WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The annual spending bills now working their way through the Congress were supposed to mark a welcome return to fiscal normalcy in Washington.

The House of Representatives and Senate are supposed to pass budgets, hash out their differences, then carve up the taxpayers' money.

That dream is crashing into the reality of deep and intractable differences between Democrats and Republicans over budget policy. Without a broad agreement on how to cut deficits, appropriations bills passed by the House this week, and those yet to be considered, may go nowhere.

"We're just spinning our wheels on these measures," said Representative Chris Van Hollen, the top Democrat on the House Budget Committee. "The reality is that we can go through these appropriations bills but at the end of the day we'll be back to where we are now unless we come to an overall agreement."

The result is that a stop-gap government funding measure to avoid an October 1 government shutdown looks increasingly inevitable.

The Republican-controlled House and the Democratic-controlled Senate are writing their spending bills to conform with their partisan visions of what the budget should look like.

Automatic spending cuts of $1.2 trillion began on March 1 under the so-called "sequester" and are supposed to continue for the next decade.

Republicans assume that the "sequester" spending cuts will continue, so they are using a $967 billion spending cap, the lowest in a decade. Senate Democrats, meanwhile, believe the sequester will be replaced with other savings, an assumption that requires a bigger fiscal deal, and are applying a $1.058 trillion cap.

And as strong tax revenue growth brightens the budget outlook and pushes back the final deadline for increasing the federal borrowing limit to perhaps November, neither side has much incentive to move toward compromise now.

"There aren't any carrots or sticks here," said Chris Krueger, an analyst who tracks Washington politics for Guggenheim Securities. "This is absolutely teeing up a really messy fourth quarter. You're going to come back from Labor Day (September 2), with a government shutdown looming and a month later the debt limit deadline."

BEST-LAID PLANS

Many Republicans see the debt limit as their key leverage point for extracting more spending cuts from the Obama administration, particularly on costly pension and medical benefits for the elderly. They engineered a temporary debt limit extension earlier this year with idea that it would come back to pressure Democrats into a deficit deal over the summer.

But with that timing thrown off, Republicans are reluctant to enter into direct, public budget negotiations with Democrats. They say that without some pre-negotiated "framework" agreements on tax reform and reforms to entitlements programs, the process would be unproductive.

"If it's just a free-for-all, then it becomes more of an opportunity for the demagoguery and the partisan back and forth that won't reach a solution," said Rep. Tom Price, the second-ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee.

Meanwhile, liberal Democrats, who have favored further tax increases on the wealthy, have viewed recent increases in revenue collection as a reason to push back against proposals, including some from President Barack Obama, to trim back some Social Security and Medicare benefits.

House Republicans are having none of that, pursuing a strategy to carve up spending already reduced by the "sequester" to shift more money to defense and security while imposing deeper cuts on other domestic agencies. This week they gave increases to the departments of Homeland Security and Veterans Affairs and to military construction projects [ID:nL1N0EI1AH].

The Defense Department also would get a boost of $28 billion over sequester-induced levels under a bill unveiled this week by the House Appropriations Committee that pushes non-war funding back up to $512.5 billion.

The stable or slightly increased funding makes these measures easier to pass, but lawmakers and aides from both parties say that some appropriations bills with deep cuts below the sequester levels are unlikely to pass even in the House.

The bill that funds the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services and Education would face an 18.6 percent cut below sequester-starved levels, which translates to further cuts of about $28 billion. Van Hollen said Democrats and many Republicans could not support cuts that deep, and he predicted failure in the House.

The Democratic-controlled Senate is virtually certain to reject it, and Obama has threatened to veto appropriations bills that contain the "draconian" cuts prescribed by Republicans.

Republican House Speaker John Boehner on Thursday accused Obama of making a "reckless" threat to shut down the government unless Democrats get their way in a budget deal, and urged the president in a letter to rescind the veto threat.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by Vicki Allen and Fred Barbash; editing by Clive McKeef)

THE FIELD

Iran's election overseers allowed eight candidates on the ballot to succeed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run again because of term limits. Most are solid loyalists to the ruling Islamic theocracy, headed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Among the main questions: Will pro-reform voters rally behind one of the relative moderate candidates or boycott in protest of the relentless crackdowns in recent years?

