TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iranian state television has shown video
footage today of a British servicewoman and others in a group of
seized British sailors and marines.

The woman, Faye Turney, says in the video, "Obviously we
trespassed into their waters."

The British government is condemning the airing of the video.
The Foreign Office says it's "completely unacceptable." It also
continues to insist the British crew was captured in Iraqi waters.

The Iranian Embassy in London has released a letter Turney
allegedly wrote to her parents. It says the crew had "apparently
gone into Iranian waters." The letter also says she has written to
Iranian officials, apologizing for entering their waters.

BUSH-IRAQ

Bush renews veto threat, talks of damage from timetable

CAPITOL HILL (AP) - The Senate is debating a war-funding bill
that President Bush says he'll veto. At issue is the Democrats'
demand for setting a deadline for a U-S pullout of Iraq, a move the
president says would hurt both the U-S and Iraq.

Speaking this morning at the National Cattlemen's Beef
Association meeting, the president said the consequences of setting
a troop withdrawal deadline would be "disastrous."

The president says America's enemies in Iraq would wait for U-S
troops to leave and then use their "new safe haven."

Bush says the Democratic strategy of attaching a withdrawal
timetable to the legislation won't force him to negotiate.

US-IRAQ

Democrats ready to play hardball with Bush

WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional Democrats say they're not
backing down.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Congress will give President
Bush "every dollar" he asks for to fund the war in Iraq, but with
accountability.

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton says Bush is willing to "veto
the will of the people" who elected a Democratically controlled
Congress to bring the troops home. And Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid says the president should "get real" with what's going on in
the world and confront the "real issues" facing Americans.

IRAQ-CALDWELL INTERVIEW

A-P Interview: U-S troop levels in Iraq could stay high through
fall

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - The top U-S spokesman in the
Middle East says it'll be the fall before American commanders can
determine whether to cut troop levels in Iraq.

Five Army combat brigades are earmarked for stabilizing Baghdad.
Major General William Caldwell tells The Associated Press that if
they're successful, the top commander in Iraq may want to keep them
there to sustain the momentum.

Caldwell says General David Petraeus (puh-TRAY'-uhs) may also
want to shift some of the brigades to other hotspots.

Another commander says the equation depends on the progress of
Iraqi security forces. Lieutenant General Ray Odierno
(oh-dee-EHR'-noh) tells C-N-B-C he thinks commanders will able to
judge their capability within about eight months.

KERRY-SWIFT BOAT

Bush withdraws ambassador nominee amid Democratic opposition

WASHINGTON (AP) - Democrats may be getting their revenge against
a donor to an anti-John-Kerry group from 2004.

President Bush has withdrawn the ambassadorial nomination of a
businessman who'd been denounced by Democrats for giving money to
Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Sam Fox was in line to be the next U-S ambassador to Belgium.

Kerry had ripped Fox for giving 50-thousand dollars to the Swift
Boat group. Many Democrats blame that group for sinking Kerry's
presidential hopes. It aired a series of ads that impugned Kerry's
military record in the Vietnam War.

WALL STREET

UPDATE: Stocks skid

NEW YORK (AP) - Stocks took a drubbing today -- the result of
disappointing durable goods demand, rising oil prices and comments
from the Fed chairman.

The Dow Jones industrial average finished with a loss of more
than 101 points at 12-thousand-295. Declining issues on the New
York Stock Exchange led gainers nearly two-to-one on volume of
about three-point-eight (b) billion shares. The Nasdaq composite
index was down 20 points at the 24-hundred-17 level, with roughly
one-point-eight (b) billion shares traded. And the S-and-P 500
dropped eleven points, closing at 14-hundred-17.

Prices tumbled at the open on a government report of
weaker-than-expected durable-goods orders for February and rising
oil prices that eventually closed at a seven-month high.

The decline accelerated after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben
Bernanke (bur-NANG'-kee)told Congress that core inflation remains
"uncomfortably high."

PET FOOD RECALL-LAWSUIT

NEW: Lawsuit filed in California over pet food recall

LOS ANGELES (AP) - A lawsuit has been filed in California
against pet food manufacturer Menu Foods, blaming the company for
recent health problems in pets.

One woman claims that her cat was "healthy" and "vibrant"
until she recently started vomiting and drinking an excessive
amount of water. She was eventually diagnosed with acute kidney
failure.

Another pet owner claims his cat also became ill after eating
tainted cat food. The lawsuit, which seeks class action status, is
asking for unspecified damages.

Earlier this month, Menu Foods recalled several brands of dog
and cat food products nationwide.

Scientists have found a drug used to kill rats in two cat food
samples.

SHEEP NEGLECT

Man who kept sheep in his home faces animal cruelty charges

APEX, N.C. (AP) - A North Carolina man who kept 77 sheep in and
around his home is being charged with animal cruelty.

David Watts is being held at the Wake County jail.

He surrendered his flock to animal control officers after police
found some of the sheep grazing on artificial flowers in the town
cemetery in Apex, near Raleigh.

Thirty of the sheep had to be euthanized because of various
health problems.

Authorities say Watts kept some of the younger sheep on the
ground floor of his house, and kept the others in pens in the yard.

He denies abusing the animals, and tells a Raleigh newspaper
(The News and Observer) that he was overwhelmed by the number of
lambs born this year.

He says they're "relaxing to be around."

GARCIAPARRA-HAMM BABIES

A double delight for Garciaparra and Hamm

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles Dodgers first baseman Nomar
Garciaparra and former soccer star Mia Hamm are the new parents of
twin girls.

A Dodgers spokesman says both babies are "healthy and over five
pounds."

Garciaparra left the team's spring training facility in Florida
late yesterday to be with his wife, but was in the air when the
babies were born. He was on a speaker phone with the delivery room
and talking with his wife during the births.

Garciaparra won two American League batting championships while
playing for the Boston Red Sox. He joined the Dodgers last season
and was the National League comeback player of the year.

Hamm led the U-S women's soccer team to win two World Cup titles
and two Olympic gold medals. She was a near-unanimous selection to
the National Soccer Hall of Fame last month.

MAMMAL EVOLUTION

NEW: Study: Dinosaur demise didn't spur evolution in ancestors
of mammals

NEW YORK (AP) - A new study suggests that the big dinosaur
extinction of 65 (m) million years ago didn't produce a flurry of
new species in the ancestry of modern mammals after all.

In the study, which appears in tomorrow's issue of the journal
Nature, scientists constructed a massive evolutionary family tree
for mammals. And they found no sign of a burst in new species at
that time among the ancestors of present-day animals.

Only mammals with no modern-day descendants showed that effect.

The new study says that the new species led to evolutionary dead
ends, and no such burst was found for the ancestors of modern-day
mammals like rodents, cats, horses, elephants and people.

(Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

AP-NY-03-28-07 1620EDT