.

The fertilizer is sold in 110-pound (50-kilogram) sacks, which can be used to make between two and four bombs depending on whether they are targeting vehicles or foot patrols, said Robin Best, an expert at the U.S. military's Joint IED Defeat Organization, who visited the Multan factory in July with a U.S. delegation.

Such bombs, typically buried and detonated remotely or by pressure plates, have killed more than 719 Americans and wounded more than 7,440 since the conflict began in 2001, along with thousands of Afghan troops and civilians. Last year's U.S. death toll — 252 — was as high as the two previous years combined, and 2011 is shaping up to be just as bloody.

Based on tests of residues at a limited number of blast sites, and seizures of the chemical inside Afghanistan, two U.S. officials told the AP they believe the majority of fertilizer bombs in Afghanistan are made of CAN produced by Pakarab. One said that up to 80 percent of the bombs were made with Pakarab fertilizer. Both asked for anonymity because of the sensitivity of the data.

Casey, the senator from Pennsylvania, said the U.S. government estimates around 1 percent of Pakarab's annual production made it ways across the border for use in bombmaking. Given that the company produced 350,000 metric tons in 2010, that means enough for at least 140,000 bombs was smuggled across the frontier last year, though an unknown amount was seized by Afghan and U.S. authorities, or stockpiled.

On Aug. 17, authorities in Afghanistan's Helmand province said they seized 200 sacks of ammonium nitrate that had been smuggled from Pakistan. Photos of the sacks, which had been partially buried, showed they were made by Pakarab.

"All of this chemical is coming from the south and the east," said Mohammad Zahir Azimi, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry. "We want Pakistan to control it."

Executives of Pakarab, a publicly traded company, defended their right to sell what is a legal product well-suited to the soil and weather in Pakistan. They said the company had no way to dispute U.S. and Afghan claims about where its fertilizer is ending up, but noted ammonium nitrate was produced in other countries around the region and that Pakistan also imported it.

"Pakarab will continue to work with both the (U.S. and Pakistani) governments unreservedly," the company said in a statement.

The company added that Washington had provided assurances it had no plans to press for the plants to be closed.

____

Most countries have placed restrictions on the sale, purchase and storage of the chemical, and some, including Germany, Afghanistan, Ireland and China, have banned it. Some U.S. states already regulate it, but new federal proposals would require those who purchase and sell it to register with the government and limit its movement across states.

The U.S. is discussing similar kinds of regulations in Pakistan, but acknowledges that enforcement will be difficult in a country where police and government officials are underpaid, lack education and are facing numerous other challenges.

Still, there are signs that Pakistan may not fully understand the problem or lack the ability to address it.

After a meeting with Sen. Casey, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani issued a statement saying the government had already introduced "strict laws" regulating the product, implying that nothing further needed to be done. An army spokesman even maintained there were no longer any factories producing calcium ammonium nitrate in Pakistan, before being corrected by the AP.

"I don't think the magnitude of the problem has been understood," said a U.S. official, who asked not to be named to discuss the issue frankly. "There hasn't been a comprehensive look (by Pakistan) at it. We are having frank discussions. We are taking that as progress."

Casey said he hoped new regulations to control the product could be in place as soon as the end of the fall.

The U.S. has also been trying to get Pakarab to switch to producing a version of the fertilizer that's more difficult to turn into bombs — something scientists have been trying to accomplish since the use of nitrate fertilizers was pioneered by Irish Republican militants in the 1980s.

Last year, executives with the U.S. chemical manufacturer Honeywell traveled to Pakistan to pitch Pakarab on the merits of Sulf-N 26, a fertilizer that combines ammonium nitrate with ammonium sulfate, a fertilizer and fire retardant.

Honeywell unveiled Sulf-N 26 in 2008 in response to security concerns after the Oklahoma City bombing, and bills it as safe as sand when mixed with fuel.

However, tests carried out in the U.S. showed it could still be used in the production of bombs and the project was shelved, according to Pakarab and Best, the expert at the Joint IED Defeat Organization. Honeywell, which said it had not been informed about the tests, disputed that conclusion.

