The Treasuryon July 2 that it was delaying for a year, until 2015, the Affordable Care Act requirement that large employers provide health coverage or face penalties.

In heron July 11, House Democratic Leader Pelosi was asked aboutto also delay the so-called individual mandate that will require people to buy insurance or face a tax penalty next year.

Pelosi, July 11: In fact, the point is, is that the mandate was not delayed. Certain reporting by businesses that could be perceived as onerous, that reporting requirement was delayed, and partially to review how it would work and how it could be better. It was not a delay of the mandate for the businesses, and there shouldnt be a delay of the mandate for individuals. (starts at the 9:06 mark)

In response to complaints from the business community about the complexity of reporting requirements under the Affordable Care Act, and the need for more time to implement them, the Treasury released a blog post on July 2 announcing the one-year reprieve.

Mark J. Mazur, Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, July 2: The Administration is announcing that it will provide an additional year before the ACA mandatory employer and insurer reporting requirements begin.

As a result of the one-year delay in reporting requirements, the Treasury announced that it would also suspend the tax penalties for large businesses that fail to provide insurance to their employees essentially the hammer behind the mandate. The law requires businesses with more than 50 employees to provide health coverage to all of their full-time workers (those working at least 30 hours per week) or face a tax penalty of $2,000 per employee.

Mazur: We recognize that this transition relief will make it impractical to determine which employers owe shared responsibility payments (under section 4980H) for 2014. Accordingly, we are extending this transition relief to the employer shared responsibility payments. These payments will not apply for 2014. Any employer shared responsibility payments will not apply until 2015.

During this 2014 transition period, we strongly encourage employers to maintain or expand health coverage. Also, our actions today do not affect employees access to the premium tax credits available under the ACA (nor any other provision of the ACA).

Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill noted that although the employer responsibility requirement has been pushed back to 2015, employers will be encouraged to maintain or expand coverage during the 2014 transition period. Thats true, but strongly encourage is not the same thing as mandating under the threat of a tax penalty.

Hammill also noted that the change does not affect employees access to the premium tax credits available under the ACA or any other provision of the law. And last, he noted that the vast majority of companies with more than 50 employees already offer appropriate health insurance, and would not be affected.

Former White House adviser Ezekiel J. Emanuel, who helped to design the law, wrote anmaking the same point: that the change would affect only a small percentage of large employers, and therefore it would not make a big overall difference in the progress of reform.

Although the reporting requirements affect only businesses with more than 50 employees, Emanuel said it turned out to be a nightmare for some businesses to determine who should be counted as a full-time employee.

Hours of service include paid vacation and sick time, as well as things like jury duty, Emanuel said. And how do seasonal workers fit in, or people who work just one semester at an academic institution?

As a result of the delay in reporting requirements, Emanuel, an oncologist and vice provost at the University of Pennsylvania, noted: Larger employers will now have until 2015 before they will have to provide insurance or face penalties.

In press conferences, White House spokesman Jay Carney has to a delay in the employer responsibility provision.

But Pelosi and the administration are simply parsing their words, said Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute. Pelosi is correct that the change involved postponing reporting requirements, but if employers arent required to provide that information, there can be no enforcement through penalties. Tax penalties are the mandate.

So Pelosi may say it is not a delay of the employer mandate, only a delay in the reporting requirement, but in practice, it boils down to the same thing, Fronstin said. The bottom line is the same.

Robert Farley

The carnage outside the Republican Guard building in Cairo where toppled President Mohammed Morsi was first held last week marked the single biggest death toll since massive protests forced Morsi's government from power and brought in an interim civilian administration.

Even before all the bodies were counted, with more than 300 wounded, there were conflicting accounts on how the violence began. Morsi's backers said the troops attacked their encampment without provocation just after dawn prayers. The military said it came under a heavy assault first by gunmen who killed an army officer and two policemen.

The violence is almost certain to draw sharper battle lines between Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood, who say the military has carried out a coup against democracy, and their opponents, who claim Morsi squandered his 2012 election victory and was wrecking democracy by bolstering his and the Brotherhood's grip on the state.

