Spitzer appeared on Leno's show in California less than 24 hours after a four-day flurry of canvassing for 3,750 valid petitions to run for city comptroller submitting over 27,000 petitions to the city Board of Elections late Thursday night ahead of a midnight deadline.

And Leno, who has poked at Spitzer's reentrance to New York City's politics since the former attorney general announced Sunday he was running to be the city's comptroller, asked him straight up: "Why enter at the 11th hour?"

Spitzer said that after all he'd done in the past five years he finally thought, "You know what, there's a position there, which I've written about, thought about, the Controller's position, from which I think I can actually serve," he said. "And I said to myself I want to contribute through public service."

Leno's show has provided a stage before for candidates launching unexpected campaigns: Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his ultimately successful run for California governor on Leno's set in 2003. The program also has been a memorable forum for public figures' atonement moments, as when actor Hugh Grant made his first TV appearance after he was arrested with a prostitute in 1995.

Spitzer's appearance came after his leading rival said earlier Friday he wouldn't challenge the tarnished ex-governor's petitions to run for city comptroller, leaving Spitzer's surprise comeback campaign a clearer path toward the Democratic primary this fall.

Other contenders or voters can contest a candidate's signatures for reasons ranging from an ambiguous address to a canvasser who's not registered in the candidate's party. But Democratic comptroller hopeful Scott Stringer, who was a heavy favorite in the comptroller's race before Spitzer got into it Monday, said he had no plans to contest Spitzer's signatures and would encourage supporters not to do so, either.

"I'm not someone who challenges petitions," Stringer, who is currently Manhattan's borough president, said while greeting voters Friday in downtown Brooklyn. "Let's get into the fight now."

While they won't face Spitzer in the primary, Republican candidate John Burnett and Libertarian Kristin Davis, a former madam who has criticized Spitzer, also said through aides that they wouldn't challenge his petitions.

Spitzer's campaign said in a statement Friday he "looks forward to making the case every day for an independent comptroller for the City of New York."

On the "Tonight Show," Leno admired Spitzer for his work as attorney general going after Wall Street and the mob and then asked him how he could "make this big a blunder," referencing the prostitution scandal.

"People who fall prey to hubris, end up falling themselves," Spitzer said, adding there was no good explanation for his behavior. "And this is something that I think infected me."

"Saturday Night Live" actor Bill Hader, who did an impression of Spitzer in a 2010 skit, joked with the ex-governor, who said he decided to get back into public life about a year ago and with his family's approval.

Leno gleefully seized on Spitzer's newborn candidacy earlier this week, particularly relishing the fact that Davis is also a contender.

"There's a tough choice for the voters, huh? I mean, one is involved in the most degrading profession of all time, and the other ran a whorehouse," Leno said during Monday's opening monologue.

Spitzer's last-minute, self-financed candidacy hurled a curveball into what had seemed a straightforward race for the city's top financial post, one that conducts audits and invests huge city employee pension funds.

On Leno's show, he touted his record pursuing financial crimes, telling Leno "Wall Street desperately wants me to lose," because of his previous work as attorney general, and added he would use the comptroller's control over the city's pension funds to pursue Wall Street again.

"That is where the power really comes from," he said. "$140 billion of pension funds, which in the equity markets are a lever to control corporate governance, reign in CEO pay, make sure that the Wall Street titans are acting fairly and honestly, making sure that the markets are functioning properly, making sure capital is allocated as it should be."

Earlier in the evening, the Wall Street Journal reported Maurice "Hank" Greenberg, the former American International Group Inc. chief executive, had filed a defamation lawsuit against Spitzer in state Supreme Court. An attorney for Greenberg did not immediately return a request for comment. Spitzer's campaign issued a statement calling the lawsuit frivolous.

Spitzer quickly jumped to a 42 percent-to-33 percent lead among registered Democrats, including those leaning toward but not settled on a candidate, according to a The Wall Street Journal-NBC 4 New York-Marist poll taken in the first two days of his campaign.

Pundits, and even Spitzer himself, had said it would be a challenge to get the needed signatures in just four days; other candidates had started in early June. Campaigns generally gather at least two to three times as many signatures as needed, as a cushion in case some are invalidated.

Stringer said he submitted more than 100,000 signatures, all of them gathered by volunteers; Spitzer's campaign paid canvassers.

Burnett, who has worked in various financial capacities on Wall Street, filed about 8,000 signatures and was looking forward to facing whomever wins the Democratic primary, his campaign said.