Pakarab is now testing the feasibility of dyeing CAN to distinguish it from other harmless fertilizers at the border.

Such a process has never been tried before. Pakarab said the dyeing initiative was "encouraging."

"The dye is a huge thing. It's the first step that could have a profound impact," Best said.

One concern is whether farmers, most of whom are illiterate and resistant to change, would buy the dyed product, Best said. He said Pakarab was planning a marketing campaign to inform them that its quality remained the same, or possibly better, with the addition of extra chemicals.

While calcium ammonium nitrate accounts for just 10 percent of fertilizer sales across Pakistan, it accounts for most of the fertilizer produced by Pakarab. The company's sales of CAN grew by 20 percent in 2010 from a year earlier, and the company continues to aggressively market it.

Pakarab made $104 million in profit last year, and has hired BNY Mellon to help it become the first Pakistan-based company to sell shares on U.S. stock markets.

The Justice Department took the unusual step Wednesday to try to block AT&T's $39 billion purchase of T-Mobile USA, arguing that the proposed merger would lead to higher wireless prices, less innovation and fewer choices for consumers.

Now AT&T, the nation's No. 2 wireless carrier, and No. 4 T-Mobile are plotting a legal response to challenge federal regulators.

In its civil antitrust lawsuit, the Justice Department said the merger would stifle competition in the wireless industry. The deal, which is still under review at the Federal Communications Commission, would catapult AT&T past Verizon Wireless to become the nation's largest wireless carrier, leaving Sprint Nextel as a distant third-place player and certain to struggle.

AT&T quickly signaled that it won't abandon the transaction, leading to expectations of a fierce court battle.

AT&T has several incentives to take up a legal fight with regulators. In court, the burden is on the Justice Department — not AT&T — to show that the combination would harm competition. If the deal doesn't go through, the company will be forced to pay T-Mobile a $3 billion break-up fee and give it some wireless spectrum rights.

AT&T said it will ask for an expedited court hearing "so the enormous benefits of this merger can be fully reviewed."

In a statement, T-Mobile's owner, the German company Deutsche Telekom, said it is disappointed by the Justice Department's action and "will join AT&T in defending the contemplated merger."

The companies could wage a strong defense in court.

Morgan Reed, executive director of the trade group, Association for Competitive Technology, said AT&T has at least one key fact on its side: Deutsche Telekom has said it does not plan to continue to invest in upgrading the T-Mobile network to deliver faster wireless. That means, "T-Mobile is not a competitor anymore," Reed said.

"T-Mobile has already stepped away from the table," Reed noted. "We're at three nationwide wireless carriers no matter what."

The association, which represents more than 3,000 small and independent application developers, believes the merger would benefit the wireless broadband industry.

In addition, the Justice Department lawsuit portrays T-Mobile as having been a strong competitor in the past, but merger analysis is forward looking, said Washington attorney Robert Bell, who has represented clients in mergers for over 25 years.

"To the extent AT&T can show there's good reason to believe that T-Mobile is going to be a very different kind of competitor in the future — for example, weaker financially, less innovative — then the lawsuit becomes quite a bit different," Bell said.

University of Notre Dame law professor Joseph Bauer said he was "pleasantly surprised" by the Justice Department's challenge of the deal because it has become so rare for the antitrust regulators to block major mergers during the past decade.

During a news conference, Deputy Attorney General James Cole said the merger would result in "tens of millions of consumers all across the United States facing higher prices, fewer choices and lower quality products for mobile wireless services."

T-Mobile has been an important source of competition, including through innovation and quality enhancements such as the roll-out of the first nationwide high-speed data network, according to Sharis Pozen, acting chief of Justice's antitrust division.

AT&T and T-Mobile compete nationwide, in 97 of the largest 100 cellular marketing areas, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. They also vie for business and government customers.

The lawsuit says the acquisition would eliminate a company that has boosted competition with low pricing and innovation.

T-Mobile had the first handset using the Android operating system, Blackberry wireless email, the Sidekick smart phone, national Wi-Fi "hotspot" access and a variety of unlimited service plans.

