Tropical Storm Andrea was not expected to strengthen into a hurricane but forecasters warned it could spawn tornadoes and cause isolated flooding and storm surge before it loses steam over the next two days.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for a large section of Florida's west coast from Boca Grande to the Steinhatchee River and for the East Coast from Flagler Beach, Fla., all the way to Cape Charles Light in Virginia, and the lower Chesapeake Bay south of New Point Comfort. A tropical storm warning means that tropical storm conditions are expected somewhere inside the warning area within a day and a half.

As of 8 p.m. EDT on Thursday, Andrea was about 45 miles (72 kilometers) west of Gainesville after making landfall hours earlier in Florida's Big Bend area. Its maximum sustained winds had fallen to 50 mph (80 kph) and it was moving northeast at 15 mph (24 kph).

Rains and winds from the storm were forecast to sweep northward along the Southeastern U.S. coast Thursday night and Friday. The storm was expected to lose steam by Saturday as it moves through the eastern United States, according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott said one of the biggest risks associated with the storm for Florida was the chance of tornadoes, eight of which had been confirmed Thursday across the state. Scott urged residents to remain vigilant.

"This one fortunately is a fast-moving storm," he said. Slower-moving storms can pose a greater flood risk because they have more time to linger and dump rain.

Another threat to Florida's coast was storm surge, said Eric Blake, a specialist at the Hurricane Center. The center said coastal areas from Tampa Bay north to the Aucilla River could see storm surge of 2 to 4 feet, if the peak surge coincides with high tide.

Gulf Islands National Seashore closed its campgrounds and the road that runs through the popular beach-front park Wednesday. The national seashore abuts Pensacola Beach and the park road frequently floods during heavy rains.

Altogether, 30 state parks closed their campgrounds in Florida.

Meanwhile, south Georgia residents were bracing for high winds and heavy rains that could lead to flooding.

On Cumberland Island off the Georgia cost, the National Park Service was evacuating campers as the storm approached.

"My main concern is the winds," said chief park ranger Bridget Bohnet. "We're subject to trees falling and limbs breaking, and I don't want anybody getting hurt."

Forecasters were predicting the storm would pass through Georgia overnight, and the island would likely re-open to tourists Friday.

"It looks like it's picking up speed and that's a good thing because it won't sit and rain on us so long," said Jan Chamberlain, whose family runs the Blue Heron Inn Bed & Breakfast near the Sapelo Island Ferry station on Georgia's coast.

In the Carolinas, Andrea's biggest threat was heavy rain, with as much as 6 inches expected, the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters didn't expect major problems, however, along the most vulnerable parts of the coast such as the Outer Banks, a popular tourist destination.

John Elardo, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Newport, N.C., said the storm would push major waves to the north and northeast, away from the Outer Banks, where a series of storms in the fall and winter wore away dunes and washed out portions of N.C. Highway 12, the only road connecting the barrier island to the mainland of North Carolina.

Andrea could bring up to a foot of flooding on the sound side of the Outer Banks, Elardo said.

The rain threatened to ruin a beach day Friday for Angela Hursh, 41, of Cincinnati, who had rented a house in Frisco, N.C. Hursh was planning to soak in the hot tub and watch movies with her 9-year-old and 13-year-old daughters.

"I think we're just going to hunker down and eat junk food," Hursh said.

Doug Brindley, who owns a vacation lodging rental service on the northern end of the Outer Banks near Virginia, said he expects all outdoor activities to be washed out Friday, driving tens of thousands of early-summer vacationers toward unexpected shopping sprees.

"We're going to have rain and wind," said Brindley, who owns Brindley Beach Vacations and Sales. "Retailers are going to love it."

He expects new visitors streaming south from their homes across the U.S. Northeast to arrive tired and grumpy.

"They're going to be driving through that mess," Brindley said.

In Cuba, heavy rains associated with the storm system have soaked the western part of the island for the past several days, overflowing rivers and damaging crops. At least 30 towns were cut off by flooding, and more than 2,600 people sought refuge from the rising waters at relatives' homes or state-run shelters, the Communist Party newspaper Granma reported Thursday.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Jeff Martin in Atlanta; Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga.; Gary Fineout and Brent Kallestad in Tallahassee, Fla.; Peter Orsi in Havana; and Emery P. Dalesio in Raleigh, N.C.

Brazil fell three places this month as it continues to play only friendlies. They score less than competitive matches in FIFA's calculations, which have ranked teams since 1993 across a four-year results cycle.

The South American country can make up ground when it hosts the eight-nation Confederations Cup warm-up event this month.

World and European champion Spain stays top. Germany, Argentina and Croatia are next.

The Netherlands rises four spots to No. 5. England drops two to No. 9.

