Stapleton died on Friday of natural causes at her home in New York City, film and television director John Putch said in a written statement released to Reuters.

The actress won three Emmys for her role as the long-suffering wife of loud-mouthed bigot Archie Bunker, played by the late Carroll O'Connor, in the hit TV sitcom.

Stapleton appeared in "All In The Family" from 1971 to 1979, and continued her role for a time in the 1979 spinoff show "Archie Bunker's Place."

The New York-born Stapleton had a lifelong love of the theater, and her stage roles after "All In the Family" included a part in a 1987 Broadway revival of the play "Arsenic and Old Lace."

In 1990, she received the Village Voice newspaper's Obie Award for her performances in Harold Pinter's plays "Mountain Language" and "The Birthday Party."

After spending a number of years living and working in Los Angeles, Stapleton returned to New York in 2002 to live permanently.

She is survived by her son, John Putch, and her daughter, television producer Pamela Putch. Her husband, William Putch, died in 1983.

(Reporting by Alex Dobuzinskis and Barbara Goldberg; Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Peter Cooney)

Karen Rodger, 41, welcomed her first pair of girls (Rowan and Isla) after having twice given birth to twin boys.

"I still haven't really taken it on board because I was convinced I was having two boys," Rodger told Sky News.

Karen says her husband Colin was equally stunned when the pair learned they were going to have their fifth and sixth child.

"He thought I was joking and immediately wrote back to say 'this is not funny'. I had to explain that it really was true," Karen said.

The average couple has about a 3 percent chance of having twins when not accounting for fertility drugs. And with each subsequent pregnancy, the odds of producing twins a second, or even third time, become exponentially less likely.

Karen, a dance lecturer,and immediately texted her husband to share the news.

"I just could not believe it. It never crossed my mind that it would be twins again, I just thought that just doesn't happen to people like me but I'm absolutely delighted," she said.

It had been several years since the pairs last children were born. Their oldest twins are 14 and the second set was born just two years later.

"I turned 40 and I thought, if Im going to do it, I should do it now," Karen said. "I spoke to my husband and we both thought wed quite like another one so that was it and, one month later, I was pregnant."

Colin says the age and gender difference will ensure a sweat-inducing dilemma for any future mail suitors of the twin girls.

"I think the girls are going to have five dads with the boys looking out for them too and it will be a frightening gauntlet for any boyfriend to run," he joked.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rejected the protesters' demands that he resign and dismissed the demonstrations as the work of Turkey's opposition. President Abdullah Gul, for his part, praised the mostly peaceful protesters as expressing their democratic rights.

The two men could face off next year in Turkey's presidential election.

Turkey has been rocked by violent demonstrations since Friday, when police launched a pre-dawn raid against a peaceful sit-in protesting plans to uproot trees in Istanbul's main Taksim Square. Since then, the demonstrations by mostly secular-minded Turks have spiraled into Turkey's biggest anti-government disturbances in years.

Clashes continued late into the night Monday in both Istanbul and Ankara.

In Istanbul, the country's largest city, acrid clouds of tear gas billowed up from the streets of the Besiktas area as protesters ran for cover. Riot police deployed water cannons to keep demonstrators back.

An uneasy calm settled on the city's Taksim Square, which protesters were protecting with makeshift barricades using battered buses, cars and any other material they could find to prevent police from entering the square.

In Ankara, protesters chanted for Erdogan to resign.

Turkey's main stock exchange dropped 10.5 percent Monday as investors worried about the destabilizing effect of the demonstrations.

The Turkish Doctors' Association said one protester died after a vehicle slammed into a crowd in Istanbul but the governor's office insisted the man's death was accidental. The doctors' group also said eight people hurt in Ankara were in critical condition.

The protests are seen as a display of frustration with Erdogan, whom critics say has become increasingly authoritarian. Many accuse him of forcing his conservative, religious Islamic outlook on the lives of secular Turks.

Erdogan rejects the accusations, insisting he respects all sections of Turkish society and has no desire to infringe on different lifestyles. He has also rejected accusations of being authoritarian, saying: "I am not a master but a servant" of the people.