"We especially wish Eliot the best of luck," the Burnett camp said in a statement Friday.

Green Party candidate Julia Willebrand's campaign didn't immediately respond to messages Thursday and Friday.

___

Associated Press writers Lynn Elber in Los Angeles and Jake Pearson in New York contributed to this report.

___

Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

Bernanke said the U.S. economy still needed help because unemployment remains high and inflation is below the Fed's target. The Fed is currently buying $85 billion a month in bonds to keep interest rates low and to encourage spending and hiring. Bernanke made the comments in a speech late Wednesday after U.S. markets had closed.

The comments were the Fed's latest effort to reassure investors that it won't end its stimulus before it is sure the economy is strong enough. Both stocks and bonds fell sharply on June 19 after Bernanke laid out a potential timetable for when the Fed might start to wind down its bond-buying program.

Bernanke "certainly surprised the markets last night," said JJ Kinahan, Chief Derivatives Strategist for TD Ameritrade. "Many people had the expectation that there might be more pressure to (cut stimulus) soon."

The Standard & Poor's rose as high as 1,671 in early trading. It closed at a record high of 1,669 on May 21. The index was up 14 points, or 0.9 percent, at 1,666 as of 10:36 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 106 points, or 0.7 percent, to 15,400. It climbed as high as 15,456, above its own record high close of 15,409 set May 28.

The Nasdaq composite rose 34 points, or 1 percent, to 3,555. The Nasdaq is at its highest since October 2000 but is still well below the all-time high of 5,048 it reached March 10, 2000.

In government bond trading, the yield on the 10-year note fell to 2.59 percent from 2.63 percent Wednesday.

In commodities trading, the price of oil fell back from a 16-month high, dropping 83 cents, or 0.8 percent, to $105.66 a barrel. The price of gold rose for a fourth straight day, climbing $35.30, or 2.83 percent, to $1,283 an ounce.

Stock investors are also focusing on corporate earnings as companies start reporting results for the second quarter, which ended 11 days ago. S&P Capital IQ forecasts that companies in the S&P 500 will report average earnings growth of 3 percent compared with the same period a year ago.

JPMorgan and Wells Fargo report earnings Friday. Investors will be watching their results to see what impact rising interest rates are having on their business.

Among stocks making big moves:

Bridgepoint Education rose $3.53, or 28 percent, to $16.25, after the for-profit education company said its Ashford University had won accreditation. Bridgepoint, which also operates the University of the Rockies, struggled with accreditation problems for much of 2012.

Microsoft rose 64 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $35.36, after the company announced a major reorganization. The world's largest software maker has been struggling with a steady decline in PC demand as people turn to tablets and other mobile devices.

Rockwell Medical Technologies Inc. jumped 84 cents, or 22 percent, to $4.58, after the drug developer said its experimental treatment for iron deficiency in kidney patients met its goals in a late-stage study, an important step toward approval of the treatment.

Celgene rose $8.47, or 6.8 percent, $133.50 after the Swiss drugmaker said its cancer drug Revlimid met its goals in a late-stage study as a treatment for the blood cancer multiple myeloma.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has scraped through its biggest political and financial challenge this year by securing a tranche of aid from international lenders but the reprieve may only be temporary.

Crunch time for Athens will come at the end of September when EU and IMF inspectors are expected to return to discuss how to plug a budget gap for 2015 and 2016, raising the specter of more austerity cuts that may spark a new political crisis.

Even if it survives that, Greece will still need more debt relief from the euro zone before it can get back on its feet.

On Monday the lenders approved 6.8 billion euros from an emergency bailout put together in 2012 to keep the economy afloat and prevent a deepening of the regional debt crisis.

The money spares Greece from defaulting on its debt in August and tides it over until after elections in Germany in September.

But Greece will only get the full amount if the coalition government led by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras speeds up reforms to get them back on the agreed schedule.

"It's certainly going to get tougher both economically and politically," said Fredrik Erixon, director of the European Centre for International Political Economy in Brussels.

"They're kicking the issue a couple of months into the future ... we're going to continue with this charade between the troika and the government where everyone knows what's going on - that it's entirely unrealistic for Greece to live up to its expectations, both in the short and long term."

TALK OF "GREEKOVERY"

After nearly crashing out of the euro last year, Greece's debt crisis appeared to have largely abated this year and Samaras had even started to talk about a nascent "Greekovery".

