The turmoil appears to have sent jitters beyond Libya's borders, with the U.S. and Britain expressing concern over the prospects of continuous unrest in the North African country.

For nearly two weeks, Libya has been gripped by fear of armed conflict after heavily armed militias stormed and surrounded government buildings in the capital, Tripoli, blocking access to ministries in an attempt to push parliament to pass a contentious law that would prevent members of Moammar Gadhafi's regime from serving in senior government posts.

Lawmakers approved the bill during the weekend, with guns still drawn on the streets, and the militias gradually ended their siege in the capital. But there were reports late Friday that armed men had returned to the streets outside some ministries, including the Justice Ministry and the Foreign Ministry, after the day's protests.

The show of force has left many Libyans fearful over the country's rocky transition to democracy.

In Tripoli, activists took to the streets Friday with placards reading: "Law under the guns; constitution under fire" a reference to both to the recent siege and the country's upcoming milestone, Libya's new constitution, which is to be drafted next year.

In the eastern city of Benghazi the birthplace of the 2011 uprising that evolved into an eight-month-long civil war and ended with the ouster and killing of Gadhafi hundreds of protesters staged a protest against the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Islamist group is charged with engineering the new law, set to take effect in early June. The legislation could remove a whole class of post-Gadhafi officials including the head of the current parliament, Mohammed al-Megarif.

While the law might also affect Brotherhood members and other ultraconservative Islamists, it would get rid of Brotherhood's top foe, Mahmoud Jibril, a liberal-leaning war-time prime minister and who enjoys wide popularity in the country.

Jibril was a top aide to Seif-Islam, one of Gadhafi's sons and heir apparent, before he defected to the rebels. His coalition, The National Forces Alliance, won the biggest number of parliament seats allocated for political groupings in the July parliament elections.

"No to Brotherhoodization of the state," read a banner held by a Benghazi protester. The term is used to express fear of the radical group installing its loyalists in government posts. Other protesters hanged an effigy of the ruler of Qatar, the country Libyans see as a key Brotherhood backer.

Similar protest took place in the eastern city of Tobruk, where advocates for a semi-autonomous eastern region are active.

After the fall of Gadhafi, Libya was left without a strong police force or unified military, and the new authorities had no option but to depend on former rebels and mushrooming number of militias to maintain law and order. However, the militias soon became a source of trouble and at the same time, the security deteriorated.

In Benghazi, series of assassinations and bombings of police stations have prompted diplomatic missions to leave over the past year. On Sept. 11, Islamic militants attacked the U.S mission there, killing U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

On Friday, two bombs exploded outside police stations in different districts of Benghazi. No injuries were reported, but the state news agency said buildings and vehicles were damaged.

Last month, a car bomb hit the French Embassy in Tripoli, wounding three people and partially setting the building on fire. It was the worst attack on a diplomatic mission in Libya since Steven's slaying.

No group has claimed responsibility for any of the attacks.

On Friday, an American military official said U.S. forces in Europe are on a heightened state of alert in response to a deteriorating security situation in the Libyan capital. The official, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, spoke on condition of anonymity.

The alert order came a day after the State Department said it was advising U.S. citizens against all but essential travel to Tripoli and all travel to Benghazi and other locations in Libya. It cited "ongoing instability and violence" and said the State Department's ability to provide consular services to U.S. citizens there was "extremely limited."

Meanwhile, Britain's Foreign Office says it temporarily withdrew some staff from its embassy in Tripoli in light of the recent political unrest.

___

Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Washington contributed to this report.

(Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News Corp reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street expectations, aided by growth at its cable networks, and said it is on track to split off its slow-growing publishing business by the end of June.

Its revenue rose 14 percent from a year earlier to $9.5 billion in the quarter, ended March 31, News Corp said on Wednesday. The company posted adjusted earnings of 36 cents per share, just beating the 35 cents expected on average by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

News Corp shares rose 3.6 percent to $33.00 in after-hours trading, after closing at $31.86 on the Nasdaq.

One-time items, including the purchase of a controlling stake in German pay TV operator Sky Deutschland and the sale of an ownership stake in New Zealand's Sky Network Television, helped lift net income to $2.85 billion, a jump from $937 million a year earlier.

The New York-based company said it is on track to separate its cable channels, movie studio and other fast growing entertainment assets from its newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, near the end of its fiscal year in June.

