Doctors have known for years that there's no good evidence that bed rest offers any benefit for certain pregnancy complications, and it can cause side effects in the mother, not to mention emotional and financial strain. Yet estimates suggest nearly 1 in 5 moms-to-be is told to cut her activity ranging from quitting work to actually staying in bed all day at some point during pregnancy.

Now, spurred by the latest study, some specialists are issuing a call for strict studies to finally settle the controversy and until then, for doctors not to assume that a prescription to take it easy can't hurt.

"Bed rest is misperceived as an inexpensive, innocuous, logical recommendation," Dr. Joseph Biggio Jr. of the University of Alabama at Birmingham wrote in the latest issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology, a journal read by thousands of OB-GYNs.

In a separate review of past studies that failed to support bed rest, a trio of obstetricians and ethicists at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, went a step farther: They said it's not ethical to keep prescribing bed rest unless the women are enrolled in a research study, like they are for other unproven treatments.

So why is rest prescribed so often? There aren't a lot of good treatments to prevent prematurity and other problems.

"Patients want you to do something, and physicians want to do something," explained Dr. Catherine Spong, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at the National Institutes of Health who co-authored the latest research.

Spong and colleagues took a closer look at a study of treatments for women at risk of premature birth because of an increasingly diagnosed complication called a short cervix. Bed rest is a broad term that doesn't just mean staying in bed all the time and during that treatment study, doctors were free to decide if the participants also should restrict their activities, essentially offering a real-world test of the effects. The prescriptions ranged from no sexual activity, to partial or complete work restrictions, to complete restriction of non-work activity as well.

Nearly 40 percent of the 646 pregnant women enrolled in the study were prescribed some type of activity restriction in the second or third trimester. Most were told to restrict all three types of activity sexual, work and non-work what's usually considered bed rest.

The surprise: Some 37 percent of women who took the precautions had a premature baby, compared with just 17 percent of the women who didn't scale back, the researchers report in Obstetrics & Gynecology.

"The data suggests that bed rest does not prevent preterm birth in this high-risk population, but it doesn't definitively answer that question," cautioned Spong. She wants to see a more strict study the kind that randomly assigns women to rest or not to prove if there's a difference.

The study also raises questions about harm, although the women who rested merely may have been at higher risk for a preemie. They were older and had somewhat more serious cervical complications. But the researchers pointed to other studies that link bed rest to increased stress and anxiety, both of which are associated with prematurity and smaller babies.

Plus, bed rest is well known to increase a mother's risk of a dangerous blood clot, as well as side effects including bone and muscle loss.

Interestingly, the new study found those who rested were more likely to have private insurance, raising questions about the influence of social rather than medical factors.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists says bed rest shouldn't be "routinely recommended" for prevention of preterm birth. And women face a tough decision when their doctors do bring it up.

Sandy Lutton spent the last 18 weeks of her pregnancy lying flat in bed, forbidden even to prop up with her laptop, hoping it would prevent her twins from being born too soon.

"I'm not going to sugarcoat it, it was stressful," said the McLean, Va., woman, whose twins, now 2, were born healthy. "I had a lot of time to sit and worry."

Her first son had been born on time, but she'd lost a second baby due to a weak cervix. With the twins, her doctors stitched her cervix closed and recommended strict bed rest, while making it clear there was no proof it would make a difference. Lutton bombarded them with questions, but eventually decided she had to try. Ultrasound exams showed her cervix stayed fine until doctors removed the stitch and delivered her babies; she even cheated with a little extra movement on exam days.

Amid the uncertainty, March of Dimes medical adviser Dr. Siobhan Dolan said women shouldn't hesitate to ask their doctors about the pros and cons of restricting activity.

"Sometimes you feel less regret if you did something even though it didn't change the outcome," acknowledged Dolan, who herself has prescribed bed rest less often in recent years.

But thanks to a tourist willing to take him across the Pacific, an Airedale Terrier-Irish Wolfhound mix named Grady now enjoys a spacious California loft with a new owner.

