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The nice thing about being the Bulls is you don't have to win tobe successful. Team leaders in merchan-dise sales at the NBA Storeand NBA.com since the start of the 2002-03 …

Who needs a V8?

The GMC Envoy is another highly practical, versatile seven-passenger SUV, although slated for the mid-sized sector and likely in the budget range of more CFI readers. We've tested an array of Envoy's and Chevy Trail Blazers since they were launched two years back, in both five and seven passenger versions, and found little to fault them with. They are smooth, relaxing to drive, roomy, and attractively arranged inside.

One of the best things about this SUV, however, is the torquey in-line six. Its 275 hp and similar torque spread over a long, flat curve move the Envoy along with gusto, and even the 7-passenger Envoy XL hauled a full load without complaint. So with an efficient …

Unlocked iPhone 3G on sale in Hong Kong

Apple Inc. is putting on sale unlocked iPhone 3G in Hong Kong, allowing people to use it with any mobile phone carrier.

The move seems to depart from its previous strategy of introducing the popular device capable of 3G, or third-generation, through specific service providers in 22 nations.

On its Hong Kong Web site, the Cupertino, Calif.-based company is advertising direct sales of iPhone 3G, saying people can "buy directly from Apple" and choose their own carrier.

"Phone 3G purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier," it said on the site.

Offering free shipping, the 8-gigabyte …

Social housing overhaul ; news in brief

Social housing overhaul Property developers are being encouragedto rent out newbuild homes under a scheme to overhaul the UK'ssocial housing system announced by Housing Minister Grant Shapps.The Affordable Rent programme will allow landlords to offer homes onfixed tenancies and charge a rent of up to 80% of local market rate.The extra revenue raised from rents would then be invested intobuilding new homes. On top of this private …

Scoopsville . . .

Dateline: The broken line . . . Sneed has learned ChristopherKennedy, who injured himself in a horseback riding accident whilevacationing at the Kennedy family compound in Hyannisport recently,broke three bones in his back.

"He is out of the hospital, but it was a pretty bad fall," hissister, Kerry Kennedy Cuomo, wife of HUD Secretary Andrew Cuomo, toldSneed at a private dinner this week.

Kennedy, one of the late Robert F. Kennedy's youngest sons, livesin Kenilworth and is executive vice president at the ChicagoMerchandise Mart.

The ad-lib controversy . . .

Let's set the record straight: Sneed saw a personally autographedcopy of President Clinton's …

Sprint leader Groothuis reinstated in 500

HEERENVEEN, Netherlands (AP) — Disqualified overnight leader Stefan Groothuis was reinstated Sunday to the speedskating sprint world championships despite earlier appearing to skate over the line in the final straightaway.

The Dutchman's coach Jac Orie said referees reversed the disqualification after studying video images following a protest by Dutch officials.

"I'm glad they overturned it," Orie said. "I just hope we can get rid of this ridiculous rule."

Groothuis was cleared to skate in Sunday's closing 1,000-meter race.

Groothuis was in the final pair of the 500-meter race when his right skate crossed the center line as he sped out of the final bend at about 60 …

Wal-Mart to roll out smart tags on men's basics

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts.

The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will allow store clerks to have the right sizes on hand when shoppers need them.

The tags work by …

A test of faith

The Amish of Lancaster County, Pa., spiritual siblings of the Old Order Mennonites of Ontario's Waterloo County, have managed to live with intrusion and insult for decades-the kind of taunting against which detective John Book (played by Harrison Ford) struck back in the 1985 Hollywood film Witness. But this assault-the binding and execution of little girls at school-is a violation so deep that it will test their faith to the point that some will, privately, not survive it.

We have only begun to learn of the deep mental afflictions that drove 32-year-old Charles Roberts to murder five female children in cold blood and seriously injure others. He appears to have recognized a …

Al Gore, Bono: efforts to fight climate change, poverty, moving forward, but slowly

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and U2 frontman Bono offered measured praise Thursday for efforts in tackling climate change and global poverty, but warned the World Economic Forum that conditions were not improving as much as they could.

