WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration denied Republican accusations of a cover-up in last year's deadly attack in Libya, moving on Friday to defuse a renewed political controversy after a news report said memos on the incident were edited to omit references to a CIA warning of an al Qaeda threat.

ABC News reported emails between the White House, State Department and intelligence agencies about the Benghazi attack went through 12 extensive revisions and were scrubbed clean of warnings about a militant threat.

The ABC report came as Republicans in Congress have stepped up efforts to criticize the Obama administration's response to the attack by suspected Islamist militants, with a growing focus on the role of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a potential Democratic presidential contender in 2016.

The so-called "talking point" memos were used to prepare U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice before she appeared on television talk shows to discuss the September 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. mission in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans were killed.

In one email exchange, the State Department's top spokeswoman at the time, Victoria Nuland, objected to including the CIA's reference to intelligence about the threat from al Qaeda in Benghazi and eastern Libya.

That "could be abused by members (of Congress) to beat up the State Department for not paying attention to warnings, so why would we want to feed that either? Concerned," Nuland wrote in the email obtained by ABC News.

A source familiar with the Benghazi communications said Nuland was concerned the talking points went further than what she was allowed to say during her briefings and that "the CIA was attempting to exonerate itself at the State Department's expense."

But the source said the deletion of references to al Qaeda and the CIA's warnings came after a White House meeting on the day before Susan Rice appeared on the Sunday talk shows and Nuland was not at the meeting.

The mistrust between government agencies revealed in the documents offered an unusual peek into the administration's internal rivalries and displayed a rare crack in its usual discipline about messaging and public image.

'PURE, PROLONGED POLITICAL PROCESS'

Democrats have dismissed the Republican attacks as politically motivated and they had not gained much public momentum until this week. The ABC report could draw fresh attention to the allegations, however, and give them new life.

"It's a tragedy, but I hate to see it turned into a pure, prolonged, political process that really doesn't tell us anything new about the facts," Secretary of State John Kerry, who replaced Clinton, said in a Google+ Hangout chat.

A senior administration official said there was nothing in the new documents to contradict the administration's claim the talking points were based on intelligence community assessments.

"The White House made stylistic edits to the talking points to emphasize that the investigation was ongoing as to who was responsible, to simplify certain phrasing, and to clarify that the Benghazi mission was not a consulate," the official said.

At a high-profile congressional hearing two days ago and in public statements, Republicans have renewed months-old charges the email traffic shows the administration tried to play down the Benghazi assault because it came at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign and might have made President Barack Obama look weak on national security.

Republican House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner demanded on Thursday that the administration release emails on its handling of the attack. The emails reported by ABC had been shown to Congress, but lawmakers were not given copies, officials said.

The pro-Republican Super PAC American Crossroads released a web video on Friday focusing on questions about Clinton's role in a possible "cover-up" over the evolving explanations for the incident.

"Why did she blame a video? And was she part of a cover-up?" the video asks. "Americans deserve the truth."

The Republican National Committee sent out portions of the ABC report in an email headlined "Obama's Bungled Benghazi Response."

Congressman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said the Republican accusations were an attempt to damage Clinton in case she decides to run for president in 2016.

"It is so much an effort ... to harm her before she even makes a decision and then to make sure they've got some material after she decides to run for president, assuming she does," he told MSNBC.

(Additional reporting by Susan Heavey and Mark Felsenthal; Writing by John Whitesides; Editing by Jackie Frank and Jim Loney)

Saunders, who has also been head coach with the National Basketball Association's Detroit Pistons and Washington Wizards, was appointed on a five-year deal in place of David Kahn, who was fired on Thursday.

"I've made a lot of great decisions in my life, and a lot of things in business that have worked well," Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor told reporters before introducing Saunders, who has been given a minority ownership stake in the franchise.

"Occasionally I've made a wrong decision and perhaps supporting Flip leaving our organization as coach is one of those things I've done wrong.

"But in the meantime, Flip has gone out and stayed in the NBA, coached for some other teams ... I just think that he can bring that as part of his overall philosophy back to our organization and make it a better organization."

Minnesota finished the 2012-13 season fourth-last in the 15-team Western Conference after posting a 31-51 record.