In a statement, Sprint said the Justice Department's lawsuit "delivered a decisive victory for consumers, competition and our country. By filing suit to block AT&T's proposed takeover of T-Mobile, the DOJ has put consumers' interests first."

Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski said the record before his agency "raises serious concerns about the impact of the proposed transaction on competition."

Although the FCC's separate review of the proposed merger is still ongoing, the agency has never approved a significant merger that is being challenged by the Justice Department.

Commission member Michael Copps, a Democrat and a staunch opponent of industry consolidation, said he shares "the concerns about competition and have numerous other concerns about the public interest effects of the proposed transaction, including consumer choice and innovation."

Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl of Wisconsin, who heads the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights, said the suit was an effort to protect consumers "in a powerful and growing industry that reaches virtually every American."

The lawsuit used some of T-Mobile's own documents describing its role in the market to explain why the merger shouldn't take place. In those documents, the company calls itself "the No. 1 challenger of the established big guys in the market and as well positioned in a consolidated 4-player national market."

T-Mobile said its strategy is to attack other companies and find innovative ways to overcome the fact that it is a smaller company.

T-Mobile "will be faster, more agile and scrappy, with diligence on decisions and costs both big and small," one company document said. "Our approach to market will not be conventional, and we will push to the boundaries where possible."

Since AT&T first announced the deal in March, it has insisted that consumers would have a choice of multiple wireless providers, including Leap, Metro PCS and U.S. Cellular, in many markets even if the deal is approved.

The Justice Department rejected that argument. It said regional providers face "significant competitive limitations" because they do not have national networks. The department said the enormous investments and resources needed to acquire wireless spectrum and build a network make it very difficult for new companies to enter the wireless market.

AT&T and T-Mobile also have said the merger would reduce dropped and blocked calls, and speed mobile Internet connections for subscribers. Faster service would result by combining their limited wireless spectrum holdings at a time when both companies are running out of airwaves to handle mobile apps, online video and other bandwidth-hungry services.

Finding more airwaves to keep up with the explosive growth of wireless broadband services is a priority of the FCC and the Obama administration.

But the Justice Department said AT&T could "obtain substantially the same network enhancements ... if it simply invested in its own network without eliminating a close competitor."

Muammar Gaddafi's sons clashed on the airwaves Wednesday, with one offering peace and another promising a 'war of attrition' as a final battle for control of Libya's coast loomed.

The conflicting messages were the latest evidence that the fallen leader was losing his grip on what remains of his entourage after a six-month uprising left his 42-year rule of the North African nation in tatters.

NATO warplanes struck at loyalist troops dug in around his besieged hometown of Sirte -- his last stronghold along the heavily populated Mediterranean seaboard-- and refugees streamed out fearing a bloody showdown.

A week after they overran the capital, forcing Gaddafi into hiding, irregular troops of the new ruling council have paused in a drive to take Sirte and Gaddafi strongholds in the desert, giving Sirte's defenders until Saturday to surrender. But frontline clashes continued, as did NATO air strikes.

"We were talking about negotiations based on ending bloodshed," Gaddafi's son Saadi said on al-Arabiya television, saying he had been given his father's blessing to negotiate with the ruling National Transitional Council.

The head of Tripoli's military council, Abdul Hakim Belhadj, told Reuters he had spoken to Saadi by telephone and had promised him decent treatment if he surrenders.

"We want to spare bloodletting, therefore negotiation and surrender is preferable," Belhadj said. "If this does not happen there is no other way except a military solution."

In a sign of turbulence within the Gaddafi clan, the former leader's better-known son Saif al-Islam hurled defiance at the NATO-backed forces and said the fight would continue.

"We must wage a campaign of attrition day and night until these lands are cleansed from these gangs and traitors," he said in a statement broadcast on the Syrian-owned Arrai satellite TV channel. "We assure people that we are standing fast and the commander is in good condition."

He said there were 20,000 loyalist soldiers ready to defend Sirte in the case of an attack.

Despite shortages and disruptions, people in Tripoli, Misrata, Benghazi and other cities took to the streets to celebrate the Eid al-Fitr holiday, a high point of the Muslim calendar marking the end of the Ramadan fast. For most Libyans, it was the first Eid they could remember without Gaddafi.