But the seven-month lull came to an abrupt end last month when the government nearly collapsed over the closure of its state broadcaster and 10-year bond yields shot up to over 11 percent from the single digit levels seen earlier this year.

The latest bailout review then showed that after three years and 200 billion euros in aid Greece remains in trouble. Public sector reforms are elusive, tax collection is anemic, and debt is set to top 175 percent of gross domestic product this year.

Even if Greece can get through its next review, it faces a financing gap that is only likely to be resolved by additional debt relief, this time borne by euro zone states long fed up of Greece's seemingly unending funding needs and failure to reform.

Complicating matters further, the IMF increasingly faces a questions over whether it can keep supporting a program that may not bring Greece's debt down to a sustainable level.

With European paymaster Germany unwilling to risk a flare-up in the euro zone crisis before a national election, Greece faces its next major test in September when it must outline savings worth 4 billion euros to bridge a fiscal gap in 2015 and 2016.

Trying to plug it with more austerity could mean the end for Samaras's shaky two-party coalition, which already lost a junior ally in June when he tried to meet public sector layoff targets by shutting the state broadcaster ERT and firing 2,600 staff.

"CAN'T TAKE ANY MORE"

Samaras has already ruled out any further austerity measures for a nation faced with a 27 percent jobless rate and the Socialist PASOK party - his only remaining ally - has made it clear it will not support another round of painful cuts.

"The economy and society can't take any more measures," a PASOK official said was the main message to the EU and IMF.

Previously agreed austerity plans are already showing the strains in Greece - municipal workers have called a series of strikes while ERT workers have mounted a successful legal appeal and continue to broadcast from their occupied headquarters.

With just a five-seat majority in parliament, Samaras will find it difficult to find a way to plug the budget hole while keeping his coalition intact, analysts say.

"The flexibility of introducing additional austerity measures over and above those in the current program would be an extremely difficult task for the government given the state of the economy and unemployment," said Platon Monokroussos, an economist at Eurobank.

Instead of socially explosive layoffs or wage and pension cuts, the government could try and bridge the gap by extending special taxes and levies when they expire or through higher revenues from tax collection, though whether that will be enough to convince the troika remains to be seen.

If the government survives that review without a fresh crisis, the focus will shift to closing the year with a primary surplus before interest payments. This would qualify Greece to seek further debt relief, which the IMF has been pushing for but the euro zone wants to avoid discussing until spring 2014.

DOUBTS ABOUT THE FUTURE

After a restructuring last year of privately-held debt, over 90 percent of Greece's outstanding public debt of about 300 billion euros is in the hands of official creditors, mainly euro zone states and the European Central Bank.

Many economists believe restructuring that debt is inevitable to make the numbers add up over the long term, not least because Greece's economy has consistently missed growth projections, and few believe there is any other way to bring debt to below the 120 percent of GDP target level by 2021.

"From the Greek side, tidying up fiscally is not enough, structural changes in the economy are needed," said Nikos Vettas, chief of Greek think tank IOBE.

"From the part of creditors, action is needed so that the debt problem does not become a brake on growth - in other words relief commensurate to the course of reforms."

In addition, funding from Greece's bailout ends in 2014, but Athens' assertion that it could start tapping the bond markets from next year to tackle its future funding needs have appeared premature since yields soared in June.

The IMF - which does not expect Greece to return to markets before the end of 2016 - estimates Greece could face a funding gap of between 5.5 and 9.5 billion euros over 2015-2016.

Greece has relatively modest levels of debt maturing after 2014 - less than 10 billion euros annually until over 60 billion euros of debt comes due in 2042 so a small amount of debt relief to extend maturities could make a big difference.

But given Greece's history of failed reform efforts and missed targets there are many doubts about the future.

"What has the country really achieved? Fiscal adjustment and a reduction in labor costs. What they haven't achieved is structural reform across the board," an EU official said.

Even with reforms and economic growth, Greece may have to stay under a bailout program for longer than currently foreseen, the official said.

(Additional reporting by John O'Donnell in Brussels and Lefteris Papadimas in Athens)

"I chose my opponent for September 14th and it's Canelo Alvarez," Mayweather said Wednesday night on Twitter. "I'm giving the fans what they want. It will be at the MGM Grand."

Alvarez sent a tweet in Spanish announcing the fight.