They have not reached the playoffs since the 2003-04 season when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

"There's no question that there's a lot of work ahead with this team," said Saunders, 58. "And what I mean by that is that when a team has been to the lottery for eight straight years and won 31 games, you have work to do.

"So we've got to roll up our sleeves and do that, but that's what Minnesota people do. Now we have talent, we have some good young talent but they by far have not reached their potential."

Saunders will inherit a developing team that possesses an All-Star power forward in Kevin Love, a talented point guard in Spaniard Ricky Rubio and an experienced coach in Rick Adelman.

(Reporting by Mark Lamport-Stokes in Los Angeles; Editing by Frank Pingue)

(This story clarifies that Saunders was appointed head of basketball operations)

Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, N.C., is the first black nominee among the president's picks for open spots in his second term Cabinet. The president had faced questions, including from the Congressional Black Caucus, about a lack of diversity in his first round of nominations after winning re-election.

Obama said that as a mayor, Foxx knows how to use infrastructure spending to create jobs and boost economic growth. The White House cited Foxx's work on Charlotte's electric tram service, an expansion of a light rail system and the opening of a third runway at the city's airport as experience that qualifies him for the Cabinet post.

"Charlotte made one of the largest investments in transportation," Obama said during a nomination ceremony in the East Room of the White House. "All of that has not only helped create new jobs, it's helped Charlotte become more attractive to business."

Foxx, 41, has served as Charlotte's mayor since 2009. He bolstered his national profile last year when his city hosted the Democratic Party's national convention.

Among those in the audience for the East Room ceremony was Foxx's grandmother, who worked in the White House during the Truman administration.

If confirmed by the Senate, Foxx will take over the Transportation Department from outgoing Secretary Ray LaHood, a rare Republican serving in a Democratic administration. In a nod to his predecessor, Foxx said, "there is no such thing as a Democratic or Republican road, bridge, port airfield or rail system. We must work together across party lines to enhance this nation's infrastructure."

The Transportation Department has been at the center of Washington's most recent fight over the so-called sequester cuts. The automatic cuts resulted in furloughs for air traffic controllers that spurred delays at many airports, angering both lawmakers and the public.

Congress reached a deal last week to provide the Transportation Department flexibility that allowed it to end the air traffic controller furloughs

Obama is also close to announcing his picks for two other Cabinet-level posts. Longtime Obama fundraiser and hotel heiress Penny Pritzker is the leading candidate to run the Commerce Department, and White House international economic adviser Michael Froman is the top choice to be the next U.S. Trade Representative.

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Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC

Chinese scientists compared swabs from birds at markets in eastern China to virus samples from four patients who caught the new H7N9 virus. The scientists found the virus from one patient was nearly identical to one found in a chicken. The research was published online Thursday in the journal Lancet.

Finding definitive proof of how patients were infected is very difficult and experts have so far struggled to find much virus in birds. Despite taking nearly 48,000 samples from animals in live markets, Chinese officials found only 39 positive tests for H7N9. Experts had suspected birds in live markets to be the source of infection but weren't sure if other animals or wild birds might also be responsible.

Health officials have so far refrained from recommending any wide-scale slaughter of poultry to contain the disease, one of the main tools used previously to combat another bird flu strain, H5N1. Unlike that strain, H7N9 doesn't appear to sicken chickens, giving experts fewer signs as to where it might be spreading.

Chinese authorities have shut down live poultry markets in many affected regions, which seems to have slowed down the virus. Still, Taiwan reported its first case earlier this week.

So far, H7N9 has infected more than 100 people in China and killed more than 20.

The lava that erupted from the Cook Islands volcano, called Mangaia, contains a few tiny grains of sulfide, a mineral, with a peculiar ratio of sulfur isotopes, according to research published in today's (April 24) issue of the journal Nature. The unusual ratio could only have formed beforeappeared on Earth 2.45 billion years ago. Isotopes are versions of elements with different numbers of neutrons, giving them differing weights.

The study researchers think the sulfide formed at Earth's surface ages ago in ancient oceanic crust, and then sank deep into , likely all the way to the core-mantle boundary, 1,865 miles (3,000 kilometers) below the surface. Some billions of years later, a plume of hot material rising from above the core ferried the sulfide skyward, until it escaped through Mangaia about 20 million years ago.

