It still wasn't enough to catch a guy who had never played the TPC Sawgrass.

Roberto Castro hit shots to tap-in range on the famed 17th and 18th holes on his way to a 9-under 63. That tied the course record held by Greg Norman and Fred Couples, and gave him a three-shot lead over McIlroy.

Woods had a chance for his first bogey-free round until missing the 18th green and flubbing a chip. He still had a 67, the first time he has broken 70 in this event.

Vijay Singh, playing one day after he sued the PGA Tour for its handling of his doping case, was largely ignored playing in the group behind Woods.

Still, the long list of allegations included no statement from Kenneth Bae, other than claims that he confessed and didn't want an attorney present during his sentencing last week for what Pyongyang called hostile acts against the state.

Since the sentencing came during a period of tentative diplomatic moves following weeks of high tension and North Korean threats of nuclear and missile strikes on Washington and Seoul, outside analysts have said Pyongyang may be using Bae as bait to win diplomatic concessions in the standoff over its nuclear weapons program. North Korea repeated its denial of such speculation in the new statement, but the pattern has occurred repeatedly.

The North's state media described the statement from an unidentified Supreme Court spokesman as a response to U.S. government and media assertions that the legal case against Bae was unreasonable and other claims "that he was not tried in a transparent manner and (the North) was trying to use this issue as a political bargaining chip." The spokesman said Bae, 44, could've faced death but the court reduced the penalty because he confessed. He was arrested in North Korea in November.

Bae, a Washington state resident described by friends as a devout Christian and a tour operator, is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released without serving out their terms, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. There has been no sign yet of a high-profile American envoy set to make a clemency mission to North Korea, which has only recently eased a near-daily, weekslong torrent of threats that followed greater U.N. sanctions over Pyongyang's February nuclear test.

The North's statement said Bae gave anti-Pyongyang lectures in China and "infiltrated" about 250 students into the city of Rason, a special economic zone in North Korea's far northeastern region bordering China and Russia. It didn't elaborate on the students' activities, however.

Young leader Kim Jong Un has the power to grant special pardons under the North's constitution. Earlier this week, former NBA star Dennis Rodman attempted to use his friendship with Kim on Bae's behalf, asking the leader to "do me a solid" and release the American. Rodman visited North Korea in February and apparently hit it off with Kim, a die-hard basketball fan. Pyongyang hasn't responded to Rodman's appeal on Twitter. Rodman said after his trip to North Korea that he planned to return in August to vacation with Kim.

The U.S. has called for the North to immediately release Bae. It relies on Swedish diplomats in Pyongyang to deal with Bae's case because the North and the U.S. have had no formal diplomatic relations since the 1950-53 Korean War ended in a truce instead of a peace treaty.

North Korea said in the statement that Bae "set up plot-breeding bases in different places of China for the purpose of toppling (North Korea's) government from 2006 to October 2012 out of distrust and enmity toward the" country. "He committed such hostile acts as egging citizensof (North Korea) overseas and foreigners on to perpetrate hostile acts to bring down its government while conducting a malignant smear campaign against it. He was caught red handed."

North Korea refers to Bae as Pae Jun Ho, the North Korean spelling for his Korean name.

North Korea has faced increasing international criticism over its weapons development. Six-nation disarmament talks involving the Koreas, the United States, Japan, China and Russia fell apart in 2009. Several rounds of U.N. sanctions have not encouraged the North to give up its small cache of nuclear devices, which Pyongyang says it must not only keep but expand to protect itself from a hostile Washington. Tensions have escalated since it conducted its third nuclear test since 2006 in February.

The human rights group Amnesty International has criticized Bae's lack of access to a lawyer and called for his release.

Friends and colleagues say Bae was based in the Chinese border city of Dalian and traveled frequently to North Korea to feed orphans.

___

AP writer Sam Kim contributed to this report.