At an early-morning session that drew several hundred attendees, many clutching cups of coffee or tea to stave off sleep, Gore warned that the world climate crisis was worsening.

"We could take the whole session talking just about the new scientific evidence of the last few weeks and months," said Gore, who shared last year's Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to fight climate change, adding that the …

Searching for signs of King’s dream

"The daily life of the Negro is still lived in the basement of the Great Society."

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., from "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?"

More than four decades later, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s words ring louder than the thunder on this gray summer day as I drive down Emmett Till Road. The skies cry.

The "dream" now more resembles a nightmare, no matter how great our stride toward freedom, or having now witnessed a black man sworn into the White House, or even the looming dedication Sunday of the grand white-stone structure on the National Mall in King's memory.

Out here, in ghetto America this afternoon, the sound of …

Footwear made with recyclables

Deep E Co. is a manufacturer of footwear, apparel and accessories that uses natural and synthetic recycled materials such as tire rubber, wool and recycled polyester in many of its products. One example is the "Headwaters Hiker," which comes with a black outsole that is 45 percent postconsumer tire rubber, or a speckled outsole of 35 percent preconsumer materials that include rubber and mixed resin plastic residuals from footwear factories. Other components and their materials are: removable sockliner and midsole in …

US, Australian filmmakers die in helicopter crash

SYDNEY (AP) — Award-winning American cinematographer Mike deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight have died in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia, their employer National Geographic said Sunday.

Police said two people — an Australian pilot and an American passenger — died Saturday when their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip near Nowra, 97 miles (156 kilometers) north of Sydney, but did not immediately release the victims' identities. Australia's ABC News reported that Wight was piloting the helicopter when it crashed.

National Geographic and "Titanic" director James Cameron confirmed the victims' identities in a joint statement …

Guatemalan authorities order lawmaker's arrest in parliamentarians killings

Guatemalan authorities on Thursday ordered the arrest of a congressman suspected of conspiring to kill three Salvadoran politicians and detained the lawmaker's alleged accomplice.

The charred bodies of the three Salvadoran politicians, all members of the Guatemala-based Central American Parliament, and their driver were found along a rural road Feb. 19. No motive has been determined for the crime.

The lead investigator in the case, prosecutor Alvaro Matus, said an arrest warrant had been issued for Guatemalan Congressman Manuel Castillo. On Wednesday, a court stripped Castillo of his immunity from prosecution. He leaves Congress this month to become mayor of Jutiapa.

Neither Castillo, nor his lawyers were available to comment on Thursday. Castillo has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the accusations.

Matus alleged that Castillo has links to Carlos Gutierrez, another suspect in the case who was arrested Thursday in Jutiapa, near the border with El Salvador.

Gutierrez, a suspected drug trafficker, was in constant telephone communication with the parliamentarians' killers the day of the slayings, Matus said.

Castillo "told us he didn't know (Gutierrez) but we have evidence to the contrary," Matus said.

Two former police detectives have also been detained in the case, and four other detectives linked to the crime were murdered by inmates inside their prison cell just hours after they turned themselves in to authorities.

Bears' draft strategy based on Grossman

The key player in the Bears' 2003 draft, the centerpiece of theirentire plan, wasn't the guy they wound up taking first. Floridaquarterback Rex Grossman, the second of two first-round selectionsacquired when the team traded out of the No. 4 slot, was the guy theBears wanted most.

Months ago, the Bears identified Grossman as their quarterback ofthe future and the one player they felt they must have to justifytheir trading down and stockpiling talent. Michael Haynes, the PennState defensive end selected No. 14 overall, was one of threedefensive linemen--along with tackles Johnathan Sullivan and JimmyKennedy--that the Bears felt they would be choosing among with theirfirst pick.

But Grossman, not Byron Leftwich or Kyle Boller or DewayneRobertson, was the guy the team wanted to land in 2003. In fact, thegreatest moments of tension in the team's war room didn't come asdefensive linemen fell off the board early, but rather during picks20 and 21, when the Bears feared Green Bay might trade ahead of themand take Grossman.

The Bears thought about taking Grossman at No. 14 and doublingback for a lineman later but felt the best way to ensure the coachingstaff got the player it needed for today while the franchise got theplayer it wanted for tomorrow was to sweat out the middle of thefirst round.

