WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration denied Republican accusations of a cover-up in last year's deadly attack in Libya, moving on Friday to defuse a renewed political controversy after a news report said memos on the incident were edited to omit references to a CIA warning of an al Qaeda threat.

ABC News reported emails between the White House, State Department and intelligence agencies about the Benghazi attack went through 12 extensive revisions and were scrubbed clean of warnings about a militant threat.

The ABC report came as Republicans in Congress have stepped up efforts to criticize the Obama administration's response to the attack by suspected Islamist militants, with a growing focus on the role of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2016.

The so-called "talking point" memos were used to prepare U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice before she appeared on television talk shows to discuss the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

In one email exchange, the State Department's top spokeswoman at the time, Victoria Nuland, objected to including the CIA's reference to intelligence about the threat from al Qaeda in Benghazi and eastern Libya.

That "could be abused by members (of Congress) to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned," Nuland wrote in the email obtained by ABC News.

A source familiar with the Benghazi communications said Nuland was concerned the talking points went further than what she was allowed to say during her briefings and that "the CIA was attempting to exonerate itself at the State Department's expense."

But the source said the deletion of references to al Qaeda and the CIA's warnings came after a White House meeting on the day before Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday talk shows and Nuland was not at the meeting.

The mistrust between government agencies revealed in the documents offered an unusual peek into the administration's internal rivalries and displayed a rare crack in its usual discipline about messaging and public image.

'PURE, PROLONGED POLITICAL PROCESS'

Democrats have dismissed the Republican attacks as politically motivated and they had not gained much public momentum until this week. The ABC report could draw fresh attention to the allegations, however, and give them new life.

"It's a tragedy, but I hate to see it turned into a pure, prolonged, political process that really doesn't tell us anything new about the facts," Secretary of State John Kerry, who replaced Clinton, said in a Google+ Hangout chat.

A senior administration official said there was nothing in the new documents to contradict the administration's claim the talking points were based on intelligence community assessments.

"The White House made stylistic edits to the talking points to emphasize that the investigation was ongoing as to who was responsible, to simplify certain phrasing, and to clarify that the Benghazi mission was not a consulate," the official said.

At a high-profile congressional hearing two days ago and in public statements, Republicans have renewed months-old charges the email traffic shows the administration tried to play down the Benghazi assault because it came at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign and might have made President Barack Obama look weak on national security.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner demanded on Thursday that the administration release emails on its handling of the attack. The emails reported by ABC had been shown to Congress, but lawmakers were not given copies, officials said.

The pro-Republican Super PAC American Crossroads released a web video on Friday focusing on questions about Clinton's role in a possible "cover-up" over the evolving explanations for the incident.

"Why did she blame a video? And was she part of a cover-up?" the video asks. "Americans deserve the truth."

The Republican National Committee sent out portions of the ABC report in an email headlined "Obama's Bungled Benghazi Response."

Congressman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the Republican accusations were an attempt to damage Clinton in case she decides to run for president in 2016.

"It is so much an effort ... to harm her before she even makes a decision and then to make sure they've got some material after she decides to run for president, assuming she does," he told MSNBC.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Mark Felsenthal; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Jackie Frank and Jim Loney)

Not so much the next time around.

The two schools separated by all of 10 miles of central Connecticut highway cruised to the NCAA hockey championship on Thursday. Yale edged UMass Lowell 3-2 in overtime in one semifinal, and top-seeded Quinnipiac followed by crushing St. Cloud State 4-1.

The victories set up the fourth showdown between the Bobcats and the Bulldogs since Groundhog Day. Quinnipiac is 3-0 against Yale this season, though it will hardly matter if the Bobcats (30-7-5) can't make it four straight.

"The one thing I've seen from Yale, this is a different team than when we beat them (last)," Quinnipiac coach Rand Pecknold said.

The Bulldogs (21-12-3) appeared so while dominating Hockey East champion UMass Lowell. Yale outshot the River Hawks (28-11-2) 47-18 and spent most of the game in Lowell's end of the ice.

Still, the Bulldogs needed senior Andrew Miller to play hero. The captain circled around two River Hawk defenders, then flipped a backhander between Connor Hellebuyck's legs 6:59 into the extra period to lift one of the nation's oldest programs to its first championship game appearance.

