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"When it comes to telephone calls, every member of Congress has been briefed on this program," Obama said. "With respect to all these programs, the relevant intelligence committees are fully briefed on these programs." He noted that the secret FISA court and Congress provide a check on the executive branch's use of this power. "I think, on balance, we have established a process and a procedure that the American people should feel comfortable about," Obama said. "These programs are subject to congressional oversight and congressional reauthorization and congressional debate. And if there are members of Congress who feel differently, then they should speak up." He later added, "And if in fact there was — there were abuses taking place, presumably, those members of Congress could raise those issues very aggressively. They're empowered to do so."

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But they couldn't speak up! Or at least they're certainly couldn't "raise those issues very aggressively" anywhere outside of a classified hearing of, say, the Senate Intelligence Committee, because, legally, they're not empowered to air their complaints in public. The NSA's phone call metadata collection program was classified until Director of National Intelligencein order tofrom a . That means it's not just that members of Congress couldn't air complaints about the program — they couldn't acknowledge it's existence.

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Sens. Mark Udall and Ron Wyden both tried to raise objections to the program without spilling secrets,to Attorney General Eric Holder last year that "there is now a significant gap between what most Americans think the law allows and what the government secretly claims the law allows."  on Thursday that he "did everything short of leaking classified information" to bring attention to the NSA's phone metadata collection. At a hearing of the Senate Appropriations committee on Thursday, , vaguely, about the phone-call mining. "With all due respect, I don't think this is an appropriate setting to discuss that issue," Holder answered. The nation's top lawyer appeared to be reminding a leading member of Congress that public Congressional hearings are not where members of Congress are allowed to talk about the NSA's spying program.

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Jennifer Hoelzer, a former aide to Wyden, explained how hard it is to raise concerns about a program you can't acknowledge the existence of. Writing in the , she says, "Seriously, do you have any idea how frustrating it is to have your boss ask you to get reporters to write about something he can't tell you about?" Hoelzer explains, "Because, while he may be a senior member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the executive branch retains the sole authority to classify and declassify information." The executive branch can use this to its advantage:

It's why, for example, President Bush was able to point to a handful of details supporting his case that torture works, without worrying that someone might be able to declassify (or even acknowledge the existence of) reams of evidence that didn't support his case.

"I think there's a suggestion that somehow any classified program is a quote-unquote 'secret' program which means it's somehow suspicious," Obama said on Friday. The president said his position was not "trust me, we're doing the right thing, we know who the bad guys are" but that there are enough checks in place. "If people can't trust not only the executive branch but also don't trust Congress and don't trust federal judges to make sure that we're abiding by the Constitution and due process and rule of law, then we're going to have some problems here." We're not going to have many easyeither.

The prince, a grandson of Saudi Arabia's founder and nephew of King Abdullah, had attacked the U.S. magazine's ranking of world billionaires as flawed and biased against Middle Eastern businesses after he was ranked number 26 in this year's list.

An official at the High Court in London confirmed that Prince Alwaleed had filed a defamation suit against Forbes, its editor Randall Lane, and two of its journalists on April 30. Details of the claim were not immediately available.

Through his Kingdom Holding Company, Prince Alwaleed owns large stakes in Citigroup, News Corp and Apple Inc, among other companies. He is also owner or part-owner of luxury hotels including the Plaza in New York, the Savoy in London and the George V in Paris.

This year's Forbes World Billionaires list was published on March 4, and the following day Kingdom Holding said the valuation process used "incorrect data" and "seemed designed to disadvantage Middle Eastern investors and institutions".

The public spat attracted a lot of comment, but Forbes stuck by its estimate of Prince Alwaleed's wealth and published an in-depth article in its March 25 issue entitled "Prince Alwaleed and the curious case of Kingdom Holding stock".

The article gave details about how Forbes had arrived at the figure of $20 billion and criticized what it described as a lack of transparency by Kingdom Holding in detailing its assets.

The article also described Prince Alwaleed's marble-filled, 420-room Riyadh palace, his private Boeing 747 equipped with a throne, and his 120-acre resort on the edge of the Saudi capital with five homes, five artificial lakes and a mini-Grand Canyon.

The High Court official in London said the two journalists named in the defamation claim were Kerry Dolan, the author of the article, and Francine McKenna, who was credited with additional reporting.