The 36-year-old Mayweather is unbeaten in 44 fights, the last a unanimous 12-round decision over Robert Guerrero on May 4 at the MGM Grand in defense of his 147-pound title.

Alvarez is 42-0-1. The 22-year-old fighter unified the 154-pounds titles April 20 in San Antonio with a unanimous victory over Austin Trout.

The fight will be contested at 152 pounds and offers a rare bout between two unbeaten fighters in their primes.

"Floyd has said from Day 1 that he wants to give fans the best fight out there and here it is," Mayweather's co-manager, Leonard Ellerbe, told the AP. "We have the two biggest stars in the sport and they're fighting each other Sept. 14."

The bout will be the second in Mayweather's six-fight, 30-month contract with Showtime that could pay him more than $200 million.

Tensions exploded as Kevin Weeks was questioned by Bulger's lawyer about a plea deal with prosecutors that resulted in Weeks serving five years in prison after pleading guilty to aiding and abetting Bulger in five murders.

Weeks bristled at attorney J.W. Carney Jr.'s suggestion that he had beaten the system and that he wasn't bothered by his participation in five killings.

"How does it bother you?" Carney asked.

"Because we killed people that were rats, and I had the two biggest rats right next to me," Weeks snapped.

"You suck," Bulger said from his seat at the defense table.

"F--- you, OK!" Weeks replied.

"F--- you, too," Bulger said.

"What do you want to do?" Weeks challenged Bulger.

Judge Denise Casper moved to restore order.

"Hey!" Casper said. "Mr. Bulger, let your attorneys speak for you. Mr. Weeks, here's how this works: You answer the questions, OK?"

Weeks was referring to the prosecution's claim that Bulger and his longtime cohort, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, were FBI informants on the rival New England Mafia while they were both committing a litany of crimes.

Weeks, 57, said he decided to cooperate with prosecutors and testify after learning that Bulger and Flemmi were informants.

The outburst came on the second day of Weeks' testimony against Bulger. Earlier Tuesday, he offered gruesome details about three murders he said he saw Bulger commit.

Bulger, 83, is accused of playing a role in 19 killings during the 1970s and '80s while he allegedly led the Winter Hill Gang.

Bulger has pleaded not guilty and insists he was never an FBI informant. During the trial, his lawyers have focused much of their energy on rebutting the informant claim.

Weeks, who started working for Bulger as an enforcer in the late 1970s, said Bulger was a mentor, friend and "like an older brother to me."

"He treated me great," he said.

Weeks said he helped Bulger even after Bulger fled Boston in 1994 when he learned he was about to be indicted.

That changed, Weeks said, when he learned that Bulger and Flemmi had been FBI informants for years. He said that went against the South Boston culture to never rat on your friends or your enemies.

Carney asked Weeks if he was concerned that he'd be seen as a rat after he made his deal with prosecutors to testify against Bulger and Flemmi.

"You can't rat on a rat," Weeks said.

Weeks described three killings he said he saw Bulger commit and several others he said Bulger admitted he had somehow engineered.

He said he was at a South Boston house with Bulger in 1985 when he heard that 26-year-old Deborah Hussey, the daughter of Flemmi's longtime girlfriend, would be coming over.

While Weeks was upstairs, he heard a thud coming from below him.

"Jim Bulger had her on the ground, choking her," he said.

Flemmi carried her to the basement but thought she was still alive. Flemmi wrapped a rope around her neck, put a stick in it and strangled her, Weeks said.

He said Flemmi then removed her teeth and they buried her under the dirt floor.

Hussey was one of three people who were buried in the same house after Bulger killed them, Weeks said. He said he helped moved the bodies later when the house was being sold. In 2000, after he began cooperating with the government, he led authorities to the new location in the Dorchester section of Boston.

Weeks said John McIntyre was killed after Bulger heard he may have spoken with authorities about a failed bid to send guns to the Irish Republican Army. He said McIntyre was chained to a chair and interrogated by Bulger, who held a machine gun.

After McIntyre admitted he was cooperating with law enforcement, Bugler wrapped a rope around his neck and tried to strangle McIntyre, Weeks said. The rope was too thick and the pressure caused McIntyre to vomit, he said.

"Jim says to him, 'Do you want one in the head?' and he said, 'Yes, please,'" Weeks said.

Bulger then shot him in the head, Weeks said. When that didn't kill him, Bulger shot him several more times, Weeks said.