The Kauai Humane Society since December has been reaching out to tourists and others traveling to California and Oregon to see if they're willing to check some extra luggage one of the island's many stray or abandoned dogs.

When a traveler agrees, the shelter pays a reduced rate of $100 to fly the dogs on Alaska Airlines to get them to shelters in Oakland, Calif., and Portland, Ore., where most get adopted within a couple of weeks. Dogs also can make the trip as cargo at a more expensive rate.

Shelter officials attribute some of the program's success to the uniqueness of the animals. Kauai's only shelter gets a lot of stray and abandoned dogs derived from hunting breeds used for stalking feral pigs on the island.

The animals can languish for months at Kauai's shelter. But once they're sent to the mainland, the dogs are snatched up quickly because they're different from others normally offered for adoption.

"Some are kind of funny looking, unusual looking," said Laura Fulda, vice president of marketing and development at the East Bay SPCA. "They tend to be a little shy, very sweet, well-behaved and have had some training, and they are friendly toward other dogs."

Grady was brought to Kauai's shelter in November by an owner who was moving away. He didn't get much attention at first, shelter operations manager Brandy Varvel said.

"He sat there, and I never saw a single person look at him," Varvel said.

But at the East Bay SPCA in Oakland, it was love at first sight when 46-year-old Martin Sprouse saw the 50-pound dog on the shelter's website.

Sprouse, who designs modern furniture for a living, was waiting when the shelter opened its doors the next morning.

"I walked right up to him, and he gave me those big eyes and rolled over on his back," Sprouse said. "I said, 'Oh my god, dude. It's on. You are coming home with me.' He melted me the minute I saw him."

Sprouse had been seriously looking for about two weeks for a dog to adopt but hadn't found a breed he wanted. There were a lot of smaller dogs in the local shelter, mostly Chihuahuas and pit bulls.

The dogs delivered from Hawaii have been mostly mixed breeds derived from Airedales, whippets and hounds breeds sometimes used on the islands to hunt feral pigs. On any given day, Kauai's shelter holds about 90 dogs and 45 cats, Varvel said.

Varvel came up with the idea to fly the dogs off the island to shelters that mainly take in other breeds.

The Kauai shelter has an open-door policy, meaning all animals are accepted regardless of space. The steady influx of hunting breeds was forcing the shelter to double and even triple up on dogs in their cages, Fulda said.

Some of the dogs had been in the shelter for at least six months when Varvel contacted the California shelter in late December. Varvel initially reached out to shelters on other Hawaiian islands, but found they had the same problem.

She now talks with shelter officials in Oakland every week to discuss which dogs to send to the mainland. Operations manager James Pumphrey said some of the biggest factors considered are how long a dog has been waiting to be adopted and whether it has a friendly, outgoing personality.

Since the program's start, 24 dogs have been adopted with one or two dogs shipped each week to California. Varvel also has an arrangement with the Oregon Humane Society to take some of Kauai's puppies and small dogs.

And Grady, who was named Kruger before he was adopted, seems to enjoy his new life riding around Oakland in Sprouse's truck.

"Everyone thinks they win the dog lottery," Sprouse said. "I know I have won the dog lottery with him."

Hans Lipschis was taken into custody after authorities concluded there was "compelling evidence" he was involved in crimes at Auschwitz while there from 1941 to 1945, prosecutor Claudia Krauth said.

Lipschis has acknowledged being assigned to an SS guard unit at Auschwitz but maintains he only served as a cook and was not involved in any war crimes.

Krauth said, however, that a judge upheld her office's request for an arrest warrant after concluding there was enough evidence to hold him before charges on accessory to murder are brought. Bringing formal charges, a process similar to a U.S. grand jury indictment, would take another two months, she said.

In the meantime, Krauth said a doctor has confirmed Lipschis' health remains good enough for him to be kept in detention.

Lipschis does not currently have an attorney, and a public defender has not yet been appointed, she said.

Lipschis was deported from the U.S. in 1983 for lying about his Nazi past when he immigrated to Chicago in the 1950s after the war.

