Militias, many comprised of former rebels who fought in Libya's eight-month civil war that toppled Moammar Gadhafi in 2011, have mushroomed in size and power in the last two years. The government has so far failed to bring the well-armed groups under state control, though efforts have been made to encourage enrollment in the country's still weak police and army.

The militias blocked access to the ministries in an attempt to push parliament to pass a contentious law that would prevent members of Gadhafi's regime from serving in senior government posts. Libyan lawmakers approved the measure over the weekend, with guns still drawn on the streets.

The militias remained outside the ministries for several more days to demand that the law be applied quickly. The groups had a list of several ministers they wanted removed, including Libya's prime minister. He has angered militias by calling on them to join the government's security forces, vowing to take a hard stance against armed groups that do not fall into line.

Employees could be seen going to work again at the ministries after militias ended their siege on Saturday. An official at the Foreign Ministry told The Associated Press that the situation had returned to normal Sunday, with the country's foreign minister and his deputy meeting with other top diplomats on their first day back at work.

On Friday, scores of militiamen descended on an anti-Islamist rally in the nation's capital, kicking and beating protesters who had taken to the streets after a call for demonstrations against the unruly militias.

Rallies also took place in the eastern cities of Benghazi and Tobruk. Hundreds of activists denounced the armed groups and what they described as political maneuverings by the nation's Muslim Brotherhood in relation to the new law.

A day later in Benghazi, the country's second largest city, a police station was bombed, according to a security official there. No injuries were reported.

All officials spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

The Interior Ministry said it has 400 "highly trained" policemen to beef up security in Benghazi, and that around 2,000 police cadets are graduating in the coming days to help secure the city.

Benghazi was the site of an attack last September on the U.S. consulate that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As Congress sifts through a growing number of requests for targeted relief from automatic spending cuts in coming weeks, advocates seeking funding shifts likely will need to tell a compelling story with potential life-or-death consequences.

Requests without such a strong selling point may find it impossible to gain enough bipartisan support as lawmakers vow not to repeat a swift and controversial action last week to save airline travelers from flight delays caused by automatic "sequestration" spending cuts.

Congress was worried about a toxic public backlash when it moved quickly to allow the Federal Aviation Administration to use some airport improvement funds to pay salaries of air traffic controllers, ending furloughs that had delayed thousands of flights across the country.

When members of Congress return from a recess on Monday, there will be no shortage of other requests to shift funds from other budget accounts awaiting them.

The National Park Service faces closures and cutbacks that will cost jobs in communities that depend on the parks as the summer travel season begins. Some 70,000 children may be shut out of the Head Start preschool program for low-income families while funding for Meals on Wheels, cancer research and some treatments for Medicare patients will be cut.

The Pentagon is expected to ask for more authority to move up to $7.5 billion within its budget to cover costs for training and military operations in Afghanistan. With troops still in harm's way, that request likely will face few objections.

More needs will pile up As the across-the-board spending cuts - $85 billion through September 30 - take hold. But most will fall on deaf ears as lawmakers insist that a comprehensive budget deal is needed to resolve sequester cuts, not individual fixes.

"With the possible exception of life-threatening issues, there will be plenty of pleas from people who represent worthy causes that get ignored," said Greg Valliere, chief political strategist at Potomac Research, an investment consulting firm.

"It's extremely unlikely that House Republicans will be willing to grant exceptions for national parks, Meals on Wheels or teachers," he said.

The sequester cuts that took effect March 1 were conceived in 2011 as a way to force the White House and Congress to find an alternative budget deal rather than have spending cuts kick in automatically. Policymakers failed to reach such an agreement and now must deal with the fallout from the cuts, which total will total $1.2 trillion over 10 years unless replaced.

Last month's flight delays created a mix of pressure from the airline industry and constituents facing a universally loathed problem that both parties could rally around.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, however, is not inclined to pursue additional one-off measures to deal with sequester, a Democratic leadership aide said. Reid would prefer to press forward with his proposal to simply delay the cuts through September 30 in order to buy more time for a broader budget deal.