Egypt's top Muslim cleric warned of "civil war" and said he was going into seclusion as a show of protest to both sides until the violence ends.

Sheik Ahmed el-Tayeb, head of Al-Azhar Mosque, said he had "no choice" but to seclude himself at home "until everyone shoulders his responsibility to stop the bloodshed instead of dragging the country into civil war."

Soon after the attack, the Al-Nour party, an ultraconservative Islamist party that had been talking to the new government about participating in the political process, announced it was withdrawing its support for the transition plan in response to the "massacre."

The military, which removed Morsi on Wednesday after mass protests against him, now may face pressures to impose stricter security measures to try to keep unrest from spilling out of control. It will also have to produce compelling evidence to support its version of events or otherwise suffer what is already shaping to be a Brotherhood media blitz to portray the military as a brutal institution with little regard for human life or democratic values.

The escalating chaos will also further complicate Egypt's relations with Washington and other Western allies, which had supported Morsi as the country's first freely elected leader and now are reassessing policies toward the military-backed group that forced him out.

In a move that is likely to further inflame the situation, the Freedom and Justice party, the Muslim Brotherhood's political arm, called on Egyptians to rise up against the army. Morsi has been a longtime leader of the Brotherhood.

The party also called on the international community to stop what it called the massacres in Egypt and accused the military of pushing Egypt toward civil war, warning the country was in danger of becoming a "new Syria."

"The only thing the military understands is force and they are trying to force people into submission," said Marwan Mosaad, speaking at a field hospital run by Morsi's supporters. "It is a struggle of wills and no one can predict anything."

Pro-reform leader Mohamed ElBaradei also condemned the violence and called for an investigation, writing on Twitter that "peaceful transition the only way."

The Morsi supporters had been camped out for days at the site in tents around a mosque near the Republican Guard complex, where Morsi was initially held but was later moved to an undisclosed Defense Ministry facility.

Spokesmen for the military and police gave a nationally televised press conference to give their version of the morning's bloodshed.

Army Col. Ahmed Mohammed Ali said police and troops guarding the Republican Guard complex came under "heavy gunfire" at 4 a.m. and attackers on rooftops opened fire with guns and molotov cocktails. He said one army officer and two police officers were killed, with 42 injured, eight critically.

He underlined that the troops had the right to defend the installation and that the protest "was no longer peaceful." He pointed out that suspected Islamists have carried out coordinated armed attacks on several military facilities in recent days in the Sinai Peninsula.

One witness, university student Mirna el-Helbawi, also said gunmen loyal to Morsi opened fire first, including from the roof of a nearby mosque. El-Helbawi, 21, lives in an apartment overlooking the scene.

Supporters of Morsi, however, said the security forces fired on hundreds of protesters, including women and children, at the sit-in encampment as they performed early morning prayers.

"They opened fire with live ammunition and lobbed tear gas," said Al-Shaimaa Younes, who was at the sit-in. "There was panic and people started running. I saw people fall."

A Muslim Brotherhood spokesman, Mourad Ali, denied any Morsi supporters fired first andsaid the military had warned protesters it will break up the sit-in.

Abu Ubaida Mahmoud, a religion student from Al-Azhar University, said he had been praying when the sit-in's security teams began banging on metal barricades in warning. He then saw troops coming out of the Guard complex.

"The number of troops that came from inside was stunning," said Mahmoud, who was wounded in the hand. The troops opened fire and "I saw injuries in the chest, the neck, the head and the arm," he said.

A guard at a nearby bank said security forces first moved in on the encampment firing tear gas, then he heard gunfire, though who couldn't tell who was firing. He said that over recent days the Morsi protesters had imposed their control on the surrounding district and were clearly armed.

