Washington – Military officials moved quickly Friday to counter the perception that the Army was the big loser in the new Pentagon budget unveiled Thursday.
The priorities laid out Thursday will have significant effects on the Army. For starters, the Army will be smaller, moving from approximately 570,000 soldiers today to 490,000 by 2017. Moreover, Army operations will involve more Special Operations Forces that will launch missions from small bases near hot-spots around the world. 
The ranks of “cyberwarriors” to combat the threat of computer attacks on vital US infrastructure will also grow. 
RECOMMENDED: Pentagon budget: 3 winners and losers
But now is the time to make such changes, Army officials say.
“The time is strategically right to reduce the Army’s force structure,” the Army’s top officer, Gen. Raymond Odierno, said Friday.
That's because the day-to-day job of soldiers will be changing dramatically in the years to come. US military officials promise that there will be no more wars that look like Iraq and Afghanistan – what are known in military parlance as “large-scale stability operations” – for quite some time, 
“With the successful completion of our mission in Iraq, the continued transitions of operations to Afghan security forces, and the reduction of US presence in Afghanistan, our strategy calls for us to no longer plan for large-scale stability operations,â€
In addition, the bulk of US forces in Europe – specifically, two heavy combat brigades – will leave in the years to come. That’s a big change for a military with decades of ties to bases in Germany, Italy, and elsewhere in Europe. 
The Army will maintain partnerships with its NATO allies, though in new ways, Odierno said. In the years ahead, the Army will instead rotate units through Europe more quickly, to train with NATO partners and other allies. This might include everything from small company-size units to large battalion-level exercises.
“In reality, I think, in the long run this will benefit all of us,” Odierno said. “It’ll cause more of our units to get involved in working with our NATO partners. It won’t just be limited to those stationed in Europe.”
Future missions may involve some stability, or peacekeeping, operations, but Odierno says they will likely be “on a much smaller scale.” Beyond that, he adds, “we’ll rely more on other partners to assist us as we do stability operations.”
Defense analysts point out that though the future US military interventions may indeed be smaller – think Libya, for example – they may not always be shorter. 
In fact, they may be “prolonged,” says Stephanie Sanok, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This means the United States will need “friends and allies to do what we’re not going to do,” she adds. “And I don’t think those conversations have happened.” 
RECOMMENDED: Pentagon budget: 3 winners and losers
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MEXICO CITY – Miguel Nazar Haro, who led Mexico's domestic spy agency and was accused of being behind the disappearances of alleged leftist guerrillas in the 1970s, has died at age 87.
His son, Jose Luis Nassar Daw, confirmed on Friday that Nazar Haro died late Thursday but didn't release a cause of death.
Nazar Haro headed Mexico's now-dissolved Federal Security Directorate from 1978 to 1982 at the height of the government's "dirty war" against leftist insurgents.
He was arrested in 2004 and put under house arrest on charges stemming from the disappearances of six farmers who were alleged members of a group called the Brigada Campesina de los Lacandones, an armed group that the government linked to at least one kidnapping.
A judge dismissed all charges against Nazar Haro in 2006.
The ruling was a setback for special prosecutor Ignacio Carrillo, who had been named by then President Vicente Fox to shed light on wrongful imprisonment, torture, forced disappearances and slayings of hundreds of radical leftists and farm and union leaders during the 1960s, '70s and '80s.
The most brutal phase of the "dirty war" was President Luis Echeverria's administration from 1970 to 1976, when the government implemented a plan to get rid of guerrillas blamed for a series of kidnappings and attacks on soldiers.
During all the years of the conflict, Mexico's presidency was controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which moved to crush small bands of guerrillas seeking its overthrow. The PRI held the presidency for 71 years without interruption before losing the 2000 election to Fox, the candidate of the conservative National Action Party.

SEATTLE – After a two-year international crime spree in which he survived a handful of crash landings, Colton Harris-Moore — the infamous "Barefoot Bandit" — says he's lucky to be alive.
Harris-Moore spoke publicly in court Friday for the first time since his 2010 arrest. A short while later, he was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in federal prison, which will be served concurrently with state prison time.
"What I did could be called daring, but it is no stretch of the imagination to say that am lucky to be alive ... absolutely lucky," he said. "I should have died years ago."
He particularly apologized for stealing planes, saying his arrogance led him to keep alive his dream of flying.
But Harris-Moore, once a gangly teenager, was more than just a self-taught pilot.
He hopscotched his way across the United States, authorities said. He flew a plane stolen in northwestern Washington to the San Juan Islands, stole a pistol in British Columbia and took a plane from Idaho to Washington state, stole a boat in southwestern Washington to go to Oregon, and took a plane in Indiana and flew to the Bahamas, where was arrested.
The 20-year-old earned his nickname because he committed several of the crimes without wearing shoes, and he attracted fans across the nation for his ability to evade police.
Friday's sentencing all but ends his exploits, providing the final details for a movie that an entertainment lawyer and federal prosecutors said 20th Century Fox has in the works.
But far from a gloating star, Harris-Moore apologized Friday to his victims.
"I now know a crime that took place overnight will take years to recover from," he said in court.
Defense attorney John Henry Browne said he expects Harris-Moore to be out of prison in about 4 1/2 years, accounting for the 18 months he's already been in custody. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on how much time he might serve, saying that will be up to the Bureau of Prisons.
Outside the courthouse, Harris-Moore's mother, Pam Kohler of Camano Island, said her son gave her a letter in court, but she refused to talk to reporters. She used her purse to hit a television crew's microphone and camera, and a newspaper photographer's camera.
In court, U.S. District Judge Richard Jones asked Harris-Moore to speak to young people who may look up to him because of his exploits.
"I would say to younger people they should focus on their education, which is what I am doing right now," he said. "I want to start a company. I want to make a difference in this world, legally."
Before the sentencing, defense attorneys said federal prosecutors released cherry-picked excerpts from emails in an effort to make Harris-Moore appear callous and self-aggrandizing.
He called the Island County sheriff "king swine," called prosecutors "fools," and referred to reporters as "vermin." He also described his feats — stealing and flying planes with no formal training — "amazing" and said they were unmatched by anyone except the Wright brothers.
But Harris-Moore's lawyers claim the full emails show that he is sorry for what he did and thankful for the treatment he received from a state judge who called his case a "triumph of the human spirit." The state judge sentenced him last month to seven years, at the low end of the sentencing range.
The attorneys acknowledged that in certain instances he bragged, but they said those writings were simply the product of an impulsive adolescent and don't reflect his true remorse.