During cross-examination, Bulger's lawyer focused largely not on the crimes Bulger is charged with, but instead on trying to get Weeks to acknowledge that Bulger loathed anyone who was a rat.

Carney asked Weeks if, during the two decades he spent working with Bulger, he made it clear that "what he hated above all else was informants."

"We killed people for being informants," Weeks said.

Carney also asked Weeks if Bulger was ever charged, despite being involved in "all manner of crimes," including extortion, loan-sharking, money-laundering and, sometimes "crimes of violence."

Weeks acknowledged that Bulger was not charged until 1995.

The defense contends that Bulger paid FBI agents, state police and local police for information on investigations so he could stay one step ahead of any indictment.

Weeks said he saw Bulger stuffing envelopes with cash at Christmas and Bulger told him the money was for various law enforcement officials, including six FBI agents he claimed he had corrupted.

Former FBI Agent John Connolly was convicted for tipping Bulger off to his 1995 indictment. Bulger fled in late 1994, just before the indictment, and was one of the nation's most wanted fugitives until he was captured in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

Flemmi is serving a life sentence for 10 murders.

CHICAGO (AP) -- Federal officials could end up overseeing the new Illinois health insurance marketplace for years to come after lawmakers in Springfield balked again at a full embrace of President Barack Obama's health care law.

The Legislature adjourned Friday without sending Gov. Pat Quinn's a bill on a state-run marketplace a consumer-friendly online shopping site for insurance. Quinn has pushed such a plan for three years without success.

Although the state will partner with Washington the first year, the Democratic governor had hoped Illinois could take the reins in 2014 for coverage starting in 2015. That timetable now seems highly unlikely unless lawmakers pass legislation when they convene for the abbreviated veto session this fall.

Jim Duffett of the Campaign for Better Health Care, an Illinois group that supports the health care law, predicts that if lawmakers don't approve a state-run marketplace then, there won't be one in Illinois for at least five years.

State senators approved the bill along party lines, but the full House never voted on it before last Friday's adjournment. A spokesman for House Speaker Mike Madigan noted the bill "didn't have much bipartisan support" in the Senate and would have had "tough sledding" in the House.

It was one more case of Obama's home state lagging behind some other Democrat-controlled states in implementing the president's signature domestic achievement.

The marketplace, as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act, is intended to be an online site where people can comparison shop for health insurance plans, just as they now shop for airline tickets on the Web. Most people buying insurance through the marketplace will get financial assistance to help them pay for insurance.

In Illinois, that will be true whether the marketplace is run by the federal government, as it will be this year, or by an Illinois governing board as Quinn wants for next year. Supporters of an Illinois-run marketplace say the benefit would be keeping state officials not Washington clearly overseeing the system and the insurance industry.

The marketplace will open for business Oct. 1 in Illinois, as scheduled. Illinois officials are reviewing 165 health policies that six different insurance carriers want to offer on the site. The marketplace will be run substantially by the federal government.

Sonya Schwartz of the National Academy for State Health Policy, which has been tracking states' progress on Obama's health law, said legislative approval in the fall is essential for Quinn to achieve his timetable. There's a Dec. 16, 2013, federal deadline for states to submit their plans to Washington if they hope to run a state-based marketplace for insurance coverage in 2015.

Even so, Schwartz said, the timeline would be demanding, but "you never know."

The bill's main Senate sponsor was Sen. Dave Koehler, a Peoria Democrat. Koehler said he's working with others to convince more House members to pass a state-run marketplace, also known as a health insurance exchange, in the fall.

"If we want to control the destiny for Illinois we need to have a state-based exchange," Koehler said.

Quinn spokesman Mike Claffey said the governor's office will work with Koehler and others "to craft legislation that can pass both houses of the General Assembly later this year. The fall veto session is Oct. 22-24 and Nov. 5-7, so there is an opportunity to pass legislation in the fall."

Consumer advocates, who want a state-run marketplace, are pessimistic.

"The picture looks really bleak for a state-based exchange in 2015," said Brian Imus of Illinois Public Interest Research Group. "There's going to have be leadership from Speaker Madigan to make it happen and a willingness from legislators to stand up to the insurance industry."

Madigan spokesman Steve Brown said it's not a question of the speaker's leadership.

"People, when they fail to accomplish something, tend to blame someone like Mike Madigan," Brown said. "I don't recall the bill's sponsors pushing for a vote" in the House, he added. The bill didn't have bipartisan support in the Senate, Brown said, and "it probably would have been tough sledding if it had been called" in the House.