With Dick Jauron and his staff on the coaching hot seat, takingthe player couldn't have been an easy sell, but Jerry Angelo knowsthe role of a general manager is doing what he believes is right forthe future of the franchise while still giving the team a chance towin immediately. And if everything works out as expected, the key manin this draft, Grossman, won't play a down next season.

"You nailed it right on the head," Angelo said. "You hit themother lode on that one. We came together as a unit on that decision.[The coaches] bought into [the draft plan], which made me a happycamper because at the end of the day, it's best for business."

Angelo said the key to drafting any quarterback is having a planon how to develop the player and that the Bears' coaches "had a lotof influence and input on that." That might sound a bit scary becausethe last time the Bears traded down in a draft with the idea oftaking a quarterback, they selected Cade McNown and attempted todevelop him by giving him the third series of every game early in hiscareer. But the plan has changed significantly with Grossman.

"We wanted to speed up the process for Cade," Jauron said. "Thatis not necessarily the case now."

Jauron said circumstances have changed this time around withKordell Stewart signed as a free agent and taking the reins of theteam. When the Bears signed McNown, they had Shane Matthews as theirstarter, but the coaching staff was in a grace period, not fightingto save its jobs. Matthews hardly had the reputation or experience ofStewart, and the Bears were a less talented team.

"Everything is different," Jauron said. "When we are healthy, wehave a team that can contend. We're going to put Kordell in controlof that team, and he's going to run it for us. It will give Rex achance to learn as he goes along. We won't throw him right out there,and that's probably a better way to do it. It might work the otherway too. The other way, there are a lot of things you have to dealwith if you're going to play a guy for a series. You have to dealwith your starter. How is it going to affect him?

"Shane was pretty resilient in that regard. I'm not certain Iwould want to take a guy that was an established starter and saywe're going to take you out a series of the game, particularly withthe team we have right now. That's not a very good idea."

With the Bears in the unusual position of teaching two newquarterbacks--Stewart and Grossman--their system, Jauron said the No.2 man next season will be Chris Chandler.

"Chris is our second," Jauron said. "He has done an outstandingjob in the offseason. He will only help us on the field, off thefield in the meetings, those kind of things. It will be positive."

Does Jauron resent being involved in the process of developing aguy when he might never reap the benefits of that development?

"I like this guy," Jauron said. "I like coaching everybody, butwhen you have guys that are talented and coachable and have a passionfor the game, that is a fun guy to coach."

Spammers sent packing _ for now _ by Web shutdown

E-mailers, enjoy the early holiday gift: Spam volume has been cut by more than half because Internet providers pulled the plug on a Web hosting firm that was allegedly helping some of the world's most dastardly junk e-mail gangs.

The break won't last long. Garbage e-mail levels are already swelling again, and are expected to return to normal in a matter of days.

'Tis the season, after all: The holidays are the busiest time of the year for spammers, and criminals are hustling to reconnect with potentially millions of virus-infected PCs that they once used to send spam _ which accounts for 90 percent of the world's e-mail.

Spam fighters scored big last week with the takedown of McColo Corp., a U.S.-based company apparently catering to bulk e-mailers. But the battle against McColo also highlights the difficulty in squashing spam-sending operations. Slapping one down means it just pops up somewhere else.

"It is always a cat-and-mouse game, and we fully expect there will be a countermove," said Doug Bowers, senior director of anti-abuse engineering for Symantec Corp.

Companies like McColo can be difficult for law enforcement to take down. Authorities have to prove company officials knew crimes were being committed through their servers. Web hosting companies often argue that they don't monitor how customers use their services.

In this case, security researchers amassed evidence of wrongdoing on their own and confronted McColo's Internet providers to get the Web hosting service taken down.

McColo, which claims a Delaware mailing address and a data center in Silicon Valley, has been on security researchers' radars for more than a year. Many spam filters blocked messages coming through McColo's service.

The FBI declined to comment. However, it appears that spam senders used McColo's service to send commands to large numbers of PCs they had hijacked.

