Obama says more than 2 million people are saving about $3,000 a year after restructuring their loans under his administration but that more deserve the same chance.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, Obama also calls on the Senate to confirm "without delay" his choice of Democratic Rep. Mel Watt to lead the Federal Housing Finance Agency, which oversees government-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Obama says the North Carolina congressman helped enact rules to protect consumers from dishonest lenders.

In the Republican address, Alabama Rep. Martha Roby discusses legislation passed by the GOP-controlled House to give private-sector workers the right to trade overtime pay for additional time off.

___

Online:

Obama's address: www.whitehouse.gov

Republican address: www.youtube.com/HouseConference

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's national airline has barred female flight attendants from wearing red lipstick and nail polish, striking a nerve among secular Turks worried the country is becoming more Islamic.

Turkish Airlines, Europe's fourth-biggest carrier, said the ban was aimed at keeping crews "artless and well-groomed with makeup in pastel tones", as a natural look improved communication with passengers.

"As a consequence of our current cabin uniforms not including red, dark pink, et cetera, the use of lipstick and nail polish in these colors by our cabin crew impairs visual integrity," the statement said.

Turkish Airlines declined a request for further comment.

The guideline follows other restrictions on employees' appearance and on serving alcohol. Critics say they reflect the influence of the government's conservative religious values at the fast-growing state-run airline, one of Turkey's most recognized brands.

"This new guideline is totally down to Turkish Airlines management's desire to shape the company to fit its own political and ideological stance," Atilay Aycin, president of the airline's Hava-Is labor union, told Reuters.

"No one can deny that Turkey has become a more conservative, religious country."

Turkey is 99 percent Muslim but the NATO state and European Union candidate has a secular constitution.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's ruling AK Party, which traces its roots to a banned Islamic party, has relaxed the state's control over the expression of religion, such as once-strict limits imposed on wearing the Islamic-style headscarf.

Such restrictions were aimed at reining in Islamism and improving women's rights, but effectively prevented many devout women from studying at university or taking government jobs.

Turkish Airlines scrapped its own ban on the headscarf more than a year ago, and covered women now work at check-in counters and at other positions in the company, Aycin said.

Other Turkish carriers also have guidelines on the appearance of cabin personnel.

HIDDEN AGENDA?

The flag carrier caused a stir earlier this year when newspapers published mockups of a new Ottoman-style uniform for stewardesses with ankle-length dresses, a proposal the airline's management appears to have since abandoned.

That was followed by a ban on alcohol on planes flying to most domestic destinations and some Islamic countries.

"They are objecting to the lipstick and nail polish that we have been using for years," said Asli Gokmen, 30, a flight attendant who lost her job with more than 300 others last year during a union protest and is petitioning for her position back.

No current employees were available for comment.

Turks worried the government is undermining the country's secular order see a hidden agenda.

On Twitter, women posted pictures after applying red lipstick. One wrote: "Why not just ban stewardesses altogether so we can all breathe a sigh of relief?"

Some male Twitter users were indignant over the insinuation that red lipstick would induce a sexual frenzy.

Turkish Airlines passenger Ahmet Yerli, 33, said he did not think the new guideline was a sign of creeping Islamization but that the ban was still "absurd."

"I've never heard of a plane crashing because of a women's lipstick," he said before his flight.

(Additional reporting by Omer Berberoglu; Editing by Nick Tattersall, John Stonestreet)

The stakes are high for Christie, with medical professionals and campaign strategists alike suggesting there is no more serious barrier to his personal well-being and national ambitions than his weight.

It's not about politics, he said. It's about turning 50 and wanting to be around as his children grow up.

"This is a hell of a lot more important to me than running for president," Christie, a father of four, said at a news conference in Newark. "This is about my family's future."

Christie, who appeared thinner than he did earlier this year, said he decided around the time of his birthday in September to have the surgery and initially planned to have it done in November. But Superstorm Sandy's destruction in New Jersey pushed back the procedure until February. In the operation, a band was surgically placed around his stomach to restrict how much food he could eat.