The Illinois Legislature did pass another key element of the law: an expansion of Medicaid to cover most low-income adults without children at home. A U.S. Supreme Court decision last year made the Medicaid expansion optional for states. In Illinois, the Senate voted along strict partisan lines to expand Medicaid. In the House, some Democrats voted "no" on Medicaid expansion, although the measure passed.

"Medicaid expansion was the first big thing that needed to happen," Duffett said. "I can only speculate that Madigan did not want House members to take a second vote on Obamacare."

The Affordable Care Act calls for almost all Americans to have health insurance beginning in 2014 or pay a penalty. Starting in 2014, insurance companies will no longer be able to turn away people with a history of medical problems, or charge them more.

Nearly 1.8 million Illinois residents are uninsured. An estimated 486,000 Illinois residents will get coverage from commercial insurers through the marketplace in 2014. That figure is expected to reach 1 million customers by 2016.

___

AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/CarlaKJohnson

I wonder sometimes what it's like to eat dinner together at night, and what it's like to see parents kiss because they love each other -- not a stressed, distant, obligated contact.

I finally asked my mother, "Why don't you ever hug me?" Her answer was, "Because I can't remember the last time you tried to hug me."

I'm crying as I write this. Why doesn't my mother understand that kindness is necessary and should not be conditional? -- TROUBLED GIRL IN FLORIDA

DEAR TROUBLED GIRL: Your mother may have been raised in a loveless home and not know how to easily demonstrate affection. Or her marriage to your father could be so unhappy that she has shut down.

You are a perceptive girl, and it is understandable that you are "troubled." But the only person who can answer the question you have asked me is your mother, who appears to need to receive kindness and affection before she will be able to give it. Make an effort to hug her more and the situation may improve. How very sad.

DEAR ABBY: I'm a 33-year-old man who has screwed up his marriage. I stupidly had a fling with my wife's 16-year-old cousin and got in trouble for it. I never lied about it because I knew it was wrong, and I am deeply sorry for it. It happened more than a year ago. I ended up serving time in jail.

I love my wife. She is my best friend. We have no kids, just some great dogs and horses. We were very close until I went to jail, and the last day I was in there I got served with divorce papers.

I can't blame her for how she feels. She says she loves me but she's too hurt to continue. I love her and I'm devastated that I can't fix this.

I have known her for 20 years and she means so much to me. I want to save our marriage, and for the last year I have expressed repeatedly how sorry I am. Any advice? -- SORRY IN TENNESSEE

DEAR SORRY: Tell your wife (if the divorce isn't final) that you are willing to do anything to save your marriage, and ask her if she would be willing to go to couple's counseling with you.

Under the circumstances, her feelings are entirely understandable. If there is any love for you left in her heart, counseling may help to get your relationship back on track. However, if she refuses, you will have to accept her decision and go on with your life, having learned a very expensive lesson.

DEAR ABBY: I am a 23-year-old gay male who is interested in doing drag. Due to being unable to find work, I am hoping I can turn performing in drag into a source of income. I am not afraid to perform in front of crowds of people, so this could be a good idea. Do you think it is? -- POTENTIAL SUPERSTAR IN PHILADELPHIA

DEAR POTENTIAL SUPERSTAR: It's not a bad idea. Your next step is to audition to see if you have the ability and the looks to succeed.

While drag is a narrow niche of show business, some performers have had successful careers in that area -- and you might, too. You'll never know if you don't give it a try. I wish you luck.

Dear Abby is written by Abigail Van Buren, also known as Jeanne Phillips, and was founded by her mother, Pauline Phillips. Write Dear Abby ator P.O. Box 69440, Los Angeles, CA 90069.

Abby shares more than 100 of her favorite recipes in two booklets: "Abby's Favorite Recipes" and "More Favorite Recipes by Dear Abby." Send your name and mailing address, plus check or money order for $14 (U.S. funds) to: Dear Abby, Cookbooklet Set, P.O. Box 447, Mount Morris, IL 61054-0447. (Shipping and handling are included in the price.)

In an interview published Thursday in the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper, Assad says the opposition and their Western backers have "exhausted all their tools" in what his government has called a conspiracy against Syria.

The meeting of the Western-backed but deeply fractured Syrian National Coalition in Istanbul is the second attempt in two months by Assad's opponents to unify their ranks.