Portugal (No. 6), Colombia (No. 7), Italy (No. 8) and Ecuador (No. 10) round out the top 10.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- White House veto threats against legislation that implements spending cuts in the austere GOP budget plan are "reckless" and would lead to a government shutdown, House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday.

Boehner, R-Ohio, said the veto warnings mean Obama is threatening to shut down the government unless he wins tax increases and higher spending.

The White House said Monday that Obama will veto any legislation implementing the GOP's budget, which endorses spending levels forced by across-the-board spending cuts known as sequestration and shifts about $30 billion from nondefense programs to the Pentagon.

"No one wants to make more progress on deficits than I do. I've been working at it for years now. I know how hard it is," Boehner said. "That's why the idea of shutting down the government if we can't find a deal is so irresponsible."

But even with a budget impasse, a government shutdown could be averted if Congress approved separate stopgap legislation. Such measures, known as continuing resolutions, are routine, and there hasn't been a government shutdown since the 1995-96 confrontation between President Bill Clinton and a Republican Congress.

The two sides finessed their differences earlier this year by agreeing to a catchall spending bill permitting $1.043 trillion for agency operations funded annually by Congress. Across-the-board cuts automatically reduced spending to $986 billion and could be implemented again if the ongoing budget impasse isn't broken.

Republicans are drafting spending bills for the upcoming budget year at a lower $967 billion cap. The White House supports a level $91 billion higher.

"We simply won't sign into law the Republican budget, which would drastically slash the investments the middle class, seniors and our economic growth depend on," said White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage. "It's time for Speaker Boehner to match his promises of an end to manufactured crises with actions."

But Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson stepped onto a world stage without masks when they appeared at the King of Pop's public memorial. Paris, then just 11, delivered the most poignant words of the star-studded service when she tentatively took the microphone and said, "Daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine."

Since Jackson's death, Paris has become the most visible of his children, granting interviews to Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres, appearing in magazine articles and amassing more than a million followers on Twitter. She has also expressed interest in starting a singing career and has plans to star in a movie. But on Wednesday, Paris became a trending tabloid topic all too familiar for the Jackson family after she was rushed to a hospital for unspecified reasons.

All fire and sheriff's officials would say is that they transported someone from a home on Paris' suburban Calabasas street in the middle of the night for a possible overdose. They did not release any identifying information or additional details.

The Jackson family would say even less about what happened.

"Being a sensitive 15 year old is difficult no matter who you are," Jackson's mother's attorney, Perry Sanders Jr., said in a statement Wednesday. "It is especially difficult when you lose the person closest to you. Paris is physically fine and is getting appropriate medical attention. Please respect her privacy and the family's privacy."

Sanders declined further comment on the teenager's condition or the circumstances that led to her hospitalization.

Yet on Tuesday, Paris hinted at her state of mind on Twitter, posting, "I wonder why tears are salty?" followed by lyrics from the Beatles' song "Yesterday": "yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away now it looks as though they're here to stay."

A 20-minute video of the teen applying makeup was posted to YouTube last week. It shows Jackson in what she describes as her bedroom playfully demonstrating how she does her eye makeup. She receives and replies to several texts on her phone while offering cosmetics instruction. She also reveals that she watches the film "Tangled" three times a week and, as a child, fantasized about marrying a cowboy.

She also makes goofy faces and says, "I need serious help. I'm crazy!"

Paris wrote on Twitter that she doesn't know how the video, in which she repeatedly asserts, "I am so weird," ended up on YouTube.

"I hope you guys liked it tho and didn't think i'm too crazy," she wrote. "i get weird when i'm not around people lol."

Katherine Jackson shares guardianship of her son's three children with the singer's nephew, TJ Jackson.

Messages left for TJ Jackson's attorney were not returned.

"We appreciate everyone's thoughts for Paris at this time and their respect for the family's privacy," said a statement from Eric George, an attorney for Debbie Rowe, Paris' biological mother.

In recent months, she has reconnected with Rowe, with whom she has had little contact for most of her life.

Paris' uncles Tito, Marlon and Jackie echoed that sentiment in their statement Wednesday: "Thank you for the outpouring of concern and support for Paris she is safe and doing fine. We truly appreciate you respecting our family's privacy at this time."

The children are listed as plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed by their grandmother against concert giant AEG Live LLC, who she claims is responsible for her son's death. Katherine Jackson's lawsuit claims AEG failed to properly investigate the doctor convicted of causing the singer's death, and pushed the superstar to rehearse and perform a planned series of 50 comeback shows titled "This Is It."

Paris and Prince are listed as potential witnesses in the case, which is in its sixth week of trial.

