But by pursuing their own path distinct from both the opposition and the regime, they are also colliding with Sunni rebels, who have increasingly clashed with Kurdish militiamen. Rebels have besieged a pocket of Kurdish towns and villages in the mainly Sunni Arab corner of northwest Syria for weeks, leading to reports of shortages of food and medicine.

The fighting threatens to expand into an ethnic war between Kurds and Arabs, adding another layer to the potent mix of fighters and conflicts in a brutal civil war that, according to the United Nations, has already killed 93,000 people. The ethnic tensions come on top of virulent sectarian hatreds between pro-rebel Sunnis and pro-regime Alawites and Shiites that have spiraled amid the fight for power.

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority in Syria, making up more than 10 percent of the country's 23 million people. They are centered in the poor northeastern regions of Hassakeh and Qamishli, wedged between the borders of Turkey and Iraq. The capital Damascus and Syria's largest city, Aleppo, also have several predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods.

Long put down by President Bashar Assad's regime, the Kurds are now exulting in the new, de facto autonomy that they seized. As the fighting intensified last summer, particularly in the northern province of Aleppo, Assad's forces were stretched thin and pulled back from mainly Kurdish towns and villages near the Turkish border, ceding de facto control to armed Kurdish fighters.

Over the past year, some Kurds began openly calling for an officially autonomous region in Syria similar to that of northern Iraq.

Vehicles sporting license plates reading "Rojava Kurdistan," or "western Kurdistan," have become more common. Kurdish red, green and white flags with a sun in the middle the same flag flown in Iraqi Kurdistan fly over homes and public offices. A local police force known "Asayish," whose members include women, have taken over security in the areas abandoned last year by Assad's forces.

Kurds now study their own language and cultural heritage in schools. Under Assad, Kurds have not been allowed to openly teach their language or celebrate their New Year, or Nowruz, and Kurdish activists were routinely jailed.

"There was a political vacuum and it was filled," said Mustafa Osso, secretary general of the Azadi Kurdish Party in Syria and a senior member with the National Kurdish Council, an umbrella to 15 groups.

"A future Syria should be democratic, pluralist and cannot be ruled by a central government any more. We want to propose a political program that Syria be a federal state like Iraq," he told The Associated Press.

But Kurdish gunmen and rebels have fought several pitched battles over the past months.

Since late last month, rebels have laid siege to a predominantly Kurdish pocket around the town of Afrin, northwest of the city of Aleppo.

In a statement Monday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights warned of shortages of food, milk and medicine in the Afrin area. It said hospitals in the area are concerned about the spread of tuberculosis because of a lack of medicines. The Afrin region, halfway between Aleppo and the Turkish border, has a population of more than half a million, along with more than 200,000 Syrians who fled there from fighting elsewhere, said the Observatory, an anti-regime group that has a network of activists on the ground.

The Afrin assault began when rebels wanted to pass through it to attack the predominantly Shiite villages of Nubul and Zahra, controlled by Assad loyalists, the head of the Observatory, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said. After Kurdish groups refused, rebels attacked Kurdish checkpoints and laid siege, beginning May 25.

Dozens have been killed on both sides in the clashes since, he said. Kurdish groups in the area are mostly secular, while the rebels in the northern regions are made up of Muslim extremists, including al-Qaida-linked Jabhat al-Nusra.

"There is no trust between the two sides," Abdul-Rahman told The Associated Press. "There are efforts taking place to prevent a bigger war that could burn the region."

The fighting reflects in part the Kurds' complicated response to Assad and the uprising against him. When the revolt began in March 2011, some Kurds joined in the peaceful protests against his rule.

Assad also tried to keep the community on his side by ceding ground on a major Kurdish demand, granting citizenship to some 200,000 Kurds who were registered as aliens before. The Kurds long complained of discrimination, and many of them were denied citizenship, making it difficult for them to find work or enroll in the state-run education system.

Kurds' suspicion of the opposition increasingly dominated by Islamist fighters kept many on the fence, much like members of other minorities like Christians. Fearing the future if Assad's secular regime collapses, Kurds have not thrown themselves into the armed uprising beyond carving out their own interests.

The Kurds are also hampered by their own divisions among multiple factions, one of which is accused of openly siding with Assad's regime. Some Kurds say that the pro-government militia of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, or PYD, is indirectly enforcing Assad's rule in several Kurdish areas it took over last year.