"That's probably the biggest goal in the history of Yale hockey," Yale coach Keith Allain said.

One that will give the Bulldogs a shot at redemption and helped guarantee a member of the ECAC will hoist the trophy for the first time since Harvard did it in 1989. The league plays in the shadow of the mighty Hockey East, but will have the spotlight all to itself in the final game of the season.

Pecknold doesn't think it's a coincidence.

"I think the ECAC was one of the best if not the best league in the country this year," Pecknold said. "Top to bottom, we're as good as anyone."

The Bobcats certainly are. Quinnipiac dismantled St. Cloud State with 12 dizzying minutes of precise hockey, scoring three times then riding Hobey Baker finalist Eric Hartzell to the final.

In a way, Yale's triumph helped its rival move on. When the Bulldogs couldn't finish off the River Hawks in regulation, it forced St. Cloud State and Quinnipiac to wait in the dressing room.

The delay may have gotten to the Huskies. It only appeared to fire up the Bobcats.

Jordan Samuels-Thomas scored on a wraparound 1:49 into the game and Ben Arnt and Jeremy Langlois soon followed with goals of their own. It was more than enough cushion for Hartzell.

"I think we'd do anything to replay the first 10 minutes of the hockey game," St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko. "We dug ourselves a hole. They score three of their first four shots. We hunkered back down, but just couldn't overcome it."

St. Cloud State forward Drew LeBlanc also a finalist for the Baker Award managed just one shot in his final game as the Huskies struggled to get quality scoring chances.

"Hartzell is our best player, there is no question," Pecknold said. "But we play well in front of him.We compete, we battle, and it's a give and take between the two."

Quinnipiac had little trouble with Yale this season, outscoring the Bulldogs 13-3. The last victory was a 3-0 triumph in the ECAC third-place game, a contest with little on the line.

Pecknold considers his team "lucky" to have escaped. Yale has only gotten better over the last three weeks. Quinnipiac will get an eyeful on Saturday when they meet with a chance at history on the line.

"I think you can throw the 3-0 out the window," Pecknold said. "It's going to be a battle. They've got some great players. We've got some great players, and we definitely play two different type styles of game. We'll have to go to war on Saturday."

Corey Thompson, now 29, was an independent contractor for Charter Communications Inc. in Montgomery, Ala., who installed cable and Internet access for customers.

Thompson also owned and operated a tax return business called Satisfaction Tax Service, said the U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Alabama.

Thompson pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to file false claims and one count of aggravated identity theft. The 27 fraudulent tax returns requested a total of $91,304 in refunds.

Thompson's attorney, Mike Winter, said his client admitted his guilt out of a genuine sense of remorse and that this was the only crime he has committed in his entire adult life.

"Given that he committed a 'white-collar' crime, and that he presents no risk of either flight or further criminal activity, Judge Fuller did authorize him to self-report to prison at a future date," Winter said.

From January 2011 to April 2012, the U.S. Attorney's Office said, Thompson conspired with others to file fraudulent tax claims for refunds by using the Internet Protocol [IP] addresses of Charter customers for whom he performed work, making it appear as if the false tax returns were being filed from the customer's IP address.

Thompson and others allegedly obtained the names and Social Security numbers of actual people to file the false tax returns.

Some of Thompson's alleged co-conspirators were also indicted for falsely filing tax returns with stolen identities.

Thompson and his alleged co-conspirators were able to obtain the personal information from a prison guard and from an employee at a debt collection agency, according to .

Thompson would then prepare and electronically file false 2011 individual income tax returns and direct those funds into pre-paid debit cards, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The cards were mailed to addresses Thompson and his co-conspirators chose.

The report published Tuesday by Global Witness says that although there are signs of improvement in Congo's tin and tantalum sectors, the "progress remains localized."

The gold trade in particular remains a problem. The report said tons of gold mined in eastern Congo is smuggled to neighboring Burundi every year because it is easily smuggled across borders and proper checks are not carried out by local buyers in Africa's Great Lakes region or by international traders. Laundered through the Burundian local trade, the gold is exported to Dubai where it is bought by international traders.