"We have identified material that was actually at the surface 2.45 billion years ago," said Rita Cabral, lead study author and a geochemistry graduate student at Boston University. []

Reduce, reuse, recycle

The findings are direct evidence that oceanic crust was recycled in the mantle, Cabral said. Scientists are pretty confident that over millions of years, giant convection cells churned the stiff rock inside the mantle, the layer between Earth's thin crust and iron core. Convection could also recycle crust that disappears into the mantle via , the plate boundaries where one tectonic plate dives underneath another. Images derived from seismic waves, which change speed when passing through cold or hot materials, have revealed .

"The fact we have a time constraint is great for figuring out exactly how vigorous convection is in the mantle, and how extensive it is, " Cabral told OurAmazingPlanet. "It's very exciting, and I'm looking forward to seeing what models come out of it. If there are areas where this material can sit around for a couple billion years, that's something really important."

The sulfur isotopes pin a minimum age on the source of Mangaia's lava, so the lava could be even older than 2.45 billion years. Before that time, there was no protective ozone layer on Earth, because there was little oxygen in the atmosphere. Ultraviolet radiation from the sun strongly influenced sulfur chemistry in the atmosphere, leaving a distinctive chemical signature in the rocks. When oxygen-breathing life appeared, sulfur chemistry shifted dramatically.

"I think this is another really strong piece of evidence that material from the surface of the Earth gets subducted and transported to the mantle and ultimately returns in these mantle plumes," said William White, a geochemist at Cornell University who wasn't involved in the study. "My suspicion is that this has been tucked away at the base of the mantle for 2.5 billion years or so."

Mangaia is part of a chain of volcanic islands that rose from the sea over a similar to Hawaii's volcanoes.

"Stuff from the very deepest mantle is forming these ocean island volcanoes, and I think the real takeaway is the fact that there's an intimate connection between surface material and the deep mantle," White said. "Some of the things down there were once at the surface of the Earth."

Time capsule

Cabral explained that volcanic islands each have unique chemical signatures think of them as having flavors. Scientists are still sorting out the reasons for the different flavors. Some islands may come from subducted oceanic crust, while others could be sediments, or even . But there are odd geochemical signals, such as the sulfur isotopes Cabral and her co-authors found, that hint at

stranger stuff going on in the mantle.

"Some of the chemistry in these mantle-derived lavas some of the things we don't understand might reflect some of the surface history of the Earth," White told OurAmazingPlanet.

The findings help confirm that the mantle can store very old crust for billions of years. In this case, it gave geochemists a window into Earth's early history. Other odd rock chemistry has led scientists to conclude that there , from before 4 billion years ago, said Steve Shirey, a geochemist at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Washington, D.C., who was not involved in the study. (The Earth is 4.54 billion years old.)

"We don't know how we go from what we see on the ocean floor to what we see at the depths, Shirey said. At this stage, a lot of things are possible.

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LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Studio marketers love to call action movies "thrill rides," but here's the thing about thrill rides - they work because they occasionally stop to let you catch your breath before jolting you again. Roller coasters don't just speed downhill for the entire ride; there are climbs and flat parts so that you can scream again all the louder when you take another plunge.

That's not what happens in "G.I. Joe: Retaliation," a movie not only designed for hyperactive 10-year-old boys but also apparently written and directed by them, even though the credits claim that Jon M. Chu ("Step Up 3D," "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never") was behind the camera and Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (who gave us the far superior "Zombieland") crafted the inane dialogue and bang-clang-boom plot.

"Retaliation" begins with the GI Joe team flying into Pakistan to recover some loose nukes after the assassination of the nation's leader has led to chaos in the streets. ("It's not a country, it's a riot with a zip code!" yelps a member of the joint chiefs.) The mission, led by Duke (Channing Tatum), goes well, but that night the Joes' encampment is destroyed by enemy fire, leaving few survivors.

Turns out that the president (Jonathan Pryce) has been replaced by master of disguise Zartan (Arnold Vosloo), and while the real POTUS is held captive in a bomb shelter, the fake one is conspiring with the villainous COBRA to take over the world. After apparently destroying and discrediting the Joes, the next move is to spring Cobra Commander (Luke Bracey) from an underground prison by sending in Storm Shadow (Byung-Hun Lee) dressed as Snake Eyes (Ray Park).