Its entertainment assets helped boost revenue and earnings for the quarter, led by its cable networks business, which includes the Fox News Channel, FX and regional sports networks.

Operating income at the cable network programming unit rose 17 percent from a year earlier to $993 million, as channels in the United States and abroad commanded higher fees from cable operators and more advertising revenue.

News Corp Chief Operating Officer Chase Carey said the company will invest to build new cable networks, with the launch in August of Fox Sports 1, a competitor to Walt Disney Co's ESPN, and FXX, aimed at young adults, in September. The company intends to spend "a couple hundred million and change" over the next year to build those channels and some international networks, Carey said.

The media company is also trying to improve the Fox broadcast network, whose ratings slid this fall as aging singing competition "American Idol" drew a smaller audience.

"We are clearly disappointed with this season's ratings at the Fox broadcast network, and are taking steps now to improve next season's lineup," Carey told analysts on a conference call.

Lower advertising revenue for "Idol" dragged down the performance of the television unit, whose operating income still increased 15 percent, the company said.

The 20th Century Fox movie studio gained from the success of Oscar-winning film "Life of Pi," which grossed $600 million at theaters worldwide, and home entertainment sales from thriller "Taken 2" and animated hit "Ice Age: Continental Drift."

Operating income at the publishing unit, which includes its newspapers and the HarperCollins book publishing business, declined to $85 million, from $130 million a year earlier.

The company recorded $42 million in the quarter for costs related to investigations of phone hacking at its newspapers in Britain.

(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)

BNY Mellon's net loss of $266 million, or 23 cents a share, reflected a U.S. Tax Court decision announced in February that triggered a previously announced $854 million charge against profits.

In the year-earlier quarter, BNY Mellon reported net income of $619 million, or 52 cents a share.

Excluding the tax-related charge, the bank earned 50 cents a share, missing the average analyst estimate by 2 cents, according to I/B/E/S Thomson Reuters.

Revenue totaled $3.61 billion, down 1 percent from a year ago. Bright spots included 10 percent gains in both investment management and performance fees, and foreign exchange trading.

Net interest revenue at the bank, however, fell 6 percent to $719 million, reflecting lower yields on reinvested securities and the elimination of interest on European Central Bank deposits.

(Reporting by Tim McLaughlin; Editing by Lisa Von Ahn and Jeffrey Benkoe)

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Wednesday that clergy who were "careerists" or "social climbers" were doing serious damage to the Catholic Church, his latest utterance aimed at instilling a sense of frugality and service in the Vatican and beyond.

Francis, 76, the former Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires, made the comments while addressing a gathering of superiors general of orders of nuns from around the world.

"Men and women of the Church who are careerists, social climbers, who use the people, the Church, brothers and sisters - those they should serve - as a springboard for their own ambitions and personal interests do great damage to the Church," he said.

"We learn poverty from the humble, the poor, the sick," he added, urging clergy to work with those on the margins of society and shun the "idols of materialism" that cloud the true meaning of life.

"We have no use for theoretical poverty," Francis said, departing from his prepared text.

Since his election on March 13, Francis has made it clear through his words and example that he wants clergy to live simpler lives, to serve the poor and shun temptations of power.

He has decided not to live in the spacious, luxurious papal apartments in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace used by his predecessors, opting instead for a small suite in a guest house, where he shares meals with other residents.

In his address, Francis appeared to be sending a message not only to priests, nuns and bishops around the world who serve the 1.2 billion-member Church, but also to bureaucrats in the Vatican itself.

Francis has inherited a Vatican rocked by a scandal in which documents leaked to the media spoke of alleged corruption in its administration and depicted prelates as fighting among themselves to advance their careers.

Last month he set up an advisory board of eight cardinals from around the world to help him reform the Vatican administration, known as the Curia.

They will help him put into place changes in an administration which has been held responsible for some of the mishaps and scandals that plagued the eight-year reign of Pope Benedict before he resigned in February.

Benedict left a secret report for Francis on the problems in the administration, which came to light when sensitive documents were stolen from the pope's desk and leaked by his butler in what became known as the "Vatileaks" scandal.

Before the conclave that elected Francis, cardinals called for changes to the Curia to make it a model of good governance, including introducing term limits on Vatican bureaucrats.

Anger at the mostly Italian prelates who run the Curia was one of the reasons that cardinals chose the first non-European pope for 1,300 years and quashed the chances of one of the front-runners, Milan Archbishop Angelo Scola.