PYD, Syria's most powerful Kurdish group, is affiliated with the PKK, rebels who were fighting for autonomy in Kurdish-dominated southeastern Turkey.

The clashes between the two sides have involved PYD militiamen and extremist rebels, and the exiled opposition accuses the regime of stoking the tensions.

"The regime wants a sectarian war between Alawites and Sunnis and an ethnic war between Arabs and Kurds so that it appears to be everyone's protector and to say that the substitute (to the regime) would be chaos and infighting," said Abdelbaset Sieda, a senior Kurdish member of the main Western-backed opposition Syrian National Coalition.

"We are in contact with all parties to calm the situation and to consolidate all efforts against the regime," Sieda said.

The tension first began last summer when rebels captured several neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo. When the rebels reached the predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Achrafieh, PYD members controlling the district told them not to enter.

Some rebels accused the PYD of being collaborators with the regime. The Kurds accused the Arab rebels of wanting to dominate their neighborhood.

The friction in Achrafieh was followed by clashes in Afrin, Tel Abyad, Hassakeh, Qamishli, Ras al-Ayn and Tel Tamr near the border with Turkey. The two sides clashed in Ras al-Ayn for three months until a cease-fire was reached in February.

Kaniwar Ayani, 28, an activist in Ras al-Ayn, said hard-line Islamist rebel factions are seeking to dominate the Kurds. When rebels entered the town, they prevented residents from raising any flag other than the militants' black banner with Islamic slogans, he said. When they went on mosque loudspeakers to demand Kurdish fighters surrender, the Kurds decided to stand up against them.

"The Islamic groups entered Ras al-Ayn to liberate it but they stayed to impose their will," Ayani said.

Many in the opposition react to Kurdish demands much like the Assad regime always has. They see the demands for autonomy or even for greater rights as an attempt to split the country. One point of friction is also control of oil fields in Hassakeh, especially the Rumailan field, currently held by Kurdish gunmen.

Kurdish autonomy in post-Assad Syria, similar to the Iraqi model, could strengthen long-standing demands for an independent homeland for the more than 25 million Kurds in parts of Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq.

"As Kurds, we have a right that we have been deprived from for decades. I frankly dream of a Kurdish state," said university student Shayar Aziz, 24, from the Kurdish town of Amouda.

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A Syrian journalist in Ras al-Ayn, Syria, contributed reporting.

Massive thunderstorms have swept across the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states, knocking out power to thousands of people and causing some flash flooding in certain areas. Here's a snapshot of what is happening, state by state:

GEORGIA

Severe thunderstorms on Thursday left about 160,000 customers in north and middle Georgia without power. Lightning lit up the nighttime sky over Atlanta, and falling trees left two people with non-life threatening injuries in Canton. There were reports of a possible tornado in Cherokee County.

ILLINOIS

National Weather Service authorities reported several small tornadoes and quarter-size hail as severe weather moved across northern Illinois. Meanwhile, airlines canceled more than 120 flights at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Wednesday night's White Sox game was postponed, along with Northwestern University classes and finals scheduled on its Chicago and Evanston campuses. Game 1 of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup series was played at the United Center. Power outages: About 34,000 in northern Illinois.

INDIANA

The National Weather Service says several farm buildings near Wabash, Ind., were destroyed by 90 to 100 mph straight-line winds. Building damage and downed trees were reported after winds topping 60 mph and golf ball-size hail pelted places from Gary to Fort Wayne. Thousands of customers across northern Indiana were without power at one point, though utility officials said most had been restored by Thursday.

IOWA

Weather officials say preliminary reports indicate multiple tornadoes touched down in northern Iowa on Wednesday, though an official tally isn't immediately available. A team has been surveying damage in the Belmond area in Wright County, where reports indicate more than one tornado may have hit the area. There has been significant damage to a few houses and businesses on the north side of town. It includes collapsed walls, broken windows and debris.

The team is headed to the Hampton area in nearby Franklin County, where there also have been reports of damage. No injuries or fatalities have been reported.

MARYLAND

Storms on Thursday caused three reported tornadoes, downed trees, tens of thousands of power outages and closed roads. Also, a 19-year-old woman was sent to the hospital after being struck by lightning.