Harris-Moore apologized for those emails in court Friday.

Federal prosecutors had asked for Jones to impose a 6 1/2 year sentence to be served while Harris-Moore serves his state time. His attorneys had asked for a federal sentence of just under six years.

The judge acknowledged that Harris-Moore had a difficult childhood, one with "complete lack of parental guidance" and alcohol and drug abuse from his parents. But he said he was concerned that that his previous court appearances didn't have an impact on him.

Jones acknowledged that Harris-Moore committed his early crimes to survive after fleeing from home. But he said "most of the federal offenses were committed for one reason: to fulfill your passion for flying at all costs and consequences."

The judge encouraged Harris-Moore to get treatment in prison.

"The most important day in your life is what you do when you are released. It will be up to you to create a new flight plan," Jones said.

Harris-Moore's defense lawyers said treatment was already under way.

There will be another hearing in a month to decide how much restitution Harris-Moore will be required to pay.

Federal prosecutor Darwin Roberts said he doesn't expect the movie deal to provide enough money to cover the estimated $1.3 million restitution.

Entertainment lawyer Lance Rosen said outside the courtroom that Academy Award winner Dustin Lance Black — who wrote "Milk" and the recent "J. Edgar" — has met with Harris-Moore several times and has turned in a draft of the script.

One of Harris-Moore's victims, Kelly Kneifl, made the trip from Yankton, S.D., to speak at the sentencing. Harris-Moore broke into Kneifl's home while he and his family were away on vacation.

Kneifl said he just caught a glimpse of a naked Harris-Moore escaping and wanted get some closure by watching him getting sentenced to prison.

"I do have empathy for him. I hope ... he can get on the right track someday," Kneifl said.

(Reuters) – Supporters of legalizing marijuana for recreational use have submitted enough signatures to put the matter to voters in Washington state in a bold move that, if successful, could put Olympia on a collision course with the federal government.

The group New Approach Washington submitted nearly 278,000 valid signatures for the measure, more than required to put it on the November ballot, David Ammons, a spokesman for the Washington Secretary of State's office, said in a statement.

The move comes as federal prosecutors have sought to crank up pressure on several mostly western states, including Washington, that have legalized medical marijuana even as cannibis remains classified as an illegal narcotic under federal law.

The proposal, if approved by voters, would allow marijuana sales to people 21 and older, permit state taxes to be collected on the drug, ban pot advertising and prohibit driving under the influence of cannabis.

Supporters of legalizing marijuana, who include acting Seattle city attorney Peter Holmes, say the federal prohibition on the drug has not curbed use and that it enriches drug cartels.

"This is the grown-up approach to regulating a relatively harmless drug," Holmes said.

Opponents of legalization say it would lead to more abuse of the drug, including by young people, and that underground sales would continue.

"There will always be a black market. That's been proven with cigarettes with the tobacco industry," said Calvina Fay, head of the Florida-based Drug Free America Foundation. "Even though tobacco is legal and it's regulated, there's still a huge global black market."

Washington is one of 16 states that, along with the nation's capital, have decriminalized medical marijuana. But federal agents have raided medical marijuana dispensaries in several states, including Washington, in recent months.

Under state law, the recreational legalization initiative next heads to the Washington State Legislature, which has the option of avoiding a popular vote by itself enacting the proposal to legalize marijuana, Ammons said.

The legislature could also allow the measure to go to the ballot alongside an alternative from lawmakers, Ammons said.

Alison Holcomb, campaign director of New Approach Washington, has said she did not expect the legislature would enact the proposal on its own, but would leave the issue for voters to decide.

In 2010, a measure to legalize marijuana in California lost at the ballot box when less than 47 percent of voters approved it.

No modern, affluent nation has ever legalized commercial production and distribution of marijuana, according to research organization RAND Corp.

In the Netherlands, famous for its Amsterdam cafes where guests buy and smoke marijuana, authorities allow adults to buy the drug but the country officially has a policy that commercial production of it is illegal, said Beau Kilmer, co-director of the RAND Drug Policy Research Center.

(Reporting By Alex Dobuzinskis; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