Wow, this sounds even stupider on paper than it did in my head. Anyway, surviving Joes Roadblock (Dwayne Johnson), Lady Jaye (Adrianne Palicki) and Flint (D.J. Cotrona) work to expose the fake president with the help of retired O.G. Joe General Colton (Bruce Willis), while on the other side of the world, Snake Eyes and Jinx (Elodie Yung) try to capture Storm Shadow, all in the name of selling toys. Or, rather, saving the planet. Whichever.

Anyone looking to discuss the MPAA's ridiculous standards when it comes to screen violence can start right here; "G.I. Joe: Retaliation" has even more explosions, gunshots, hand-to-hand combat and people getting tossed off roofs than "Olympus Has Fallen" (another movie where the U.S. flag gets taken down from the White House), but since "Olympus" shows blood and people actually dying, it gets an R while "Joe" squeaks by with a PG-13.

The violence becomes all the more apparent because Chu never paces it. Early on, we get a few scenes in which people stop to have conversations - granted, they're not all that interesting, but at least they break up the flow. Once the story picks up, however, it's all ka-blam all the time, but rather than generate thrills and excitement, it ultimately becomes enervating.

For a guy who's made two movies based in music and dance, he has a surprising lack of rhythm here.

The cast pretty much plays it straight rather than go over the top - apart from Walton Goggins' amusing scenery-chewing as the warden of the super-prison - but they're all apparently on board for a movie with as much depth as a Saturday morning cartoon. Not that there's anything wrong with Saturday morning cartoons, mind you, but there's a reason they don't last two hours.

So it went on Friday, when Congress passed legislation to give the Federal Aviation Administration special flexibility in implementing its sequester cuts. The bill exempted air-traffic controllers from furloughs, which had caused flight delays at major airport hubs throughout the Northeast for the past five days. Meat inspectors also received a carve-out in late March following a powerful lobbying push and under the guise of ensuring food safety.

Now, with two sequester tweaks on the books, other special-interest groups, unions, and lobbyists are planning to rev up their efforts to undo the cuts bit by bit or, in this case, by a few billion dollars here or there. The actions of the FAA over the past week, alongside airline groups and unions, offer a playbook for others to use as they too seek exemptions.

What youre seeing now is an unraveling of the sequester. This is predictable as the sun rising in the east, and it will happen piece by piece over the next 60 to 90 days, says Steve Bell, senior director of economic policy at the Bipartisan Policy Center and a former staff director for the Senate Budget Committee.

Already, interest groups are plotting new ways to cast their particular sequester cuts as dire or unfair or safety hazards since they see an opening to escape the full force of the legislation. Remember the hollering a few weeks ago about cancer patients being turned away from treatment or clinical trials? Well, the American Cancer Society Action Network plans to ramp up its pressure on lawmakers following the FAA legislation. The group has an energized grassroots organization; a lobbying team in Washington; and lots of face time with lawmakers. After all, if air-traffic controllers can get a pass, then the cancer advocacy group thinks patients should too.

Were no longer just talking about why we need this additional funding. Were talking about people who are dying because of what politicians are unable to do, says Christopher Hansen, president of the American Cancer Society Action Network, the advocacy arm of the American Cancer Society. The message, he adds, is going to get more edgy.

It took a mere six days for the FAA to push Congress to change its language on the agencys sequester cuts. The furloughs of air-traffic controllers began April 21. Each ensuing day, the agency released a press release and tweeted about the number of flights delayed due to sequestration and the resulting reduced staffing at airports.

On Wednesday alone, 863 flights were delayed at major hubs in New York, Washington, Cleveland, Dallas, and Jacksonville, Fla. On average, New Yorkers flights were delayed by one hour, while delays at the Los Angeles airport spanned into two hours, says Mark Duell, vice president of operations at FlightAware.com, an industry tracking group. The airlines also threatened to undo their rule to not keep passengers waiting on the tarmac for more than three hours.

Forget that an additional 2,132 flights were delayed on Wednesday, due to weather or other typical airline mishaps. This week, for instance, New York suffered from high winds, and Florida experienced thunderstorms, Duell says.