MICHIGAN

Consumers Energy spokesman Roger Morgenstern said about 32,000 of the utility's 1.8 million Michigan customers remained without power Thursday afternoon. Allegan and Van Buren were the hardest-hit counties, with about 14,000 outages between them.Morgenstern said many customers will have power restored by the evening, while some in the hardest-hit areas will have to wait until Friday afternoon. Many trees struck power lines, bringing them down - along with poles in some cases.

MINNESOTA

A storm dumped heavy rain to parts of southern Minnesota on Wednesday morning, including nearly 3.25 inches at Hutchinson airfield. Hail and wind gusts of up to 65 mph were also reported.

NORTH CAROLINA

A wave of storms Thursday evening downed trees and left more than 157,000 customers without power, mostly in the Piedmont region.

OHIO

Storms left thousands without power early Thursday in the Buckeye State. An emergency management official in Morrow County told The Columbus Dispatch late Wednesday that there were reports of two possible tornadoes in the central Ohio county. Downed trees were blocking some area roads, but there were no reports of serious injuries.

PENNSYLVANIA

The entire state of Pennsylvania remains under a flood watch through Thursday. Lightning from a fast-moving storm may have sparked a fire that killed a western Pennsylvania man early Thursday, the state fire marshal said. The fire happened in New Brighton, about 25 miles northwest of Pittsburgh. .

In Ardmore, stormy weather halted the first round of the U.S. Open less than two hours after it began but it resumed about three hours later. Meanwhile, flights at Philadelphia International Airport were delayed an hour and a half to two hours.

RHODE ISLAND

A flood warning has been issued for areas for the Pawtuxet River and areas along the Pawcatuck River. Some areas along the Pawtuxet have already experienced minor flooding.

VIRGINIA

Storms were blamed for the death Thursday afternoon of a 4-year-old boy who was struck by a tree that toppled while he was visiting a Richmond park with his father, who suffered non-life threatening injuries. Statewide, more than 300,000 customers lost power.

WASHINGTON, D.C.

Storms came and went in Washington before the evening rush hour, bringing winds and thunder that knocked trees onto houses and cut power to thousands of homes and traffic signals. Flightstats.com reported that more than 100 flights were cancelled at the Baltimore-Washington area's three airports, and there were hundreds more flights delayed.

WEST VIRGINIA

The West Virginia National Guard sent personnel to assist in Roane County after several inches of rain prompted flash flooding Thursday. A county 911 center was evacuated and some roads in the Spencer area have been closed because of flash flooding.

WISCONSIN

A partial roof collapse at a Wal-Mart in Lake Delton left two employees with minor injuries as heavy rain and high winds spread across southern Wisconsin. Street flooding was reported in parts of the village of Boscobel in Grant County and in Portage and Pardeeville in Columbia County.

Under Friday's deal, trade ministers at a meeting in Luxembourg agreed to France's demand to keep its movie and television industry out of the hotly anticipated trans-Atlantic talks. But, they said they could possibly come back to debate it at a later time, meaning the deeply divisive issue could resurface.

The outcome should allow Obama and his EU counterparts to announce the start of negotiations for a deal expected to provide a big boost to growth and jobs by eliminating tariffs and other barriers that have long plagued economic relations.

A free trade pact would create a market with common standards and regulations across countries that together account for nearly half the global economy.

France's longstanding objections, which turned a simple ministerial meeting into a 12-hour negotiating marathon, showed the challenges ahead. Within the EU alone, there is a rift with some nations big on protecting struggling sectors with subsidies and more pro-free-trade member states.

Beyond the audiovisual sector, major problems are expected to emerge over agriculture and transport.

Friday night though, Finland's European Affairs Minister Alexander Stubb tweeted optimistically about the prospect of trans-Atlantic negotiations: "Play ball!" he wrote.

All other EU nations have vowed to protect the culture industry as well, but the large majority nevertheless wanted it to be part of the talks. They fear that removing it would set off tit-for-tat claims on both sides.

France's Trade Minister Nicole Bricq said though that the Americans already had staked out an issue which was off limits.

"Frankly, I met the Americans in Washington and it is clear that they too want exclusions on the financial services," she said.

Even though EU negotiator Karel De Gucht could try bring back the audiovisual sector into the talks, France would always have a veto to keep it out if it wanted.