WASHINGTON – Newly released Justice Department emails sent to Capitol Hill for a congressional inquiry into a gun-smuggling operation indicate that the head of the department's criminal division suggested letting some illicit "straw" weapons buyers in the U.S. transport their guns across the border into Mexico where they could be arrested.
According to the emails turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Friday night, the Justice official, Lanny Breuer, made the suggestion to Mexican officials because it "may send a strong message to arms traffickers."
Mexico has stringent gun control laws with long prison terms as opposed to the U.S., where small-time "straw" buyers working for major arms traffickers seldom face jail time.
Breuer made the remarks in February 2011, around the time that agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives were telling congressional investigators that the ATF had allowed hundreds of illicitly purchased guns in the operation known as Fast and Furious flow into Mexico — a controversial tactic known as "gun-walking" aimed at following gun buyers to major traffickers.
In Fast and Furious, the ATF lost track of the guns and many were eventually recovered from crime scenes in the U.S. and Mexico, including one location near Nogales, Ariz., where U.S. border patrol agent Brian Terry was slain on Dec. 14, 2010. Two guns found at the murder scene were connected to Operation Fast and Furious.
The documents on Breuer were among 486 pages of material turned over to the House committee chaired by Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California.
Also among the documents are Justice Department emails involving a former top aide to Attorney General Eric Holder. The emails show that then-deputy chief of staff Monty Wilkinson was notified by then-U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke the day after Terry was slain that guns found at the murder scene were connected to an investigation that Burke and Wilkinson had planned to discuss. The emails did not identify the investigation, but it was Operation Fast and Furious.
In a letter to the committee, the Justice Department said that Wilkinson does not recall a follow-up call with Burke and that Wilkinson does not recall discussing this aspect of the matter with the attorney general. According to the letter, the department has been advised that Burke has no recollection of discussing this aspect of the matter with Wilkinson.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Kentucky's governor said Friday there will be an immediate review of ways to restore an aging traffic bridge in the western part of the state after a five-story-high cargo boat carrying space rocket parts for NASA and the Air Force slammed into it, leaving a 300-foot-wide gap in the structure.
Gov. Steve Beshear promised speedy work to replace the damaged bridge at US 68 and Kentucky 80 that was struck Thursday night. The 1930's-era bridge already was in the process of being replaced and preconstruction work began months ago, state transportation officials said.
The two-lane bridge, which connects Trigg and Marshall counties at the western entrance to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, handles about 2,800 vehicles daily. Drivers now face a detour of dozens of miles while it is out.
Coast Guard officials also closed a portion of the river on either side of the bridge, formerly known as Eggner's Ferrry Bridge, until it's determined to be safe for travel.
The Delta Mariner was traveling on the Tennessee River on its typical route from Decatur, Ala., to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida when it was unable to pass under shorter spans of the bridge and collided with the structure. No injuries were reported on the bridge or boat. On Friday, the ship was covered in twisted steel and chunks of asphalt from the bridge.
"We were very fortunate that no one was on the span at that time," Beshear said Friday.
Meanwhile, Coast Guard officials investigating the accident declined to comment Friday evening on a possible cause of the crash. A report will be issued but the investigation has not finished, said Lt. Ron Easley of the agency's Louisville office.
Sam Sacco, a spokesman for the ship's owner and operator, Foss Maritime of Seattle, said the Coast Guard inspected the vessel and interviewed crew members. Sacco said the boat was not severely damaged, and some of the crew remained on board Friday to ensure the cargo is safe.
Transportation Cabinet spokesman Keith Todd told The Paducah Sun he believes most of the navigational lights were functioning on the bridge at the time of the impact.
The 312-foot, 8,400-ton Delta Mariner hauls rocket parts for the Delta and Atlas systems to launch stations in Florida and California, according to a statement from United Launch Alliance, which builds the rocket parts in Alabama. The cargo was not damaged in the collision with the bridge, the company said.
The rockets are used by the Air Force, NASA and private companies to send satellites into space, said Jessica Rye, a spokeswoman with United Launch Alliance.
The ship's typical route to Florida takes it along the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers, then onto the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico and on to Florida's east coast, Sacco said.
Sacco said he didn't believe that the Delta Mariner has had any major incidents before the collision. In 2001, the ship was stuck in a sandbar on the Tennessee River during a trip to Decatur, but was later freed by a river tug after about an hour.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A Egyptian military team plans to visit the United States next week as Cairo's crackdown on pro-democracy organizations has called into question the future of U.S. aid to Egypt, American officials said on Friday.

The Egyptian delegation hopes to meet with officials at the State Department and the Pentagon. It will also hold talks on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers will soon consider a new request for aid to Egypt's military, which now runs about $1.3 billion per year, one official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Egyptian visit comes after Egypt's military-led authorities pounced on non-governmental organizations, including several funded by the U.S. government, and slapped travel bans on six American staffers including a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, a former congressman.

Political analysts say the crackdown, along with questions over Egypt's emergency law and security forces' treatment of women protesters, has clouded the outlook for Egypt's fledgling democracy following last year's overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said American officials were pressing Egyptian authorities the crackdown, which she described as "bizarre." The Americans have demanded that Egypt lift travel restrictions placed on a number of foreign NGO staffers.

"We do not have progress since yesterday, I am sorry to report," Nuland said.

The six U.S. citizens work with the National Democratic Institute and International Republican Institute. Both receive U.S. public funding and are loosely affiliated with the two major political parties in Washington.

"The assertions of the Egyptian government in these cases are that they are subject to a judicial process which is not complete," Nuland said. "Our message back is, 'Complete these formalities and let our people travel as soon as possible.'"

HIGH TENSION

Officials said a detailed Washington schedule for the Egyptian visit was still being worked out, adding that it was a regular staff delegation that was coming at a moment of high tension in the U.S.-Egypt relationship.

Other political sources said the Egyptians were expected to discuss the NGO issue on Capitol Hill, where a number of senators have warned the Egyptians that U.S. aid was at stake if action against the NGOs continues.

"Continued restriction of their activities and harassment of international and Egyptian staff will be looked at with great concern, particularly in light of Egypt's considerable U.S. assistance," 11 senators said in a letter to Egyptian Field Marshall Hussein Tantawi dated January 18.

President Barack Obama spoke with Tantawi on January 20 and stressed the importance of the NGOs, as well as Egypt's deteriorating economic situation and its request for $3.2 billion in support from the International Monetary Fund.

The Obama administration is finalizing its budget for the 2013 fiscal year, which will be presented on February 13 and is expected to include continued assistance for Egypt's military.

Lawmakers imposed conditions on the U.S. assistance given in 2012, requiring Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to certify that the Egyptian government is supporting the transition to a civilian government. That includes holding free and fair elections and implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association, and religion, and due process of law.

Clinton can waive this if it is in U.S. national security interests, but must notify Congress that she has done so.

"Those are decisions that are going to have to be made later on in the winter and spring," Nuland said. "These are points that we're obviously making clear to the Egyptians."