But he does believe the protests have a deeply political purpose.

"The protests weren't about the squares or the trees, some parties were not happy about results of the elections," Erdogan said late Monday while on a visit to Morocco. "The situation is a lot calmer now and reason seems to be prevailing. I think things will return to normal. These demonstrations are not all over Turkey, just in some big cities."

In Washington, the Obama administration voiced concern Monday over Turkey's crackdown on protesters, urging authorities to exercise restraint and all sides to refrain from violence.

Secretary of State John Kerry, who has traveled to Turkey three times since becoming America's top diplomat, said the U.S. was following the situation closely and was troubled by reports of excessive force by the police. He also said Washington is "deeply concerned" by the large number of people who have been injured.

Erdogan, in power since 2003 after winning three elections in landslides, will hit his term limit as prime minister and could run against Gul next year. Erdogan has also advocated a new system that would give the head of state increased powers, leading to criticism that he may be trying to monopolize power.

The two men were close allies and among a core group who founded Erdogan's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party in 2001 but there have been signs of growing differences between them. Last year, Erdogan openly criticized Gul, saying Turkey cannot have a "double-headed government" after the president called on police to halt a crackdown on a pro-secular rally. Both men have denied allegations of a rift, however.

An opinion poll last year indicated that Turks would vote for Gul, rather than Erdogan, in the elections.

On Monday, the leader of Turkey's secular, main opposition party discussed the protests with Gul.

"The prime minister should apologize to protesters... We hope that once he does that the incident will be over completely," Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads the Republican People's Party.

Gul was scheduled to meet Tuesday with Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, who is acting prime minister in Erdogan's absence.

Erdogan's adviser, Yalcin Akdogan, suggested the protests were an attempt to harm the prime minister's image.

"(Erdogan) is a leader who appears once every 100 years. He is a leader who has transformed Turkey," Akdogan said. "We won't allow him to be harmed."

On Monday, Erdogan angrily rejected comparisons with the current protests and the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled governments in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.

"We already have a spring in Turkey," he said, alluding to the nation's free elections. "But there are those who want to turn this spring into winter.

"Be calm, these will all pass," he said.

Erdogan also played down the drop in the markets, saying: "It's the stock market, it goes down and it goes up. It can't always be stable."

Appearing defensive and angry, he lashed out at reporters who asked whether the government had understood the protesters' message.

"What is the message? I want to hear it from you," Erdogan retorted.

Gul said democracy was more than just going to the ballot box.

"Democracy does not mean elections alone. There can be nothing more natural for the expression of various views, various situations and objections through a variety of ways besides elections," he said. "The views that are well-intentioned have been read, seen and noted and the messages have been received."

When asked in Morocco about Gul's comment that democracy is more than elections, Erdogan retorted, "I don't know what the president said, but for me democracy is all about the ballot box."

The Dogan news agency said up to 500 people were detained in Ankara on Monday, and Turkey's Fox television reported 300 others were detained in Izmir, Turkey's third-largest city.

Social media was awash with reports and videos of police abuse. Turkey's Human Rights Foundation claimed more than 1,000 protesters were subjected "to ill-treatment and torture" by police.

Authorities said police excesses would be investigated, but they appeared to continue unabated. Fox showed footage of police telling one group by a building to come out, reassuring them that nothing would happen, then shooting a gas canister at them.

Turkish television stations have been criticized for providing very limited coverage of the protests, with media moguls apparently wary of upsetting the government. On Monday, dozens of people demonstrated in front of the Istanbul offices of private NTV television.

Another group of protesters drove a large bulldozer in Istanbul toward police water cannons, Dogan video showed. Medics were seen tending to the injured.

A trade union confederation called for a two-day strike starting on Tuesday.

Erdogan also blamed the protest on "internal and external" groups bent on harming Turkey and said the country's intelligence service was working to identify them.

In neighboring Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on his website that his government was worried about the security implications of the situation, saying Turkey was "an essential part of the stability of the region."

"We believe that resorting to violence will widen the circle (of violence) ... in the region, and we call for restraint," he said.