Marvin S. Putnam, a defense attorney for AEG Live, said Paris and Prince Jackson were deposed in the case because they are named plaintiffs and may be called to testify. He said Paris Jackson's testimony was not a "grilling" but urged privacy for her and her family.

"There's a real person involved here," Putnam said. "There's a 15-year-old girl and something incredibly tragic has happened that none of us know why and I think it would really be in everyone's best interest and particularly in her best interest if rather than blowing this up into something else, that they were given a little bit of privacy to deal with something that has to be a tragic, tragic moment for all of them."

"She's 15," he said. "Someone should give her a break."

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AP Entertainment Writer Anthony McCartney contributed to this report.

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Moving carefully along a row of apple trees, two of Australia's newest agricultural workers check if the fruit is ripe or the soil needs water or fertilizer.

Meet "Mantis" and "Shrimp", agricultural robots being tested to do these tasks and more in a bid to cut costs and improve productivity in Australia's economically vital farm sector, which exported A$39.6 billion ($38.8 billion)of produce in 2012.

Australia is one of the leaders in the field and, with a minimum wage of A$15.96 per hour and a limited workforce, has a big incentive to use robots and other technology such as unmanned aircraft to improve efficiency.

It hopes to tap fast-growing Asian neighbors, where the swelling ranks of the middle class increasingly want more varied and better quality food from blueberries to beef.

"The adoption of new technology is going to be crucial for Australia to maintain its competitiveness in terms of the global agricultural sector," said Luke Matthews, commodities strategist at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

"If we don't adopt new technology, we can give up on these high-flying ambitions of being the food bowl of Asia."

Agriculture now accounts for 2 percent of Australia's gross domestic product, but the government forecasts it could reach 5 percent by 2050. Its growth is particularly important now the once-booming mining sector is slowing.

Australia is the world's second-biggest wheat exporter and arable farmers are already using specialized technology aimed at improving efficiency, including satellite positioning software to allow farmers to map out land and soil to determine optimal inputs.

Using such technology to optimize the use of fertilizer can boost profitability at grain farms by 14 percent, according to a study by Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation.

COLOUR RECEPTORS

A robot effortlessly plucking fruit is some way off, though a range of simpler tasks are within reach to add to existing technology such as automatic steering of harvesters.

Salah Sukkarieh, Professor of Robotics and Intelligent Systems at the University of Sydney and developer of Mantis and Shrimp, says the next phase aims for robots to do increasingly complex jobs such as watering and ultimately harvesting.

"We have fitted them with a lot of sensors, vision, laser, radar and conductivity sensors - including GPS and thermal sensors," said Sukkarieh, speaking at his laboratory housing a collection of both ground robots and unmanned air vehicles.

The technology could have the biggest application in horticulture, Australia's third-largest agricultural sector with exports of $1.71 billion in the last marketing year, since a fixed farm layout lends itself better to using robots.

Robots and an unmanned air vehicle that are being developed at the University of Sydney had passed field tests at an almond farm in Mildura, Victoria state, said Sukkarieh.

Propelled by sets of wheels and about the height of a man, the robots were named after the native Mantis shrimp because of the marine crustacean's 16 different color receptors, capable of detecting up to 12 colors. Humans only have four, three of which pick up colors.

This capacity to recognize color already allows the robots to sense whether fruit is ripe.

The data can then be processed by computer algorithms to determine what action the robot should take. This could be to water or apply fertilizer or pesticides, or to sweep and prune vegetation, and eventually the aim is to harvest the crop.

"If tomorrow we got an apple, orange or tomato farmer that wants a robot to go up and down these tree crops reliably and accurately, we can do that within six months to a year."

"The question is can we make them more intelligent," added Sukkarieh, who also sees the technology being attached to standard farm vehicles and foresees a fully automated horticulture farm within 10 years.

BRUISED APPLES

Australian farmers, who depend on seasonal labor for jobs such as picking fruit and vegetables, said they would welcome high-tech help.

"Berry picking by a robot would be difficult but if they could produce a robot, I could make a significant saving," said Allan Dixon, co-owner of the Clyde River Berry Farm in New South Wales, who typically takes on five people every year.

To get enough agricultural workers, Australia allows in some labor from neighboring Pacific island countries and East Timor, as well as using backpackers on temporary work visas.

Some fruit farmers remain skeptical.

"Apples will always need to be harvested by hand, due to their fragile nature. They bruise very easily," said Lucinda Giblett, director at Newton Orchards in Western Australia.

"We see no current opportunities offered by agricultural robots. Even as a pruning device, application is very limited," added Giblett

PRODUCTIVITY

Further productivity gains will be needed if Australia is to reach its target of being the main food supplier to Asia.