P CHN SNGn gin l v k t khi Pep Guardiola m ra mt giai on hong kim cho Barca, h mi li thng li nhiu n th. Con s 67 bn thua trn mi mt trn ma ny chnh l thng k t nht ca i bng Catalan tnh trong 5 ma tr li y, hn c ma km nht di thi Pep l 55 ln thng li ma ra mt 2008/09. Nguyn nhn ca iu ny th ai cng r: th qun Puyol lung tui v ma ny,bo chn thng lin tc qut qua hng th Barca.Cng vi vic th thnh Valdes tuyn b ra i cn Abidal khng c gia hn hp ng, nhim v ca Tito bng tr nn rt nng n. ng s phi tm mt ngi gc n mi, mua thm mt trung v ng cp v c ngi d b cho Jordi Alba hnh lang tri hng phng ng. Tuy nhin, c v nh ngi Catalunya cng chm sn nhng gii php thay th.Sau khi ngm c t th mn, gm c nhng ci tn danh ting nh Neuer (Bayern Munich), De Gea (Man United) v Reina (Liverpool), ngi c chn cui cng l Ter Stegen, th thnh 21 tui ca MGladbach. Cho v tr trung v, ngi i din ca Thiago Silva va xc nhn trung v PSG rt gn Nou Camp. Cn bin tri, Barca ang nh a Mathieu (Valencia) v d phng cho Alba.

CHARLESTON, S.C. -- With a saga like Mark Sanford's it is difficult to determine where to begin.

If you're just now joining us for Sanford's long road to redemption tour, let's start at the beginning and warp-speed to now.

Sanford was once the popular Republican governor of South Carolina who in 2009 mysteriously disappeared from the state while in office to rendezvous with an Argentine mistress. Sanford remained the state's chief executive even after the affair was made public. He ultimately pledged his love for the Argentine woman, divorced his wife, served out his term and retreated to a remote family farm in South Carolina. He emerged back into public life last year by announcing that he would run for the congressional seat that opened up after Tim Scott was appointed to the U.S. Senate. After defeating 15 other Republican contenders in a primary earlier this spring, Sanford became the party nominee and began campaigning against Democratic businesswoman Elizabeth Colbert Busch, none other than the sister of the famous comedian Stephen Colbert.

You really couldn't make up a better plot line if you tried.

With the election this Tuesday, Sanford and Colbert Busch are locked in what polls show is a nail-biter of a race. Both candidates are campaigning furiously--Sanford is planning to appear at 11 events and Colbert Busch is making five stops throughout the district on Monday--to get their supporters out to the polls.

The District

The region where Sanford and Colbert Busch are battling has been solidly Republican for three decades, but the area doesn't perfectly fit the stereotype of a red Southern congressional district. In this part of the state, it's not all just about Jesus and AR-15s.

There's a saying in South Carolina that if you're from Upstate, they ask what church you attend; if you're from the Midlands, they ask what corporation you work for; and if you're from Charleston--the Lowcountry -- well, this is South Carolina's 1st Congressional District. The people are generally conservative, but with an emphasis on the fiscal, not the social issues. The district has a pragmatic, leave-me-alone streak running straight through its heart.

With this in mind, the election should have easily gone to Sanford. But his questionable history leaves a massive opening for someone like Colbert Busch, who has worked hard to run as a self declared "fiscally conservative" Democrat who is not afraid to criticize President Barack Obama for his budget proposal or his landmark piece of legislation, the 2010 federal health care law.

The Players

While traveling through the district, both candidates have adopted vastly different approaches to campaigning. Sanford, who travels with only an aide or two, appears comfortable in his own skin on the trail. His face-to-face interactions are intensely personal and focused, at times disarmingly so, a sign that he has mastered retail politicking after years of public service.

Colbert Busch is new to politics, and still seems to be learning the ropes. Her answers to policy questions can, at times, come across as rehearsed and cautious. While pressed by reporters in Charleston on Sunday on whether she would vote with Republicans to repeal Obama's federal health care law, for instance, Colbert Busch didn't rule it out. "I have to see the bill," she said. "Let's get elected on May 7, and let's go from there. When they bring it to the desk, we'll go from there." (A campaign aide later clarified that Colbert Busch wanted to work to fix the health care law, but would not vote to repeal it outright.)