When the flights were delayed, the message from the airlines was clear: This is all the fault of the sequester. Pilots and flight attendants in their announcements attributed problems to the government cuts, says airline industry analysts. This riled up consumers and made them aware of the sequester cuts in a way they may not have experienced them before. (In mid-March, a majority of Americans had yet to see evidence of the sequester in their lives, says Gallup pollsters).

Then came the lobbying muscle to fight the FAA cuts. Thats the thing about the airline industryit has lots of manpower. The airline pilots have a union, as do the air-traffic controllers. Major airlines have an industry group alongside the regional airlines. Even companies involved in shipping, transportation, air express, and postal delivery got involved.

It was all-out blitz, from the cable-news shots of angry passengers delayed at major airports and missing connecting flights to websites set up by the industry to decry the issue. Dont Ground America was the slogan of one industry advocacy site. The FAAs unnecessary and reckless action will disrupt air travel for millions of Americans, cost jobs, and threatens to ground the U.S. economy to halt, says the site.

This combination of angry consumers and a powerful industrycombined with a lack of oppositionforced Congress to vote to give the FAA more room to maneuver with its sequester cuts. In the weeks to come, the question is: Will this prove as a successful template for other industries or a one-off lucky break for the FAA on the sequester?

The Internal Revenue Service recently announced its plans to furlough its employees. The group representing them, the National Treasury Employees Union, wants those furloughs scaled back. Congress just voted to make it more likely that their flights home for another vacation today will not be delayed, but they should be staying here to find a way to stop the sequester and prevent the loss of services the American people rely on, said NTEU President Colleen Kelley in a statement.

In the coming weeks, the cuts least likely to receive much attention are those that affect the poor or the unemployed. Already, workers whove been out of job for six months or more have seen federal unemployment checks cut by about 11 percent cuts due to the sequester.

It pains and saddens me that there is no outcry to undo the sequester cuts for them, says Judy Conti, a federal advocacy coordinator with the National Employment Law Project. The political reality is that members of the House are not willing to do that.

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.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac said Thursday that the rate on the 30-year loan dropped to 3.40 percent. That's down from last week's rate of 3.49 percent, which was the lowest since long-term mortgages began in the 1950s.

The average on the 15-year fixed mortgage, a popular refinancing option, fell to 2.73 percent, down from the record low of 2.77 percent last week.

The Fed is spending $40 billion a month to buy mortgage-backed securities. The goal is to lower mortgage rates and help the housing recovery. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the program will continue until there is substantial improvement in the job market.

Some economists expect mortgage rates to fall even further because of the Fed's bond purchases.

The housing market already is benefiting from the lowest mortgage rates on record.Sales of both previously occupied and newly built homes in the U.S. are up from last year. Home prices are rising more consistently. And builders are more confident in the market and are starting to build more homes.

The broader economy is also likely to benefit from a revival in the housing market. When home prices rise, Americans typically feel wealthier and spend more.

Still, the housing market has a long way back. Sales and construction rates remain below healthy levels.

And some economists question whether lower rates will make much of a difference. The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage has been below 4 percent since early December. So most people who can qualify have likely already taken advantage of the lower rates.

Many people who would like to refinance or buy a home can't because they fail to meet stricter lending requirements or don't have enough money to make a down payment.

To calculate average rates, Freddie Mac surveys lenders across the country on Monday through Wednesday of each week.

The average does not 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 30-year loans was 0.6 point, unchanged from last week. The fee for 15-year loans also held steady at 0.6 point.

The average rate on one-year adjustable-rate mortgages dipped to 2.60 percent from 2.61 percent. The fee for one-year adjustable rate loans was unchanged at 0.4 point.

The average rate on five-year adjustable-rate mortgages fell to 2.71 percent from 2.76 percent. The fee remained at 0.6 point.

Exxon reported Thursday that net income totaled $9.5 billion in the quarter, or $2.12 per share, on revenue of $108.8 billion. During last year's quarter, Exxon earned $9.45 billion, or $2 per share, on revenue of $124.1 billion.

Analysts expected Exxon to earn $2.05 per share, on average.

Exxon Mobil Corp., based in Irving, Texas, produced 3.5 percent less oil and gas in the quarter. But chemical profits rose 62 percent and the company's corporate and financing expenses fell sharply, which Exxon attributes to "favorable tax impacts."

Exxon shares fell 32 cents to $89.11 in premarket trading.