No date has been set for a court hearing in the case, which is in its very early stages, the official said.

The law firm Kobre & Kim, which the Guardian said was acting for Prince Alwaleed in the suit, declined to comment. New York-based Forbes could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Guardian article quoted the magazine as saying: "We're very surprised at claims that Prince Alwaleed has decided to sue Forbes, particularly if he has done so in the United Kingdom, a jurisdiction that has nothing whatsoever to do with our recent story which raised questions about his claims about his wealth."

Media lawyer Jonathan Coad, of the London firm Lewis Silkin, said London was seen as a more attractive place than New York to bring defamation suits because U.S. libel law made higher requirements of claimants.

"In the U.S., a high-profile claimant has to prove firstly that the article was untrue and secondly that the publisher knew that the article was untrue, which is what we call malice. Those are two hurdles that a UK libel action does not present," said Coad, who is not involved in the Prince Alwaleed case.

Under British libel law, a claimant has only to prove that a publication was defamatory. Then the burden of proof passes to the defendant, who has several possible defenses, including that the publication was true.

(Reporting by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by Pravin Char)

(Reuters) - SoftBank Corpis in talks with Deutsche Telekom AGover a possible deal for T-Mobile US Inc , as the Japanese company looks for alternatives to enter the U.S. wireless market if its deal with Sprint Nextel Corpfalls apart, three sources familiar with the matter said on Friday.

SoftBank and Deutsche Telekom were in talks last year about a deal for T-Mobile USA and have had periodic discussions since then, but those conversations have intensified in recent weeks after Dish Network Corpmade a $25.5 billion counterbid for Sprint, two of the sources said. SoftBank has a deal to buy 70 percent of Sprint for $20.1 billion.

Deutsche Telekom owns 74 percent of T-Mobile US, and one possibility is for SoftBank to buy that stake instead, the sources said. T-Mobile US has a market value of about $15 billion.

SoftBank still wants to do the Sprint deal after spending months on it, and is looking at a possible T-Mobile transaction only as "Plan B", the sources said who declined to be named because the talks are private.

T-Mobile's shares rose more than 3 percent after the news of SoftBank's interest, while Sprint shares fell 1.2 percent.

The talks come ahead of a June 12 vote for Sprint shareholders to approve the Japanese company's bid for the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier and could add pressure on investors as they decide how to vote. Earlier this week, proxy adviser Glass Lewis said Sprint shareholders should not vote on SoftBank's bid while the board reviewed Dish's offer.

"It seems to me that this is more SoftBank posturing to perhaps pressure Sprint's special committee to not delay the vote next week to continue its negotiations with Ergen," said BTIG analyst Walter Piecyk, referring to Dish Chairman Charlie Ergen.

Roy Behren, a merger arbitrage money manager at Westchester Capital Management, which claims ownership of more than 19 million Sprint shares, added, "I still don't think SoftBank gets the vote unless they bump the offer."

Still, the news of SoftBank's interest in T-Mobile US adds a new wrinkle to an already complicated calculus before Sprint shareholders.

The SoftBank deal is much farther along in the process than Dish's rival offer, which is still preliminary. SoftBank has cleared a key review by the agency that oversees foreign investments in the United States and is also getting closer to finishing the Federal Communications Commission review. ISS, a major proxy advisory firm, has also backed the SoftBank deal.

Moreover, if SoftBank decides to walk away from the Sprint deal, it would stand to make somewhere around $5 billion from currency hedging gains, its previous purchase of Sprint shares and breakup fees, the sources said.

SoftBank, Sprint and T-Mobile declined to comment. Deutsche Telekom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

TRADING BARBS

Dish has jumped not only the Sprint-SoftBank deal, but also a related acquisition of Clearwire Corpby Sprint. Clearwire has wireless airwaves that both companies want. Sprint already owns a majority stake in Clearwire.

Clearwire shareholders are due to vote on June 13 on Sprint's offer to buy out minority shareholders in a deal that values the company at $5 billion. But a special committee for Clearwire is also reviewing Dish's offer, which values the company at $6.5 billion.

In recent months, the tussle has become increasingly bitter, with SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son trading barbs with Ergen.

SoftBank has started taking steps, including thinking about the deal structure and financing, to prepare itself for a T-Mobile US transaction if the Sprint deal gets any more costly or delayed, the sources said.