Having that conduit is critical. Spammers use networks of compromised computers _ known as "botnets," or networks of robot or zombie PCs _ to amass enough computing power to send millions of messages a day. The owners of those machines typically don't know their computers are secretly being used for this purpose. But criminals need a way to communicate with these computers and a Web hosting company willing to look the other way.

McColo representatives didn't return calls for comment from The Associated Press. McColo's Web site was no longer working.

A big problem in tracing the Web hosting companies responsible for enabling botnets is that the traffic from infected computers goes through different Internet providers, so the trail goes cold fast.

The case against McColo, first reported by The Washington Post, was built by security researchers over time and detailed in a recent analysis by HostExploit, a group that tracks Internet threats.

McColo was apparently a choke point for the spamming industry. Some of the world's biggest botnets operated through McColo's servers, according to security researchers.

Worldwide spam volume was about 153 billion e-mail messages on Nov. 11, the day McColo's Internet providers yanked its service. In two days, that dropped to 64 billion messages, according to IronPort, a security firm owned by Cisco Systems Inc.

It hasn't taken long for things to pick up again.

Security firm Sophos PLC reported Sunday that McColo was back online again after scoring service from a Swedish Internet provider. The service was withdrawn after the Internet provider heard from security researchers.

IronPort said Monday that spam volume was climbing, and had reached an estimated 71 billion messages.

Just a few years ago, when spammers lost access to a botnet of infected PCs _ because their Internet connection was severed _ the operation could be decapitated. Now it's like cutting off an arm. The criminals can find another Internet provider, and they've changed their tactics to get things running again quickly.

One change in strategy includes seeding infected computers under their control with information about the location of other infected computers in that botnet. That means they only need to contact some of them after an outage to touch off a chain reaction to contact all the other infected computers and resurrect the entire army.

"This is a temporary reprieve," said Nilesh Bhandari, a product manager with IronPort, "and we should enjoy it while we can."

NATO Strike in Question

NATO Strike in Question. A late November skirmish that resulted in the deaths of 24 Pakistani soldiers appears to be a case of mistaken identity, in which both NATO and Pakistani troops claim to have mistaken each other for Taliban forces.

Pakistan's immediate response was to close two border crossings into Afghanistan, blocking NATO and U.S. supplies. Pakistan also ordered the United States to vacate a Pakistani air base used by U.S. drones.

Afghan and U.S. officers say they called in the airstrikes on two border outposts after coming under fire from Pakistan. The Wall Street Journal reported that anonymous officials said the United States had obtained clearance for the raid from Pakistan. Pakistan insisted the U.S. gave incorrect coordinates for the strikes and said Pakistani forces returned fire only after the attacks on them had begun.

An investigation into the incident led by U.S. Central Command was begun almost immediately, and an initial report is due as we go to press.

A look at foreign quake aid for Haiti

Governments have pledged nearly $1 billion in aid to Haiti, according to an Associated Press estimate, including $575 million from the European Union's 27 nations. Those promises include:

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AUSTRALIA: $13.8 million in aid pledged.

AUSTRIA: $1.9 million to United Nations and international aid organizations.

BRAZIL: $19 million in aid pledged. Eighteen flights have delivered 200 tons of aid including food, water, tents, medicine, a hospital and medical equipment. Forty six medical doctors and nurses have been sent, along with 50 firefighters who specialize in search and rescue using search dogs. Nearly 1,300 Brazilian U.N. peacekeepers are working in rescue operations.

BRITAIN: $33 million in aid. A 64-member search and rescue team is on the ground.

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS: $80,000 in aid.

CAMBODIA: $50,000 in aid from the government; $10,000 from Cambodian Red Cross.

CANADA: $130 million in aid pledged. So far, Canadians have privately contributed more than $39 million and Ottawa will match those funds. Some 2,000 military personnel, including two warships.

CHAD: $500,000 in aid.

CHINA: $4.2 million in aid pledged. Deployed a 60-member rescue team to the island, including search and rescue specialists with sniffer dogs and monitoring equipment, medics, and seismological experts.

CONGO: $2.5 million in aid.