(Editing by Christopher Wilson)

NEW YORK – The hands came out of the pockets. The gaze was intense. Mitt Romney leaned confidently into the lectern.
Even with the sound turned off, Romney would have stolen Newt Gingrich's debate thunder with a surprisingly commanding and aggressive performance in the latest Florida faceoff, body language experts said Friday.
To some, in fact, it was as if the two Republican presidential candidates had swapped roles, with Gingrich, the aggressor (and ultimate victor) in South Carolina, suddenly seeming the uncomfortable, squirmy candidate in Florida.
It was a marked change for Romney, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, an expert in political communication at the University of Pennsylvania. "All his nonverbal cues suggested directness," she said. "The halting delivery was gone. He didn't hesitate before responding. The indecisiveness disappeared."
The former Massachusetts governor also showed flashes of temperament, unafraid to display real anger at Gingrich's calling him, in an ad, an "anti-immigrant" candidate.
"Mr. Speaker, I'm not anti-immigrant!" he retorted. "The idea that I'm anti-immigrant is repulsive. Don't use a term like that."
The anger came off as both real and controlled, said body language coach Patti Wood, which was important because it projected the sense that Romney wouldn't be carried away by his emotions as president.
"It was a controlled strength," said the Atlanta-based Wood, who coaches politicians and executives. "His shoulders were up, chest back. Very effective." And equally important, Wood said, is the way Romney ended the exchange — with a slight, satisfied smile that stopped short of a smirk: "He could have ruined it at that moment with a smirk, which he's been known to do, but he didn't."
Where did the new Romney technique come from? Both Jamieson and Wood say it was clear the candidate had been well coached. Indeed, Romney has been working with a new coach — Brett O'Donnell, formerly with Michele Bachmann's campaign.
"You don't make that kind of change without practice," says Jamieson.
Another expert, Lillian Glass, said it was more than just technique — that perhaps Romney was getting a better sense of himself as a candidate.
"You can coach someone, but the body doesn't lie," said the Los Angeles-based Glass, who coaches both politicians and actors in body language. "What's going on psychologically shows. What I'm seeing is more conviction, that he seems more sure of what he is saying."
One thing was clear to Glass: "If you turned off the sound last night, that was your leader, just based on the physical alone."
Not that many viewers do turn the sound off, but nonverbal cues are more important than people may think, said Gerald Shuster, a professor of political communication at the University of Pittsburgh. "The nonverbal message often carries a lot more weight than the verbal," said Shuster, who also studies presidential rhetoric.
In earlier debates, Shuster said, Romney had seemed less engaged, with his hands often in his pockets, as if staying above the fray. He also appeared exasperated when attacked by Gingrich.
"The tilt of his head, the tone of his voice," Shuster said. "It was almost like a parent disciplining a child, as in, `I can't believe you just said that!'"
With his fiery style, Gingrich, said Shuster, took advantage of Romney's role as perceived front-runner. "The challenger has it easier — he forces the perceived favorite to go off his stride and go off message," he said. "Gingrich was very good at that. He forced Romney to stop talking about Obama and defend himself" — especially on questions over his personal income taxes and his considerable wealth.
Romney did, though, take a page from Gingrich's playbook: More effective use of the debate audience.

"Last night Romney got at least as much audience support as Gingrich did," said Jamieson.

In general, Gingrich seemed more frustrated, said Glass, the body language expert in Los Angeles. "His voice would go up in pitch," she said. "It was a pinched voice, and pinched facial expressions. He pursed his lips, furrowed his brow, shifted around a lot."

As for the two other candidates, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Texas congressman Ron Paul each had their good moments, Glass said: Paul scored with his folksy humor (he even plugged his wife's cookbook) and Santorum "was very well-spoken, but lacked gravitas."

Of course, everyone has ups and downs, and things could change again. But, Jamieson said, Romney took a big step toward blunting Gingrich's contention that he'd be the more successful debater in the general election.

"If Republicans are looking for someone who can debate Barack Obama, the better debater on the stage last night was Mitt Romney," Jamieson said.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – In the end, what matters is that the U.S. women's soccer team is going to the Olympics. What the players won't soon forget is how hard they had to work get there.
The Americans booked their way to London on Friday night with a 3-0 victory over Costa Rica in the semifinals of the CONCACAF qualifying tournament, a game more suspenseful than most anyone expected.
Tobin Heath scored in the 16th minute to give U.S. all the scoring it needed, and goals by Carli Lloyd (72nd) and Alex Morgan (89th) put the game away late.
But the top-ranked Americans were less crisp than when they were beating teams by a combined 31-0 earlier in the tournament and drawing criticism for running up the score.
Costa Rica is ranked No. 41 in the world, has never qualified for an Olympics or a World Cup and has never scored on the U.S. in eight meetings. Las Ticas proved to be scrappy opponents, however, occasionally frustrating the Americans with physical play and just missing on two solid scoring chances in the first half in the London-or-bust match. As the possibility of an upset lingered deep into the second half, the underdogs gained the rousing support of the Canadian fans at BC Place.
In the end, a speedy, unflappable quartet of American defenders — Kelley O'Hara, Rachel Buehler, Christie Rampone and Amy LePeilbet — combined with goalkeeper Hope Solo to keep Costa Rica out of the net. Solo played despite a slightly pulled right quadriceps that had been bothering her all week.
The U.S. will be the two-time defending champions in London, having taken gold in Athens in 2004 and in Beijing in 2008. It will be the third straight Olympics in which the Americans will be trying to make amends for World Cup disappointment from the previous year. They finished second at last year's World Cup in Germany, losing to Japan in the final.
The victory also puts the Americans into the tournament final Sunday, a bragging-rights-only game against the winner of Friday's late game between Mexico and Canada.
The Americans had scored so easily in the tournament that it seemed odd to see the game scoreless until the 16th minute, when a set piece produced the first goal. Lauren Cheney's corner kick was headed down at the far post by Shannon Boxx. Goalkeeper Erika Miranda made the save but deflected the ball to Heath, whose looping header was her fifth career U.S. national team goal.
Costa Rica, outscored 34-0 in the seven previous games against the U.S., nearly tied the game after a giveaway by Buehler set up Fernanda Barrantes with a clean look from 15 yards in the 20th minute, forcing Solo to the ground to make the save.
Then, in the 27th, Carol Sanchez launched a 30-yarder that clanged off the frame at the intersection of the post and the crossbar. With Solo on the ground, Buehler fought off Barrantes to keep the striker from getting the rebound with a clean shot at an open net.
Costa Rica finally had its hopes deflated in the 72nd, when Abby Wambach's chip shot was cleared off the line by Daniela Cruz and out to Lloyd, whose left-footer from the top of the 18-yard box doubled the lead.
Morgan, a second-half substitute, chipped in the insurance goal shortly before the final whistle.
Even with the closer-than-expected result, the Americans have evoked the good old days at this tournament with their mostly lopsided scores. While that's hardly surprising given the slow development of women's soccer in parts of North and Central American and the Caribbean, it's also indicative the U.S. still have the deepest, most talented team in the world.
But Pia Sundhage's team arrived in Canada with a bit of apprehension. The Americans, having become somewhat complacent from years of uncontested success in the region, were stunned in a World Cup qualifier by host Mexico in November 2010, forcing them into a home-and-away playoff with Italy just to get for the World Cup. Also, the format for Olympic qualifying is such that everything hinges on one game — the do-or-die semifinals — regardless of how a team performs in the rest of the tournament.
Determined to take nothing for granted, the Americans have been full throttle for every game. They set a U.S. team record for goals in a game in a 14-0 win over the Dominican Republic, then nearly matched the feat in a 13-0 rout of Guatemala. Then came a 4-0 win a much anticipated rematch with Mexico to set up the semifinal against Costa Rica.
___
Joseph White can be reached at http://twitter.com/JGWhiteAP