An EU-commissioned study shows that a trade pact could boost the 27-country bloc's economic output by 119 billion euro ($159 billion) a year and the U.S. economy's by 95 billion euros ($127 billion). Another estimate showed eliminating tariffs alone would add $180 billion to U.S. and EU gross domestic product in five years' time while boosting exports on both sides by about 17 percent. That could add about 0.5 percent annually to the EU's GDP and 1 percent to the U.S.

For Europe in particular, that extra growth would be crucial to help pay high public debt and bring down unemployment, which is at record highs.

"An EU-U.S. agreement could potentially represent 400,000 jobs in the EU, so that's a prize really worth working for," said Irish Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton, who chaired Friday's EU meeting.

"It is an opportunity both for the United States and the EU. It's time is now," Bruton said.

Tariffs between the EU and the U.S. are already relatively low, averaging 5 percent to 7 percent. But the pact would have huge benefits because of the sheer size of the market bilateral trade is worth $1 trillion annually, the largest commercial relationship in the world.

The prospects sounded so good that all seemed aligned for a launch of the talks during Obama's European visit. Both the U.S. and Britain said they wanted to announce the opening of negotiations by the G-8 summit on June 17-18, with talks expected to start around the beginning of July.

But France and Hollywood have long had a fraught relationship. Paris has for years sought to protect its cultural industries with lavish subsidies and quotas as competition grew from other countries particularly the U.S., whose exporters are helped by having a massive domestic market and the use of English, the world's pre-eminent language.

And since the EU is a patchwork of often tiny countries with their own languages and cultures, such protection has become a fully acceptable practice in the bloc.

Because of this, France insisted the EU is so unlikely to give up such protection that there is no point in even including it in the negotiations.

EU Trade Commissioner De Gucht, who will negotiate on behalf of the 27 countries based on a unanimous mandate, said the mandate would have included enough guarantees that protection for the cultural industry would be maintained.

As the G-8 summit drew closer, however, some of the most divisive issues in trade relations appeared as intractable as ever. Besides the issue of culture, deep differences remained over agriculture, food safety, climate change legislation, financial deregulation and intellectual property enforcement.

The best-case timetable for completing the pact is the end of 2014. However, for many experts, that is overly optimistic and the consensus is it will take a few years.

___

Associated Press writer Marjorie Olster contributed from Washington

____

Follow Raf Casert on Twitter at https://twitter.com/rcasert

Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg's death Monday presents the state's popular Republican governor with a series of decisions that carry consequences beyond who will serve as New Jersey's next U.S. senator. While Republicans and Democrats alike will be watching Christie's next moves closely, there's no telling what the governor who has staked out a reputation for going his own way will do.

"I give him praise on a life well-lived," Christie said of the Democratic senator with whom he frequently tangled. The governor made the comment during an appearance at a women's conference and then canceled the rest of his public schedule Monday, clearly mindful of the high stakes involved in choosing Lautenberg's successor.

Christie said he would discuss the succession plan at a Tuesday afternoon news conference in Trenton. He didn't say he would be announcing a successor.

Christie has wide latitude to choose Lautenberg's successor but it would be unusual for him to select a Democrat. Four states require the governor to choose a member of the outgoing senator's political party but New Jersey is not among them. With Lautenberg's death, the Senate now has 52 Democrats, 45 Republicans and two independents who often side with the Democrats.

For Christie, who has enjoyed strong approval ratings, picking the wrong successor might reflect poorly on him as he looks to win by a large margin against Democratic state Sen. Barbara Buono, who is considered an underdog against the well-known governor. Choosing a conservative might help him with national Republicans but could undercut his moderate bona fides, which have helped him connect with independents and Democrats in his state.

In the longer term, the wrong person could irk Republican leaders in Washington and activists in early voting states like Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. If Christie selects a Republican with views that are out of step with the GOP base someone who supports abortion rights or gun control, for instance it might hurt Christie with party stalwarts. The appointee's vote could tip the balance on issues like immigration reform, which the Senate is expected to begin debating in the weeks ahead.

Christie's appointee also could offer a window into the governor's own thinking on issues and thrust Christie into an ongoing fight between establishment Republicans and the GOP's tea party wing.