By many outward appearances, however, Colbert Busch comes across as the incumbent: While Sanford embraces a lone wolf style on the trail, she has a professionally painted tour bus and a pack of campaign aides follows her wherever she goes. With support from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, a national donor base and other outside groups, her television and radio ads dominate the airwaves. Her messaging strategy is clean and streamlined, while Sanford's is raw and all over the map.

Sanford's official campaign banners, which appear , dot the highways throughout the district, but they are overshadowed by wooden signs made by Sanford supporters that look like they were written by awho finally learned to spell.

Storefront of Mark Sanford's headquarters in Beaufort, S.C. (Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

While Sanford isn't afraid to be himself, his approach can certainly appear unorthodox. In an attempt to associate Colbert Busch with the liberal agenda of national Democrats,last month, a move that got him plenty of attention, but left many perplexed.

South Carolina Republicans know that candidate Sanford is risky, but they have embraced his strategy. They are glad he's making the race about national Democrats, not about Sanford and Colbert Busch.

"I thought it was smart because it reminds us what's at stake," said South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham when asked about Sanford debating a lifeless object bearing the likeness of the House Minority Leader. "If it's a personality contest, we could be in trouble. If it's about the direction of the country, who controls the House, I think he'll win."

Democrats, meanwhile, are fed up with Sanford. "He's sophomoric, in everything he does," said South Carolina Democratic Rep. James Clyburn, who appeared with Colbert Busch at a press conference in Charleston on Sunday.

South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn campaigns with Colbert Busch in Charleston, S.C. (Chris Moody/Yahoo News)

The Jenny Factor

Sanford is one of those few politicians who has never lost an election.

But there's one big fat caveat. For every race he's won, Sanford has relied on Jenny Sanford--now his ex-wife--for vital parts of the effort. Jenny Sanford not only helped coordinate and organize campaign efforts, her background as an investment banker and heiress helped him tap into a massive donor network.

When he launched his candidacy this time, Sanford audaciously asked his scorned ex-wife to help him again. She declined.

Republicans who have worked with Sanford said Jenny's absence has been felt on the campaign trail.

"I think Mark would be the first to tell you that she has been a tremendous part of his past successes in races, so yeah, I think it would be nice to have that winning component of the team on board again," said South Carolina State Sen. Tom Davis, Sanford's former chief of staff and a friend of more than 30 years. "You're talking about somebody who's smart as hell. When you combine all those assets, certainly you'd want her as part of your team."

Also sitting out this race is the National Republican Congressional Committee, whichthat it would not spend money on television ads to support him, a decision that has frustrated state-based activists and volunteers who are working around the clock to keep the seat Republican.

"I really think it was short-sighted on behalf of the NRCC to make that decision," Davis said. "There's a lot of anger about that and a strong sense of betrayal."

Declining to offer Sanford air support could prove to be a win-win for the House GOP fundraising group. If he loses, it will save them face. The NRCC can say they knew all along that it would be better to position its resources elsewhere and begin raising money to defeat Colbert Busch, who will be up for re-election as early as November 2014. As a traditionally red district, there's a good chance Republicans can win the seat back anyway, and there's little chance Colbert Busch would be able to cause them much damage as a lawmaker during her restricted first term. If Sanford wins, however, the NRCC can fall back on its public defense for not supporting him in the first place: That he didn't "need' their help.

The air war isn't Sanford's specialty anyway. He's an old-fashioned retail politician who seems to live for the next handshake. He also has the backing of hundreds of South Carolina activists who have worked tirelessly over the past several weeks to send him back to Washington.

But there's a lesser known side to Sanford. While he presents himself as an extroverted charmer, he's also an introspective person who says he needs time alone to reflect and recharge.

"I need yin and yang," he told Yahoo News after an afternoon of flesh pressing in Beaufort.

While he was working on the farm in the aftermath of the Argentine scandal, Sanford read self-help and motivational books. The experience rejuvenated him, he said, and prepared him for his public comeback.