Christie has not previously disclosed his weight, and he didn't on Tuesday. But it has been an issue throughout his political career.Comedians have often made fun of it, and in interviews with David Letterman, Oprah Winfrey, Barbara Walters and others, Christie has both joked about the issue and said solemnly that he was trying to shed pounds.

During a February appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman," the governor pulled out a doughnut and said his girth was "fair game" for comedians.

Over the next few days, he was asked repeatedly about his weight. At one point, he said he had a plan. "Whether it's successful or not," he said, "you'll all be able to notice."

The next day, he responded angrily to comments from a former White House physician who said she hoped he would run for president but worried about him dying in office. The governor said the doctor should "shut up."

Ten days after that, on Feb. 16, Christie had the surgery. He said the operation lasted 40 minutes and he was home the same afternoon. He was back at work on Feb. 19 for a full day of events.

Christie, who is in the midst of a re-election campaign, said he has been eating less because he hasn't been as hungry. He also has been working out with a personal trainer.

He said he had told only a few top staffers not his communications office or campaign staff and his communications director was caught by surprise Monday when a New York Post reporter asked directly if he'd had the procedure. The Post first reported the surgery on Tuesday. Christie said he'd used an alias at the hospital.

Christie said he never intended to make a public announcement and that he was "not going to be the guy who writes a book" about losing weight. The Republican, who has been a fixture in the national media spotlight, said the scrum of reporters at his news conference was "silly" and "ridiculous" at a time when there are other things going on.

He said he tried other ways to lose weight for years, but none seemed to work.

"It's not a career issue for me; it's a long-term health issue for me," he said.

Still, it's a way to confront a significant hurdle in his indisputable quest to emerge as a key leader in the Republican Party. He's in the top tier of those considered potential contenders for the presidential nomination in 2016.

Weeks after the surgery, Christie launched an aggressive national fundraising tour, fueling speculation that he's laying the groundwork for a White House bid.

In a country facing an obesity epidemic, more than 220,000 stomach-reducing procedures of various types are performed each year. Gastric bypass, sometimes called stomach stapling, is the most common, where surgeons shrink the stomach's size and reroute food to the small intestine. Christie had gastric band surgery. It's best known by the brand name Lap-Band, and is a less invasive alternative in which an adjustable ring is placed over the top of the stomach and tightened to restrict how much food can enter.

The adjustable Lap-Band has been available in the U.S. since 2001 for the most obese patients, and in 2011 the Food and Drug Administration expanded approval to somewhat less obese patients.

Candidates for gastric banding must have a body mass index of between 30 and 40 plus a weight-related medical condition, such as diabetes or high blood pressure or a BMI of 40 and higher. They also must have previously attempted to lose weight through diet and exercise.

"If you eat appropriately and chew your food, it works nicely," said Dr. Christina Li, a bariatric doctor at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. She said Christie has the resources to have people help him eat right and get exercise. While the band is removable, she said patients are told to adjust to having it for the rest of their lives.

Li said risks include infection, and that it does not work for all patients.

Dr. Jaime Ponce, who practices in Dalton, Ga., and is president of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery, said people who have the procedure Christie had often lose 1 to 2 pounds per week.

Christie's procedure was performed by Dr. George Fielding, head of NYU Medical Center's Weight Management Program, who did the same procedure for New York Jets coach Rex Ryan three years ago.

"It basically teaches you how to eat like a human," Ryan said of the device in an interview last week with The Associated Press. "The Lap-Band goes: 'No, no. You're only going to eat this or that,' and it trains your body how to eat right," said Ryan, who said he has lost 115 pounds from his pre-surgery weight of 348.

Few significantly overweight presidential candidates have succeeded in the modern political era, when television became a major factor in shaping voter attitudes. There are disputed reports that President William Howard Taft couldn't fit in a White House bathtub a century ago, but only a handful of presidents since have been considered obese. President Bill Clinton struggled at times with his weight, but he was substantially slimmer than the New Jersey governor.

"This has nothing to do with politics," said Christie adviser Bill Palatucci. "He said that he's doing this for his family and that's the right reason."