The governor, who has brought a blunt-speaking independent streak to the Republican Party, took flak from fellow Republicans when he appeared alongside President Barack Obama on the Jersey Shore in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which struck the state about a week before the 2012 election. He appeared again with Obama last week to promote the Jersey Shore's recovery and repeatedly has spoken of the need for politics to be set aside for the good of his state.

Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the U.S. Senate Republicans' campaign committee, said the governor has "demonstrated time and again that he will do what he believes is best" for his home state.

Picking a Democrat to carry the torch from Lautenberg however unlikely might win him bipartisan love in liberal-leaning New Jersey but would enrage Republicans already suspicious of Christie's chummy relations with Obama after Sandy. Christie has maintained good relations with Newark's Democratic mayor, Cory Booker, who decided to run for Senate instead of challenging Christie, but appointing the media-savvy Booker might be viewed as treasonous to Republicans.

"I don't envy the governor on his decision," said Julie Roginsky, a New Jersey-based Democratic strategist.

If Christie is looking for a well-regarded placeholder, he could turn to former Republican Gov. Tom Kean, who served two terms as governor from 1982 to 1990 and served as chairman of the 9/11 Commission.

Other Republican possibilities include Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, likely viewed as Christie's heir apparent if the governor runs for president; Kean's son, state Sen. Tom Kean Jr., who was defeated by Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez in 2006; state Sen. Joe Kyrillos, a Christie ally who was defeated by Menendez last year; former Gov. Christie Whitman; state Sen. Kevin O'Toole; or Bill Baroni, the deputy executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., has also been mentioned.

Roginsky said appointing a caretaker Republican like Kean, the moderate former governor, would not be viewed favorably by Republican leaders or party activists in early presidential voting states. But appointing a hard-core conservative "would definitely hurt him at home" as he runs for re-election.

While Christie appoints a senator to fill Lautenberg's seat, it's unclear when that new senator would face an election. Even that process carries risks for Christie.

He could decide to hold a special election in November, but the presence on the ballot of Booker, the likely Democratic Senate nominee, might drive more Democratic turnout and affect Christie's ability to win big against Buono. If Christie says the next Senate election should wait until 2014, the governor runs the risk of a hand-picked Republican getting trounced by Booker only months before launching a presidential bid.

Dayspring said a 2013 contest could mean a "potentially ugly and quick" primary between Booker, who already had announced a Senate bid, and potential challengers like Reps. Frank Pallone and Rob Andrews. A 2014 race, he said, would allow a Republican appointee to "build trust and name identification with voters."

The state's laws on choosing a successor appear to be contradictory. One provision says that if a vacancy occurs more than 70 days before a regularly scheduled statewide general election, the vacancy would be filled on the next statewide general election Nov. 5, 2013 when Christie will be on the ballot. But another law says the election would be held during the next general election only if the vacancy occurs 70 days before the state's primary, which was being held Tuesday. In that case, the Senate election would be held in November 2014, when Lautenberg's seat was scheduled to be considered by voters. The late senator had said he would not run for re-election.

National Republicans say they want the Senate election to be held in 2014 and hope Christie appoints a GOP official who will run for the seat outright. The thinking: It would give the appointee more than a year to serve in the Senate and build a record that might help the person in the Democratic-tilting state.

New Jersey has not elected a Republican to the Senate since 1972. The last Republican to serve in the Senate was Nicholas Brady, who was appointed by Kean in 1982 to finish the term of Democrat Harrison Williams, who resigned amid scandal in the last year of his term. Lautenberg won the seat later that year and remained in the Senate until his death, except for a brief retirement in 2001 and 2002.

Many governors have taken the placeholder route in recent years: Ted Kaufman, a longtime aide to Joe Biden, was appointed to the Senate when Biden became Obama's vice president; Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick chose his former chief of staff, William "Mo" Cowan, to fill Secretary of State John Kerry's Senate seat on an interim basis until after a special election.

Other appointments have turned into political liabilities. Former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, withstood criticism from Latinos for appointing then-Denver Public Schools Superintendent Michael Bennet to a Senate seat in January 2009 to replace Ken Salazar, who became Obama's interior secretary.

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Follow Ken Thomas on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Ken_Thomas

Follow Geoff Mulvihill on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/geoffmulvihill

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield. Angela Delli Santi contributed from Trenton.