WHO REALLY RULES

The Iranian president does not have a direct say in major policies such as the country's nuclear program or relations with the West. Those decisions are in the hands of the ruling clerics and its defenders, including the powerful Revolutionary Guard. The presidency, however, can help sway views. The president also directs the economy, which is an increasingly important role as international sanctions bite deeper over Tehran's nuclear program.

RAFSANJANI REBUFF

One of the major backstories of the election is the decision to bar former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from the ballot. The ruling clerics appeared worried that Rafsanjani would revive the opposition movement, which has been shattered by security forces. But blocking Rafsanjani deeply tarnished Iran's claims of a free election.

TIGHT SECURITY

Iran's security forces are on high alert. In 2009, massive protests rocked the country after Ahmadinejad's rivals claimed the outcome was rigged in his favor. There have been no indications of widespread demonstrations this time. Authorities, however, are clamping down on everything from pro-reform gatherings to social media.

OPPOSITION UNDER WRAPS

The leaders of the 2009 protests, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Madhi Karroubi, have been under house arrest since early 2011. Both ran against Ahmadinejad and alleged vote fraud. Mousavi is a former prime minister. Karroubi served as speaker of Iran's parliament.

Currently, SIS, the Security contractor they use to protect their campuses does not provide the majority of its officers with enough hours to get by. The majority of SIS officers are considered "flex-time" workers who only work part-time and do not qualify for benefits or sick days.

A canvass conducted by SEIU-USWW, found that 80 percent of the workers surveyed were only offered part-time work. SIS has also fought workers attempts to form a union even going so far as to send spies to worker meetings.

Visual: Dozens of activists marching around the site holding banners and signs. Banners with the slogan "Google Don't Be Evil, Hire a Responsible Contractor."

Who: Dozens of activists

What: Protest, march

When: 1:30 p.m.

Where: 2000 Charleston Rd Mountain View

SOURCE Service Employees International Union

The major college football conference commissioners named the new postseason system that starts in 2014 on Tuesday, the first of three days of meetings at a resort hotel in the Rose Bowl's backyard.

Out with the Bowl Championship Series and in with the College Football Playoff.

"I don't think you can ever go too wrong calling something what it is," Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott said. "Things that make sense tend to stand the test of time."

Next on the agenda is to pick three more bowls for the six-bowl semifinal rotation the Rose, Orange and Sugar are already in and where the first championship game will be held on Jan. 12, 2015. That comes Wednesday.

Four bowls have bid to be part of the rotation. The clear front-runners are the Cotton, Chick-fil-A and Fiesta. The Holiday Bowl in San Diego also put in a bid, but even its organizers acknowledged they are a long shot at best.

The finalists to host the first championship game are Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the billion dollar home of the NFL team and the Cotton Bowl, and Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., home of the NFL's Buccaneers and the Outback Bowl.

Arlington is the favorite, but the competition has been serious.

"I'm glad it has," Big 12 Commissioner Bob Bowlsby said Tuesday. "I think it will give us a better outcome."

Even before an official announcement about the name was made on Tuesday, the website www.collegefootballplayoff.com was up and running and allowing fans to vote on a new logo. And there also was a Twitter handle: (at)cfbplayoff.

"It's really simple. It gets right to the point," BCS executive director Bill Hancock, who will hold the same position in the playoff system, said at a short news conference.

"Nothing cute. Nothing fancy. We decided it would be best to call it what it is."

Premiere Sports Management in Overland Park, Kan., was hired to help come up with a name and brand the new system. A committee of commissioners handled the naming of the new system, and Hancock said they ran through "in the neighborhood of three dozen" names.

Scott said: "We're clearly trying to make a clear break from the BCS."

The new postseason format will create two national semifinals to be played New Year's Eve or New Year's Day, with the winners advancing. The six bowls in the playoff rotation will host marquee, BCS-type games on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day during the seasons they do not host a semifinal.

The first semifinals will be played at the Rose and Sugar bowls on Jan. 1, 2015.

Also on the agenda this week for the commissioners will be the composition of the selection committee that will set the field for the playoff. They have said they would like the committee to be similar to the one that picks the teams for the NCAA basketball tournament, made up of conference commissioners and athletic directors.

Bowlsby said he expected both current and former administrators to have a spot on the committee.