Since the first day of his freshman year of college, Sanford has kept a personal journal, one that he says he still writes in every day.

Win or lose, Wednesday morning's entry will surely be a memorable one.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Veteran basketball player Jason Collins announced on Monday that he was gay, smashing through one of the final frontiers in U.S. sports with a frank personal statement and winning warm praise as a groundbreaker.

Collins, a 12-year player in the National Basketball Association (NBA), became the first active athlete from any of the four major U.S. men's professional sports leagues to come out publicly as gay.

He was quickly enveloped in a wave of support from the White House to tennis player Martina Navratilova, a pioneer for gay athletes in sport.

Collins is not a well-known sports star but is now likely to become famous for his stance. He revealed the secret he had harbored for years in a first-person account published in Sports Illustrated, saying he had gradually become frustrated with having to keep silent on his sexuality.

"I'm a 34-year-old NBA center," his essay began. "I'm black. And I'm gay."

Collins said he had considered coming out years ago but it was the Boston Marathon bombings this month that convinced him not to wait any more for a perfect moment to come out.

"I wish I wasn't the kid in the classroom raising his hand and saying, 'I'm different.' said Collins, who played last season with the Boston Celtics and then the Washington Wizards and is currently a free agent. "If I had my way, someone else would have already done this. Nobody has, which is why I'm raising my hand."

Players, administrators and some politicians applauded him for taking a stance. Some hailed it as a landmark day in American civil rights, perhaps as important as when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.

President Barack Obama, a big fan of the NBA who regularly plays pickup basketball with his friends, called Collins to express his support, a White House official said.

"I can certainly tell you that here at the White House we view that as another example of the progress that has been made and the evolution that has been taking place in this country, and commend him for his courage, and support him in his - in this effort and hope that his fans and his team support him going forward," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

DEBATE OVER GAY RIGHTS

Collins' move came at a time of shifting attitudes toward gay rights in the United States, where polls show public opinion is fast moving toward greater acceptance, although a core of social conservatives oppose such change.

Some in sports declined to join the chorus of voices in support of Collins. Sportswriter Chris Broussard, speaking on ESPN television, grouped homosexual acts with adultery and premarital sex, saying he believed this was "walking in open rebellion to God."

In the coming months, the Supreme Court will rule on whether to strike down parts of a federal law that defines marriage as the union between a man and a woman. In 2011, the military repealed a ban on openly gay soldiers.

"Jason's announcement today is an important moment for professional sports and in the history of the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community," former U.S. president Bill Clinton said in a statement.

NBA commissioner David Stern said he was proud of Collins for taking a brave stance.

"Jason has been a widely respected player and teammate throughout his career and we are proud he has assumed the leadership mantle on this very important issue," Stern said.

In a country where it is no longer news for politicians and entertainers to be openly gay, there had been questions over the lack of an openly gay player in the big four men's professional leagues: the National Basketball Association, the National Football League, the National Hockey League and Major League Baseball.

Sports, which helped play a key role in changing public opinion on racial discrimination, had come to seem out of step with much of the rest of American society.

Collins, who has played with six different teams during his 12 years in the NBA, said he never had any grand plans to be the first openly gay player, but events off the basketball court persuaded him to come out.

He was inspired by last year's gay pride parade in Boston, he said, but delayed making an announcement due to a desire to protect his team, waiting until the end of the regular 2012-2013 season ended. Collins was also prompted by the April 15 Boston Marathon bombings which killed three people and wounded more than 200, he said.

"The recent Boston Marathon bombing reinforced the notion that I shouldn't wait for the circumstances of my coming out to be perfect," he wrote in Sports Illustrated. "Things can change in an instant, so why not live truthfully?

PRAISE FLOODS IN

Kobe Bryant, one of the NBA's greatest players, was fined $100,000 in 2011 for a homophobic slur. On Monday, he was among the first of dozens of active players who took to social media to applaud Collins.