"I just don't see another one-off bill that's going to rise to the same level as flight delays," a senior House Republican aide said.

Many House Republicans also are concerned about giving the Obama administration more authority to move money between budget accounts at federal agencies, which circumvents Congress' constitutional powers to direct spending.

In the case of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Republican aide said there is concern that such budget shifts could inadvertently give the agency power to help fund implementation of Obama's healthcare reform law, which many Republicans deeply despise and want to repeal.

SAY NO TO CANCER PATIENTS?

But funding cutbacks for some Medicare cancer treatments and cancer research studies also could be difficult for many lawmakers to resist.

The most concerted effort in this area is a Republican House bill that would exempt Medicare reimbursements on expensive cancer drugs administered at doctors' offices and clinics - one of the few portions of the healthcare program for the elderly that is subject to the sequester. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) would have to shift cuts in these reimbursement rates elsewhere under the measure.

The bill's author, Representative Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, a Tea Party favorite, argues that because of the sequester, oncology clinics have been sending patients to hospitals to get their drugs.

But hospital treatment costs, which are not subject to sequester, are far higher - an average increase of $6,500 per patient per year, according to one study. Ellmers argues that this circumvents the whole point of sequester spending cuts.

"We don't want to see treatments delayed, and some patients on fixed incomes might skip treatment altogether if they are forced to go across town to a hospital," said Ellmers, who spent two decades as a surgical nurse before winning a seat in Congress in 2010.

The measure has substantial bipartisan support, with 51 cosponsors including 11 Democrats. Separately, 124 House members from both parties signed a letter to the CMS director asking that "any available flexibility be used to direct the cuts away from patients."

A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner declined to comment on the bill's prospects for passage, referring questions about it to the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

THREAT TO CANCER TRIALS

Cancer research doctors also say further sequester funding cutbacks could ultimately cost lives.

Dr. Scott Lippman, director of the University of California-San Diego Moores Cancer Center, said the sequester will mean fewer clinical trials for promising therapies, and some patients ultimately will be turned away from these trials. Research on new treatments also could be slowed.

"This going to harm patients," Lippman said. "This is going to prevent patients from getting treatments that could save their lives."

At a time when advancements in cancer research are moving very quickly with new gene-based discoveries, he said now is "not the time to be slamming on the brakes."

While no trials have been canceled yet due to sequester alone, research centers are working hard to try to cut everything else that they can, said Dr. Edward Partridge, director of the University of Alabama-Birmingham's Comprehensive Cancer Center. But the choices will be difficult.

"We will do everything we can to maintain our current clinical trial volume," he said. "Even if it's at the expense of new discovery. I hope (sequester) doesn't last too long so that we have to withdraw the possibility of clinical trials for patients. That would be a disaster."

(Reporting By David Lawder; Editing by Fred Barbash and Bill Trott)

FALTERING ECONOMIC GROWTH: The economy has grown at less than 4 percent a year under the most recent government, which was led by the Pakistan People's Party and governed for five years. That is much lower than the rates during the previous administration, which at times hovered near 7 percent. Under the most recent government, inflation spiked, reaching an annualized rate of around 25 percent in some months. However, the inflation rate has fallen and averaged around 11 percent last year.

ENERGY SHORTAGES: Electricity shortages nearly doubled under the PPP compared with the previous administration. Some places in Pakistan suffer blackouts for up to 18 hours a day during summer months. The country also has experienced increased shortages of natural gas, which were felt acutely during the winter because many people rely on natural gas to heat their homes as well as cook. Spending on energy subsidies and failing public enterprises has helped sap the government's funds, which are much lower than they should be because of ineffective tax collection. The combination of these factors means the government will likely have to seek yet another unpopular bailout from the International Monetary Fund.