Backers publicly argue that Christie answered any questions about his weight's political impact in 2009, when he beat Gov. Jon Corzine despite the Democrat's reference in an ad to Christie "throwing his weight around" to get out of traffic tickets. Supporters say Christie's openness about his struggle is part of an authenticity people admire in him.

The governor's allies, medical professionals and even history suggest that his weight presents both practical and political problems.

"Gov. Christie's weight is an issue the same way that any candidate or official's health is an issue," said Michael Dennehy, a New Hampshire-based Republican strategist and veteran of presidential politics. "Anyone running for president will need to comfort Americans with an overall healthy picture for their future."

___

Mulvihill reported from Haddonfield, N.J., and Peoples from Providence, R.I. AP Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington, AP writers Thomas Beaumont in Des Moines, Iowa, and AP Sports Writer Dennis Waszak in New York contributed to this report.

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Employment increases were seen in professional and business services, food services and drinking places, retail trade and health care, according to the report.

Thermo Fisher met a bid deadline on Tuesday but private equity firms working on a joint bid missed it and were working late into the evening to secure the equity required to support an offer, the people said.

Blackstone Group LP, Carlyle Group LP and Singapore's state investor Temasek Holdings were in talks with KKR & Co LP about securing the required equity and finalizing a buyout consortium, the people said.

Life Technologies would likely accept an offer past the bid deadline to keep the process competitive, the people added.

Thermo Fisher, the world's largest maker of laboratory equipment, is bidding more than $65 per each Life Tech share, two of the people said. While the exact price could not be learned, Thermo had been considering a bid of $65 to $70 per share, sources said last week.

The private equity group would likely bid close to $65 per share, the people said.

Shares of Life Tech ended up 1.3 percent at $66.19 on Tuesday, giving it a market value of $11.3 billion.

The people asked not to be named because details of the auction are not public. Representatives for Life Tech, Thermo Fisher, KKR, Blackstone, Carlyle and Temasek declined to comment or could not be immediately reached for comment.

(Reporting by Greg Roumeliotis and Soyoung Kim in New York)

The site also has plans to draw on techniques used by other travel websites such as crowd sourcing for hotel reviews and adding a social aspect to the site by allowing users to create profiles and network with each other. Although these features are available on the larger travel websites they have yet to filter down to the smaller, more specific travel websites that deal with one small part of the travel experience, which in this case is hotels near Manchester airport.

As the airport now consists of three terminals and with over 18 million passengers passing through them in 2011, there is a large market that websites and industries supporting the airport can tap into. By attempting to offer real savings to their users, as well as simplifying the process of choosing and then booking a hotel, thewebsite has a clear strategy for how they plan to establish themselves in this crowded market.

Once the hotels in the area have been covered and discounts and savings have been negotiated, the management team of the website intend to expand into the Manchester airport car parking market. By repeating the same process of comparing and reviewing the different options available and then creating a simple booking process, with exclusive discounts, theplans to cement its position as the one stop shop for anyone making their own way to the airport and staying overnight in the surrounding area.

Although representatives from competitors were unavailable for comment, the general mood seems to be one of quiet inquisition rather than all out panic. As many have tried and failed in the past, to break into this lucrative but competitive market, only time will tell if the Hotels at Manchesteris to succeed at offering a service that is strong enough to steer travellers away from the services they are already using and entice new customers to their website.

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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The push for comprehensive immigration legislation faces an uncertain fate in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives even as Senate supporters voiced optimism on Thursday for overwhelming backing in that chamber.

As the Democratic Party-controlled Senate pushed ahead on an 844-page bill that aims to rewrite America's immigration law, the Republican-controlled House was still undecided on how broad of a bill it might consider - or even if it would advance legislation this year.

That was the message delivered Thursday by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte, who told reporters that he would be introducing a series of individual bills, starting with legislation to help farmers get foreign workers and improving an electronic system to help businesses be sure they are hiring legal workers.

"We have made no decisions about how to proceed," Goodlatte said at a news conference, adding he did not know whether his committee would try to advance "individual bills or whether it would pertain to a larger bill."

He did however say that he hoped some sort of legislation could pass in 2013.

Goodlatte's uncertainty is in contrast to senators who have advanced a comprehensive immigration bill that is expected to be debated next month by the Senate Judiciary Committee. That measure would put the 11 million people living illegally in the United States on a 13-year path to citizenship.