At field hospitals set up Morsi supporters, at least six dead bodies were shown laid out on the ground, some with severe wounds, in video aired by Al-Jazeera TV. The bodies had been draped with an Egyptian flag and pictures of Morsi. Pools of blood covered the floor and doctors struggled to deal with gaping wounds among some of the hundreds injured.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled el-Khatib said initial reports indicated at least 42 fatalities and 322 people wounded. One police officer was also killed, the military's spokesman said.

Egyptian state TV showed images provided by the military of the scene of the sit-in amid the melee. Dozens of protesters were shown pelting troops with rocks and setting tires on fire. Soldiers in riot gear and carrying shields formed lines a few meters (yards) away.

A fire raged from an apartment in a building overlooking the clashes. Images showed men throwing spears from atop nearby building rooftops. Other protesters were lobbing fire bombs at the troops. It was not clear at what stage in the melee the footage was filmed. Security officers were showing cameras bullet casings, and troops were carrying injured colleagues.

By the afternoon, troops moved in and cleared the sit-in site and blockades on the road. The site of the early morning clashes, a strip of road about a kilometer long (about half a mile), was covered with rocks, shattered glass, shoes, clothes, prayer rugs and personal photographs. A big Morsi banner remained hoisted in front of the Republican Guards' building. On the ground below it, graffiti read: "Where are our votes?"

Interim President Adly Mansour called for restraint and ordered a judicial inquiry into the killings. Significantly, the statement from his office echoed the military's version of events, noting that the killings followed an attempt to storm the Republican Guard's headquarters.

Prosecutors in Cairo also ordered the closure of the Brotherhood party's headquarters amid investigations into a cache of weapons found there, according to the official Middle East News Agency.

El-Tayeb, the sheik of Al-Azhar also called for an independent investigation into the shooting and for the release of all those detained in recent days, referring to five Brotherhood leaders detained since Morsi's fall.

Morsi supporters have been holding rallies and a sit-in outside the Republican Guard building and elsewhere around Cairo since the military deposed Morsi on Wednesday. The military chief replaced Morsi with an interim president until presidential elections are held. The transition plan is backed by liberal and secular opponents of Morsi, and had been also supported by the ultraconservative Islamist Al-Nour party and both Muslim and Christian religious leaders.

Al-Nour party spokesman Nader Bakkar said on his Twitter account his party is withdrawing its support for the transition plan in response to the "massacre."

Morsi's supporters refuse to recognize the change in leadership and insist Morsi be reinstated, and have vowed to continue their sit-ins outside the Republican Guard building as well as at a nearby mosque.

Morsi's opponents are also holding rival rallies. They say the former president lost his legitimacy by mismanaging the country and not ruling democratically, leading to a mass revolt that began June 30, the first anniversary of Morsi's assumption of power.

____

Associated Press correspondent Paul Schemm contributed to this report.

A stray wheel from Mark Webber's Red Bull injured a cameraman in the pitlane, Jules Bianchi's car momentarily caught fire and rolled towards traffic after the driver had got out while Paul Di Resta almost hit Jean-Eric Vergne in the pits.

Kimi Raikkonen was second after a late tyre change failed to get him close enough to Vettel's Red Bull in an exciting finish while Lotus team mate Romain Grosjean was third.

PRESCOTT, Arizona (Reuters) - Weary crews on Tuesday looked for a break in the weather to gain ground against a fierce Arizona wildfire that has already killed 19 of their fellow firefighters in the worst wildland fire tragedy in 80 years.

Fire managers say the so-called Yarnell Hills fire, which has already charred nearly 8,400 acres of tinder-dry chaparral and grasslands northwest of Phoenix, was zero percent contained as darkness fell on Monday evening.

The lightning-sparked blaze, which broke out on Friday afternoon near the community of Yarnell, has torched some 200 structures, most of them homes.

On Sunday, an elite squad of 19 firefighters died in the fire after they were outflanked and engulfed by wind-whipped flames in seconds, before some could scramble into cocoon-like personal shelters.

Details of Sunday's deaths of all but one member of the specially trained, 20-man Granite Mountain Hotshots were still sketchy as an investigation was launched into how the disaster unfolded. Information about the survivor, including his identity and how he escaped death, was not immediately released.