TALIBAN ATTACKS: The military has launched numerous operations against the Pakistani Taliban in the country's northwest tribal region along the Afghan border during the past five years. Analysts say the operations and U.S. drone attacks against militants in the tribal region have helped produce a significant decline in overall levels of violence in 2011 and 2012. But the Taliban have remained a potent threat, including during the election campaign. The group carried out near-daily attacks against election candidates and offices that killed more than 130 people. The militants mostly targeted liberal secular parties that supported operations against the Taliban. Sectarian violence by radical Sunni Muslim militants against minority Shiites also has significantly worsened in recent months.

A new study of the bacteria living on family members and their dogs revealed some surprises in the way microbes are shared within a household.

"One of the biggest surprises was that we could detect such a strong connection between their owners and pets," Rob Knight, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder, said in a statement. "In fact, the microbial connection seems to be stronger between parents and family dogs than between parents and their children." []

By swabbing tongues, foreheads, feces, palms and paws, Knight and his colleagues collectedsamples from 60 families, including 17 households with children, involving 159 people and 36 dogs in total.

Overall, the researchers' findings showed that the people and theircan greatly influence the microbes that live in the body. Sharing surfaces (countertops, doorknobs, you name it) and breathing the same indoor air seems to make it much easier for family members to swap skin microbes than tongue or gut bacteria in a home, the scientists say. And pets are part of the exchange.

"Ourin particular seems to be the most malleable by our immediate surroundings, which includes the presence of household pets," study researcher Se Jin Song, a CU-Boulder doctoral student, said in a statement. Couples who had a dog shared more skin bacteria with each other than couples without a canine companion, the researchers found.

Meanwhile, parents seemed to have much more tongue and gut bacteria in common with their own children than with other children, but only after about age 3. (Kids are not born with a built-in , but acquire most of it by age 3.) The foreheads and palms of fathers and their infants had the weakest microbial connection of all the body sites and relationships studied by the researchers.

Microbes vastly outnumber human cells in the body. Whereas some kinds of bacteria can make you sick, others are vital for various aspects of a person's health. Gut microbes, for example, can help to digest food, make vitamins and fight off disease.

The new study, which was detailed online today (April 17) in the open-access journal , adds to previous research showing that the makeup of human bacteria is affected by factors like environmental exposure. For example, the "," first put forth in the 1980s, posits that exposure to bacteria and other microorganisms can help bolster immunity to environmental antigens, cutting the risk of asthma and food allergies. There's more and more evidence that pets could play a role in this process.

"Recent studies link early exposure to pets to decreased prevalence of allergies, respiratory conditions and other immune disorders in later stages of development, and skin microbes in particular are now receiving more focus as important players in immune regulation," the researchers wrote.

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NEW YORK (TheWrap.com) - Producers Constantin Film and Unique Features must be confident in their "The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones," due August 23. They have just signed the two stars, Lily Collins and Jamie Campbell Bower, in the sequel: "The Mortal Instruments: City of Ashes."

The films are based on a successful series of young-adult books, five of which are in print with another set to hit shelves next March. More than 16 million copies of the series have been sold worldwide.

In the books, second book, Clary Fray (Collins) is a teenager whose mother is kidnapped; she turns to Shadowhunter Jace (Campbell Bower), a half-angel, half-human warrior, to help get her back - only to discover that she is a Shadowhunter, as well.

ScreenGems and parent company Sony will distribute the first film, which Constantin Film, Sony and Unique Features produced. Constantin and Unique Features will produce the sequel as well, which Mister Smith, which announced the sequel, will begin to sell at the Cannes Film Festival next week.

"We are outstandingly proud of what has been achieved on 'The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones' - and what better proof would there be than putting the next installment of Cassandra Clare's phenomenal vision - 'City of Ashes' - into production now," Martin Moszkowicz, a member of the executive board of Constantin Film and executive producer on the film, said in a statement.

Harald Zwart, who directed "The Karate Kid" and the first film in the series, will direct the second. Jessica Postigo Paquette, who wrote the first, also scripted the second. Principal photography will begin in the fall.