Iraq and Turkey share a long, mountainous border and Iraq is home to an ethnic Turkomen minority.

The two countries' relationship has been increasingly strained over growing Turkish ties to Iraq's largely autonomous northern Kurdish region, and over Turkey's support for the Sunni rebels fighting to topple the Syrian regime.

The two-year Syrian civil war has already killed at least 70,000 people and sent hundreds of thousands fleeing the country.

__

Associated Press writers Ezgi Akin in Ankara, Adam Schreck in Baghdad and Paul Schemm in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.

PARIS (Reuters) - The colorful boss of Totalis unlikely to be felled by demands he stand trial over alleged bribes to Iran as Christophe de Margerie enters a crucial phase of his high-stakes turnaround plan for the oil firm, with no clear successors.

De Margerie, nicknamed "Big Moustache" inside the company which appointed him chief executive six years ago, is deep into an exploration plan to drill more wells in difficult-to-reach African and North Sea frontiers in order that Total meet future output goals - and investors want him to stay and make it work.

"They're much more concerned in terms of what the company can do in terms of production, capital expenditures, cashflow," said Iain Reid, an analyst with Jefferies in London and best-rated analyst for Total on Thomson Reuters StarMine.

"(The cases) have been a wrinkle obviously, but all oil companies have legacy legal issues somewhere around the world."

The Iran case came to a head on Wednesday when Total agreed to pay $398 million to settle U.S. criminal and civil allegations that it paid bribes to win oil and gas contracts to Iran. Now a French prosecutor is recommending de Margerie himself go to trial.

But the oil industry has been plagued by corruption accusations for decades and one fund manager who owns Total shares said it was no exception: "This sort of thing seems to be commonplace in the oil industry. I have heard no discussion in the investor community about (de Margerie) stepping down."

Instead, investors are more concerned about how close de Margerie is to fixing Total's undervalued share price.

Currently trading at 39.7 euros, Total's stock is valued at 7.8 times 12-month forward earnings, a 7 percent discount on BPand Shelland close to a 20 percent discount on average to its global peers.

Total regularly missed its oil and gas production targets in the past but analysts say de Margerie is now setting more realistic aims. The big one now is the company's 2017 output capacity goal of about 3 million barrels of oil equivalent a day.

"Total used to be worse than peers setting pretty ambitious targets and then failing to meet them. To de Margerie's credit, in the last three years or so, the targets are more realistic," said Iain Pyle, analyst at Bernstein in London.

"The new strategy is starting to pay off. It's something that takes a long period of time. When you increase investment in high-risk high-return exploration, you don't expect returns from it for a while, it could be 10 years," Pyle said.

SUCCESSION HEADACHE

De Margerie, a graduate of a regular French business school, cuts an unusual figure in a company dominated by alumni from elite French colleges and has sought to take the company away from a conservative investment culture.

Industry insiders and some of de Margerie's supporters say the Total boss's larger-than-life personality - and his address book - would be very hard to replace.

He counts among business acquaintances both Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi, who sought his advice in attracting investment to the country, and Russia's Vladimir Putin who retained Total in the huge Shtokman gas project in the Arctic at a time when other Western companies like BPwere being shown the door.

"He's the only big guy out there. I don't know and was never told about who could be next," said a source at Gazprom, partner with Total in a number of projects, including the controversial South Pars field in Iran, to which the bribery case is related.

Another fund manager at a UK-based company invested in Total said it had attempted to raise the succession issue with the company because it currently lacked clarity.

"We wanted them to communicate to investors very clearly how the board is thinking about de Margerie's succession. Not because we feel he should retire at this stage but just because as part of a good governance procedure we would like to have some visibility into board planning around this issue."

Philippe Boisseau, head of Total's new energy division and Patrick Pouyanne, who was tasked with the sensitive mission of reducing the group's exposure to unprofitable European refining sectors, are seen as credible long-term possibilities.

But both are seen to lack vital contacts at a time when Western oil majors are increasingly threatened by rivals from emerging markets such as China and Russia.