Evidence from these ancient periods suggests humans produced new tools, and used symbolism in wall engravings. The findings suggest a tight link between abrupt climate changes and the emergence of modern human traits, researchers say.

"We provide for the first time really good evidence that the occurrence and disappearance of these first finds of human innovation are linked to climate change," said study author Martin Ziegler, an earth science researcher at Cardiff University in Wales.

Before these periods of innovation, , with the most impressive technology being hand axes, Ziegler said. But during these wet periods, more advanced stone and bone tools appear in the fossil record, as well as painted symbols on cave walls that suggest the development of language.

Archaeologists have also found some of the first evidence of constructed plant beds during these periods, and shells thought to be worn as adornments or jewelry, Ziegler said. Among the most important periods analyzed in the study date to 71,000, and a period between 64,000 and 59,000 years ago. []

In the study, Ziegler's team reconstructed South Africa's climate over the last 100,000 years. They pieced together the record by analyzing sediment cores taken from the offshore region near the southeastern tip of Africa.

Chemicals within the sediment suggest how much rainfall fell nearby, Ziegler said, as well as other indicators of climate.

The climate reconstruction agrees with records from elsewhere in the world. During these lush periods in South Africa, much of the rest of Sub-Saharan Africa was experiencing a drought, while much of the Northern Hemisphere was very cold, Ziegler said. The study suggests that cold conditions in the north reoriented Atlantic Ocean currents, shifting the global monsoon belt with its torrential rains to the south, he said.

The study shows an association, but not a cause-and-effect relationship between wetter conditions and human innovation. But it may be that during these periods, drought farther north forcedinto South African refuges, leading to a "bottleneck" of competition, and cross-cultural fertilization, Ziegler said.

Future work may look at the connection between human populations elsewhere, and local climate shifts.

But insights from these locations in South Africa are vital, because they are thought to "re?ect the emergence of modern behaviors of innovation, language and cultural identity," the authors wrote in the study, published today (May 21) in the journal Nature Communications.

Emailor follow him onor. Follow us , or. Article originally on LiveScience.com.

Yet the most likely first-time homeowners, especially young professionals and couples starting families, won't buy these days. Or they can't. Or they already did, during the housing boom. And their absence helps explain why the housing industry is still depressed.

The obstacles range from higher down payments to heavy debt from credit cards and student loans. But even many of those who could afford to buy no longer see it as a wise investment. Prices have sunk 15 percent in three years.

"I've looked for a home, but the places we can afford with the money we have are not that great," says Seth Herter, 23, a store manager in suburban St. Louis. "It also doesn't seem smart anymore to buy with prices falling. Buying a home just doesn't make sense to us."

The proportion of U.S. households that own homes is at 65.1 percent, its lowest point since 1996, the Census Bureau says. That marks a shift after nearly two decades in which homeownership grew before peaking at 70 percent during the housing boom.

The housing bubble lured so many young buyers that it reduced the pool of potential first-timers to below-normal levels. That's contributed to the decline in new buyers in recent years.

In 2005, at the height of the boom, about 2.8 million first-timers bought homes, according to the National Association of Realtors. By contrast, for each of the four years preceding the boom, the number of first-timers averaged fewer than 2 million.

Still, the bigger factors are the struggling economy, shaky job security, tougher credit rules and lack of cash to put down, said Dan McCue, research manager at Harvard University's Joint Center for Housing Studies. The unemployment rate among typical first-timers, those ages 25 to 34, is 9.8 percent, compared with 9 percent for all adults.

"The obstacles facing first-time buyers are big, and it's changing the way they look at home ownership," McCue says. "It's no longer the American Dream for the younger generation."

First-timers usually account for up to half of all sales. Over the past year, they've accounted for only about a third.

A big reason is tougher lending standards.

Lenders are demanding more money up front. In 2002, the median down payment for a single-family home in nine major U.S. cities was 4 percent, according to real estate website Zillow.com. Today, it's 22 percent.

And one-third of households have credit scores too low to qualify for a mortgage. The median required credit score from FICO Inc., the industry leader in credit ratings, has risen from 720 in 2007, when the market went bust, to 760 today.

Homes in many places are the most affordable in a generation. In the past year, the national median sale price has sunk 3.5 percent. Half the homes listed in the Tampa Bay area are priced below $100,000.