With no evidence linking him to specific war crimes, however, it was impossible under previous German law to bring charges against him in Germany.

But the case is now being pursued on the same legal theory used to prosecute former Ohio autoworker John Demjanjuk, who died last year while appealing his 2011 conviction in Germany for accessory to murder on the grounds that he served as a guard at the Sobibor death camp.

Under the new line of thinking, even without proof of participation in a specific crime, a person who served at a death camp can be charged with accessory to murder because the camp's sole function was to kill people.

Even though the Demjanjuk conviction is not considered legally binding because he died before his appeals were exhausted, the special German prosecutors' office that deals with Nazi crimes has said that about 50 other people in the same category are being investigated.

Efraim Zuroff, the chief Nazi hunter with the Simon Wiesenthal Center, called the arrest of Lipschis who is No. 4 on his current list of "most wanted Nazi war criminals" a good start.

"This is a very positive step, we welcome the arrest," he said in a telephone interview from Israel. "I hope this will only be the first of many arrests, trials and convictions of death camp guards."

In an interview last month with Die Welt newspaper at his home in southwestern Germany, Lipschis said he spent his entire time as a cook and had witnessed none of the atrocities. He did say, however, that he "heard about" what was going on.

About 1.5 million people, primarily Jews, were killed at the Auschwitz camp complex between 1940 and 1945.

One fifteen year old female patient who competitively pole jumps was complaining about breathing.After Dr. Selleck examined her airway, he indicated that “her tonsils were the size of golf balls.” When the patient was examined lying down on her back, she wasn’t able to breathe because of the blockage in her airway.By doing a simple office screening, talking with and examining the patient, Dr. Selleck found an airway blockage that hindered the patient’s daily energy and athletic performance.He referred the patient on for a tonsillectomy and sleep study. Often, with the absence of infection many carriers will deny removal of tonsils regardless of the patient’s subjective complaint. A sleep study confirmed her airway obstructions and validated the extreme medical necessity of the treatment. After treatment, the young athlete significantly increased her energy and pole jump performance.

Kids are as important as adults to our dental sleep practice. “Although we are not actually providing the airway care for young children, we are helping them with assessment and getting them to the right place,” said Dr. Selleck. In addition to the dental services offered, our practice has a specific philosophy of helping everyone with their airway issues and sleep breathing disorders. Pat McBride, dental sleep medicine implementation specialist, added, “Every night we go home feeling good about quantifiably helping kids and adults be on their way to having healthy airways. It doesn't get any better than that.”

Renaissance works with children and adults and offers dental and airway consultations to everyone in the local area. According to Dr. Selleck, “Statistics indicate that 40-60 million people suffer from obstructive sleep apnea. The more devastating news is that only 10% of people have been diagnosed. That’s why our group always takes the time to talk to people who think they may be in trouble with their airways.”

Dr. Selleck provides airway treatment through oral appliance therapy. This is done by creating a custom fabricated mouth piece that is similar to a retainer. The mouth piece works by repositioning the jaw and pushing the tongue forward to keep the airway open. “The oral appliance is a viable treatment option for patients with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea and for those who are unable to wear their Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) masks. It’s great for travel too,” Dr. Selleck said. He added, “Even though the CPAP is known as the gold standard treatment for sleep apnea, there’s a big part of the population that can’t use it. The development of the oral appliance as an adjunct modality is critical in getting patients the right treatment.”

“We realize that with the stresses people are under – environmental and personal – their health is significantly impacted by lack of sleep or lack of quality sleep,” said Dr. Selleck. Issues such as diabetes and high blood pressure are greatly impacted by sleep breathing disorders. Selleck added, “We have a very long term relationship with patients. It’s our due diligence and we owe all patients attention for the rest of their lives.”

Additionally, Pat McBride said, “We also fully believe in bringing multiple modalities under an umbrella by partnering primary care physicians, specialist physicians, dentists, orthodontists, physical therapists, and oral myologists. It’s a philosophy that we’ve adapted through the American Academy of Physiological Medicine and Dentistry (AAPMD). It is comprehensive and time consuming, but it is helping people live better, healthier, longer enriched by information and education. It’s breaking the mold.”