Yemen was mentioned twice in President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday, once in respect of the the "decisive blows" by American power that had sent al-Qaeda scrambling, and again in respect of the "wave of change" that has broken across the Arab world to demand the "rights and dignity of all human beings." No country is more delicately balanced between the contending pressures of the Arab Spring and Washington's campaign against al-Qaeda. And neither has been advanced by heavy U.S. intervention in the impoverished Arabian nation, as an overriding focus on al-Qaeda continues to define Washington's policy on Yemen's battle over democracy. The departure of the dictator President Ali Abdullah Saleh to the U.S. a week ago is the culmination of a grand bargain between contending factions of the country's political class, brokered by U.S. diplomats, which avoids both genuine elections and accountability for the regime's bloody crackdowns on protestors.
Saleh, in power for 33 years, was ravaged by a bomb attack in his palace last summer amid an increasingly violent anti-government uprising. Immunity from prosecution and leave to seek medical treatment abroad, Washington's logic goes, will discourage him from marring Yemen's pro forma election next month of a successor -- Saleh's Vice President is the sole candidate. (Photos: Yemen on the Brink)
The deal has outraged many of the democracy activists who have pledged to remain camped out in city squares throughout the country. "There shouldn't be any place for tyrants in the free world," TIME was told by Tawakul Karman, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her role in challenging the regime.
"This is against all international agreements, laws, and covenants," she added. "The entry of Ali Saleh into America is an insult to the values of the American people. This was a mistake by the Administration, and I am confident he will be met with wide disapproval in America. This will tarnish the reputation of America among all those who support the Arab Spring revolutions."
Allowing Saleh to stay might be couched as a humanitarian gesture, but it also reflects a realism branded as cynical by Yemeni activists. Yemen's power struggle is far from over, and Saleh may yet emerge victorious if he returns to continue leading the ruling party through his extended family. As Charles Schmitz, a Yemen expert at Towson University, notes, "Saleh's sons are still in command of the armed forces and security apparatus. So, though Saleh is politically a pariah, the U.S. still needs his clan to help fight al-Qaeda, and al-Qaeda is the priority in U.S. policy."
The regime's efforts against terrorism, however, have been superficial at best. Saleh's government used its position as the local partner in the Bush Administration's "Global War on Terror" to obtain arms and, more importantly, a veneer of political legitimacy in confronting its domestic adversaries. Last year, the regime diverted its elite U.S.-trained and -armed counterterrorism force away from its patrols in the restive South to battle opposition tribesmen in the capital. And as the battle for power in the capital has raged, extremism has spread dangerously in Yemen's rugged hinterlands. A group calling itself Ansar al-Sharia, the "Partisans of Islamic Law" have capitalized on the erosion of the central government's writ to seize a growing swath of territory. Cutting off hands for larceny and executing soldiers who resist them, their range expanded to within easy driving distance of the capital. An armed gang seized the Southeastern city of Rada'a last week, raising the al-Qaeda flag there and decrying a new national unity government as "Jewish." (Video: Tawakul Karman, Revolutionary Mother)
The distraction in the capital has prompted the U.S. step up its own covert war against Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the movement's local franchise is known. In October, a drone strike killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who had been the group's star recruiter and public face. Drone strikes have so far executed mostly lower and mid-level operatives, but frequently also kill civilians.A separate attack in October killed Awlaki's 16-year old son, also a U.S. national.
Limited as it is, few observers of Yemen's complex, bloody politics believed that even the amount of change achieved so far would have been possible.That a society as well-armed as Yemen's could avoid Libya's civil war or Syria's grisly breakdown, diplomats insist, signals a triumph of negotiation.
The stewardship of the United States and its Arab allies over the plan remains a major grievance of the protest movement here, however. Protesters in Sana'a Thursday chanted, "This is a revolution, not a political crisis!" The early intercession of foreign powers with a transition plan distracted attention from popular demands, they say, and allowed the president to cite ongoing talks in delaying his resignation. Many Yemenis believe the key interest guiding the U.S. has been keeping enough of the regime intact to combat al-Qaeda, and that this has distorted the outcome. (Photos: Occupy Sana'a)
Saleh, in addressing the U.S. media, works the issue, portraying himself as loyal ally against terrorism. "I am addressing the American public. I want to ask a question: Are you still keeping your commitment in continuing the operations against the Taliban and al-Qaeda?" he said last year, in an interview with TIME. "But what we see is that we are pressured by America and the international community to speed up the process of handing over power."
Despite ongoing repression, Saleh has used his relationship with the U.S. to bolster his position. Last July, John Brennan, the Obama administration's counterterrorism adviser, paid an official visit to Saleh, then on medical leave in Saudi Arabia. The spectacle was broadcast on Yemeni state TV -- the sight of the President's good health and statesmanlike demeanor sent loyalist soldiers and tribesmen into riotous celebratory gunfire which deepened tensions.
Ultimately, it was a threat of U.N. sanctions that would have sunk the government that paved the way for the current deal. U.N. mediators won all sides' consent to a timeline for political transition, which connected Yemen with a wider democratic trend that leaves in flux U.S. reliance on authoritarian Arab states to guard its interests. In Yemen, the US enjoys unrivaled leverage over a brutish yet desperate regime, but remains fearful of what might replace it. Because Yemen is one of the few Arab states in which al-Qaeda operates with much vigor, these days, it is also one in which the U.S. struggles to relinquish the longstanding habit of prioritizing security concerns over the promise of democracy.
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ORLANDO, Fla. – Republican insiders are rising up to cut Newt Gingrich down to size, testament to the GOP establishment's fear that the mercurial candidate could lead the party to disaster this fall.
The gathering criticisms are bitingly sharp, as if edged by a touch of panic, a remarkable development considering the target once was speaker of the House and will go down in history as leader of the Republicans' 1994 return to power in Congress. The intended beneficiary is Mitt Romney, a once-moderate Massachusetts governor whom many rank-and-file Republicans view with suspicion.
"The Republican establishment might not be wild about Mitt Romney, but they're terrified by Newt Gingrich," said Dan Schnur, a former GOP campaign strategist who teaches politics at the University of Southern California.
The anti-Gingrich statements have come from conservative columnists, talk show hosts including Ann Coulter, former Reagan administration officials and others. One of the harshest was written by former Sen. Bob Dole, the party's 1996 presidential nominee.
"I have not been critical of Newt Gingrich but it is now time to take a stand before it is too late," Dole wrote in the conservative magazine National Review. "If Gingrich is the nominee it will have an adverse impact on Republican candidates running for county, state, and federal offices."
As speaker from 1995 through 1998, Gingrich "had a new idea every minute and most of them were off the wall," Dole wrote. He said he struggled against Democrats' TV attacks in his 1996 campaign, "and in every one of them, Newt was in the ad."
Gingrich has reacted unevenly to the accusations, sometimes denouncing them, other times wearing them like a badge of honor.
"The Republican establishment is just as much as an establishment as the Democratic establishment, and they are just as determined to stop us," he told a tea party rally Thursday in central Florida.
The crowd cheered. But lingering near the back was an example of how the Romney campaign is taking advantage of the whacks at Gingrich: GOP Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah. Chaffetz is beloved by many conservatives, and he goes from one Gingrich event to another to tell reporters why he thinks Romney would be a stronger challenger against President Barack Obama in the fall.
Gingrich aide R.C. Hammond confronted Chaffetz on Friday at an event in Delray, Fla., noting that some Republican officials criticize such shadowing tactics. Chaffetz defended his presence, saying Gingrich has vowed to show up everywhere Obama campaigns this fall, if several hours later.
Romney has drawn other high-ranking surrogates, with mixed results. South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley annoyed some of her tea party supporters when she campaigned throughout her state for Romney, who lost to Gingrich by 12 percentage points.
It's unclear whether the anti-Gingrich push is driving a new wedge between establishment Republicans and anti-establishment insurgents such as the tea partyers.
"We don't like the Republican establishment anyway," said Mark Meckler, a Californian and co-founder of Tea Party Patriots. He said tea partyers are heavily focused on state and local races, and are wary of getting drawn into the presidential quarrels.
After all, Meckler said, "it's not as though Newt Gingrich hasn't been part of the Republican establishment."
Many other conservative activists also noted Gingrich's long history as a Washington insider, including 20 years in Congress and 13 as a well-paid consultant, writer and Fox News commentator. His history complicates his efforts to rally angry, working-class Republicans who feel that an "elite" cadre of officials, journalists and others look down on them.
"He's in one sense attacking the establishment he says he helped lead," said John Feehery, a former top House GOP aide who contends the tea party's influence is often overstated. The chief complaints about Gingrich focus more on his personality than his politics, which are hard to nail down, Feehery said.
The most damaging criticisms have come from former friends and colleagues who worked closely with him in Congress. It's Gingrich's egotistic behavior, more than ideology, that is driving the attacks, Feehery said.
Among those defending Gingrich are Sarah Palin, the 2008 vice presidential nominee who is admired by many tea partyers.