"Proud of @jasoncollins34. Don't suffocate who u r because of the ignorance of others," Bryant tweeted.

Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Steve Nash tweeted: "The time has come. Maximum respect."

There are openly gay players in many top professional leagues in other countries in the world as well as smaller leagues in North America and individual sports.

Navratilova, the tennis star who also became a champion for gay rights, said Collins would feel like a burden had been lifted from him.

"Hey Jason Collins-you are now an activist!!! And trust me, you will sleep a lot better now - freedom is a sweet feeling indeed!," she tweeted.

Other gay athletes, including former NBA center John Amaechi, had waited until their retirement to divulge their sexuality publicly, but there was a growing sense that times were changing.

Earlier this year, the American soccer player Robbie Rogers outed himself, although he had just retired. And Brittney Griner, one of the country's top women's basketball players, said she too was gay.

But there were still no currently playing, openly gay athletes from the four biggest men's leagues.

The question came into sharp focus this year around the National Football League (NFL), usually viewed as the most macho of America's pro sports.

In the days leading up to this year's Super Bowl in New Orleans in February, San Francisco 49ers cornerback Chris Culliver told reporters he would not welcome a gay teammate into the locker room.

He later retracted his comments but reports later emerged of NFL teams asking college players about their sexuality at a scouting session in February.

This prompted the New York State attorney general to send a letter to the NFL, urging the league to take action and adopt a formal policy on discrimination over sexual orientation.

High-profile NFL players, most notably Chris Kluwe and Brendon Ayanbadejo, began advocating for gay rights, and suggested there were a handful of players ready to come out once someone had taken the first step.

"All of us have huge admiration for what Jason is doing," said Patrick Burke, co-founder of equal rights advocacy group You Can Play.

"Jason's courage in stepping forward with his personal story will provide athletes and fans with a new role model."

(Editing by Frances Kerry and Tim Dobbyn)

By Gregory Blachier

MONTE CARLO, April 21 (Reuters) - Novak Djokovic ended Rafael Nadal's eight-year reign at the Monte Carlo Masters with a clinical 6-2 7-6 victory in the final on Sunday.

Nadal, the only player to win a tournament eight times in a row, had enjoyed a 46-match winning streak at the claycourt Masters event before world number one Djokovic prevailed to claim his first title in the principality.

The Serbian, who lost to Nadal in Monte Carlo in 2009 and last year, celebrated his 14th Masters crown and became the first player to defeat Nadal in three different finals on clay, having beaten him in Madrid and Rome in 2011.

"Thanks for letting me win this tournament at least once," Djokovic told his opponent on the court after the Prince Albert of Monaco had given him the winner's trophy.

Monaco-based Djokovic, who made a late decision to participate in the tournament after injuring an ankle on Davis Cup duty two weeks ago, produced a superb performance to outplay Nadal on the picturesque centre court that has been the Spaniard's stage since 2005.

"I cannot be happier than I am at this moment, knowing what I've been through the whole week ... trying to recover and make my decision to play," he told a news conference.

"If somebody had told me 10 days ago that I'd be winning the trophy, I wouldn't have though it was realistic."

The Serbian, who had said he would need to be at his very best to get a chance to win, played some stunning shots to delight the crowd.

"The first six, seven or eight games were unbelievable. It's the best I can play on clay," he said.

GRAND SLAM

Nadal tried to make light of a loss which could be a milestone on the way to the French Open, the only grand slam event Djokovic has not won.

"It's no tragedy. I lost after eight years without losing here. That's the normal thing," he said.

"I think it was a positive week. I just practised here before the tournament. With not much practice, I was able to play the final."

After light rain delayed the start of the match for 45 minutes, Djokovic punished an error-prone Nadal to go 5-0 up in the first set.

"Even if it's true that he started strongly, my feeling was that 4-0 was too much," Nadal said.

"He was playing great, yes, probably better than me, but I had that feeling that I was not playing that bad," added the Spaniard, who took a month-long break before the tournament after winning three titles following his return from seven months out with a knee injury.