Anxious to aid -- and steer -- the new rulers of the country, and to consolidate their own victory over a man who has baffled and infuriated them for decades, Western governments will hold a "Friends of Libya" meeting in Paris Thursday.

The date, September 1, is laden with symbolism as the anniversary of Gaddafi's seizure of power in 1969.

Until the 69-year-old fugitive is hunted down, dead or alive, the transitional council's leaders say they will not count their country's "liberation" as complete.

But though there is much talk of closing in on Gaddafi and his sons, of tempting loyalists to betray them and of tracking their communications, it is unclear where the key figures are.

VIOLENCE

Hisham Buhagiar, a senior NTC official who is coordinating the hunt, told Reuters he believed Gaddafi was either in the Bani Walid area, southeast of Tripoli, or in Sirte, 450 km (265 miles) east of the capital.

The arrest in Tripoli Wednesday of Gaddafi's foreign minister, Abdelati Obeidi, as witnessed by a Reuters journalist may provide more clues.

"We trace a lot of people who are not in the first inner circle with him, but the second or third circle. We're talking to them," said Buhagiar. "They want to strike deals. Everyone who helps us is on the white list."

Britain's ITV News reported that British special forces were helping in the hunt for Gaddafi. They believed he is still in Libya and has been denied entry to Algeria, where his wife and three of his children have taken refuge.

Troopers of the elite SAS, some working from ships off the coast, were using round-the-clock aerial surveillance to try to track him and his close supporters.

"When a target is identified, a Helicopter Assault Force moves in to capture the individual who will then be interrogated for further intelligence about Colonel Gaddafi's movements, the ITV report said.

While the threat of an Iraq-style insurgency led by those loyal to the old guard is clearly a worry to the new leaders, their international backers are also concerned that the NTC can overcome regional, ethnic and tribal differences across Libya.

There has been praise from abroad for its pledges of equality, fairness and willingness to bury past grievances, though there is also disquiet at evidence of harassment, and worse, by victorious fighters of some groups, notably black Libyans and African migrants, widely seen as allies of Gaddafi.

At Tawarga, where anti-Gaddafi forces are dug in and readying an assault on Sirte to the east, most of the residents were black African rather than Arab in origin and have recently fled -- apparently in fear of reprisals by fighters from the city of Misrata who see Tawarga as a pro-Gaddafi town.

Also fleeing their homes were hundreds of people from towns around Sirte, who streamed through a frontline checkpoint set up by NTC forces on the coastal highway at Tawarga.

"I need to take my family where it is peaceful," said one man named Mohammed, as laden vehicles flying white flags were checked for weapons. "Here there will be a big fight."

Ali Faraj, a fighter, said he doubted people in Sirte would willingly join the revolt: "There will be a big fight for Sirte. It's a dangerous city. It's unlikely to rise up," he said.

"A lot of people there support Gaddafi. It's too close to Gaddafi and his family. It is still controlled by them."

There is no independent confirmation of conditions in Sirte, which was developed into a prosperous city of 100,000 during the 42 years Gaddafi ruled Libya. NTC officials say power and water are largely cut off and supplies are low.

CELEBRATION

In Tripoli after dawn, worshippers packed Martyrs' Square, which was named Green Square in the Gaddafi era, chanting "Allahu Akbar (God is greatest), Libya is free."

Fighters on rooftops guarded against any attack by loyalists and sniffer dogs checked cars. Even the interim interior minister, Ahmed Darat, was searched.

"This is the most beautiful Eid and most beautiful day in 42 years," said Hatem Gureish, 31, a merchant from Tripoli.

Fatima Mustafa, 28, a pregnant woman wearing a black chador, said: "This is a day of freedom. I'm glad I haven't given birth yet so my daughter can be born into a free Libya."

Libyans who revolted against Gaddafi in February needed NATO air power to help them win, but, given their country's unhappy colonial history, they remain wary of foreign meddling.