Sarah Karkour, a spokeswoman for the SNC says that acting leader George Sabra and senior opposition figures Louay Safi and Mustafa Sabbagh are topping the list of candidates for the new leadership.

More than 93,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - When Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir returned a few weeks ago from a summit in Ethiopia with his South Sudanese counterpart and former civil war foe, many people here expected him to talk of peace.

Instead, the 69-year-old ruler donned his officer's uniform, waved his trademark walking stick and - once again - threatened to cut off South Sudanese oil exports through Sudan, something the northern country's battered economy can ill afford.

The International Criminal Court-indicted leader faces a succession debate at home and his rhetoric was aimed less at the South, an uneasy neighbour since it split from the north in 2011, and more at hard-line Islamists and army officers in his own circles, analysts say.

This weekend, thousands of Sudanese demanded that Bashir step down in the biggest opposition rally for years. But the biggest threat to his rule might come from dissent within the army and Islamists, the backbone of his power since he seized control in a 1989 coup.

Nobody in the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) has declared himself a contender, but speculation over who could run the vast African country after Bashir has increased since he indicated he might quit before 2015 elections.

Diplomats say Bashir's family has been asking him to make good on that suggestion following his throat surgery last year. Officials insist he is completely fit but he has cut down on speeches and public events.

Any handover would be complicated by Bashir's indictment at the ICC for war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, where the government and the Janjaweed militia have been battling rebel groups from the minority non-Arab population since 2003. Analysts say he would be anxious to ensure a successor would not turn him over to The Hague to improve relations with the West.

"He would want a hardliner as successor to make sure there won't be any concession with the ICC," said Magdi El Gizouli, a political analyst and author of the "Still Sudan" blog.

Bashir is no stranger to challenges. In his 24 years in power, he has weathered protests, multiple armed revolts, U.S. trade sanctions, the loss of vital oil to South Sudan and, more recently, a coup attempt by disgruntled officers and Islamists.

While Western powers shun contact with Bashir due to the ICC Darfur charges, they worry his exit might lead to instability in one of Africa's biggest countries at a time when Islamist militants are fighting French troops in Mali and roam across sub-Saharan borders.

With its porous borders to Chad, Egypt, the Central African Republic and Libya, awash with arms from the 2001 overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi, an unstable Sudan could be a major security headache.

Alarm bells rang when unconfirmed reports emerged that some Mali fighters fleeing French troops had arrived in lawless Darfur in February, despite Sudan's denial.

"No doubt many horrible things happen in Sudan, but a Sudan without Bashir could be chaos," said a European diplomat. "You could have a link between Islamists here and in Mali."

ARMY IS POWER BROKER

NCP officials have played down Bashir's comments, with several calling on him to run again, fearing his exit might split the party, or indeed the country, which is dominated by three Arab tribes. Others want him to stay to safeguard their business interests.

"We will accept nobody else but you," Abu Majzoub, a senior NCP official told Bashir during a party meeting two weeks ago.

The president himself kept his options open at the event, declaring in a speech - one of his longest since undergoing surgery - that only a special NCP conference, expected for next year, would decide on the next candidate.

But newspaper columnist Mekki El Mograbi said it was too late to stop a succession debate. Middle-aged NCP cadres have been privately complaining that key positions in the government and state firms have been held for decades by the same old men.

They point to senior figures like Oil Minister Awad al-Jaz, who is on his second term in that post and has been rotated though various top jobs since the 1989 coup.

"Young people inside the NCP think it is time to take over power," said Mekki, an NCP member. "They want young people present in all government positions."

Some technocrats close to the NCP also feel the ICC charges stand in the way of better ties with the West as Sudan hopes for investment to realise its mineral and agricultural potential.

In a first public rift, senior NCP official Ghazi Salah ad-Din said in April the constitution banned Bashir from running again. The NCP promptly removed him as head of its parliamentary caucus.

To keep critics at bay Bashir cannot lose the loyalty of the army, a power broker in a country famous for coups.

By accusing South Sudan of backing Sudanese rebels he is playing to the feelings of hardliners in the army and also radical Islamists for whom the old civil war foe to the south is a natural enemy, analysts and diplomats in Khartoum say.

Some officers were enraged by a rebel attack on central Sudan in April, and dismayed by the army's struggle to seize back territory.

Bashir has since changed the army leadership under the banner of regular retirement, which offered him the chance to promote ambitious young officers and make a new start fighting rebels.