"I need to put in a little more physical performance. That's the real thing, play all the points with the same intensity.

The match had little in common with last year's Monte Carlo final, when Nadal overwhelmed Djokovic 6-3 6-1 in the first big claycourt event of the season a month before he secured his seventh French Open crown.

Nadal saved five set points on his own serve and fought back to 5-2, only to hand his opponent the set with a double fault.

A more aggressive Nadal put Djokovic under pressure by taking a 4-2 lead in the second set.

But Djokovic dug in to level at 4-4, and after another exchange of breaks the Serbian ran away with the tiebreaker 7-1 as Nadal made the last of his 34 unforced errors. (Reporting by Gregory Blachier; Editing by Pritha Sarkar and Stephen Wood)

The bill passed late Thursday without even a roll call vote, and House officials indicated it likely would be brought up for quick approval there.

Under the legislation, the Federal Aviation Administration would gain authority to transfer up to $253 million from accounts that are flush into other programs, to "prevent reduced operations and staffing" through the Sept. 30 end of the fiscal year.

In addition to restoring full staffing by controllers, Senate officials said the available funds should be ample enough to prevent the closure of small airport towers around the country. The FAA has said it will shut the facilities as it makes its share of $85 billion in across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester that took effect last month at numerous government agencies.

The Senate acted as the FAA said there had been at least 863 flights delayed on Wednesday "attributable to staffing reductions resulting from the furlough."

Administration officials participated in the negotiations that led to the deal and evidently registered no objections.

After the vote, White House press secretary Jay Carney said, "It will be good news for America's traveling public if Congress spares them these unnecessary delays. But ultimately, this is no more than a temporary Band-Aid that fails to address the overarching threat to our economy posed by the sequester's mindless, across-the-board cuts."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, a key participant in the talks, said the legislation would "prevent what otherwise would have been intolerable delays in the air travel system, inconveniencing travelers and hurting the economy."

Senate approval followed several hours of pressure-filled, closed-door negotiations, and came after most senators had departed the Capitol on the assumption that the talks had fallen short.

Officials said a small group of senators insisted on a last-ditch effort at an agreement before Congress adjourned for a vacation that could have become politically problematic if the flight delays continued.

"I want to do it right now. There are other senators you'd have to ask what the hang-up is," Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said at a point when it appeared no compromise would emerge.

For the White House and Senate Democrats, the discussions on legislation relating to one relatively small slice of the $85 billion in spending cuts marked a shift in position in a long-running struggle with Republicans over budget issues. Similarly, the turn of events marked at least modest vindication of a decision by the House GOP last winter to finesse some budget struggles in order to focus public attention on the across-the-board cuts in hopes they would gain leverage over President Barack Obama.

The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists, a union that represents FAA employees, reported a number of incidents it said were due to the furloughs.

In one case, it said several flights headed for Long Island MacArthur Airport in New York were diverted on Wednesday when a piece of equipment failed. "While the policy for this equipment is immediate restoral, due to sequestration and furloughs it was changed to next-day restoral," the union said.

It added it was "learning of additional impacts nationwide, including open watches, increased restoration times, delays resulting from insufficient funding for parts and equipment, modernization delays, missed or deferred preventative maintenance, and reduced redundancy."

The airlines, too, were pressing Congress to restore the FAA to full staffing.

In an interview Wednesday, Robert Isom, chief operations officer of US Airways, likened the furloughs to a "wildcat regulatory action."

He added, "In the airline business, you try to eliminate uncertainty. Some factors you can't control, like weather. It (the FAA issue) is worse than the weather."

In a shift, first the White House and then senior Democratic lawmakers have signaled a willingness in the past two days to support legislation that alleviates the budget crunch at the FAA, while leaving the balance of the $85 billion to remain in effect.

Obama favors a comprehensive agreement that replaces the entire $85 billion in across-the-board cuts as part of a broader deficit-reduction deal that includes higher taxes and spending cuts.