Co-producer DMG Entertainment, a Chinese firm, and the Walt Disney-owned Marvel Studios also hope the changes will help ease the film's way past China's strict censors and the draconian, and often confusing, rules for Western films.

"There is no law of film in China, and so no specific standard. The members on the committee censor films totally by their own judgment," said Zhu Dake, an outspoken Chinese film critic based in Shanghai.

Every movie in China is censored by the Film Censorship Committee, made up of 37 members including officials, academics, film magazine editors and directors. They vet nudity, violence and politically sensitive scenes.

Western films must in addition meet the committee's "amendment opinions" to be one of the 34 Hollywood films permitted in China each year, giving them a shot at a lucrative market where box office takings grew 30 percent in 2012 to 17.1 billion yuan ($2.77 billion).

The amendments remain unknown and committee members could not be reached for comment.

Imported films, which raked in over half the box office last year, have gotten flexible as a result. The latest James Bond film, "Skyfall", cut several sensitive scenes, while action thriller "Looper" added Chinese members to the cast.

In "Iron Man 3", which opens on May 1, Robert Downey Jr. stars as hero Tony Stark, while Ben Kingsley plays the "Mandarin", a half-Chinese villain - the kind of thing that could be a red flag for censors. In the Chinese version, however, the name is translated as "Man Daren", removing the overtly Chinese connotation.

"Iron Man 2" was also censored before it screened in China in 2010, with the words for "Russia" and "Russian" left untranslated in the subtitles and the spoken words muffled. China and Russia share a close-knit history of socialism and have recently reaffirmed close political and military ties.

DJANGO SHOWS ARBITRARY DECISIONS

Nothing, though, is guaranteed. "Django Unchained", the Oscar-winning film from director Quentin Tarantino, known for his violent tales, was pulled abruptly from Chinese cinemas at its debut earlier this month.

Distributors cited "technical reasons", but Zhu thinks the trigger was more political. He said the narrative, which involves a European outsider stirring rebellion in the pre-Civil War United States, could have been the issue.

"He is an outside force inciting people to rise up against slavery, which may be reminiscent of Chinese social reality," he said.

On April 26, the movie's U.S. distributors said it had gotten the green light for re-release in May. A Hollywood source close to the film said additional cuts had been made but declined to elaborate on what they were.

China's cinema goers do not always appreciate the meddling.

"The Chinese elements added feel abrupt; including Summer Qing is totally incongruous!" said microblogger "Grapefruit and Lemon" on China's Twitter-like Weibo, referring to a Chinese actress who appeared alongside Bruce Willis in "Looper".

Western films aren't the only victims. The Chinese film "Farewell My Concubine" won the Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival, in 1993, but was banned in mainland China for depicting miserable scenes during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s and 1970s.

"Sometimes the suggestions of the censors mean we don't know whether to laugh or cry," award-winning Chinese director Feng Xiaogang said at an awards ceremony in 2012. "Would any Hollywood director have to suffer this?"

The overall impact may be broad and long-term. Zhu Dake said the heavy-handed grip on artistic expression is holding back China's budding auteurs.

"It's not that Chinese directors lack the talent to make great movies," he said. "But there's always a sword hanging there, which could drop at any time." ($1 = 6.1707 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Shanghai Newsroom, Editing by Elaine Lies and Michael Perry)

After mulling throwing world number one singles player Novak Djokovic into the doubles, captain Bogdan Obradovic opted instead for Bozoljac, who had only won six tour level doubles matches in his career and had a singles ranking of 338.

But the tall Serbian responded brilliantly, clocking huge serves, groundstrokes and returns in partnership with the experienced Zimonjic to seal victory in four hours and 23 minutes.

"I know that I had that in myself," Bozoljac said. "Through the years, I struggled a lot with injuries and I couldn't really play consistent so that is the reason why I was not ranked higher.

"But I knew that if I give my 100 percent for one match, I can play on a really high level and I can match up with these good players."