Medical research has recently linked untreated sleep apnea to larger health issues such as cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease and fatality.To learn more information, call(925) 283-0338 or visit . To find out if you are at risk for having sleep apnea, take a quick, five minute, preliminary evaluation at .                            

ABOUT MICHAEL SELLECK, DDS - Dr. Selleck was born and raised in San Jose, California. His undergraduate degree was completed at UCSC, followed by a Doctorate in Dental Surgery from the UOP School of Dentistry, San Francisco. A voracious learner and innovator, Dr. Selleck’s practice has steadfastly remained on the cutting edge of technology, innovation and research by implementing the most effective equipment and modalities to improve the quality of patient care and enhance the patient experience in a whole health environment. His general and reconstructive dental practice began developing into an “airway centric practice” after the loss of a close friend from sleep apnea at 39 years old. “I knew then that I had an abject responsibility to my family, friends and especially my patients to include sleep disordered breathing and airway assessment into my practice; and it has allowed me the privilege of partnership with physicians and other clinicians in our community to tangibly improve the quality of people’s lives. What began as a quest for answers regarding my friend’s death has turned into the passion that drives my work each and every day. I think my friend would have liked that.”

ABOUT SLEEPTEST.COM - SleepTest.com is an online resource dedicated to educating the public on the dangers of untreated sleep apnea and treatment options. The goal is to offer a free preliminary online screening that can help identify people who may be at risk for this sleep disorder.The sleep test evaluation is quick and easy, and can be completed in about 5 minutes.

Anna GordonSleepTest.com630-537-1097

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The partnership, funded by SDL through a Reimbursable Space Act Agreement, allows for the joint development of a high-resolution cryogenic optical encoder an angular position sensor to be used in conjunction with the laboratory's large, evacuated Thermal and Optical Research (THOR) chamber. The period of performance is for one year from Oct. 10, 2012.

The encoder will be used to very accurately measure the pointing angle of a large, high precision mirror in a second vacuum chamber connected to THOR. Using this encoder technology, the Space Dynamics Laboratory expects to reduce uncertainties in the performance and calibration of space-based sensor systems and to increase efficiency of sensor calibrations they perform for NASA and the Department of Defense programs. NASA Goddard's Doug Leviton invented and patented this encoder technology.

For more information on NASA Goddard's Innovative Partnerships Office, please visit:

For more information on the Space Dynamics Laboratory, please visit:

For more information on NASA, please visit:

SOURCE NASA

Opposition candidate Henrique Capriles walked in a crowd of supporters through upscale neighborhoods in the east of Caracasduring a march to celebrate International Workers' Day.

He called for an end to a government crackdown on his backers, and reiterated plans to challenge his narrow election loss in both Venezuelan and international courts.

In downtown Caracas, the government held its own march, featuring songs praising President Nicolas Maduro and his mentor, late president Hugo Chavez.

Both sides appeared to be trying to avoid confrontation by choosing separate locations and calling for peaceful demonstrations, although tensions were running high.

Outside the Justice Ministry, organizers set up a 30-foot-tall inflatable Chavez balloon with its fist raised in the air.Many wore red T-shirts with pro-government slogans.

"This government is defending workers' rights, increasing salaries like it should," said Juan Ramirez, a 49-year-old employee of the state telecommunications company. "Of course, there will have to be more raises to make up for inflation."

Tuesday night's clash erupted when members of the opposition coalition unfurled a banner in the National Assembly denouncing a ruling that strips them of most legislative powers unless they recognize Maduro's April 14 victory.

Assembly member Julio Borges appeared on an independent television station soon after Tuesday night's brawl with blood running down one side of his swollen face. The opposition said at least 17 of its allies and five pro-government deputies were injured.

Opposition lawmaker Ismael Garcia said government loyalists threw the first punches. Pro-government legislators appeared on state TV accusing opposition members of attacking them. Video showed groups of legislators shoving and pushing each other on the floor.