The American former world number one, a 15-times champion on the PGA Tour, twice choked up with tears during his acceptance speech in St. Augustine, Florida on what he described as "the coolest night of my life".

Couples was inducted along with eight-times European Tour order of merit winner Colin Montgomerie, former U.S. Open champion and television broadcaster Ken Venturi, former European Tour executive director Ken Schofield and twice former British Open winner Willie Park Jr.

The first American player to reach number one in the official world rankings, Couples broke down when he described how he had gained motivation to pursue a career in golf while attending a golf clinic in his native Seattle at the age of 14.

"An unbelievable PGA Tour player was doing the clinic, and I got up front and I was staring at him," the 53-year-old Couples recalled.

"I wasn't really the person who said, 'That's what I want to do, I'm going to be a PGA Tour player.' But I knew I wanted to really, really get involved in golf.

"And the gentleman's name was Lee Trevino, who has been a mentor and someone I love."

Couples' golfing journey took him from Seattle to the University of Houston and he went on to become one of the most popular players in the game with a languid swing and prodigious length off the tee which earned him the nickname 'Boom Boom'.

He won his only major title at the 1992 Masters but also clinched the prestigious Players Championship in 1984 and 1996, an event widely regarded as the unofficial fifth major.

VETERAN COUPLES

A veteran of five Ryder Cups, Couples captained the triumphant U.S. Presidents Cup teams in 2009 and 2011, and also has eight wins on the Champions Tour for players aged over 50.

"Thanks for taking a kid from Seattle and putting him into the Hall of Fame," Couples said as he ended his acceptance speech. "This is the coolest night of my life."

Montgomerie, though he never won a major championship despite several close calls, was delighted to earn his place in the class of 2013 after a career highlighted by 31 victories on the European Tour.

"This has been a humbling experience for me," said the 49-year-old Scot, who also compiled a stellar record in the biennial Ryder Cup team competition where he never lost in eight singles matches.

"I'm very proud to be standing here in front of you this evening."

Known for his natural swing, an aversion to practice and a temperament that could be prickly at times, Montgomerie recorded five runner-up spots in the majors among a total of 10 top-10 finishes.

"I've enjoyed thoroughly my exploits in major championships," Montgomerie said during a news conference. "I just haven't been fortunate or whatever it takes, I've never, ever stood up and made a winner's speech... I never will.

"There's always a time where a bit of fortune comes your way, whether it be for you or against your opponent at the time, and it just so happens with five runner-ups... that I just haven't been so-called fortunate to walk through the door."

Montgomerie twice lost majors in playoffs - the U.S. Open in 1994 and the PGA Championship in 1995 - but his most agonizing near-miss came in the 2006 U.S. Open at Winged Foot where he double-bogeyed the final hole to finish a stroke behind winner Geoff Ogilvy of Australia.

"That's the one that hurts," Montgomerie said. "The four others or five others really, somebody happened to beat me. The 2006 Winged Foot I beat myself, and that's where it hurts most. So that has taken the most to recover from.

"So at the same time, if you're talking about regrets of any part of my golfing career, I have none. Absolutely none. I've done exactly what I've tried to do. I've tried 100 percent on every shot, and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't."

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by John O'Brien)

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada tapped an outsider on Thursday to head its central bank, bringing in the well-respected head of the Canadian export credit agency, who immediately stressed the need to nurture a choppy economic recovery.

Incoming Bank of Canada Governor Stephen Poloz, 57, worked at the central bank for 14 years earlier in his career. But he has spent the last 14 years at Export Development Canada.

Poloz takes over as central bank chief on June 3 when Mark Carney leaves, a surprise for markets, which had tipped Carney's senior deputy Tiff Macklem as the most likely choice. Carney becomes governor of the Bank of England on July 1.

In his debut with reporters, Poloz was careful not to contradict the views that Carney and the central bank expressed in their quarterly economic report last month.

"We are in a recovery that is not as vigorous as would normally be expected and ... I think it will be necessary to nourish it, I don't know for how long," Poloz said in an introductory news briefing in Ottawa.

Canada's economy recovered well from the 2008-09 recession thanks to aggressive government spending, tax cuts and record-low interest rates. But growth stalled last year, with the economy recording its slowest two quarters of growth since the crisis.