"Look at Newt Gingrich, what's going on with him via the establishment's attacks," Palin said this week on Fox Business Network. "They're trying to crucify this man and rewrite history and rewrite what it is that he has stood for all these years."

Palin and Rep. Michele Bachmann, who dropped out of the presidential race, are tea party favorites with minimal experience in Washington and in top GOP circles. Gingrich is trying to tap the sense of resentment among their followers. But his long and complicated Washington record and reputation for intra-party quarrels seem to leave some tea partyers unimpressed.

"It's truly a shame that this is where the Republican establishment has chosen to focus their energy," said Marianne Gasiecki, a tea party activist in Ohio. She added, however, that political activists should focus on congressional races. "If we have a conservative House and Senate," she said, "the power of the president is really insignificant."

As Gingrich's broadcast ads in Florida become more pointed, prominent Republicans are chiding him without endorsing Romney or any other candidates. Gingrich stopped running a radio ad that called Romney anti-immigrant after Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said it was unfair and damaging to the party.

So long as party insiders' complaints about Gingrich focus on his personality and quirks, the GOP can postpone a more wrenching debate about ideology, which may be in store if the once-moderate Romney is nominated. For now, conservative stalwarts seem determined to depict Gingrich as too erratic to be the party's standard bearer, let alone president.

Columnist Charles Krauthammer told Fox News: "Gingrich isn't after victory, he's after vengeance." He added: "This is Captain Ahab on the loose."

Some Republican voters are pushing back. "I want so badly to be for Gingrich, and I'm not going to be bullied out of my vote," said Barb Johnson, 52, who attended the tea party rally in Mount Dora, Fla., on Thursday. "I like his strong presence."

Florida's primary is Tuesday.

___

Associated Press writer Brian Bakst contributed to this report from Delray, Fla.

TOKYO (Reuters) – A strong earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.5 jolted eastern Japan on Saturday morning, but there were no immediate reports of injury or damage and no tsunami warning was issued.

The focus of the tremor was 20 km (12 miles) below the surface of the earth, in Yamanashi prefecture, west of Tokyo, the Japan Meteorological Agency said.