For SoftBank, one attraction of doing a deal with Deutsche Telekom is it can have a private agreement with the controlling stakeholder of T-Mobile US, which would help rule out the possibility of another interloper making a counterbid, one of the sources added.

Deutsche Telekom had been trying since 2011 to find a better path for T-Mobile USA after abandoning a sale of the company to No. 2 U.S. mobile provider AT&T Incfor $39 billion because of opposition from regulators.

It recently merged the unit with MetroPCS Communications to create T-Mobile US, but the deal still left it with a controlling stake.

Under the terms of the MetroPCS deal, however, Deutsche Telekom has to wait for a certain period of time before it can sell its stake.

The two sources said SoftBank did not see that as a hurdle, as regulatory approvals and other steps required to close any deal would take months.

(Reporting By Paritosh Bansal and Soyoung Kim in New York; additional reporting by Sinead Carew; Editing by Bernard Orr)

Arianna Huffington

Below you can find some of the notable comments made Sunday on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Our powerhouse roundtable guests included former deputy chief of staff and senior adviser to President George W. Bush Karl Rove, Bloomberg TV contributor and former Obama White House senior adviser David Plouffe, editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group Arianna Huffington, PBS' "Washington Week" moderator and managing editor Gwen Ifill, Wall Street Journal editorial page editor Paul Gigot, ABC News global affairs anchor Christiane Amanpour, TIME International editor Bobby Ghosh and vice president of new initiatives at the Woodrow Wilson CenterAaron David Miller.

Huffington says Rep. Bachmann, a 'colorful distraction,' can continue to 'grandstand' outside of Congress

HUFFINGTON: But what is interesting, is that basically, like Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann was a sort of colorful distraction. She had no legislative record. She didn't really do anything in the House that she cannot do outside the House. A lot of her career was based on grandstanding. So she can continue doing that.

Christiane Amanpour on Syria's Civil War, considers it a 'huge humanitarian catastrophe'

AMANPOUR: A year ago, President Clinton, former President Clinton, a year ago, when there were 10,000 dead in Syria, said that the longer we leave this, the worse it will be and the more bad actors will come in.

Now, 80,000 people dead. In one year that's 70,000 people who've been killed. There is a huge humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Syria beyond our eyes, because we can see it. And this is what is happening right now. And the bad actors are in there, both on the rebels' side and Assad's side, Hezbollah and Iran.

Huffington outraged by 'gulag' like system of detention and deportation

HUFFINGTON: But also we need some accountability, David, because right now, this goes right against what the - what the president professes to believe in, that detention and deportation system, it is an absolute nightmare for families. It's a bit like a gulag.

Gigot finds the link between IRS and Holder scandals, it's 'coercive power of the state'

GIGOT: The common theme here - the common theme here between the IRS scandals and the Holder problems is the coercive power of the state. That is - the president has been trying to redefine government in a benign way, expanded it and say, you know what, it's really good for you. Well, sometimes it can be but often, it comes with a punch in the jaw. It comes with coercive power. That's what happened in both of these cases.

Starting June 4, people can sign up with state telecom Etecsa for temporary or permanent accounts to use one of the 118 centers, according to a measure enacted with its publication in the government's Official Gazette.

"New areas for (Internet) navigation will gradually be incorporated," official newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported.

Until now, the Internet has been limited to places such as tourist hotels that charge $8 an hour for creaky Wi-Fi, foreign-run companies and some sectors of Cuban business and government. Residential dial-up accounts are rare and restricted.

According to government statistics, only 2.9 percent of Cubans said they had access to the Worldwide Web though outside observers put the likely figure at 5 to 10 percent, taking underreporting into account.

About 16 percent were able to go partway online via a domestic Intranet and email, often through workplace or school hookups or places such as computer clubs and post offices.

"Great! I knew this was coming," said Camila Delgado, a 44-year-old shop worker in Havana, though she added that "there's still a ways to go to be like everywhere else on the planet. We don't have access at home and the prices are prohibitive."

Indeed, some scoffed at the new cyber-centers' price tag of $4.50 an hour, a stiff fee for islanders whose state salaries average about $20 per month plus an array of subsidized goods and services.

"It's a real bargain," snarked a user on state news website Cuba Si who gave the name Osvaldo Ulloa. "I mean, I work for a week and then I can get online for hour fabulous."