The remains of his co-workers were borne away on Monday in a cortege of 19 white coroner's vans to Phoenix for autopsies. The solemn procession from the team's home base in the town of Prescott was received by a police and firefighter honor guard.

A memorial service on Monday drew at least 1,800 people to a sports hall at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University on the outskirts of Prescott. A lone piper played Amazing Grace, as friends and relatives wept and hugged.

Fire officials said the fallen men, most in their 20s were victims of a highly volatile mix of erratic, gale-force winds, low humidity, a sweltering heat wave and thick, drought-parched brush that had not burned in some 40 years.

They were trapped as a wind storm kicked up and the fire suddenly exploded on Sunday, said Peter Andersen, a former Yarnell fire chief who was helping the firefighting effort.

"The smoke had turned and was blowing back on us," Andersen said. "It looked almost like a smoke tornado, and the winds were going every which way."

'NOTHING THEY COULD DO'

The powerful gusts abruptly split the fire, driving it in two directions, then pushing flames back in on the hotshot crew, who were working on one flank of the fire front, he said.

Sunday's disaster in Arizona marks the highest death toll among firefighters from a U.S. wildland blaze since 29 men died battling the Griffith Park fire of 1933 in Los Angeles, according to the National Fire Protection Association.

Wildfires have grown more intense in recent years at a time when U.S. firefighting resources have diminished. Since 2000, U.S. wildfires have burned an average of 7 million acres (2.8 million hectares) a year, up from an average of 3.3 million acres (1.3 million hectares) in the 1990s, according to data from the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC).

Meanwhile, the U.S. Forest Service's Fire and Aviation Management Budget was cut by 5 percent in fiscal 2013, reducing the number of firefighters to 10,000 from 10,500, NIFC spokeswoman Jennifer Jones said. And the budget for eliminating dry brush and other types of fuel has fallen each of the last three years, from $350 million in 2010 to $301 million in 2013, she said.

In Sunday's deadly blaze, the firefighters deployed their personal shelters, capsule-like devices designed to deflect heat and trap breathable air, in a last-ditch effort to survive, officials said.

Andersen said some of the men on the ground made it into their shelters, according to an account relayed by a ranger helicopter crew flying over the area.

"There was nothing they (helicopter crew) could do to get to them," he said.

The deaths brought an outpouring of tributes from political leaders, including U.S. President Barack Obama, who is on an official trip to Africa. Arizona Governor Jan Brewer called the deaths "one of our state's darkest, most devastating days" and ordered state flags flown at half staff through Wednesday.

Authorities who ordered the evacuation of Yarnell and the adjoining town of Peeples Valley say they were proceeding cautiously following Sunday's tragic events and hoped that strong winds that have driven the blaze would diminish on Tuesday.

"We need the winds to not pick up enough so we can safely move crews around," fire spokeswoman Carrie Templin said.

The Yarnell Hills blaze was one of dozens of wildfires in several western U.S. states in recent weeks in what experts say could be one of the worst fire seasons on record.

The fallen firefighters were identified as Andrew Ashcraft, 29; Robert Caldwell, 23; Travis Carter, 31; Dustin Deford, 24; Christopher MacKenzie, 30; Eric Marsh, 43; Grant McKee, 21; Sean Misner, 26; Scott Norris, 28; Wade Parker, 22; John Percin, 24; Anthony Rose, 23; Jesse Steed, 36; Joe Thurston, 32; Travis Turbyfill, 27; William Warneke, 25; Clayton Whitted, 28; Kevin Woyjeck, 21; and Garret Zuppiger, 27.

(Additional reporting by David Schwartz and Dan Whitcomb; Writing by Dan Whitcomb and Steve Gorman; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sofina Mirza-Reid)

The Mortgage Bankers Association said interest rates on fixed 30-year mortgage rates surged 12 basis points to average 3.90 percent in the week ended May 24. It was the highest level since May of last year and the biggest jump in 14 months.