Their interim leaders, trying to heal a nation scarred by Gaddafi's cruelly eccentric ways, may want United Nations help in setting up a new police force, but see no role for international peacekeepers or observers, a U.N. official said.

The NTC, keen to assert its grip and relieve hardship after six months of war, won a $1.55 billion cash injection when Britain's air force flew in new dinar banknotes to Benghazi. They had been printed in Britain but then held there by U.N. sanctions imposed on Gaddafi's government.

France, which with Britain took a lead role in backing the revolt and will host Thursday's conference, has asked the committee to unfreeze some $2 billion of Libyan assets in France, a French government source said.

Tropical Storm Katia was expected to strengthen into a hurricane over the Atlantic on Wednesday, while another mass of thunderstorms that could become a named storm this week triggered evacuations of some oil workers from the Gulf of Mexico.

Katia had sustained winds of 70 miles per hour and would become the second hurricane of the June-through-November Atlantic hurricane season if winds reach 74 mph, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The Miami-based center said Katia was forecast to become a "major" hurricane with winds over 111 mph on Sunday, but it was still too early to tell whether it would threaten land.

At 5 p.m. (2100 GMT), Katia was about 1,285 miles east of the Caribbean's Leeward Islands. It was moving rapidly west-northwest and was forecast to turn northwest in a couple of days on a course that would keep it away from the Caribbean islands.

Hurricane Irene rampaged up the U.S. East Coast over the weekend and authorities on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard are keeping an eye on Katia to see which path it takes.

Long-range computer models, which can be off by hundreds of miles, show Katia nearing the mid-Atlantic island of Bermuda in about a week. Several models turned it north, away from the U.S. East Coast.

The Atlantic hurricane season typically brings 11 or 12 named storms. Katia is already the 11th, and with half of the season still ahead, it is shaping up to be the unusually busy year that was predicted.

Energy companies with oil and natural gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico were keeping watch on a mass of thunderstorms over the northwest Caribbean Sea and eastern Gulf.

Forecasters said there was a "medium" chance of it developing into a tropical cyclone in the next two days.

BP on Wednesday became the first major oil producer to say it was already evacuating some workers from offshore platforms in the Gulf because of the weather system, which would be dubbed Lee if it becomes a named storm.

Royal Dutch Shell said later it too was preparing to evacuate some workers, while other companies said they were monitoring the system closely.

Wordless Wednesday: As the weather changes, times changes.

Summer is over, the weather is changing the kids are back to school. I’m looking forward to fall, the East Coast weather in the  fall is the perfect time of year. It was kind of windy the day I took this picture, isn’t the view gorgeous. Great time of year. I think the summer went by so fast, & it was humid plus we just went through Hurricane Irene. Tomorrow is September, time does fly by (too fast sometimes). Also looking forward to the leaves changing, pumpkin spiced coffee (Yum) Apple cider I have to stop now. You get the idea.

Pictured taken in Swampscott, MA. 

What’s your favorite time of year?

Victoria's Secret Mango Temptation hydrating body lotion review

♥hi girls~

About one month ago, my bf gave me this Victoria's Secret hydrating body lotion (yes, he gave me this with no reason, he though i would like the fragrance and he was right haha)... So I will write my thoughts about it!

It smells like Gods fragrance lol The smell is very sweet and sooooo gooooood! It really remembers the mango smell, but it's much better because its soft. Though you can get sick of the smell if use too much. Because of the fragrance it really worths! It's also very lasting fragrance for a body lotion, but wont last a whole day or replace a perfume....but take care what kind of perfume you will use while using this or you may smell like shit haha I recommend very sweet smell perfume for better matching this.

Its moisturizing(not much...) for skin daily use but it hurts and scratch a lot if applied at very sensitive skin so take care, though probably you wont use this everyday because of so sweet smelling. Also it's bad if you are in a hurry because it will make your skin very sticky at first, so you have to wait some minutes for wearing your clothes.

I find its missing a refreshing sensation while applying which I feel at most of national body lotions... Maybe thats because I had never used a foreign body lotion brand... well, thats because I dont like much the applying sensation.