CROATIA: $137,000 from the government and a similar amount donated from citizens to the Red Cross.

CYPRUS: $141,000 in aid.

CZECH REPUBLIC: $1.1 million in aid pledged.

DENMARK: $9.67 million in aid.

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: $11.4 million in aid.

FRANCE: $28.6 million in aid pledged, plus more than 500 personnel, especially rescue workers, and 61 tons (55 metric tons) of supplies. Dispatched Francis Garnier, a ship that specializes in humanitarian missions.

GERMANY: $14.28 million in aid pledged by government. $25.56 million donated by private citizens.

GRENADA: $215,000 in aid.

HUNGARY: $140,000 within an aid program coordinated by the EU, plus three medical teams and three search dogs.

INDIA: $5 million in aid.

ISRAEL: Established field hospital, sent some 150 doctors and rescue workers and 10 tons (nine metric tons) of medical equipment.

ITALY: $8.14 million as part of $131.37 million in emergency aid from EU member states. Separately it is donating $2.57 million to international groups to help children in Haiti. A field hospital that can treat 150 patients a day has been airlifted in.

JAPAN: $5 million in aid, plus $330,000 in emergency supplies. One 24-member civilian medical team on the ground, sending 110-member military team of medical and other personnel via a Japanese C-130 transport plane.

LIBERIA: $50,000 in aid.

NETHERLANDS: $2.86 million in aid from the Dutch government, which has pledged to double the amount raised by the public. So far the appeal has raised $9.28 million. A Dutch plane with search and rescue team and sniffer dogs has been sent.

NORWAY: $17.5 million in aid earmarked for the World Food Program, Doctors Without Borders, the Red Cross and other aid organizations. The country's Red Cross and other aid organizations have raised at least $4.5 million for the country.

PORTUGAL: Around $860,000 from private donations. The government has sent a military transport plane with more than 20 emergency rescue workers and sniffer dogs, as well as medical equipment and water.

RUSSIA: Has sent 138 emergency workers and doctors and five transport planes to deliver aid.

SENEGAL: $1 million in aid. President Abdoulaye Wade has said he would give a region of Senegal to Haitians wishing to move to Africa. He argued that because Haiti was settled by African slaves they are owed a right of return. The eccentric proposal was met with criticism by many who say the government is not even able to house its own people.

SIERRA LEONE: $100,000 in aid. The government has also offered to send police, soldiers and medical teams.

SLOVENIA: $70,000 in aid, and has sent tents worth $98,000.

SOUTH AFRICA: $135,000 in aid, and has sent a search-and-rescue team and plans to send forensic experts to help identify bodies.

SOUTH KOREA: $10 million in aid from government, aid agencies, religious groups and business companies.

SPAIN: $8.56 million in emergency aid disbursed, sending 450 troops, 50 doctors, technicians and specialists.

SWEDEN: $25.6 million to organizations working in Haiti, including the U.N. and E.U.

TAIWAN: $5 million in aid. Dispatched a team of 23 rescue personnel and 33 medical staff.

THAILAND: $120,000 in aid; 20,000 tons (18,000 metric tons) of rice.

UNITED STATES: $130 million in aid, according to USAID. Has sent about 12,000 military personnel so far, 265 government medical personnel, 18 Navy and Coast Guard ships, 49 helicopters and seven cargo planes to assist in aid delivery, support and evacuations. Is managing operations at the Port-au-Prince airport.

VENEZUELA: 679 tons (616 metric tons) of food and 127 tons (116 metric tons) of equipment, including water purification systems, electrical generators and heavy equipment for moving rubble. 225,000 barrels of diesel fuel and gasoline is on its way, and the Venezuela-led Bolivarian Alternative trade bloc also sent two ships carrying 5,248 tons (4,761 metric tons) of food aid

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WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: More than 250,000 ready-to-eat rations delivered. More than 10 million to arrive within the next week.

Talking Drums: A Selection of Poems From Africa South of the Sahara

Talking Drums: A Selection of Poems From Africa South of the Sahara Edited by Veronique Tadjo Bloomsbury Children's Books, January 2004 $15.95, ISBN 1-582-34813-8 Ages 10 and older

A broad range of work, both modern and traditional. Delicate black-and-white drawings are a pleasing accompaniment to the poems.