"With all the changes in the oil world, nobody could replace him today," said a close adviser to de Margerie. "There must be only about seven or eight leaders in the world with an address book like his and none at Total. His successors are not ready."

(Additional reporting by Sinead Cruise, Dmitry Zhdannikov and Claire Milhench in London; Editing by Sophie Walker)

Freddie Mac said Thursday that the average on the 30-year home loan increased to 3.95 percent from 3.91 percent. Last week's rate was the lowest average on records dating to the 1950s.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage rose to 3.24 percent. That's up from 3.21 percent, also a record low.

Rates have been below 5 percent for all but two weeks in 2011. Even so, this year is shaping up to be one of the worst ever for home sales.

Previously occupied homes are selling just slightly ahead of last year's dismal pace. And new-home sales appear headed for their worst year on records going back half a century.

Next year could be better. More than 5 percent of households said this month they plan to purchase a home within the next six months, according to the Conference Board.

Builders are also hopeful that the low rates could boost sales next year. Low mortgage rates were cited as a key reason the National Association of Home Builders survey of builder sentiment rose in December to its highest level in more than a year.

But so far, rates are having no major impact. Mortgage applications have fallen slightly in recent weeks, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

High unemployment and scant wage gains have made it harder for many people to qualify for loans. Many Americans don't want to sink money into a home that they fear could lose value over the next few years.

To calculate the average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country Monday through Wednesday of each week. The average rates don't include extra fees, known as points, which most borrowers must pay to get the lowest rates. One point equals 1 percent of the loan amount.

The average fee for the 30-year loan was unchanged at 0.7; the average on the 15-year fixed mortgage was unchanged at 0.8.

For the five-year adjustable loan, the average rate rose to 2.88 percent from 2.85 percent. The average on the one-year adjustable loan ticked up to 2.78 percent from 2.77 percent.

The average fees on the five- and one-year adjustable-rate loans were unchanged at 0.6.

Douglas Shulman, who vacated his position last November when his five-year term expired, told the Senate Finance Committee he didn't learn all the facts until he read last week's report by a Treasury inspector general confirming the targeting strategy.

In his first public remarks since the story broke, Shulman said: "I agree this is an issue that when someone spotted it, they should have brought it up the chain. And they didn't. I don't know why."

Shulman testified at Congress' second hearing on an episode that has largely consumed Washington since an IRS official acknowledged the targeting and apologized for it in remarks to a legal group on May 10. Shulman and the two officials who testified at Tuesday's three-and-a-half hour session the outgoing acting commissioner, Steven Miller, and J. Russell George, the Treasury Department inspector general who issued the report were all sworn in as witnesses, an unusual step for the Finance panel.

Shulman said he first learned about the targeting and about the inspector general's investigation in the spring of 2012, during the presidential election. He said that in a meeting with Miller, he was told that IRS workers were using a list to help decide which groups seeking tax-exempt status should get special attention, that the term "tea party" was on that list and that the problem was being addressed. But he said he didn't know what other words were on that list or the scope and severity of the activity.

Pressed by committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., on how the improper screening system could have occurred in the first place, Shulman said, "Mr. Chairman, I can't say. I can't say that I know that answer."

Shulman said he took what he thought were the proper steps making sure the inspector general was looking into the situation. He said he did not tell Treasury officials about the improper activity.

"I don't recall talking to anyone about it," Shulman told the committee. "This is not the kind of information" that, with an inspector general's probe underway, "should leave the IRS."

Asked by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, whether he owed conservative groups an apology, Shulman said, "I'm certainly not personally responsible for creating a list that had inappropriate criteria on it."

That was a reference to a list of words IRS workers looked for in deciding which groups to screen, a list that included the terms including "tea party" and "patriot."

"I very much regret that it happened and that it happened on my watch," Shulman said.

The testimony by Shulman and Miller drew skepticism from lawmakers of both parties, including critical remarks from people who have been unhesitant to say anything negative about the IRS since its activities were revealed nearly two weeks ago. Republicans openly rejected George's assertion that he has no evidence that the decision to target conservative groups was politically motivated.