Two authors of that bipartisan bill said on Thursday they are hopeful most Senate Democrats and Republicans will support their White House-backed measure.

"It is very doable," Republican Senator John McCain of Arizona said of the prospects of attracting wide bipartisan backing. Democratic Senator Charles Schumer of New York agreed.

The Senate Judiciary Committee plans to debate, and most likely amend, the newly introduced bill as Democrats aim to get full Senate approval by late June.

Goodlatte refused to set up any such timetable for House action.

Referring to the November, 2014 congressional elections, the Virginia Republican said: "Election years are more difficult than non-election years" for passing major, controversial legislation. "But I'll also say that it is far more important that we get this right this time...than live by any particular timetables."

Similarly, Goodlatte was non-committal when asked whether House legislation would contain provisions letting those who came to the United States illegally or overstayed their visas to eventually become U.S. citizens.

"What exactly can be done there remains to be seen," Goodlatte said.

On the hot-button issue of potential citizenship for undocumented residents, Goodlatte said: "I prefer not to see a special pathway to citizenship but a status that would give them some kind of legal status."

A 'NON-STARTER'

Immigration reform advocates have long insisted that legislation must be addressed in a comprehensive way rather than piecemeal and that the 11 million undocumented immigrants must be "brought out of the shadows" and set onto a road to citizenship. It is a 13-year-long road in the Senate bill that includes the payment of penalties for people who either entered the U.S. illegally or overstayed their visas.

McCain and Schumer, speaking at a breakfast roundtable with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor, said legislation without a pathway to citizenship would be a "non-starter."

They said their aim is to muster strong support, as many as 70 votes in the 100-member Democratic-led chamber, to help the measure's chances in the Republican-led House.

"It is a balanced bill," Schumer said. "I'm optimistic it will pass."

McCain and Schumer drafted the comprehensive measure with six other senators, three Democrats and three Republicans. It would bolster border security, help provide low- and high-skilled workers for businesses and create an earned pathway to U.S. citizenship for 11 million undocumented immigrants.

McCain said he called Representative Paul Ryan, the 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee, on Wednesday to thank him for publicly voicing support in recent days for comprehensive immigration reform.

"I believe in it," McCain quoted Ryan as telling him. Ryan is seen as an influential voice among conservatives who could help propel any bill in the House.

Even so, many conservative Republicans question whether any broad immigration legislation should be attempted until further security measures are in place along the southwestern border with Mexico.

(Editing by Fred Barbash and Cynthia Osterman)

As a novelist, poet, broadcaster and lecturer, Achebe was a yardstick against which generations of African writers have been judged. For children across Africa, his books have for decades been an eye-opening introduction to the power of literature.

Describing Achebe as a "colossus of African writing", South African President Jacob Zuma expressed sadness at his death.

Nelson Mandela, who read Achebe's work in jail, has called him a writer "in whose company the prison walls fell down."

Achebe's "Things Fall Apart", published in 1958, told of his Igbo ethnic group's fatal brush with British colonisers in the 1800s - the first time the story of European colonialism had been told from an African viewpoint to an international audience. The book was translated into 50 languages and has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide.

He later turned his sights on the devastation wrought to Nigeria and Africa by military coups and entrenched dictatorship.

"Anthills of the Savannah," published in 1987, is set after a coup in a fictional African country, where power has corrupted and state brutality silenced all but the most courageous.

The pain at Achebe's death was felt across Nigeria, and particularly in the southeast homeland of the Igbos.

"Our whole household is crying out in grief," a cousin and traditional chief, Uba Onubon, told Reuters in Ikenga village.

WAR

Born at Ogidi in southeast Nigeria on November 16, 1930, Achebe was the son of a Christian evangelist. He went to mission schools and to University College, Ibadan, and taught briefly before joining the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, where he was director of external broadcasting from 1961 to 1966.

When his homeland broke away from Nigeria in a disastrous bid for independence, Achebe launched a publishing company in Enugu, capital of the self-declared republic of Biafra.