The rise sent the seasonally adjusted index of mortgage application activity down 8.8 percent as refinancing applications tumbled 12.3 percent. It was the biggest drop in refinance applications this year as demand fell to the lowest level since December.

The refinance share of total mortgage activity decreased to 71 percent of applications from 74 percent the week before.

Still, the gauge of loan requests for home purchases, a leading indicator of home sales, rose 2.6 percent, suggesting potential homeowners may have sought to lock in a still-low rate.

Fed chairman Ben Bernanke said last week the Fed could scale back the pace of its bond purchases at one of the "next few meetings" if the economic recovery looked set to maintain forward momentum. The comments sowed concerns among investors that the Fed's ultra-loose policy could end sooner than expected.

Encouraging economic data last week also contributed to that view as home sales rose and durable goods orders improved.

"Rates rose in response to stronger economic data and an increasing chance that the Fed may soon begin to taper their asset purchases," Mike Fratantoni, MBA's vice president of research and economics, said in a statement.

The Fed is currently buying $85 billion a month in bonds and mortgage-backed securities as it seeks to keep borrowing rates low.

The low rates have helped the housing market, luring in buyers off the sidelines. The recovery in housing has been gaining traction since last year and data on Tuesday showed home prices saw their biggest annual increase in nearly seven years in March.

Rates had already been on the rise before Bernanke's comments and have gained 31 basis points since the start of the month.

The survey covers over 75 percent of U.S. retail residential mortgage applications, according to MBA.

(Reporting by Leah Schnurr; Editing by Diane Craft)

The latest hitch gives employers an additional year before they must offer medical coverage to their workers or pay a fine.

What does the delay mean for workers? And struggling businesses? And is it a significant setback for a law already beset by court challenges, repeal votes and a rush of deadlines for making health insurance available to nearly all Americans next year?

A few questions and answers:

___

WHY THE DELAY?

Businesses said they needed more time.

Obama administration officials say they listened to businesses that complained they needed to figure out how to comply with complicated new rules written since the plan became law. And the delay buys time for the government, as well, to improve and simplify the rules.

The law passed in 2010 required employers with more than 50 employees working 30 or more hours a week to offer them suitable health coverage or pay a fine. What's changed is the deadline for that requirement, which was to begin in January. The new deadline is Jan. 1, 2015.

___

WHO ELSE BENEFITS FROM DELAY?

Democratic candidates. The employer mandate was set to take effect at the start of a congressional election year, intensifying the focus on one of the Republicans' favorite campaign issues. Postponing the requirement should mean fewer ads featuring business owners saying they're drowning under health care mandates.

Maybe Republicans, too. They get new ammunition for their argument that the law is an unworkable "train wreck." Voters' complaints and worries about the health law helped the GOP win control of the House in 2010.

Some low-income workers. When the employer mandate does take effect, some smallish companies have threatened to lay off workers or cut back their hours to stay under the 50-employee threshold. There's debate about how many workers might be harmed by this.

Some job hunters. Once the mandate kicks in, job-seekers may find fewer openings for unskilled workers. That's because some restaurants and other small companies say the mandate will force them to cut back on staff or freeze hiring. The economy is likely to continue improving, which will help offset the impact by increasing demand for workers.

___

WHO LOSES?

Uninsured people who already are confused about the law. The law doesn't change the January 2014 deadline for individuals to get insurance or the tax credits in the law to help them pay for it. But many people don't understand how the law works or when it takes effect, and the delay for the employer mandate may further muddle the issue for many.

Some workers. Those whose employers might add insurance coverage to avoid the law's penalties will have to wait a year. But this group is expected to be small. The penalties are designed more to discourage businesses from dropping their existing health plans than to encourage them to start new ones. And these employees can buy their own insurance through the new health care exchanges being set up under the law.

___

WHAT ABOUT ME?

Most people won't be affected.

The vast majority of Americans already have insurance even those working at companies that hover around the 50-employee level.

A Kaiser Family Foundation study found that 87 percent of companies that employed from 25 to 49 workers last year offered health coverage, and the percentage goes up for bigger businesses.