-S.R

[Sidebar]

Recent Biographies and Notable Historical Fiction

Benjamin Banneker: Pioneering Scientist

by Ginger Wadsworth,illustrations by Craig

Orback, Carolrhoda Books, Inc.

February 2003, $5.95, ISBN 0-876-14104-1

Fires of Jubilee

by Alison Hart

Aladdin Library/Simon & Schuster

November 2003

$4.99, ISBN 0-689-85528-1

York's Adventure with Lewis and Clark: An African-American's Part in the Great Expedition

by Rhonda Blumberg HarperCollins, December 2003

$17.99, ISBN 0-060-09111-8

Milestone: Hard Labor:

The First African Americans, 1619

by Patricia C. McKissack &

Fredrick L. McKissack, Jr.

Illustrated by Joseph Daniel Fiedler

Aladdin Library & Schuster January 2004

$3.99, ISBN 0-689-86149-4

Salt in His Shoes: Michael Jordan in Pursuit of a Drearn

by Doloris Jordan with Roslyn M. Jordan

Illustrated by Kadir Nelson Simon & Schuster Children's Pub.,

November 2003, $16.95, ISBN 0-689-83371-7

Fly High! The Story of Bessie Coleman

by Louise Borden, illustrated by Teresa Flavin

Alladin Paperbacks/Simon & Schuster (reprint)

January 2004, $6.99, ISBN 0-689-86462-0

Seward Born

by Lea Wait

Margaret K. McElderry Books, January 2003

$26.95, ISBN 0-689-84719-X

A Lesson for Martin Luther King Jr.

by Denise Lewis Patrick,

illustrated by Rodney S. Pate

Aladdin Library, December 2003

$3.99, ISBN 0-689-85397-1

Report: Tiananmen student leader arrested in Tokyo

Wu'er Kaixi, a prominent student leader in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, was arrested in Tokyo for allegedly trespassing at the Chinese Embassy on Friday, the 21st anniversary of the bloody crackdown, reports said.

The 42-year-old activist jumped over a small steel fence in front of the embassy and was quickly overpowered by Japanese police, TV footage by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. Kyodo News agency said Wu'er was arrested on the spot.

Japanese police say they arrested a 42-year-old Taiwanese man for trespassing at the Chinese Embassy but could not confirm he was Wu'er. The former student leader is now a Taiwanese citizen.

Wu'er was No. 2 on China's list of 21 wanted student leaders after the 1989 military crackdown at Beijing's Tiananmen Square. He escaped and has lived in exile in Taiwan, where he has been a businessman and political commentator.

Wu'er _ one of the best known leaders from the Tiananmen student movement _ rose to fame as a pajama-clad hunger striker haranguing then-Chinese premier Li Peng at a televised meeting during the protests in Beijing.

Before the arrest, Wu'er told Kyodo that he wanted to return to China and sought dialogue with the communist government.

"Today, I take this action to go back to China to continue to press the Chinese government for the dialogue, even if this dialogue has to take place in a court room," he said.

"My turning myself in should never be read as admitting any wrongdoing. I would like to take this chance to discuss ... about Tiananmen, about basic right and wrong."

Wu'er also said he wanted to return to China to see his aging parents, according to Kyodo.

China has never fully disclosed what happened when the military crushed the weekslong, student-led protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, possibly killing thousands of students, activists and ordinary citizens.

Beijing has long maintained that the protests were a "counterrevolutionary riot."

Public discussion or displays referencing them remain forbidden on the mainland.

____

Associated Press writers Annie Huang in Taipei and Min Lee in Hong Kong contributed to this report.

Showdown Looms in Attorney Firings Probe

WASHINGTON - President Bush and the Democratic-controlled Congress careened closer to a full-blown legal showdown over the firing of federal prosecutors Wednesday as a House subcommittee voted subpoenas for top administration officials in defiance of the White House.

"After two months of stonewalling, shifting stories and misleading testimony, it is clear that we are still not getting the truth about the decision to fire these prosecutors and its cover-up," said Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif.