The opposition has refused to accept Maduro's narrow victory, saying the government's 1.49 percent margin resulted from fraud, including votes cast in the names of the thousands of dead people found on current voting rolls.

In retaliation, the government-dominated assembly has barred opposition lawmakers from public speaking and sitting on legislative committees.

Capriles is boycotting an official audit of the election and plans to file a challenge seeking to overturn it in court.

Maduro accused the opposition of provoking Tuesday's violence, which he condemned, and called on the country to work out its disputes peacefully.

National Assembly chief Diosdado Cabello has repeatedly defended barring opposition lawmakers from speaking. He said that if they don't recognize the legitimacy of the presidential election, they are casting doubt on the very system that elected them, thus losing their own legitimacy.

Opposition lawmakers have also lost their seats on legislative commissions.

___

Associated Press writers Michael Weissenstein and Fabiola Sanchez contributed to this report.

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - Musician Troy Andrews, better known as "Trombone Shorty," witnessed his first New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at age 12 - not from the viewing area but on stage.

"I was playing with my brother's brass band," said Andrews, now 27.

At this year's New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Andrews will be given a high honor. He will perform for the first time as the closing act of the final day on the biggest stage. That time slot previously had long been occupied by one of New Orleans' most famous bands, the Neville Brothers.

The festival, which began Friday and ends May 5, has music lovers filling the walkways linking 12 stages arranged across 150 acres of the festival grounds, not far from downtown.

During the next two weekends, some 500 bands will perform at the festival, including a sprinkling of big names from Billy Joel, Dave Matthews and Adam Levine to Jill Scott, George Benson and Willie Nelson.

The stars will help draw some 400,000 people through the gates over the seven days of the festival, but many fans are interested in less famous local performers such as Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue, Rebirth Brass Band, Irvin Mayfield, Anders Osborne and Tab Benoit, among the 400-plus bands in the lineup that hail from New Orleans and the surrounding area.

"I can't believe the mix of music here," said Keith Oliver, who came to the festival from Richmond, Virginia.

"I don't know where else you could hear great blues, jazz, gospel and all the rest all in one place," Oliver said as he and his wife merged into the sea of flowered shirts and sun hats heading for the next stage.

Festival producer and director Quint Davis said the festival showcases New Orleans' "musical DNA."

"People in New Orleans are wired different for music," he said. "It's not just entertainment here, it's sustenance. It's like po-boys and fried oysters - we can't live without it."

Davis, in his 44th year of producing the festival, said he continues to be impressed by the depth of the local talent pool. That enables him to book one out-of-town headliner per day on each stage and fill all the remaining slots with Louisiana bands in genres including jazz, blues, gospel, R&B, hip-hop, Cajun, zydeco, Latin and Caribbean.

PASSING IT ON

Davis said what distinguishes the New Orleans sound has to do with history.

"No matter what genre they're playing, a lot of this music has been passed through many generations," he said.

Trombone Shorty, one of the hottest musical artists in New Orleans, is an example of that history. His brother gave Andrews his nickname years ago, he said.

Andrews wields a trumpet as easily as the trombone and is also skilled at keyboards, drums and songwriting. His music mingles jazz, funk, hip-hop and soul in high-energy compositions that rev up audiences on frequent tours that take him across the country and abroad.

Andrews has played at the festival nearly every year since his first appearance, and this year, Davis contacted him about performing in the final festival slot.

"Quint Davis sent me a text saying it could be time for the passing of the torch and he asked if I'm ready," Andrews said, recalling how the scheduling came about.

Landing the time slot "is a dream come true" for a young man who grew up among the city's most famous musicians.

Andrews' grandfather, R&B singer-songwriter Jessie Hill, made musical waves in the 1960s working with Ike and Tina Turner, Sonny and Cher and New Orleans artist Dr. John.

Andrews' uncle played in Fats Domino's band "way before my time," he said, "and just about every brass band in the city had a member of my family in it."