Even for those who are already able to access the wider Internet, some sites are censored for things including pornography or politically objectionable content. It was not clear whether the new service will block such pages, and neither the Gazette nor Juventud Rebelde mentioned the issue.

The Internet is a highly politicized issue on the island, with critics pointing to restrictions as an example of infringement upon freedom.

Authorities say that the limitations are due more to technical reasons and that Cuba has the obligation to prioritize its limited capacity for things that benefit the public good, such as research and work centers or universities.

Earlier this year, Cuba began sending and receiving data traffic through a fiber-optic cable strung from Venezuela in 2011 that provided the island's first hard-wired Internet connection to the outside world.

Expanding connectivity options for Cubans "is consistent with Cuba's stated strategy of continuing to facilitate more and more access to new technologies, depending on the availability of resources and with a focus that favors social use," Juventud Rebelde said.

The paper added that the new service is possible thanks to the Venezuela cable.

___

Andrea Rodriguez on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ARodriguezAP

LAS VEGAS, May 1 (Reuters) - Eight-time world champion Floyd Mayweather refused to be drawn into a war of words at the final news conference for his WBC welterweight title clash with Robert Guerrero on Wednesday, despite being labeled a "woman beater" by his opponent's father.

The undefeated Mayweather (43-0, 26 KOs), who has said he has 30 months of boxing left before he brings the curtain down on his career, was a picture of calm as Ruben Guerrero screamed at him: "We are going to beat the woman beater".

Mayweather served two months of a 90-day sentence for domestic violence last year.

"I don't have to sit here and badmouth his father,"shrugged Mayweather after the news conference. "Only God can judge me."

The fight in Las Vegas on Saturday will mark a turning point in Mayweather's often contentious relationship with his own father, Floyd Sr, who will be in his corner for the first time since a March 2000 win over Gregorio Vargas.

"My dad is sick, and if I never made a bond with my father and something harsh happened, it would hurt me," said Mayweather of his father, who has been suffering from sarcoidosis. Mending fences with his father, he adds, has yielded professional as well as personal benefits.

"There's certain things only my dad may see in training camp," he told reporters. "For this fight, I made sure I got more rest.

"My dad said, 'You need the rest. And when you've rested, you can come back and box in the gym and you're going to look a lot better.' And he was right. I feel like I'm in tip-top shape, tip-top condition. I'm ready to fight."

Guerrero, too, is ready to fight, and believes Mayweather has invited more stress on himself by starting the countdown clock on his career.

"They say the pressure is on me. The pressure is on him to stay undefeated, to keep his legacy going," Guerrero (31-1-1, 18 KOs) told reporters on Wednesday. "He has these 30 months left, and he's got a lot of stuff to fulfill, so I think the pressure is on him and not me."

Guerrero first called for a fight with Mayweather in 2011, even though at lightweight he was two weight divisions lower.

However, he made the step up to welterweight and scored two victories last year, including a thrilling brawl with former title holder Andre Berto in November, to earn the shot at Mayweather's title.

"Definitely, I absolutely believed I would get (the fight)," said Guerrero. "That's why I kept on it, and kept fighting the fights I needed to get myself in position to make it happen, and here it is." (Editing by Peter Rutherford)

Pinch-hitter Mike Carp drove in the tying run with an eighth-inning double and then scored on a double by Dustin Pedroia to lead the Red Sox past Cleveland 7-4 on Saturday.

Trailing 4-3 entering the bottom of the eighth, Boston scored four times off reliever Vinnie Pestano (1-1) to open the largest lead in a game that featured plenty of chances at the plate but little success for either club.

"It's big," said Carp, who broke out of an 0-for-21 skid on Friday night with a three-run homer in Boston's 8-1 win. "I was in a little bit of a slump. To be able to come out of that and win the ballgame, it means a lot."

Pedro Ciriaco had three hits, including a one-out double that started Boston's rally in the eighth. After Pestano struck out Jacoby Ellsbury for the second out, Carp batted for Jonny Gomes and lifted a first-pitch fastball to left for a double that easily scored Ciriaco.

Pedroia followed with a shot high off the Green Monster, giving Boston its first lead of the game.

"This was a very good team win and we got contributions from a lot of guys," manager John Farrell said.

After Pedroia's hit, the Indians walked David Ortiz intentionally and Mike Napoli followed with a walk to load the bases. Daniel Nava hit a high popup to shallow left field, but the blustery wind turned a routine out into a bloop single and two RBIs.