A 2011 study by the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences said around two-thirds of the increase in the monetary value of agricultural production in the last 50 years in the country was down to gains in productivity

Another survey by the Grains Research and Development Corporation showed 67 percent of respondents in 2011 used auto-steer technology to guide machinery such as harvesters and sprayers, up from 47 percent in 2008.

Obstacles to using more technology remain, however, including the cost of buying or renting equipment and slower growth in research and development spending. Some studies show growth in the use of satellite imagery and soil mapping has stagnated in Australia and the United States in recent years.

Regardless of whether it can meet its targets to supply more food to Asia, Australia is expected to play a big role in global food security by being one of the test beds for new ways to produce food more efficiently in often harsh conditions.

(Writing by Ed Davies; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

The Austrian parachutist known as "Fearless Felix" reached 843.6 mph, according to official numbers released Monday. That's equivalent to Mach 1.25, or 1.25 times the speed of sound.

His top speed initially was estimated at 10 mph slower at 834 mph, or Mach 1.24.

Either way, he became the first human to break the sound barrier with only his body. He wore a pressurized suit and hopped from a capsule hoisted by a giant helium balloon over New Mexico.

Baumgartner was supersonic for a half-minute "quite remarkable," according to Brian Utley, the record-keeping official who was present for the Oct. 14 feat.

The 43-year-old's heart rate remained below 185 beats a minute, and his breathing was fairly steady.

The leap was from an altitude of 127,852 feet. That's 248 feet lower than original estimates, but still stratospheric.

"He jumped from a little bit lower, but he actually went a little bit faster, which was pretty exciting," said Art Thompson, technical project director for the Red Bull-sponsored project.

"It's fun for us to see reaching Mach speeds and proving out a lot of the safety systems," Thompson said in a phone interview from his aerospace company in Lancaster, Calif.

Thompson said everything pretty much unfolded as anticipated, with no big surprises in the final report. The updated records were provided by Utley, official observer for the National Aeronautic Association's contest and records board. Utley was in Roswell, N.M., for Baumgartner's grand finale following two test jumps.

Based on all the data collected from sensors on Baumgartner's suit, Utley determined that Baumgartner was 34 seconds into his jump when he reached Mach 1. The speed for breaking the sound barrier depends on the temperature at a given altitude; for Baumgartner, that came together just shy of 110,000 feet.

He reached peak speed by the time he was at 91,300 feet, 50 seconds into the jump, and was back to subsonic by 75,300 feet, give or take, 64 seconds into his free fall.

His entire free fall lasted four minutes, 20 seconds. He used a parachute to cover the final 5,000 feet, landing on his feet in the desert outside Roswell.

Not everything went well.

Baumgartner went into a dreaded flat spin while still supersonic. He spun for 13 seconds at approximately 60 revolutions per minute, making 14 to 16 spins before using his body to regain control, Thompson said. The skydiver was well within safety limits the entire time, he noted. Baumgartner's brain remained under 2G, or two times the force of gravity, during the spin.

If the flat spin had lasted longer and been more severe exceeding six continuous seconds at 3.5 G Baumgartner's drogue, or stabilizing, parachute would have deployed automatically. Doctors worried about him blacking out and suffering a stroke or, in the case of a suit tear, his blood boiling at such an extreme altitude. The outside temperature registered as low as minus 96 Fahrenheit.

In the foreword of the 71-page report, Baumgartner said he never imagined how many people would share in his dream to make a supersonic free fall from so high.

Some 52 million people watched YouTube's live stream of the exploit.

The scientific and engineering experts who helped bring him back alive "broke boundaries in their own fields just as surely as I broke the sound barrier," Baumgartner wrote.

Baumgartner shattered the previous record set by Joe Kittinger, an Air Force officer, in 1960. Kittinger did not quite reach supersonic speed during his jump from 19.5 miles up.

Kittinger noted in the Red Bull Stratos report (Stratos for stratosphere) that future work is needed to test a stabilizing parachute for use at extreme altitudes.

The private project was aimed, from the start, at helping future space crews whether NASA or commercial survive high-altitude accidents.

If a highly trained jumper like Baumgartner with 2,500 jumps couldn't prevent a flat spin, "an astronaut, pilot or space tourist could not overcome this spinning probability," Kittinger wrote.

Thompson agreed, noting that given the right safety gear and the right conditions, there's "a remote possibility" a space crew could survive even under such harsh circumstances as were faced by the space shuttle Columbia astronauts.

All seven astronauts perished as Columbia returned to Earth on Feb. 1, 2003. One of the crew, Laurel Clark, was married to the former NASA flight surgeon who led Baumgartner's medical team, Dr. Jonathan Clark.

"You never know what the possibilities are ... that's the direction we need to look at," Thompson said.

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Online:

http://www.redbullstratos.com/