After the war, which cost a million lives along with Biafra's hopes of statehood, Achebe returned to Enugu to teach at the nearby Nsukka University.

In 1972 he moved to Massachusetts and since then spent much of his time in the United States, with occasional spells in Nigeria. His last post was at Brown University in Rhode Island.

Through tears, former government minister and friend Dora Akunyili said Achebe's death "leaves a void in Nigeria, Africa and globally."

Although Achebe never won the Nobel literature prize like fellow Nigerian Wole Soyinka, his works won praise for their vivid portrayal of African realities and their accessibility for all readers.

His contribution was recognised when he won The Man Booker International Prize in 2007.

CORRUPTION

He never hesitated to turn harsh words on his home country, publishing a pamphlet in 1983, "The Trouble With Nigeria", excoriating its corruption and condemning it as "dirty, callous, noisy, ostentatious, dishonest and vulgar. In short it is among the most unpleasant places on earth."

"The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility," he wrote, words which chimed with the feelings of many Nigerians.

In 2004, he turned down the title 'Commander of the Federal Republic' offered to him by then President Olusegun Obasanjo, replying that he was appalled by the cliques who had turned Nigeria into "a bankrupt and lawless fiefdom".

Undaunted, President Goodluck Jonathan also tried to confer a national honour on him in 2011. He snubbed that one too.

A car accident put Achebe in a wheelchair in 1990 and he wrote no books for more than 20 years.

His last, "There Was a Country" was a deeply personal account, in prose and poetry, of the horrors of the 1967-70 Biafra war, lifting decades of silence on the loss of friends, family and countrymen that forever shaped his life.

A report by Amnesty International said it found that thousands of displaced people have been evicted from public spaces and private properties. People kicked out of settlements find themselves "further marginalized and driven deeper into poverty," it said.

The government of President Michel Martelly has condoned the evictions led by mayors, police officers and others, the report charged.

"They are tolerated by the state and carried out in total impunity by state agents and private individuals or groups (non-state actors) alike," it said.

Amnesty said it wrote to Martelly, the prime minister and mayors of two cities that have seen evictions in an effort to arrange meetings with them, but the requests were declined or went unanswered.

Haitian Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe told The Associated Press Monday night that there were "some" landowners who were responsible for forced evictions but it was not something the government endorsed.

"We don't believe in forced evictions," Lamothe said by telephone. "There are some private owners that do it, but the government itself does not condone that."

Lamothe cited a government-led effort that pays rental subsidies to camp residents. He said it has "relocated over 1.2 million people and has respected their lives and in a peaceful matter. Our policy is respecting their lives and relocating them in a peaceful manner."

The post-quake encampments became symbolic of the widespread devastation caused by the January 2010 earthquake, which toppled thousands of buildings and killed more than 300,000 people. The number of people still living in camps has become a barometer of the success or failure of how to house Haitians, though it's unclear what happens to most people after they leave the formal camps.

Amnesty said its study documents a pattern of forced evictions of families left homeless by the quake.

This has involved mass removals without notice, it said. Amnesty said forced evictions violate the rights of displaced people at all stages: threats prior to an eviction, violence during eviction and homelessness afterward.

More than 20,000 families, about a fifth of those still living in makeshift camps, face forced eviction by private landowners or the authorities, the study said.

"Homelessness is the most immediate consequence of forced eviction," it said. "For those living in Haiti's makeshift camps and already coping with displacement, it signals the start of yet another phase of uncertainty, disruption and distress."

Like Lamothe, Martelly has said he opposes evictions but they've continued anyway. Residents of settlements and housing advocates have accused city officials and police officers of violently dismantling the tarp-like structures and evicting people.

Amnesty last week called for an investigation into the alleged police beating of a Haitian man who was protesting an arson attack in a camp under the threat of eviction.

The International Organization of Migration reported last week that 6 percent of the estimated 27,230 Haitians who have left camps this year came as the result of evictions. It didn't give a reason for the evictions, but some landlords and city officials have kicked people off public and private property to reclaim the land.

That group's report said 320,050 people remain in the settlements. This marks a 79 percent drop since the number of people living in the tent camps peaked at 1.5 million.