COUP RISK

Aly Verjee, senior researcher at the Rift Valley Institute, said Bashir had still the support of many in the army and NCP but the risk was that disgruntled officers might team up with Islamists who feel he has given up the religious values of his 1989 coup.

That risk was exposed when authorities unveiled in November a coup plot involving a former spy chief and 12 officers. One of them was a senior Islamist army officer, who is revered as a hero fighting southern "infidels" during the long civil war.

"The question is not whether anti-Bashir sentiment exists, but how deep it runs, how permanent it is, and how many of the leadership are sympathetic to such views," said Verjee.

The government has been at pains not to give any clues who might succeed Bashir one day.

When Japan held an African summit in June it left Sudan to choose its representative as Tokyo could not host Bashir due to the ICC charges. First Vice President Ali Osman Taha would have been the top-ranking alternative, but Khartoum only sent a state finance minister.

"It looked odd to have a junior minister sitting next to several African leaders, but I think they didn't want to send Taha since he's seen as a succession candidate," said a diplomat.

Taha would be the preferred candidate of many Western diplomats who hope his more moderate views might open a new page in relations. But as a former judge and lawyer it remains to be seen whether he would have the backing of the army.

"Bashir might think Taha is too soft and could make concessions with the ICC," said El Gizouli.

Another possible contender is presidential assistant Nafie Ali Nafie, a hardliner with security ties. He has been visiting European countries such as Norway, Sweden or Russia in recent months, which some see as a hint of higher ambitions.

SILVERSTONE, England, June 30 (Reuters) - Formula One should revert to last year's tyres for safety reasons to prevent any repeat of Sunday's dangerous British Grand Prix blowouts, according to Red Bull principal Christian Horner.

Speaking to reporters after a race in which four drivers suffered high-speed rear left tyre failures, with the rubber exploding in a burst of debris, the championship-leading boss said urgent action was needed.

"This is a Pirelli issue, they need to find a solution, they need to address it. Whether they go back to last year's tyre or a different tyre they need a solution," said Horner, who has called all season for the quick-wearing tyres to be harder and longer-lasting.

"The most logical thing would be to go back to the tyres that worked well for them previously. The tyres they had last year did not have these failures," he added.

The next race is at the Nuerburgring in Germany next weekend, before Hungary at the end of the month.

SHORT-SIGHTED

Red Bull's chief technical officer Adrian Newey said the situation at Silverstone was the result of 'short-sighted' behaviour by some rivals who had blocked Pirelli's plans to change the tyres for Canada earlier in the month.

"It's a sad state of affairs, but such is the nature of Formula One really," he said.

"It's been fairly clear that there has been a number of worrying tyre failures through the year, Pirelli came out with a solution to that - or appear to have come up with a solution with a different construction that was being offered initially for Montreal.

"Two or three teams vetoed that because they were worried that it would suit some other teams more than it would suit them and as a result of that short-sightedness we end up with Formula One putting on the worrying performance that it did today and concerns over driver safety.".

Tyres exploded in Sunday's race, with cars travelling at speeds in excess of 200kph, and heavy strips of rubber landed in the path of following cars.

Ferrari's championship contender Fernando Alonso had a near miss when the rear left tyre on Sergio Perez's McLaren exploded right in front of him.

"From what I understand of it, had we gone to the different construction then we wouldn't have had the sort of catastrophic failures that we have had today," said Newey.

"Safety wise, there are potentially two issues. There's the car that has the failure having an accident due to that failure, but also suddenly you've got three kg or so of tread flying around.

"If that hits the following car (driver) on the helmet, it doesn't bear thinking about."

Horner suggested that a young driver test scheduled for Silverstone between Germany and Hungary could be turned into a test for current drivers to guarantee meaningful feedback.

That would have the advantage of allowing teams to test tyres on the same circuit where they had suffered the most serious failures.

Former champion Niki Lauda suggested drivers should take a united stance.

"The drivers should write a letter, because they are the most affected, and (commercial supremo) Bernie (Ecclestone) needs to get involved to tell them (Pirelli) that by Budapest we need another tyre," said the Austrian, who is also the Mercedes non-executive chairman.

"If the worst comes to the worst, they should bring last year's tyre if they technically cannot fix the problem. And this has to happen. For Germany you can't do anything." (Additional reporting by Keith Weir; Editing by John Mehaffey)