One Senate Democrat, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, noted that without the type of comprehensive deficit deal that Obama favors, a bill that eases the spending crunch at the FAA would inevitably be followed by other single-issue measures. She listed funding at the National Institutes of Health as one example, and cuts that cause furloughs of civilians who work at military hospitals as a second.

At the same time, Democratic aides said resolve had crumbled under the weight of widespread delays for the traveling public and pressure from the airlines.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., involved in the discussions, said the issue was big enough so "most people want to find a solution as long as it doesn't spend any more money."

Officials estimate it would cost slightly more than $200 million to restore air traffic controllers to full staffing, and an additional $50 million to keep open smaller air traffic towers around the country that the FAA has proposed closing.

Across the Capitol, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Bill Shuster, R-Pa., said, "We're willing to look at what the Senate's going to propose."

He said he believes the FAA has the authority it needs under existing law to shift funds and end the furloughs of air traffic controllers, and any legislation should be "very, very limited" and direct the agency to use the flexibility it already has.

In a reflection of the political undercurrents, another House Republican, Rep. James Lankford of Oklahoma, said FAA employees "are being used as pawns by this (Obama) administration to be able to implement the maximum amount of pain on the American people when it does not have to be this way."

The White House and congressional Democrats vociferously dispute such claims.

___

Associated Press writers Joan Lowy, Henry C. Jackson and Alan Fram in Washington and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Take a 15th century Italian genius, invent his mysterious youth, throw in some superhero action and you've got "Da Vinci's Demons" - a new TV series that portrays the man who painted the "Mona Lisa" like he's never been seen before.

Forget the artist seen in his own self-portrait as a wizened, bearded old man.

The Leonardo of "Da Vinci's Demons" is a fearless, reckless, swashbuckling 25-year-old, who sports 21st century hair gel and an impressive six-pack.

The eight-episode drama, premiering on U.S. cable channel Starz on Friday and around the world later this month, follows the "untold story" of the original Renaissance Man through the eyes of David Goyer, one of the developers of the "Call of Duty" hit videogame franchise.

"I had always had a fascination with da Vinci and I was amazed there had never been a movie specifically about him or a TV show, which strikes me as kind of crazy," Goyer told Reuters.

"I don't know anyone who has ever achieved or mastered all the things that he did. And he was a colorful character. His life was filled with a lot of controversy, which is always good," Goyer said.

And, in a gift for any creative mind, there are few records of what da Vinci was doing, or where he was, between the ages of 28 and 32.

"Those gaps give a creator more permission to invent things. It's a historical fantasy that has a certain element of magical realism to it.

"I also wanted a very modern graphic novel approach, and that extends into costumes, music, visual effects and the way we photographed it," added Goyer, who also co-wrote the stories for Batman movies "The Dark Knight" and "The Dark Knight Rises."

British actor Tom Riley plays da Vinci as a rising artist in 15th century Florence, already designing flying machines, military equipment, flirting with his models, bedding a mistress of the powerful Medici family and embarking on a quest for the mythical "Book of Leaves."

His adventures are played out against intrigue and tension between the ruling Medicis in Florence and Pope Sixtus IV in Rome, with plenty of male and female nudity, sex, murder, plotting and sword-fighting.

The TV series, co-produced with a unit of BBC Worldwide Productions and filmed mostly among the ancient castles of Wales, will be shown on pay channels in 120 nations in April.

It is also expected to become one of the most successful ventures by Starz into original programming after the channel's historical gladiator action franchise, "Spartacus," that began in 2011.

Despite the creative license, Goyer said that many of the events in "Da Vinci's Demons" are based on historical records and that most of the characters really existed.

But he also wanted to inject enjoyment into the story of the sculptor, architect, inventor and anatomist who gave the world iconic masterpieces like "The Last Supper," "Vitruvian Man" and the "Virgin of the Rocks."

"I wanted to make sure it is fun. I hope audiences have a good time. If they decide to learn more about history because of it, that is great as well. I just want TV to be challenging and fun and different," he said.

Starz is a unit of Starz Entertainment.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Sandra Maler)