"The hardest thing is making sure we're arming whoever is on the committee with the tools that it takes to differentiate among closely proximal teams," Bowlsby said. "You have to have some metrics available to differentiate between three, four, five, six and seven.

"You can't just say we like blue uniforms and not gold uniforms. You've got to arm the committee with the tools that it takes to do their job."

[More from BGR: ]

In the U.S. market in April, WhatsApp racked up $355,000 from Apples App Store and just $41,000 from Google Play. The size of the gap is pretty stunning. But so is the fact that WhatsApp may be grossing less than half a million per month in the biggest app market in the world. This would be just 2% of what certain leading game app vendors are grossing in America on a monthly basis; a good reason for WhatsApp to think long and hard about a game module clip-on.

[More from BGR: ]

But the contrast to major European markets is the real jaw-dropped here. WhatsApp made $290,000 in Germany from Google Play and just $207,000 from the App Store. Who knew that the German app market generates as much revenue for the leading messaging app as the United States? And who knew that Google had already passed Apple in Europes largest smartphone market when it comes to WhatsApp sales? In Spain, the situation is even more drastic; WhatsApp gets nearly 90% of its revenue from Google Play.

One takeaway here is that app vendors may have to think about prioritizing Google Play as a platform in many European markets, even though iOS still reigns supreme in markets like the U.S. and the U.K. The size of the German market is pretty eye-popping; for certain kinds of applications its not clear that America is the biggest or the best market to target for initial rollouts.

This article was

ST PETERSBURG (Reuters) - Hockey and rugby will play their Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympics competitions at the more remote Deodoro area of the city after organizers boosted the number of sports there to liven up what they say has now become a second Olympic park.

With hockey, initially set to be at the main Olympic park by the sea, forced to move to the Deodoro cluster, organizers said they were also placing Olympic debutants rugby sevens there, as well as some basketball preliminaries.

"For us it is quite important because we now have eight sports and 12 disciplines there," said Rio Games sports director Agberto Guimaraes. "For the first time there is a second Olympic park."

Guimaraes said as many as 50,000 people were expected to be within the Deodoro Olympic Park.

"We are much happier because it (Rio organizers) has added new team sports there," Kelly Fairweather, the CEO of the International Hockey Federation told Reuters.

Federation officials were initially unhappy about a move to Deodoro after having been told they would be in the main Olympic Park.

Fairweather said the addition of rugby and other sports such as BMX and hugely popular basketball added more value to the area.

"We are comfortable with this legacy. It is now a really good place," he said.

Rugby sevens was not part of Rio's bid file as it became an Olympic sport only in 2009, along with golf.

Deodoro will also host shooting competitions, modern pentathlon, equestrian, canoe slalom and fencing events.

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

Yet it is not just youth that gives the 39-year-old an edge as he presents the main show of the prestigious event that can make or break artistic careers. More importantly, Gioni says, he offers a unique outlook that comes with experience curating shows around the world.

"I am not a spokesperson for my generation. ... If with youth comes innovation, I am happy," Gioni said in an interview, while adding: "Youth for the sake of youth is always a way to brand products."

The Venice Biennale is Gioni's fifth but his first curating the main exhibit. It's the culmination of a rich itinerant course that has taken him from Berlin to South Korea and has allowed Gioni, an Italian who has spent most of his career in New York, to see the world as both an insider and outsider distinctions his show both explores and challenges.

"I wanted to think of artists both as self-taught and as professional, as famous and not famous, as people who can teach us something to see things," said Gioni, a critic and curator who is associate director of the New Museum in New York and artistic director of the Trussardi Foundation in Milan.

"If you just stick to the masters and professionals," he said, "you sort of frame art as visual entertainment. I wanted to see art as it is, as a matter of life or death."

He says he wants to celebrate the artistic renegades, many without any formal training, who have staked their lives toiling in obscurity: "Many of these outsider artists, they devoted their life to a project even when nobody cared about it. It is an example of obsession and obstinacy."

Gioni took the title of the show, "The Encyclopedic Palace," from an elaborate 1955 proposal by self-taught Italian-American artist Marino Auriti to build an imaginary museum intended to house all knowledge over 16 blocks in Washington, D.C.