A lack of political motivation "is almost beyond belief," said Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho.

George's report blamed ineffective management for allowing agents to inappropriately target conservative groups for more than 18 months during the 2010 and 2012 elections. Shulman was appointed by President George W. Bush and served from March 2008 until last November.

At a separate hearing, Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said the IRS's actions against conservative groups were "unacceptable and inexcusable."

Lew told the Senate Banking Committee that he has directed the agency's incoming acting director, Daniel Werfel, to hold people accountable and to fix any flaws in IRS management to make sure there is no recurrence of the problems.

Lew said he first learned about the inspector general's investigation in March but that he was unaware of the findings until they became public this month. Lew became Treasury secretary in February, and was White House chief of staff before that.

For more than a year, from 2011 through the 2012 election, members of Congress repeatedly asked Shulman about complaints from tea party groups that they were being harassed by the IRS. Shulman's responses, usually relayed by a deputy, did not acknowledge that agents had ever targeted tea party groups for special scrutiny.

At one House hearing on March 22, 2012, Shulman was adamant in his denials, saying, "There's absolutely no targeting."

On Tuesday, Republicans expressed anger that Shulman and Miller didn't reveal the screening of conservative groups to Congress, despite lawmakers' repeated inquiries. Miller learned of the situation in early May 2012.

"Mr. Miller, that's a lie by omission," said Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, top Republican on the Finance committee. "There's no question about that in my mind. It's a lie by omission and you kept it from people who have the obligation to oversee this matter."

President Barack Obama has forced Miller to resign, and he is leaving office this week.

Shulman said he didn't later tell lawmakers about the targeting because he didn't have full information about the situation.

"I had a partial set of facts," Shulman said. "Sitting there then, sitting here today, I think I made the right decision" to let George, the inspector general, conduct his audit of the targeting.

Shulman said that when he did finally read about the details of the targeting in the inspector general's report, "I was dismayed and I was saddened."

Hatch and Baucus both criticized the agency and said they would investigate how and why the improper screening occurred.

"I intend to get to the bottom of what happened," Baucus said.

George, the Treasury inspector general, has said he told Shulman on May 30, 2012, that his office was auditing the way applications for tax-exempt status were being handled, in part because of complaints from conservative groups. However, George said he did not reveal the results of his investigation.

The IRS agents were conducting the screening to determine whether the groups were engaged in political activity. Certain tax-exempt groups are allowed to engage in politics, but politics cannot be their primary mission. It is up to the IRS to make the determination, so agents are supposed to look for clues when reviewing applications for tax-exempt status.

In March 2010, agents starting singling out groups with "Tea Party" or "Patriots" on their applications. By August 2010, it was part of the written criteria for identifying groups that required more scrutiny, according to George's report.

Agents did not flag similar progressive or liberal labels, though some liberal groups received additional scrutiny because their applications were singled out for other reasons, the report said.

Meanwhile, a conservative organization that says its tax-exempt status is being unfairly held up by the IRS filed a federal lawsuit in Washington against the agency. True the Vote, a Houston group that watches for voting irregularities, is seeking damages and asking to immediately be granted tax-exempt status.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a campaign finance watchdog, also sued the IRS on Tuesday, seeking to force it to write new rules clarifying restrictions on political spending by some non-profit groups. The law says some groups qualify for tax-exempt status if they engage "exclusively" in social welfare projects, but IRS regulations allow the status if they are "primarily engaged" in social welfare giving them leeway for some political activity as well.

Anti-terrorism unit head Boniface Mwaniki said Sunday that Michael Adebolajo was believed to have been preparing to train and fight with the al-Qaida-linked Somali militant group al-Shabab. He said Adebolajo was arrested with five others, and later deported.

Adebolajo was identified by hard-line Muslim leaders as one of two suspects in the killing of British soldier Lee Rigby this week.

Mwaniki also denied accusations that Adebolajo had been abused while in custody in Kenya.

Rights groups say Kenya often deports foreigners they suspect of involvement with terrorism, even without legal proof.