The quake, at 7:43 a.m., was also felt in the capital.

Earthquakes are common in Japan, one of the world's most seismically active areas. The country accounts for about 20 percent of the world's earthquakes of magnitude 6 or greater.

On March 11, 2011, the northeast coast was struck by a magnitude 9 earthquake, the strongest quake in Japan on record, and a massive tsunami, which triggered the world's worst nuclear crisis in 25 years since Chernobyl. The disaster left up to 23,000 dead or missing.

(Reporting by Chris Gallagher, editing by Matthew Lewis)

LONDON – There's a nod to Shakespeare, a big bell and ... nurses?
Academy Award-winning director Danny Boyle offered a sneak peek of his vision for the 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony, revealing Friday that he'll ring a massive bell to start festivities that will include thousands of performers and offer a tribute to a British institution, the National Health Service.
The revelations are unusual as the content of the ceremonies is typically a closely guarded secret. But Boyle seemed almost giddy as he offered small hints during a news conference to mark six months to the games. His attitude seemed a cross between 'I know something you don't know' and 'wait, wait you'll love it.'
"It's an enormous bloody thing," he said to chuckles at London's 3 Mills Studio, where the production is being shaped.
The ceremony, whose theme is "Isle of Wonders" is partly inspired by William Shakespeare's "The Tempest" and by the industrial past of Stratford, the East London site of the Olympic Park. It starts with the ringing of a giant bell, and has a segment devoted to the oft-maligned — and much-loved — NHS.
Enormous or not, Boyle's news conference itself showed his skill as a master storyteller, unraveling the tale of his creation of the ceremony with the feel of a fireside chat. He began by noting how thrilled he was to create a glory moment of the games — particularly since he lives in the same part of London where they are taking place.
It is personal to him, and he wanted it to be personal to others so he set about trying to get as much "humanity," in it as possible.
While the specter of trying to beat the monumental ceremony of the Beijing Olympics looms, Boyle said his goal would be to compare favorably to those who staged another Olympics — the 2000 Sydney Games. They were fun. Personal.
Then he looked at his assets. London's Olympic Stadium was not spectacular on the outside, unlike Beijing's Bird's Nest, but the inside is another story, a gorgeous "porcelain bowl" that seats the same number as China's nest, he said. It's a place where spectators can see the faces of those opposite them and a connection can be made.
"We didn't want to slavishly be bossed about by the TV audience, which is a billion people," he said. "We wanted the 80,000 people who are lucky enough to be in there to be the conduit through which you feel this experience really."
Even the land beneath the stadium figured in his thinking. The soil was once a toxic waste dump, poisoned by Britain's industrial past. Boyle liked the notion that the land had been recovered and a new legacy created.
He talked of his experiments, and noted that his play "Frankenstein" was a "dry run" for elements of the show.
Boyle returned to live theater after years directing movies with "Frankenstein" at Britain's National Theatre in 2011. The show won wide praise for its visual verve and the way it drew the audience into the action — shrouding the theater walls in bandages and running a clanging steampunk-style steam train on tracks through the auditorium. It also featured the work of Boyle's frequent musical collaborators Underworld, who will also work on the ceremony.
He then weaved in the history of the British Isles. Boyle ordered up a 27-ton bell from the Whitechapel Bell Foundry to ring in the games. Founded in 1570 and officially Britain's oldest manufacturing company, Whitechapel made London's Big Ben and Philadelphia's Liberty Bell.
Boyle loved that ringing a bell to begin a performance was customary at the time of Shakespeare. The bell cast Friday will be inscribed with a line from "The Tempest," in which Caliban says "Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises."
"We want people to be able to hear those noises," Boyle said.
The opening ceremony of the Olympics is nothing if not a huge extravaganza. It includes a massive parade of athletes and lots of protocol — and is often criticized for being too long. Finishing before the next day is part of the challenge.
The pre-ceremony show starts at 8:12 p.m. local time, or 2012 in military time. The full televised program begins 9 p.m. BST; 2000 GMT (4 p.m. EDT), and is supposed to end at midnight.

"That's an insane ambition," Boyle said. "Insane ambitions are where all good things come from."

While Boyle's films and plays have tremendous energy and visual flair, the creation of a spectacle to appeal to an audience in the billions from around the world is daunting.

The executive producer of the four ceremonies, Stephen Daldry — a stage and film director whose "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" is nominated for an Oscar — compared the task to producing 165 West End musicals simultaneously.

But they seem like they're having fun ahead of the games that start July 27 and end Aug. 12. For the opening, they've brought in hundreds of children and volunteers who offered energy and passion. Some of the kids will feature in a segment that improbably includes nurses from the health service.

Boyle said it would capture what he described as Britain's sense of humor. More on that later:

"We've got this idea," he said as his face broke into a beatific smile. "Can't tell you exactly what it is."

____

Associated Press Writers Jill Lawless and Stephen Wilson contributed to this story.