So my conclusion about this is... Buy if you want a really good smelling body lotion for non daily use when theres no matter if you take long time because of this product. If you are a body lotion fan, have a lot of them and alternate them, this is for you.

Theres also a lot of famous Victoria's Secret fragrances for this body lotion...But I never tried none of them.When I try other product from Victoria's Secret I may try the Body Wash or Fragrance Mist with same fragrance, they must be good! Maybe the ultra-moisturizing hand and body cream, available with same fragrance too, would feel more refreshing and moisturizing than this. Im also very curious about the other fragrances, would them be just as good as this one?

Movie of the week: In Her Skin

In Her Skin is a dark disturbing drama recreates a series of tragic events that racked Australia. Kate Bell starts as 15 year old high school student living with her parents. This film is based on a true story of an Australian teen who went missing and was later found murdered by her babysitter. Directed by Simone North. Rated R, Drama, Action. Starring: Guy Pearce, Miranda Motto, Ruth Bradley and more.

In Her Skin is a very compelling movie. Adult eyes only. It’s a must see movie.
I won’t go into too much detail, without spoiling the movie. Let’s just say it’s unreal, just watch. 

This movie is a true story. Now available in DVD.

Disclosure: I didn’t receive any type of compensation for this post. Please Read the Disclosure Statement.

Udderly Smooth Review & Giveaway - (CLOSED)

Dry skin can be a big problem, Udderly Smooth products are here to the rescue. I love to be pampered and that’s exactly how I feel after using Udderly Smooth products. I was really excited to get the chance to review an assortment of products. I received the Moisturizing Lotion, Shea Butter Foot Cream & Udderly Smooth Udder Cream. I have to say that my favorite product was the Foot cream, is creamy rich, it feels like velvet on your feet. According to their website  Udderly Smooth has been in business for over 30 years. Their products contain rich moisturizing ingredients. Udderly Smooth can be used on dry - cracked skin, for diabetes foot care and for daily used.

UDDERLY SMOOTH

Moisturizing Lotion, Shea Butter Foot Cream & Udder Cream.

Udderly Smooth

Moisturizing Lotion.

It comes with an easy pump, very lightweight not greasy at all. I like to use it daily.

UDDER CREAM

Lightly scented, 4 oz. 

Udderly Smooth Shea Butter Foot Cream moisturizers, smooth roughness and softens skin.

Available in 8 oz jar.

Who’s ready for a Udderly SmOOth!! Giveaway! 

One lucky Diva is going to win an assortment of Udderly Smooth products! Isn’t it Udderly fantastic! 

MANDATORY ENTRY:

• Follow A Diva’s Prerogative on Goggle Friend Connect (Leave your name & Email). Visit Udderly Smooth website and tell me in the comment below, what other product you would like to try.

EXTRA ENTRIES:

• Subscribe to A Diva’s Prerogative by Email (Leave the email also in the comment section below)
• “Like” A Diva’s Prerogative on Facebook  (2 extra entries) 
• “Like” Udderly Smooth on Facebook  (2 extra entries)
• Vote for A Diva’s Prerogative (right side bar) 1x Daily
• Share Giveaway on Facebook or Twitter  (Leave a comment with your tweet’s url or a link to your Facebook post) 2x daily  (3 Hours apart)  "Follow @ADiva_Circle for a chance to #Win an @UdderlySmooth prize pack. Ends 9/16"
• Follow Udderly Smooth on Twitter
• Follow A Diva’s Prerogative on Twitter (Leave a comment with your Twitter handle) 
• Follow A Diva’s Prerogative on Networked Blogs
• Comment on any - non Giveaway post and leave link 

 

You must complete the mandatory entry before the bonus entries. This giveaway is open to US residents ages 18 and older. Giveaway ends Sept. 16, 2011 (EST). Winner will be selected via Random.org and contacted via email. Please include a valid Email in your comment or profile so that I can notify you in the event you win. Winner will have 48 hours to respond and claim their prize or a new winner will be drawn.


Disclosure: A sample was provided for the purpose of this review, no other compensation was provided. This are my own true & honest words. 