Though his dream, filed with the U.S. Patent Office, was never realized, Auriti typifies the sort "illustrious nobody" and "dilettante" that Gioni wants to draw attention to through the exhibition. The curator stressed that the exhibit, which features 158 artists, would not be "the top 100 artists, the most prominent artists, and not a top 10, a who's who."

The show opens with a legendary name that is not normally associated with the art world: Carl Gustav Jung the father of analytical psychology.

Jung's "The Red Book" an elaborately illustrated manuscript made over 16 years that catalogues his visions is displayed in a round glass case in the centre of the rotunda in the biennale's main pavilion. Gioni says the exhibit is also a celebration of the books Auriti wanted to gather objects the curator called "fetish and a space for the imagination."

"I love books," said Gioni. "I still refused to move on to digital books. Maybe that is what this exhibit is about."

The exhibit shows masters alongside untrained artists, and Gioni said he wants the lines between them to be blurred to "question the distinctions."

"The Encyclopedic Palace" meanders from Shaker folk art to intricate, kaleidoscopic interpretations of the universe by French miner Augustin Lesage, borrowed from Art Brut collection in Lausanne, Switzerland. It includes a collection of model buildings made by Austrian insurance clerk Peter Fritz, which the catalogue says provide "a near-encyclopedic inventory of all manner of provincial architectural styles." Nearby, there are works by Steven McQueen, Bruce Naumann and Richard Serra, among other established artists, and a curatorial project by Cindy Sherman, who created an imaginary museum.

Gioni said Venice itself encapsulates the themes of his exhibit.

"Whoever had the idea of doing one of the largest exhibits on earth in a city full of water was a dreamer," he said.

Beyond Gioni's exhibit, the 55th Venice Biennale features national pavilions from 88 countries, 10 of those for the first time including the Vatican. Though there is no official theme uniting the pavilions, several ideas are gaining currency in this edition, which runs through Nov. 24. Artists are railing against greed and avarice, while also examining the results of collective actions. They are also pushing the boundaries, literally, of the physical world, altering the pavilions to incorporate the exhibit space into the art. Video and sound art also have central roles.

Top prizes at the biennale are announced on Saturday.

The Serbian top seed will be second on Court Philippe Chatrier after local favourite Marion Bartoli, the 13th seed, opens proceedings against Belarussian Olga Govortsova.

Perhaps because of superstition, Djokovic has requested his team and reporters to make no mention of future rounds.

There will be a veterans' day feeling as the 42-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm takes on Australian ninth seed Samantha Stosur on Court One and German 12th seed Tommy Haas, 35, is up against France's Guillaume Ruffin on Court Suzanne Lenglen, where all four matches feature French players.

Marathon man Nicolas Mahut, who played the longest professional tennis match at Wimbledon in 2010, is scheduled on Court Philippe Chatrier against Serbian eighth seed Janko Tipsarevic.

Last on centre court will be Belarussian Victoria Azarenka, the third seed, who is looking to clinch a third grand slam title after winning the last two Australian Open titles. (Reporting by Julien Pretot; Editing by John Mehaffey)

PARIS (Reuters) - After beating Urszula Radwanska at the French Open tennis on Wednesday, Dinah Pfizenmaier is likely to find her third-round opponent is extremely motivated.

Next up at Roland Garros for the German qualifier is Radwanska's elder sister and last year's Wimbledon finalist, Agnieszka.

Pfizenmaier, ranked 127 in the world, has already improved upon her best grand-slam result by upsetting the younger Radwanska and hopes there is a family resemblance when it comes to her sibling's game.

"Maybe she plays like her sister," she said after beating the 40th-ranked Urszula. "Yeah, let's try to do the same or do it better and have fun. That's the most important thing for me."

(Editing by Clare Fallon)

Dow Jones industrial futures are down 56 points to 15,233. S&P futures have lost 8.9 points to 1,641.10. Nasdaq futures are down 15.5 points to 2,976.75.

Retail shares are falling, led by Sears, after it posted a big loss late Thursday. Gap is falling with investors overlooking a strong quarterly report, and focusing instead on an outlook that disappointed some traders.

Investors on Friday were still trying to figure out how committed the Federal Reserve is to its current stimulus efforts, with mixed signals coming from Chairman Ben Bernanke and other Fed officials.