In response, an unyielding White House threatened to rescind its day-old proposal for top strategist Karl Rove and other officials to answer lawmakers' questions away from the glare of television lights and not under oath. "If they issue subpoenas, yes, the offer is withdrawn," said presidential spokesman Tony Snow. Democrats "will have rejected the offer," he said.

Despite the rhetoric, Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, repeatedly suggested there was room for negotiations in a confrontation that has threatened Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' hold on his job and forced his chief of staff to resign.

"What we're voting on today is merely a backup," said the Michigan Democrat, adding that he would refrain from issuing the subpoenas, at least for the time being.

Documents made public during the day did little to clarify the circumstances surrounding the firings of the eight U.S. attorneys. Instead, they showed the Justice Department scrambling to answer questions from California Republican lawmakers critical of the record compiled by the U.S. attorney's office on immigration cases. Carol Lam, the U.S. attorney at the time, was among the group that was fired.

In an apparent attempt to mend fences, Gonzales arranged a series of meetings in the coming days with groups of U.S. attorneys around the country, beginning Thursday in St. Louis.

It seemed likely the next act in the political drama would be a separate vote in the Senate Judiciary Committee to approve a second set of subpoenas for Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and William Kelley, who was Miers' deputy.

Senate Democrats, in particular, have been insistent on gaining testimony under oath, and Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., dismissed the idea that Rove would be allowed to answer questions on the White House's terms. "Anyone who would take that deal isn't playing with a full deck," he said.

Republicans forced a delay in a vote on Senate subpoenas a week ago, and it was not clear whether any of the GOP members of the panel were now prepared to support them. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the senior Republican on the panel, floated a compromise in which Rove and others would answer questions from selected lawmakers without being sworn in but with a transcription made. It was not clear whether that would satisfy either the White House or congressional Democrats.

The clash comes less than 100 days after the new Democratic-controlled Congress took power and pledged to confront Bush aggressively.

Both houses are to vote in the next few days on legislation requiring the beginning of a troop withdrawal from Iraq after four years of war. And a House committee provided a stage last week for testimony by Valerie Plame, a one-time covert CIA official whose exposure figured in the recent trial and conviction of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, on charges of obstruction of justice.

The furor that has engulfed Gonzales stems from the dismissal of eight federal prosecutors last winter and a shifting series of explanations that followed. Initially, the Justice Department said most if not all were dismissed because of poor job performance.

Then David Iglesias, who had been removed as U.S. attorney in New Mexico, disclosed he had received calls close to last fall's elections from two Republican lawmakers, Sen. Pete Domenici and Rep. Heather Wilson. The two inquired about the pace of a corruption investigation, he said, adding that he interpreted the calls as pressure to rush indictments that might harm Democrats politically. Wilson was in a hotly contested race at the time. Both she and Domenici have denied any wrongdoing.

Officials also insisted that the White House had played a limited role in the decision to fire the eight. Then Snow told reporters Miers had first raised the prospect of firing all 93 U.S. attorneys shortly after Bush's re-election in 2004.

Snow soon had to recant that claim. "I don't want to try to vouch for origination," he said last Friday as e-mails surfaced shedding new light on Rove's role. "At this juncture, people have hazy memories."

In the days since, Gonzales has been buffeted by calls for his resignation by Democrats and even a few Republicans, particularly in light of separate disclosures that FBI practices had resulted in the illegal collection of personal data on Americans and foreigners.

Despite expressions of support from Bush, one member of the House GOP leadership, Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida, said Wednesday that Gonzales "has to evaluate how effectively he can continue to serve as our attorney general. I am stopping short of calling for his resignation."

Concern was evident among Republicans at the House subcommittee hearing, although GOP lawmakers repeatedly pressed Democrats to hold off on approval of the subpoenas.

Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla., told Democrats he would support subpoenas in the future "if some evidence of misconduct comes up."

Democrats were unmoved.

"The White House has offered a proposal that allows limited access to witnesses, no access to key documents and no testimony under oath," said Sanchez. "We have worked toward voluntary cooperation on this investigation, but we must prepare for the possibility that the Justice Department and the White House will continue to hide the truth."