You should NOT be affected by the delay if you already are insured through:

A job at a large company that already offers insurance.

A job at a small company employing fewer than 50 workers, because such companies are exempt from the rules.

Medicaid or Medicare, not affected by the delay.

A private insurance policy, also not affected.

___

IS THIS A DOWNWARD SPIRAL?

The delay adds to an appearance of disarray surrounding the law.

It comes after other glitches and angry opposition: Lawsuits reaching all the way to the Supreme Court. Protests by religious employers who say covering contraception is against their beliefs. Repeated votes by House Republicans to repeal "Obamacare."

But the postponement doesn't affect the heart of the law the requirement that individuals get insurance, and the subsidies to help them pay for it. The Obama administration insists the rest of the law will keep rolling along.

___

IS THE REST OF THE LAW ON TRACK?

Not for everyone.

A majority of the neediest people may remain uninsured. Medicaid changes in the health care law designed to help some 15 million low-income people are being rejected by many states with Republican leaders. That amounts to about half the people who were supposed to be helped by the law.

Last summer, the Supreme Court said states have the right to opt out of the law's Medicaid expansion.

Eighteen states aren't expanding their programs, including populous Texas and Florida. In nine other states, the outcome remains unclear.

Under the law, Medicaid is the only coverage option for people below the poverty line $11,490 for an individual or $23,550 for a family of four. People this poor cannot get subsidized private coverage in the new health insurance markets.

The poor will be exempt from penalties for being uninsured, but they also won't get help with their health care.

Medicaid already covers more than 60 million people, including many elderly nursing home residents, severely disabled people of any age and many low-income children and their mothers.

___

Follow Connie Cass on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/ConnieCass

Huffington Post founder Arianna Huffington, who was at the wedding on Saturday, tweeted a picture of Lucas in white tie with a white flower on his label and his bride in a white dress with a veil.

"The visionary "Star Wars" filmmaker wed the Ariel Investments president before an intimate gathering," Huffington wrote in a report for her news and gossip website.

She said Lucas's second wedding was officiated by U.S. journalist Bill Moyers and was attended by friends and family including fellow filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Francis Ford Coppola. Van Morrison flew in to perform at the reception.

Another guest, U.S. film director Ron Howard went on Twitter to congratulate the couple.

"George Lucas Melody Hobson (sic) wedding was joy to behold .. Congrats Mr&Mrs Lucas," tweeted Howard.

The evil Lord Vader, a dark presence in the original "Star Wars" trilogy which first hit the silver screen in 1977, revealed a sunny side on the social media site.

"Congrats to George Lucas, who got married this weekend. May the Force be with your marriage," tweeted one fan from Twitter account Darth Vader@Depressed Darth.

Lucas, 69, has been married once before, to film editor Marcia Griffin. He has three adopted children.

His son Jett was his best man and his daughters, Katie and Amanda, served as bridesmaids, Huffington wrote. It was the first marriage for 44-year-old Hobson.

Last October, the creator of the Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises, sold his production company Lucasfilm Ltd. to Walt Disney Co for $4.05 billion.

Since then Disney has announced plans for three new "Star Wars" films for the big screen which will be made in Britain and a new animated series to air on television in 2014.

"Star Wars" has become a cultural phenomenon, making characters such as Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Darth Vader, and phrases like "May the force be with you" part of popular culture.

The original six-film franchise has grossed more than $4.4 billion at the worldwide box office.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

Officials in both Austria and Bolivia said that Snowden was not on the plane, which was taking Morales home from a summit in Russia, where he had suggested that his government would be willing to consider granting asylum to the American.

A furious Bolivian Foreign Minister David Choquehuanca said France and Portugal would have to explain why they canceled authorization for the plane, claiming that the decision had put the president's life at risk.

"We don't know who invented this lie" that Snowden was traveling with Morales, Choquehuanca said in La Paz. "We want to denounce to the international community this injustice with the plane of President Evo Morales."