The Bank of Canada has kept its key rate on hold at what it describes as a stimulative 1 percent since 2010. But it has signaled for the past year that the next move will be a rate hike, not a cut.

Poloz said exports now needed to fuel the Canadian economy, and he believed this was already starting to happen. Canada unexpectedly recorded a trade surplus in March, the first monthly surplus after a year of deficits.

"In my judgment, it's looking promising. I hope you agree with that," he said, turning to Carney, who smiled broadly: "Yes, absolutely," Carney replied.

Analysts do not expect Poloz to rethink central bank policies, especially because of his experience working there earlier in his career. The bank, which guards its independence jealously, targets inflation of 2 percent, but has said it will be flexible with the timeline for reaching that target in difficult economic times.

"The move was a surprise, but I don't look for any change in monetary policy," said Craig Wright, chief economist at Royal Bank of Canada.

Unlike the U.S. Federal Reserve or the Bank of England, there are no discernible "hawks" or "doves" among the Bank of Canada's six governing council members because the council reaches decisions by consensus and takes pains to speak from a common script at public appearances.

Poloz will serve a seven-year term.

In a Reuters poll on April 10, Poloz was seen as the second most likely candidate to get the job after Macklem.

Poloz appeared upbeat about signs of gradual cooling of the once-hot Canadian housing market and a slowing in record-high household debt levels in Canada - both top concerns of Finance Minister Jim Flaherty.

"Of course it's a concern in the sense of where we are," Poloz said. "However, the evolution appears to be constructive, and I think that's great, for us to continue to watch that and to, if you like, nurture that process of a return to more normal conditions."

Economists have said Poloz has the credentials to succeed as governor and that he was viewed as a governor-in-waiting in his previous period at the central bank.

FOLKSY COMMUNICATOR

He is a good communicator, described by one person as "folksy" in his speeches but also whip-smart. He worked at a private-sector financial research firm in Montreal for five years after leaving the central bank.

Poloz joined EDC, a quasi-independent organization that provides loans to importers of Canadian goods, in 1999 as its chief economist and became president of the agency in 2010.

One possible strike against him was the perception among some market players that he may be more sympathetic than his predecessors to exporters' complaints about the strong Canadian dollar and lean towards a weaker currency.

RBC assistant chief economist Paul Ferley dismissed that notion.

"This would do a disservice to Poloz's early career at the central bank where the priority is to set monetary policy to achieve an appropriate rate of inflation," he said.

Poloz will have only about a month to transition to his new role, much shorter than the four months Carney had between his appointment in October 2007 and his first day of work in February 2008.

This is the third time in a row that the top job at the Bank of Canada has gone to an outside candidate rather than to the most senior internal policymaker, in this case Macklem.

Macklem said in a statement that he would stay with the bank and looked forward to working with Poloz.

(Reporting by David Ljunggren and Louise Egan; Editing by Janet Guttsman, Peter Galloway and Paul Simao)

LOS ANGELES, May 3 (Reuters) - The 2014 Ryder Cup may be a distant 16 months away but United States captain Tom Watson has already identified three winning qualities he needs in his 12-man team to take on holders Europe in Scotland.

Above all, Watson wants his players to have a 'never-say-die' attitude, the ability to thrive under pressure and also to cope well in adverse weather conditions.

"Basically, it comes down to three things and these three things should come as no surprise," Watson wrote in the first installment of his captain's blog, posted on Friday on the official Ryder Cup website (www.rydercup.com).

"1. I'm looking at players who have a lot of heart. 2. I'm looking at a player who can hold or even increase his lead under pressure.

"3. I'm looking for a player who can play well in bad conditions. That last one should be obvious, because those are likely to be the type of conditions we'll face in Scotland."

Nine players will automatically qualify via the U.S. points standings for the September 26-28 matches at Gleneagles and Watson will then round out his team with three wildcard picks, to be announced earlier that month.

LAYING GROUNDWORK

Though the U.S. points system is barely underway, Watson says he has already spent a great deal of time over the last few months laying the foundation to his Ryder Cup preparations.

"Several processes have been put in place," added Watson, who will be 65 when the matches are played at Gleneagles in Scotland, making him the oldest captain in Ryder Cup history.