As a kid growing up in the Treme neighborhood, Andrews hung out with the Neville family and often "sat in" when the Neville Brothers played around town. "I was put on so many different musical stages growing up that I didn't think about what kind of music we played," he said. "I just thought music was music."

Andrews said he was keenly aware that local musicians have a responsibility to pass musical styles from one generation to another.

"When I was younger, we all wanted to play like Rebirth (Brass Band), but people in the neighborhood said before you can play like that, you've got to learn some traditional music so you can understand how Rebirth got where they are," he said.

Now, he's helping his younger cousins, who are anxious to follow in his musical footsteps.

"It's what we've been taught to do," Andrews said. "We have to let the younger generations take our music - and approach it the way they want - but just teach them where it all comes from."

(This story is corrected to Adam Levine from Adam Lambert in paragraph 5)

(Editing By Brendan O'Brien, Greg McCune and Bill Trott)

The number of applicants for the June 13-16 tournament eclipsed the previous best of 9,086 for the 2009 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York.

"The fact that we have a record number of entries, from across the world, is a testament to both the great appeal of the U.S. Open and the historic nature and grandeur of Merion Golf Club," USGA Executive Director Mike Davis said in a statement.

The U.S. Open, the second of the year's four majors, will be held for a fifth time on the classic East Course at Merion. The most recent U.S. Open staged at Merion was in 1981, won by Australian David Graham.

American Webb Simpson will defend the title he clinched by one shot at Olympic Club outside San Francisco last year, after overhauling overnight leaders Jim Furyk and Graeme McDowell.

Ten other former champions are fully exempt for this year's edition: Angel Cabrera (2007), Michael Campbell (2005), Ernie Els (1994, 1997), Furyk (2003), Lucas Glover (2009), Retief Goosen (2001, 2004), McDowell (2010), Rory McIlroy (2011), Geoff Ogilvy (2006) and Tiger Woods (2000, 2002, 2008).

Local qualifying for the U.S. Open will be held at 111 venues from May 3-16 after which 36 holes of sectional qualifying will take place at 13 locations from May 27-June 3.

For the ninth year in a row, two of the sectional qualifiers are international. One will be held in Japan and the other in England, both on May 27.

To be eligible to enter the U.S. Open, a player must be a professional or have a handicap of 1.4 or better. (Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress on Friday approved a plan to ease nationwide air-traffic delays caused by federal spending cuts, seeking to calm irritated travelers but sparking a backlash from groups still being hit by budget cuts.

The Senate unanimously voted for the plan late Thursday and the House of Representatives approved it Friday by a 361-41 vote. White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama intends to sign the bill.

The legislation will give the Department of Transportation flexibility to use about $250 million in unspent funds to cover immediate salaries of air traffic controllers and other essential employees at the Federal Aviation Administration who had been furloughed.

Lawmakers hurried the bill through, eager to stem the growing wrath of the traveling public, which had dealt with significant take-off and landing delays since the furloughs started on Sunday.

They also had faced anger from airline CEOs whose companies had mounted a grassroots campaign through a website called dontgroundamerica.com, encouraging Americans to send messages to Congress and the White House.

Congressional approval of the air travel bill, barely four pages long, came as lawmakers prepared to fly out of Washington for a week-long recess. It was not clear how quickly the air delays would ease once the bill is enacted.

Democratic Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland chided fellow lawmakers for frantically pushing the bill through just before the break, making their upcoming travels easier. "They will pat themselves on the back and say job well done," said Van Hollen, who wanted to address more than just FAA furloughs.

The union representing the controllers was relieved. "After just one week of furloughs, it is abundantly clear that a fully staffed air traffic control workforce is necessary for our national airspace system to operate at full capacity," the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said.

BIPARTISAN WORK

The quick legislative action marked a surprising bipartisan effort, especially after many Republicans had accused the Obama administration of manipulating funds to maximize the impact of the broad budget cuts and thus make Republicans look bad as they pursue an aggressive deficit-reduction agenda.

The cuts, known as "sequestration," were originally hatched by Washington in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically. But policymakers failed to reach such a deal earlier this year and the cuts went into effect on March 1.