In a midnight press conference, Bolivian Vice President Alvaro Garcia said that not only France and Portugal, but also Italy and Spain were denying the plane permission to fly through their airspace.

He described Morales as being "kidnapped by imperialism" in Europe.

"The ambassador for Spain in Austria has just informed us that there is no authorization to fly over Spanish territory and that at 9 a.m. Wednesday they would be in contact with us again," said Defense Minister Ruben Saavedra, adding that the Spanish government had put as a condition for passage the "revision of the presidential plane."

Earlier, Choquehuanca said that Spain's government allowed Morales' plane to refuel in its territory before flying on to Vienna.

French government officials reached overnight said they could not confirm whether Morales' plane was denied permission to fly over France. Officials at Portugal's Foreign Ministry and National Civil Aviation Authority could not be reached to comment.

Austrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Schallenberg told The Associated Press that Snowden was not with Morales.

Leaks by Snowden, a former NSA systems analyst, have revealed the NSA's sweeping data collection of U.S. phone records and some Internet traffic, though U.S. intelligence officials have said the programs are aimed at targeting foreigners and terrorist suspects mostly overseas.

He is believed to be in a Moscow airport transit area, seeking asylum from one of more than a dozen countries.

While Bolivia's foreign minister had earlier said officials did not know who was behind the "lie" that Snowden was on Morales' plane, the country's defense minister later expressed no doubt.

"We want to declare very firmly that it was an American story that Edward Snowden was on this flight," said Saavedra at the VIP terminal of Vienna's airport. "This is a plot by the U.S. government to destroy president Morales' image. We say this simply is a lie. And we will confirm this."

Morales himself was present during the improvised press conference but chose not to speak to reporters. Morales will remain at the airport until his plane has been cleared for takeoff.

In Washington, the State Department would not comment directly when asked to speak to the matter and referred the AP to statements on Snowden made at the department's daily briefing. Earlier Tuesday, department spokesman Patrick Ventrell would not discuss how the Obama administration might respond if Snowden left the Moscow airport. "We're not there yet," he said.

Snowden has applied for asylum in Venezuela, Bolivia and 18 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, a secret spilling website that has been advising him. Many European countries on the list including Austria, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain and Switzerland said he would have to make his request on their soil.

One of Snowden's best chances of finding refuge outside the United States may hinge on Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who was also in Russia on Tuesday.

Maduro told Russian reporters that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged the question of whether he would take him with him when he left.

But Maduro also defended the former National Security Agency systems analyst.

"Who must protect Snowden? This is the question. This young man of 29 was brave enough to say that we need to protect the world from the American imperial elite, so who should protect him?" Maduro said in response to a question from journalists covering a ceremony to rename a Moscow street after Chavez. "All of mankind, people all over the world must protect him."

Maduro was scheduled to spend Wednesday in neighboring Belarus before returning to Venezuela.

In Venezuela, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said that changing the flight's route without checking on how much fuel it had endangered Morales' life.

"All the countries that have denied permission for the flight of our brother president, Evo Morales, must be held responsible for his life and his dignity as president."

Another possible landing spot for Snowden is Ecuador, where Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange has been seeking asylum.

"We are willing to analyze Mr. Snowden's request for asylum and this position has not changed," said Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on Tuesday. "What we have said is that we will be able to analyze the request when Mr. Snowden is in Ecuadorean territory or in an Ecuadorean mission."

Patino added that two weeks ago a hidden microphone was found in Ecuador's embassy in London, where Assange is holed up. "We want to find out with precision what the origin of the apparatus is."

Snowden, who recently turned 30, withdrew a bid for asylum in Russia when he learned the terms Moscow had set out, according to Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stopped leaking U.S. secrets.

At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.

Rebuffed by Russia's president, the Obama administration has recently toned down demands Snowden be expelled from the Moscow airport in a sign that the U.S. believes he is not worth scuttling diplomatic relations between the former Cold War enemies.

On Monday, WikiLeaks posted a statement attributed to Snowden on its website, in which he slams Obama for "using citizenship as a weapon."