While the Bryans had lost their last Davis Cup match in the United States victory over Brazil in February, they were favored to beat the Serbs as they came into the match with a 20-3 record in Davis Cup and had won a tour high four doubles titles this year, including their record 13th grand slam at the Australian Open.

HARD SERVES

But while they staged a furious comeback in third and fourth sets in front of their home crowd, they could not come up with enough clutch play in the deciding set to hold off the Serbs.

The Bryans were two points from winning the contest on three different occasions, but with their backs against the wall, the Serbians stood tall.

With the score at 11-12, 30-30 and former top-ranked doubles player Zimonjic serving, the big Serbian hit two hard serves that produced netted returns by the Bryans to hold.

Mike Bryan had not been broken in the entire contest, but serving at 13-13 on break point, Bozoljac hit a screaming crosscourt backhand winner for the break to 14-13.

The Bryans have two chances to break back in the final game, but Zimonjic shut the door with two booming aces, blasting a huge serve down the middle to seal the match.

He and Bozoljac then hugged and danced around while Djokovic bounced up and down on the sidelines chanting Serbian songs.

"If this isn't the best performance of all time from me, it certainly is in Davis Cup," said Zimonjic.

The Serbians ended up with 125 winners to just 80 from the Bryans.

"We've seen a lot of people in this competition rise up," said U.S. captain Jim Courier.

"You look at the numbers next to the (Bozoljac's) career, you see the performance today, something doesn't add up. You clearly see there was some inspiration, chemistry with Nenad on the court, and you say, 'too good'."

On Sunday, Djokovic will face top American Sam Querrey in the first match, which will be followed by the final rubber between Serbian Viktor Troicki and John Isner.

(Editing by Ian Ransom)

He was given an enormous blue and white cake, and savored a glass of wine and a sip of Bucanero, Cuba's domestic beer. Marrero smiled as his family applauded and smothered him in hugs.

In addition to his longevity, the former Washington Senator has much to celebrate this year. After a long wait, he finally received a $20,000 payout from Major League Baseball, granted to old-timers who played between 1947 and 1979.

The money had been held up since 2011 due to issues surrounding the 51-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba, which prohibits most bank transfers to the Communist-run island. But the funds finally arrived in two parts, one at the end of last year, and the second a few months ago, according to Marrero's family.

Steve Rogers, a former Expos pitcher who is now an official at the Major League Baseball Players Association, told The Associated Press on Thursday that the funds were delivered to Marrero by hand, and with Washington's approval.

"Everything that he was entitled to has now been delivered to him. We found a way to get the funds to him," he said. "It was personally delivered and it was all sanctioned by the Treasury Department."

Rogers, who has followed Marrero's case closely, said it was an honor to be a part of the effort to get him the money he deserved.

"The oldest living major leaguer," Rogers marveled. "You tip your cap and say, you were from a different era but you played the same game. It is special to be a part of his life."

Marrero's family has used some of the money to buy him a new ventilator and bed, as well as wine, ham, cigars, juice and other delicacies that would be outside his budget, said Marrero's grandson, Rogelio. Like most Cuban pensioners, Marrero receives less than $20 from the state each month.

"My grandfather was always very particular about what he would eat," Rogelio said Wednesday as relatives prepared for the birthday. "Thanks to this we can buy him peach juice, which is his favorite."

These days, Marrero is hard of hearing, blind, and has considerable trouble speaking. He spends much of the day sleeping or listening to Cuban ballgames on the radio.

But he still perks up when asked about his glory days, demonstrating how to throw a slider and reminiscing about long ago confrontations with Ted Williams and other big league legends.

"All the batters were the same to me," Marrero said when asked about his long-ago rivals. "But I had more trouble with the lefties."

When he heard the name Larry Doby the Hall of Fame Cleveland Indian center fielder who was the first black player to play in the American League Marrero's face contorted in mock frustration.

"My grandfather has never forgotten how Doby hit three home runs against him in a single day," explained Rogelio. "He always says Doby was the guy who hit the best against him."