Unless Congress comes up with a better spending plan for the next fiscal year, air traffic controllers potentially could find themselves back on furlough sometime after October 1, when a new round of automatic spending cuts is scheduled.

Nicholas Calio, head of Airlines for America representing the leading U.S. airline companies, praised Congress' action, adding, "The winners here are the customers who will be spared from lengthy and needless delays."

The companies might consider themselves winners, too, as they faced potential losses that could have climbed to millions of dollars a day in a worst-case scenario.

The move comes with the risk, though, of igniting lobbying campaigns to ease other program cuts triggered by sequestration.

Democrats complained the FAA legislation fails to prevent 70,000 poor children from losing pre-school education, 4 million fewer meals from being delivered to poor, elderly people and stop the grounding of some military air combat units.

"Let's deal with all the adverse cuts, not just those that affect the affluent traveling sector," said Representative Steny Hoyer, the second-ranking House Democrat.

INTEREST GROUPS COMPLAIN

But conservative House Republicans have rejected moves to repeal or replace the automatic spending cuts. Earlier this week, Representative Raul Labrador of Idaho, told reporters that those cuts marked "the first time we've saved money in Washington, D.C."

The cuts aimed to trim a total of $109 billion from federal spending through September of this year and affect a broad range of programs, from early education to medical research.

Some interest groups immediately cried foul at the FAA fix.

Cynthia Pellegrini, an executive at March of Dimes, a nonprofit that advocates for the health of mothers and babies, said she was troubled by Congress acting on a case-by-case basis.

"Over the next several months we feel there are going to be significant impacts on women, children and families," Pellegrini said in an interview. "This may not be as visible as longer lines at the airport. You can't see that a child's belly is emptier because her family couldn't get food assistance."

The U.S. Travel Association on Friday said it appreciated Congress' swift action but expressed concern that funds could be diverted from critical projects to upgrade airports.

The furloughs of air traffic controllers began this week, prompting traveler backlash at major hubs like those in Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta.

Without the legislation, the FAA said it would have to furlough 47,000 employees for up to 11 days through September 30 in order to save $637 million that is required by the sequestration.

Of those 47,000 workers, almost 15,000 are full-time air traffic controllers or trainees.

While supporting the legislation, the White House on Friday said it falls short of broader action needed to address sequestration. "It would be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them the unnecessary delays," he told reporters.

Carney said lawmakers need to take additional steps to alleviate the impact felt beyond the airline industry from the cuts, such as among poorer elderly people, defense industry workers and others brought on by sequestration.

That, Carney said, could be accomplished through a long-term budget deal "that would replace the sequester altogether."

(Reporting by Richard Cowan, Doug Palmer, Susan Heavey, Karen Jacobs and Alwyn Scott; Writing by Karey Van Hall; Editing by Bill Trott)

A statement from FIFA confirmed the account had been hacked, saying: "Some FIFA accounts, incl. @SeppBlatter and @fifaworldcup, have been hacked. If in doubt, please verify any info with FIFA office."

The bogus messages on Blatter's account included a retweet from FIFA World Cup saying: "It was decided that the president Sepp Blatter is to step down due to corruption charges.

Another tweet on Blatter's page said: "So what if I took money from Qatari prince? I am the family's bread earner," before declaring himself unrepentant.

"His excellency the Emir of Qatar has been the most generous figure I have ever met," and "I do not apologize for my decision. I have done the best for Fifa. For almost 15 years I have toiled for this organization."

The official World Cup Twitter account also fell victim to the hackers with several fake messages, including: "Sepp Blatter has been investigated for multiple charges of bribery."

A group calling themselves the Syrian Electronic Army, supportive of the country's leader, Bashar Al-Assad, claimed responsibility for hacking the accounts, tweeting: "Syrian Electronic Army Was Here" and "Twitter #Failure... You can't stop us!"

Blatter, 77, has been president of FIFA since 1998 and has not yet announced whether he will be standing for a fifth term when his current mandate ends in 2015.

(Reporting by Mike Collett; Editing by Alison Wildey)