"Although I am convicted of nothing, (the United States) has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person," Snowden says in the statement. "Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum.

"Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."

____

Associated Press writer George Jahn contributed to this report from Vienna, Austria, and Carlos Valdez from La Paz, Bolivia.

Rodriguez played his first game since a miserable October and went hitless in two at-bats for the Charleston Riverdogs on Tuesday night. He grounded into a double play his first time up then struck out looking against 23-year-old Williams Perez to end the third before being removed from the game.

It was Rodriguez's first game since undergoing left hip surgery in January.

"For me, it's just a great blessing to be back out there," he said. "It's been a long fight, a hard climb and I was just pretty excited to get a couple of at-bats and get in the mix."

Make no mistake, though, Rodriguez is far from the form that won him three AL MVP awards and led the Yankees to their last World Series title in 2009. He couldn't make the play when Rome center fielder Kyle Wren bunted on the game's first pitch and appeared out of synch on his strikeout.

"Timing is the least of my concerns, it's really about the overall body," he said. "Getting the body in shape, getting your legs under you."

And that's still a work in progress. Rodriguez, who will turn 38 on July 27, said earlier he'd likely need all 20 days of rehab games allowed to prepare for a big league return. This, though, was a major step in that journey.

"I'm just happy to be back playing," he said. "I feel like a kid again."

Rodriguez was tested quickly when Wren, the son of Atlanta Braves general manager Frank Wren, laid down a sweet bunt and beat the throw. Wren talked with his brother, Colby, on Monday night when he learned he'd go against Rodriguez.

"Maybe it's something 10 or 15 years down the road I can tell my kids about that I played on the same field for three innings with one of the greatest players of all time and the first inning I bunted and got a hit off him," Wren said. "That's what I was thinking."

Rodriguez was focused on the bigger picture. He said a benchmark would come tomorrow morning when he sees how his body feels after this game. Rodriguez still planned to play Wednesday night before working out on Thursday.

"Look, I am as curious as you guys are to see how I am going to react. It's been a while since I was in competition," he said before the game.

Rome shortstop Jose Peraza also bunted down the third base line in the second inning, but Rodriguez was too far back to make a play. The RiverDogs finished a 4-2 victory over Rome about 90 minutes after Rodriguez left the game.

A-Rod has been working out at the Yankees' minor league complex in Tampa, Fla., since May.

He looked healthy and enthusiastic to begin his season. His swing in the batting cage was the same simple flick that's helped him to 647 career home runs. He took grounders at third next to Yankees teammate Eduardo Nunez, who's recovering from a left oblique strain. Nunez played shortstop and went 2 for 3.

Nunez was winded as he sat in front of his locker. He played four innings before coming out.

"The oblique is OK. The timing is coming. It'll be a couple more games," he said.

Rodriguez and Nunez enjoyed lunch Tuesday before arriving at the ballpark.

"It's my first time" in South Carolina, Rodriguez said. "Great Southern hospitality so far."

Players from the RiverDogs and the Rome Braves lined the dugouts to watch Rodriguez work. It's the third straight season Rodriguez has spent time in the minors coming back from injuries, and he would not comment about Major League Baseball's investigation into the now-closed Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic.

Rodriguez looked smooth in the field during warm-ups, grabbing everything hit his way. His throws to first were strong and on target. When he was done with grounders, Rodriguez signed autographs for fans gathered next to the RiverDogs dugout.

"Good luck to you, Alex," said Charleston resident Blanche Lloyd after getting a signed baseball.

There were 8,255 who turned out at Riley Park, less than 200 from the record attendance of 8,426 set on opening night 2007.

Rodriguez and Nunez were in Charleston with Pat Roessler, the Yankees' director of player development based in Tampa.

A-Rod hopes he can start having a positive impact on the Yankees after last year's disappointing season and his benching during the AL championship series.

"I've got to tell you," Rodriguez said. "I'm really, really excited. This probably has to be the hardest injury I've tried to overcome. It has to be the longest."