(Reporting By Philip Pullella; editing by Mike Collett-White)

Tatum performed most of his own stunts for the ultraphysical role. One was especially hairy. "I did a drop from about nine [or] 10 feet in the air, and [I landed] pretty much smack onto my back. That was a pretty crazy stunt," the 33-year-old actor told Yahoo! Movies.

Tatum plays Capitol policeman John Cale, who finds himself trying to save the president (Jamie Foxx) and his own daughter (Joey King) as mercenaries attempt to take over Washington, D.C.

The trailer for the film, directed by Roland Emmerich, who also directed "Independence Day," promises loads of high-spirited, action-packed scenes.

See the first look at the new 'White House Down' trailer premiere:

The tour said Tuesday the World Anti-Doping Agency informed it that the spray contains only small amounts of a growth hormone factor that is banned under the anti-doping policy.

The tour had been set to sanction Singh until WADA clarified its position on deer antler spray.

The 50-year-old Singh, a past champion at Quail Hollow, is among several players who have withdrawn this week.

He declined to comment to a PGA Tour media official Tuesday after the tour dropped his case on the anti-doping violation. Singh has not spoken to reporters since he released a statement in late January that said he was shocked to learn the deer antler spray he had been taking might contain IGF-1, which is on the banned list.

Singh admitted to taking the spray in a Sports Illustrated story, which also linked Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis to the product.

PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem said Tuesday that while admission is tantamount to a failed drug test, WADA informed the tour late last week that it no longer considers the use of deer antler spray to be prohibited except for a positive test result.

The tour said it tested the spray that Singh provided, and it showed a presence of IGF-1. WADA subsequently told the tour that IGF-1 is known to contain small amounts of the hormone factor.

"I don't know of a substance or a transfer mechanism out there that can load a person to IGF levels that would get the attention of the WADA science people," Finchem said Tuesday. "Clearly, this isn't one. They've made that clear to us."

Singh's case had the attention of PGA Tour players for the last three months, and it ended with a peculiar twist.

"Clearly, it was the right decision based on the information we have today," said Joe Ogilvie, a member of the Player Advisory Council. "Players just have to be very careful whenever they pay more than $3,000 a month for supplements. That's the lesson to be learned.

"I thought what Vijay was doing was on the edge."

Rory McIlroy also agreed with the outcome, saying that WADA's decision meant there was little the PGA Tour could have done.

"Look, my stance on it is Vijay didn't know he was doing anything wrong," he said, "and if there's no intention there, then I don't see any reason to unfairly punish him."

"I've really enjoyed being here," he told the Hammers' website (www.whufc.com). "It's a good club and we've done really well over the last couple of years. Now, I'm looking forward to the next two years."

Reid, 24, joined West Ham in August 2010 from Danish club FC Midtjylland after playing for his country in that year's World Cup finals in South Africa.

He has played in all but two of the club's league games so far this season and captained New Zealand in a World Cup qualifier last month.

The 83-year-old broadcast journalist didn't show up to Saturday's gathering, explaining that the event "has changed" due to the invitation of celebrity guests, the New York Post reported.

"It's why some of us didn't go this year, because it's got movie stars," the New York Post quoted her as saying on 'The View.'

She said that people used to see other members of the administration, other politicians, but it has become more and more about the celebs at the table.

The TV personality said that the dinner used to be a wonderful opportunity to meet all different people in Washington, but when it gets to be about movie stars, it becomes a little different.

The dinner has been a tradition since 1920 for journalists who cover the White House and the President.

This year's event, hosted by Conan O'Brien, was attended by celebs like Katy Perry, Nicole Kidman, Sofia Vergara, Barbra Streisand, Bradley Cooper, Ian McKellen and Gayle King. (ANI)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Experts say Asia and Iran are the keys to maintaining a strong - but evolving - U.S.-Saudi Arabia energy relationship.

Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi is expected to share his optimistic view on the future of Asian oil demand on Tuesday when he gives a major energy speech, billed as the first in the United States in four years.

As the United States produces oil at the highest levels in 20 years thanks to the shale boom, Saudi Arabia's confidence in Asian markets could help keep relations between the two countries on track.

"The Saudis don't see the North American oil boom as a threat, not in the context of the global oil market," said a Washington-based energy consultant to governments and businesses, who did not want to be named.