At least 18 people were killed by a car bomb that ripped through the United Nations' building in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the final casualty toll was likely to be high and Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered tighter security around the capital after what he called a "most despicable assault."

Security sources and witnesses said the car rammed into the building and blew up, badly damaging parts of an office complex where close to 400 people normally work for U.N. agencies.

"This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others," Ban said in a statement. "We condemn this terrible act, utterly."

Body parts were strewn on the ground as emergency workers, soldiers and police swarmed around the building, cordoned roads and rushed the wounded to hospital.

"Different people have been taken to different hospitals so we're not sure of casualty figures. It is at least 18," said Mike Zuokumor, Abuja police commissioner.

Norway's government said a Norwegian citizen was among the dead. She was named as Ingrid Midtgaard, a 30-year-old lawyer employed by the United Nations.

"We cannot give an update at the moment, our people are around all the hospitals working hard," a Red Cross spokesman said.

The BBC reported that a spokesman for the Islamist group Boko Haram had said in a phone call that it had carried out the attack. The BBC gave no further details.

It is difficult to get confirmation of attacks by Boko Haram because the group has an ill-defined command structure and a variety of people who speak on its behalf. The police and the government have not said who was responsible.

Speaking before the BBC report, an Abuja-based security source said he suspected Boko Haram, whose strikes have grown in intensity and spread further afield, or al Qaeda's North African arm.

In Friday's attack the car slammed through security gates of the U.N. complex, crashed into the basement and exploded, sending vehicles flying and setting the building ablaze.

"When the car got inside it went straight to the basement and exploded, killing people in reception, right and left," said Abuja resident James John, who saw the attack.

"The entire building, from the ground floor to the topmost, was just fire and smoke. I saw six bodies being carried."

Michael Ocilaje, a U.N. employee at the complex, said: "All the people in the basement were killed. Their bodies are littered all over the place."

The building was blackened from top to bottom. In places, walls were blown away and reduced to rubble.

British Prime Minister David Cameron spoke on Friday to Ban and President Jonathan to pass on his condolences.

"The Prime Minister described it as an appalling attack. He said Britain and Nigeria faced a common threat in Islamic extremism, and offered to do all we could to help find the perpetrators," a British spokesman said.

The Addis Ababa-based African Union condemned what it called "these abhorrent and criminal attacks which cannot be justified under any circumstances."

SIMILAR ATTACK

Militant attacks in the oil-producing regions of southern Nigeria have subsided but the north has been hit by a round of bombings and killings by Islamist extremists.

Boko Haram, whose name translates from the northern Hausa language as "Western education is sinful," has been behind almost daily bombings and shootings, mostly targeting police in the northeast of Africa's most populous nation.

The group claimed responsibility for a June bomb attack on the car park of the Abuja police headquarters which bore similarities to Friday's blast.

In the June attack, a car rammed through the gates of the police headquarters and exploded, killing the bomber and narrowly missing the chief of police.

Boko Haram's ambitions are growing and if it is confirmed to be responsible for Friday's attack, this would mark a shift beyond domestic targets.

In London, Henry Wilkinson of Janusian risk consultants, told Reuters: "This attack will prompt many Western organizations and business to reassess the threat the group poses."

"The targeting of the U.N. building indicates a more global outlook probably influenced by al Qaeda ideology."

In Abuja President Jonathan ordered tighter security.

"The President believes that the attack is a most despicable assault on the United Nations' objectives of global peace and security, and the sanctity of human life to which Nigeria wholly subscribes," a government statement said.

Security sources and diplomats are concerned that Boko Haram has links with more organized groups outside Nigeria.

These include Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb which operates over the border in Niger and has kidnapped foreign workers there. It was also suspected of kidnapping a Briton and an Italian in Nigeria earlier this year.

In December 2007, a car bombing at the U.N. building in Algiers killed at least 41 people. In 2003, 15 staff and seven others were killed by a bomb attack at the U.N. building in Baghdad.

(Additional reporting by Joe Brock in Lagos, Robert Evans and Tom Miles in Geneva, Peter Apps and William Maclean in London, Patrick Worsnip at the United Nations; Editing by Angus MacSwan)