"While I haven't made any final decisions, I've given a lot of thought to the people I'll use as assistant captains, caddie liaisons and other people I'll entrust with the workings of the Ryder Cup. The process is ongoing.

"I'm formulating a list of names and asking questions about certain people privately. That goes part and parcel with getting to know the players and their abilities better. It's an observational process that I'll be going through with help from others."

Watson, who led the U.S. to victory in 1993 in his previous stint as Ryder Cup captain, said he was thirsty for as much inside information as possible on his likely players at Gleneagles.

"That's the process," he said. "That's what I'm going through. This is a different way of being involved with golf than what I've been used to for many years.

"Now, I'm actively involved in paying attention to the outcome at tournaments for players other than myself."

A winner of eight majors, including five British Opens, Watson is the seventh man to be named U.S. captain on more than one occasion. The last was Jack Nicklaus in 1987.

Americans are hoping the appointment of Watson will end a run of seven losses against Europe in the last nine editions of the biennial competition.

Their most recent defeat came in Chicago last year when the U.S. threw away a commanding four-point lead heading into the final day in what became known as the 'Meltdown at Medinah.' (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes; Editing by Frank Pingue)

RELATED:

We analyzed the tweets from both accounts — @barackobama, which is controlled by the non-profit Organizing For Action that leases the account from Obama's campaign, and @whitehouse, controlled by government employees in the administration — from February 14 to May 2. In the chart below, those tweets are plotted. The blue line is tweets from @barackobama; the red, from @whitehouse. Our report on the former was released on April 8, represented by the black line.

RELATED:

Calculating the average number of tweets sent each day from each account, the change becomes clear. Prior to the report, @barackobama tweeted an average of 8.15 times a day, while @whitehouse tweeted 7.04 times. After, @barackobama tweeted 3.05 times on average to @whitehouse's 13.91.

RELATED:

There are other signs that the White House is increasing its social media presence while OFA is scaling back. Last week, the White House . The Tumblr page , now controlled by OFA, has not been updated for three months. A report from Politico this morningaround the recent gun control debate.

RELATED:

When we spoke with Organizing For Action for our initial report, a spokesperson said, "Generally speaking, Organizing for Action, as a private and independent organization, does not coordinate its digital communications, including those on Twitter, with the White House." OFA didn't return a request for comment this morning.

Prosecutors said the charges against Clifford, 70, relate to assaults allegedly committed between 1966 and 1985. The charges involve seven female complainants who were between the ages of 14 and 19 at the times of the alleged assaults, they added in a statement.

Clifford considered an affable and sage "go to" guy for celebrities embroiled in public relations fiascos was arrested in December 2012. He said Friday that he's been in a "24/7 nightmare" since then and vowed to clear his name.

"The allegations in respect of which I have been charged are completely false," he told Britain's Press Association. "I have never indecently assaulted anyone in my life, and this will become clear during the course of the proceedings."

Clifford will appear at London's Westminster Magistrate's Court on May 28.

Former BBC chauffeur David Smith, 55, is the only other person so far to be charged as a result of Operation Yewtree, an investigation launched after revelations that Savile may have targeted hundreds of young victims over five decades. Savile died in 2011 at age 84.

About a dozen people have been arrested as part of the Yewtree probe, including veteran entertainer Rolf Harris and former pop star Gary Glitter.

Clifford long has been a fixture on British television news programs and in British newspapers, which frequently seek his thoughts on how celebrities can come up with novel marketing strategies to maximize their appeal and how celebrities dealing with marital breakdowns, drug problems, legal issues or fading popularity can rebound.

His clients have included entertainment mogul Simon Cowell, former Harrod's owner Mohamed al-Fayed, and the late reality TV star Jade Goody. He also has represented dozens of ordinary people who found themselves at the vortex of the news and who sought to sell their stories to the press, which is a common, and lucrative, practice in Britain.

The network and studio Warner Bros. Television are currently working out a deal for young star Angus T. Jones to recur on the Chuck Lorre comedy, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.

Meanwhile, stars Ashton Kutcher and Jon Cryer have inked new one-year deals for season 11 and will return to the series as regulars.

More to come.