Naimi said in a speech early this month in Doha that nobody should fear new oil supplies when global demand is rising, adding that Asia's population growth should be a driver for future oil demand. He is expected to repeat that message during his speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington on Tuesday.

Saudi Arabia, the main source of global spare oil production capacity, will be one of the few places with the ability to supply China and other Asian countries.

In contrast, extra barrels from North Dakota and Texas will be consumed in the United States, at least until laws are changed to allow the country's producers to export substantial amounts of crude.

SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP

The relationship between Riyadh and Washington may be changing but the two countries still share important goals on balancing oil markets going forward. One is to keep oil prices from going too high in order to keep Iran from in check.

The United States is trying to choke funds to Tehran's disputed nuclear program through the application of sanctions on its oil sales. High global crude prices could hurt that effort.

Saudi Arabia, a longtime foe of Iran, also does not want Iran to get nuclear weapons and is expected to keep oil prices stable.

"We are still partners but less intimate partners than we once were," said Chas Freeman, who served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia under former President George H. W. Bush.

For decades Saudi Arabia and the United States had a special relationship: the kingdom provided the United States oil, and the United States provided Saudi Arabia protection against enemies. As Saudi Arabia becomes less of an important supplier to the United States, the world's biggest oil consumer, some see that special relationship declining.

Even as Saudi looks to other markets, it still is the second largest oil exporter to the United States after Canada, with shipments averaging 1.4 million barrels per day in the first 10 months of last year.

As part of the changing relationship, Saudi has been buying tens of billions of dollars worth of U.S. military aircraft while turning to other oil customers.

"Saudi seems to be arming themselves on the assumption that they are going to have to play a larger role in their own defense," Freeman said.

Analysts will be watching for clues in Naimi's speech that in the face of weak demand from Europe and flat Asian near-term consumption, the kingdom may want to support oil prices from falling.

David Goldwyn, who led international energy affairs at both the State Department and the Department of Energy, said if Naimi's lead message is the need to keep oil prices stable, it could signal a production cut is likely in the near future.

(Reporting by Timothy Gardner; Editing by Bill Trott)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wall Street was set for a higher open on Monday, buoyed by the formation of a broad coalition government in Italy which ended two months of political uncertainty and boosted an appetite for risky assets, as investors braced for major economic news this week.

Stocks were likely to get a boost by European shares, which edged up on Monday after Italy finally formed a government, although analysts saw the gains petering out in the near term.

The dollar fell against a major basket of currencies, while commodities like spot goldrose.

"The market is moving up as the Italian political situation is finally unlocked and that's offering some hope. You can see that boosting risk trade here," said Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Rockwell Global Capital in New York.

In macroeconomic news, data showed Commerce Department personal income rose 0.2 percent, slightly higher than expected. Market reaction was muted.

Pending home sales data is due at 10:00 a.m. EDT and Dallas Federal Manufacturing Survey index is scheduled at 10:30 a.m. EDT.

The all-important nonfarm payrolls report is due on Friday.

"We have key economic data, especially the employment report later in the week, and we are also going to hear from the ECB and the Fed later, so earnings takes a back seat this week," Cardillo said.

J.C. Penney Co Incshares rose 3.3 percent in premarket trade after the company confirmed reports from last week that Goldman Sachs Group Incwill provide it with a five-year, $1.75 billion financing package, the latest move by the retailer to shore up its finances.

S&P 500 futures rose 6.1 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 59 points and Nasdaq 100 futures added 12.75 points.

Wall Street was poised to start the last week of April higher. So far, the S&P 500 is up 0.8 percent this month.

Weak U.S. growth data has raised expectations the Federal Reserve will keep its pace of bond buying at $85 billion a month during the FOMC meeting announcement on Wednesday, while the European Central Bank (ECB) is widely expected to announce an interest rate cut when it meets on Thursday.

On Monday, hotel, energy and financial services conglomerate Loews Corpreported a 34 percent drop in first-quarter profit due to higher impairment charges and a sharp fall in investment income. The stock was unchanged in premarket trade.

Shares of online retailer Amazon.com Incposted the largest daily drop in 15 months after the company reported results Thursday and was Friday's biggest drag on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes. The stock was off 0.2 percent in premarket trading Monday.

Stocks dipped in thin volume on Friday, though the market had a strong week overall.

(Reporting by Angela Moon; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Nick Zieminski)