At 5-foot-5 and 158 pounds, Marrero relied on guile to get batters out, compiling a 39-40 record and a 3.67 ERA in five seasons with the Senators from 1950 to 1954.

"Connie Marrero had a windup that looked like a cross between a windmill gone berserk and a mallard duck trying to fly backwards," former big league star Felipe Alou once said of the diminutive Cuban, according to a biography of Marrero by the Society for American Baseball Research.

Marrero was born on April 25, 1911 in the small town of Sagua la Grande in the central Cuban province of Villa Clara, and he took his time getting into organized ball.

He played in amateur and semi-pro events in the early 1930s, raising eyebrows with his vicious curve and slider. In 1938, he joined a Cienfuegos team that was sponsored by a local men's clothing store, and which was about to become part of a budding Cuban league.

By the time he reached the big leagues, Marrero was already 39, an age when most other players have long since retired. But he made the most of his opportunity, even being named to the 1951 All-Star team.

After his stint in the big leagues, Marrero came back to Cuba, ending his career with the Havana Sugar Kings in 1957. Two years later, Fidel Castro's rebels swept into power. Marrero became a coach and roving instructor, working well into his 80s.

Even at 102, he continues to be interested in baseball and counts himself a fan of Cienfuegos, the team which is leading the Cuban league at the moment.

But Marrero's true love is his great-granddaughter Sandra.

When the 12-year-old returned home from school on Wednesday, the day before the birthday, Marrero reached out to take her hand and kiss it.

"Sandra, Sandra," he repeated as she leaned down to embrace him.

___

Associated Press writer Paul Haven contributed to this report.

___

Follow Anne-Marie Garcia on Twitter: www.twitter.com/AnneMarie279

The so-called Gabriel Stone, said to have been found 13 years ago in Jordan, features an unknown prophetic text from the time of the Second Jewish Temple.

The tablet made a splash in 2008 when an Israeli scholar theorized the inscription would revolutionize the understanding of early Christianity, claiming it referenced a messianic resurrection pre-dating Jesus.

Curators at the Israel Museum said on Tuesday that it's the most important inscription found in the area since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Israel Museum exhibit, opening Wednesday, also features ancient New Testament and Quran texts referencing the archangel Gabriel.

There are just 1,000 individual Yangtze finless porpoises left in the wild, according to a new report. That's less than half of what a similar survey of the porpoises found six years ago.

The rapidly dwindling numbers have conservationists worried that the species could vanish from the wild as early as 2025.

"The species is moving fast toward its ," said Wang Ding, head of the expedition to count the porpoises and a professor at the Institute of Hydrobiology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Yangtze finless porpoises, the only freshwater finless porpoise in the world, live mainly in theand China's Dongting and Poyang lakes. They are threatened by shrinking food resources and man-made disturbances like shipping traffic.

The expedition, which took place over 44 days last fall, comes after a similar trek along the Yangtze in 2007 failed to find any surviving , a close relative of the finless porpoise that was subsequently declared functionally extinct.

The new report showed that some finless porpoises are splintering off into relatively isolated groups, which could hurt their ability to reproduce. The scientists also noted that more of the animals seemed to be flocking to wharf and port areas, perhaps to look for food.??

"They may risk their lives for rich fish bait resources there," Wang said in a statement from the World Wildlife Fund, a conservation group involved in the report. "But busy shipping traffic close to the port areas poses a threat to the survival of finless porpoise."

Other finless porpoises seemed to be avoiding human disturbances and were spotted gathering in dense groups in waters not open to ship traffic. But that strategy could backfire in these waters, the animals risk getting caught in illegal fishing traps.

As part of their conservation recommendations, the report authors urge for a year-round fishing ban in all river dolphin reserves, and for new reserves to be established in Poyang Lake and along the Yangtze.

The report, called the 2012 Yangtze Freshwater Dolphin Survey Report, was released Thursday (March 28).

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