"There were a couple of balls that were Fenway fly balls. I think the wind plays a factor, and The Wall. There's a lot of things going on out there. That's just a part of this ballpark," said Cleveland manager Terry Francona, who spent eight seasons in Boston. "The wind brought it back 20 feet and it ends up being in no-man's land."

Junichi Tazawa (4-2) struck out two in a hitless eighth and Andrew Bailey got three outs for his sixth save in seven chances.

Boston starter Jon Lester struck out a season-high eight in seven innings. He also hit a batter with a pitch as Cleveland scored twice to take a 3-1 lead in the third, then threw a costly wild pitch in the seventh.

Mike Aviles and Asdrubal Cabrera hit back-to-back singles in the seventh, then Lester allowed the go-ahead run with a wild pitch to Mark Reynolds that skipped past catcher David Ross. Lester ended up striking out, but Cleveland had regained the lead at 4-3.

"It didn't even make it to the plate. I didn't even give Rossy a chance to block it," Lester said. "I was on the same page as him, just trying to bury a curveball."

Cabrera had three hits, stole two bases, drove in a run and scored another for the Indians, who lost for the fourth time in five games. Nick Swisher added an RBI double and Carlos Santana a run-scoring single.

Scott Kazmir pitched five innings and struck out six for Cleveland. He gave up two runs, five hits and four walks.

"I thought he had to dodge traffic all day and make some really big pitches. They made him work from the first inning on, but he continued to make pitches," Francona said. "As a team today we just gave them extra opportunities and they took advantage."

Ciriaco had an RBI single in the second and Gomes' sacrifice fly tied it at 3 in the sixth after an error by Reynolds at third base. Jose Iglesias singled and Ciriaco followed with a bunt that Reynolds barehanded cleanly, but he rushed his throw and the ball skipped out of play, allowing both runners to advance.

NOTES: The four-game series concludes Sunday with Cleveland RHP Corey Kluber (2-3) facing LHP Felix Doubront (3-2). ... SS Stephen Drew sat out for Boston, still sore from a slide he made last weekend in Minnesota, Farrell said. ... Francona said before the game he was thankful general manager Chris Antonetti traveled with the club as Francona made his return to Boston, where he managed the Red Sox for eight seasons and won two World Series titles. "It meant a lot to me," said Francona, who was welcomed back with a standing ovation Thursday night in the series opener. "I know he came up for moral support because I had some anxiety." ... Cleveland DH Jason Giambi, hitless in his last 26 at-bats, did not play.

(Reuters) - Twitter Inc unveiled technology to boost security for its users, following a spate of attacks on accounts of prominent media outlets including the Associated Press, the Financial Times and The Onion.

The micro blogging site, which transmits some 400 million messages a day, said on Wednesday that it had begun rolling out an optional "login verification" service to thwart hackers seeking to hijack accounts with stolen passwords.

Security experts welcomed the move as a positive step toward securing a service that is widely used by consumers, political activists, advertisers and news outlets around the globe to quickly exchange information.

Twitter had come under fire over the past year for failing to offer such an option, which is known as two-factor authentication, amid a surge in breaches of high-profile accounts. That criticism intensified in April after a fake tweet about a non-existent White House explosion sent from the Associated Press account briefly roiled U.S. financial markets.

"It's been a long time coming," said Jeremiah Grossman, chief technology officer of White Hat Security. "It's not going to solve all problem, but it's a step in the right direction."

When users log in to Twitter via a web browser, they must confirm their identity by entering a six-digit code that Twitter delivers to their smartphones. To access the service through applications for PCs and smartphones, users must use an automatically generated temporary password for each of the programs.

Twitter described the offering in a blog post, reminding users that they still need to use strong passwords to keep accounts secure.

The approach is similar to security tools previously introduced by other Internet services from companies including Facebook Inc, Google Inc and Microsoft Corp.

"This would have made the AP hack and other hacks against Twitter more difficult to accomplish," said Jeffrey Carr, CEO of cyber security firm Taia Global Inc.

Yet he added that hackers looking to break into corporate accounts will still be able to do so if they can take control of PCs or smartphones running applications authorized to use the service.

"Two-factor authentication isn't perfect," Carr said. "If you own the machine, it really doesn't matter."

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)