The average mortgage rate for a 30-year fixed loan is 4 percent, barely above an all-time low. Five years ago, it was near 6.5 percent. In 2000, it exceeded 8 percent.

When the economy eventually strengthens, the housing market will, too. More people will be hired. Confidence will rise. Down payments won't be so hard to produce.

The question is whether first-time buyers will then start flowing into the housing market. That will depend mainly on whether they think prices will rise, said Mark Vitner, senior U.S. economist at Wells Fargo.

"It's a guessing game as to when things will turn around," Vitner said. "But until they do, you won't see young people buying homes."

Last year's offensive rookie of the year Thursday again threw in a quadrant of the practice field to fellow rehabbing Redskins Pierre Garcon, Fred Davis, Jordan Reed and Roy Helu as Griffin continued his recovery from Jan. 9 surgery on his right knee.

Griffin says "it's been a journey." The quarterback ran two miles earlier this week for the first time since he was injured. Griffini says while everyone "gets to see the flowers and roses side of it out here throwing and running with a little bounce in your step," he's had "to be patiently aggressive."

[More from BGR: ]

The remote play function is similar to a feature Sony showed off at itsevent this past February. The PlayStation 4 will include a feature that allows a friend to remotely take over a game to help get them through a rough spot. The system will also allow gamers to stream live gameplay video to friends and even let other players interact with gamers by dropping in-game items.

[More from BGR: ]

Polygonreported thatwill also be updated within the first few months of release to support Siri-like functions.is said to be working on bringing two-way conversations to the device that can be utilized in a number of ways. One example given was for the Kinect to ask new gamers to introduce themselves to the system after being detected by facial recognition, at which point it will welcome them and save their information to the console.

The Xbox One is scheduled to be released this holiday season. Microsoft will announce new details about the system at the E3 conference in June.

This article was

While defending the practice, a senior Obama administration official did not confirm a newspaper report that the NSA has been collecting the telephone records of millions of U.S. customers of Verizon under a top secret court order.

The order was granted by the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on April 25 and is good until July 19, Britain's Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday. The order requires Verizon, one of the nation's largest telecommunications companies, on an "ongoing, daily basis" to give the NSA information on all telephone calls in its systems, both within the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries.

The newspaper said the document, a copy of which it had obtained, shows for the first time that under the Obama administration the communication records of millions of U.S. citizens were being collected indiscriminately and in bulk, regardless of whether they were suspected of any wrongdoing.

The Associated Press could not authenticate the order because documents from the court are classified.

The administration official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to publicly discuss classified matters.

Verizon spokesman Ed McFadden said Wednesday the company had no comment. The NSA had no immediate comment.

Verizon Communications Inc. listed 121 million customers in its first-quarter earnings report this April 98.9 million wireless customers, 11.7 million residential phone lines and about 10 million commercial lines. The court order didn't specify which type of phone customers' records were being tracked.

Under the terms of the order, the phone numbers of both parties on a call are handed over, as are location data, call duration, unique identifiers, and the time and duration of all calls. The contents of the conversation itself are not covered, The Guardian said.

The administration official said, "On its face, the order reprinted in the article does not allow the government to listen in on anyone's telephone calls."

The broad, unlimited nature of the records being handed over to the NSA is unusual. FISA court orders typically direct the production of records pertaining to a specific named target suspected of being an agent of a terrorist group or foreign state, or a finite set of individually named targets. NSA warrantless wiretapping during the George W. Bush administration after the 9/11 attacks was very controversial.

The FISA court order, signed by Judge Roger Vinson, compelled Verizon to provide the NSA with electronic copies of "all call detail records or telephony metadata created by Verizon for communications between the United States and abroad" or "wholly within the United States, including local telephone calls," The Guardian said.

The law on which the order explicitly relies is the "business records" provision of the USA Patriot Act.

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AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

One might assume that Oberlin is merely more generous in allotting grants to its students. While 82 percent receive some form of grant or scholarship, which does need to be paid back, the $34,797 figure of attendance is calculated after subtracting those grants from the total cost of tuition, lodging, fees, books, and other expenses.

Every school that participates in the federal loan program reports figures like these to the Department of Education. The following interactive plots every school with at least 1,000 undergraduates by these two values: net cost of attendance after grants on the x axis and the percentage of students with loans on the y axis.