SAN FRANCISCO – Cynthia Nixon learned the hard way this week that when it comes to gay civil rights, the personal is always political. Very political.
The actress best known for portraying fiery lawyer Miranda Hobbes on "Sex and the City" is up to her perfectly arched eyebrows in controversy since The New York Times Magazine published a profile in which she was quoted as saying that for her, being gay was a conscious choice. Nixon is engaged to a woman with whom she has been in a relationship for eight years. Before that, she spent 15 years and had two children with a man.
"I understand that for many people it's not, but for me it's a choice, and you don't get to define my gayness for me," Nixon said while recounting some of the flak gay rights activists previously had given her for treading in similar territory. "A certain section of our community is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice, because if it's a choice, then we could opt out. I say it doesn't matter if we flew here or we swam here, it matters that we are here and we are one group and let us stop trying to make a litmus test for who is considered gay and who is not."
To say that a certain segment of the gay community "is very concerned that it not be seen as a choice" is an understatement. Gay rights activists have worked hard to combat the idea that people decide to be physically attracted to same-sex partners any more than they choose to be attracted to opposite-sex ones because the question, so far unanswered by science, is often used by religious conservatives, including GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum and former candidate Michelle Bachman, to argue that homosexuality is immoral behavior, not an inherent trait.
Among the activists most horrified by Nixon's comments was Truth Wins Out founder Wayne Besen, whose organization monitors and tries to debunk programs that claim to cure people of same-sex attractions with therapy. Besen said he found the actress' analysis irresponsible and flippant, despite her ample caveats.
"Cynthia did not put adequate thought into the ramifications of her words, and it is going to be used when some kid comes out and their parents force them into some ex-gay camp while she's off drinking cocktails at fancy parties," Besen said. "When people say it's a choice, they are green-lighting an enormous amount of abuse because if it's a choice, people will try to influence and guide young people to what they perceive as the right choice."
Nixon's publicist did not respond to an e-mail asking if the actress wished to comment on the criticism.
While the broader gay rights movement recognizes that human sexuality exists on a spectrum, and has found common cause with transgender and bisexual people, Nixon may have unwittingly given aid and comfort to those who want to deny same-sex couples the right to marry, adopt children and secure equal spousal benefits, said Jennifer Pizer, legal director of the Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation and the Law, a pro-gay think tank based at the University of California, Los Angeles.
One of the factors courts consider in determining if a law is unconstitutional is whether members of the minority group it targets share an unchangeable or "immutable" trait, Pizer noted. Although the definition of how fixed a characteristic has to be to qualify as immutable still is evolving — religious affiliation, for example, is recognized as grounds for equal protection — the U.S. Supreme Court still has not included sexual orientation among the traits "so integral to personhood it's not something the government should require people to change," she said.
"If gay people in this country had more confidence that their individual freedom was going to be respected, then the temperature would lower a bit on the immutability question because the idea of it being a choice wouldn't seem to stack the deck against their rights," Pizer said.
Nixon stirred the identity politics pot further when she explained in a follow-up interview with The Daily Beast this week that she purposefully rejected identifying herself as bisexual even though her history suggested it was an accurate term.
"I don't pull out the "bisexual" word because nobody likes the bisexuals. Everybody likes to dump on the bisexuals," she said. "But I do completely feel that when I was in relationships with men, I was in love and in lust with those men. And then I met (her fiancé) Christine and I fell in love and lust with her. I am completely the same person and I was not walking around in some kind of fog. I just responded to the people in front of me the way I truly felt."
Although science has not identified either a purely biological or sociological basis for sexual orientation, University of California, Davis psychologist Gregory Herek, an expert on anti-gay prejudice, said Nixon's experience is consistent with research showing that women have an easier time moving between opposite and same-sex partners.
A survey Herek conducted of gay men, lesbians and bisexuals of both genders bore this out. Sixteen percent of the lesbians surveyed reported they felt they had had a fair amount of choice in their sexual orientations, while only five percent of the gay men did. Among bisexuals, the figures were 40 percent for men and 45 percent for women.
What remains to be teased out, Herek said, is how a representative national sample of heterosexuals would answer the same question, and what people mean when their sexual orientation was a choice or not. Are they talking about their sexual desires? Acting on those desires? Or simply the identity they choose to show to the world?
"The nature vs. nurture debate really is passé," he said. "The debate is not really an either/or debate in the vast majority of cases, but how much of each. We don't know how big a role biology plays and how big a role culture plays. A possibility not often discussed is it's not the same for everybody."

LOS ANGELES – Demi Moore smoked something before she was rushed to the hospital on Monday night and was convulsing and "semi-conscious, barely," according to a caller on a frantic 911 recording released Friday by Los Angeles fire officials.
The woman tells emergency operators that Moore, 49, had been "having issues lately."
"Is she breathing normal?" the operator asks.
"No, not so normal. More kind of shaking, convulsing, burning up," the friend says as she hurries to Moore's side, on the edge of panic.
The recording captures the 10 minutes it took paramedics to arrive as friends gather around the collapsed star and try to comfort her as she trembles and shakes.
Another woman is next to Moore as the dispatcher asks if she's responsive.
"Demi, can you hear me?" she asks. "Yes, she's squeezing hands. ... She can't speak."
When the operator asks what Moore ingested or smoked, the friend replies, but the answer was redacted.
"Some form of ... and then she smoked something. I didn't really see. She's been having some issues lately with some other stuff. So I don't know what she's been taking or not," the friend says.
The city attorney's office advised the fire department to redact details about medical conditions and substances to comply with federal medical privacy rules.
"She smoked something. It's not marijuana. It's similar to incense," the friend says to the 911 operator.
While Moore's friends don't say exactly what she smoked, an increasingly popular drug known as Spice is sometimes labeled as "herbal incense."
Spice is a synthetic cannabis drug and also called K2. It's sold in small packets over the Internet, in smoke shops and at convenience stores. The packaging sometimes reads "not for human consumption" to conceal its purpose.
In 2011, there were twice as many spice-related calls to Poison Control Centers nationwide as in the previous year, according to the National Office of Drug Control Policy.
The adverse health effects associated with synthetic marijuana include anxiety, vomiting, racing heartbeat, seizures, hallucinations, and paranoid behavior.
Asked if Moore took the substance intentionally or not, the woman says Moore ingested it on purpose but the reaction was accidental.
"Whatever she took, make sure you have it out for the paramedics," the operator says.
The operator asks the friend if this has happened before.

"I don't know," she says. "There's been some stuff recently that we're all just finding out."

Moore's publicist, Carrie Gordon, said previously that the actress sought professional help to treat her exhaustion and improve her health. She would not comment further on the emergency call or provide details about the nature or location of Moore's treatment.

The past few months have been rocky for Moore.

She released a statement in November announcing she had decided to end her marriage to fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 33, following news of alleged infidelity. The two were known to publicly share their affection for one another via Twitter.

Moore still has a Twitter account under the name mrskutcher but has not posted any messages since Jan. 7.

Meanwhile, Millennium Films announced Friday that Sarah Jessica Parker will replace Moore in the role of feminist Gloria Steinem in its production of "Lovelace," a biopic about the late porn star Linda Lovelace. A statement gave no reason for the change. The production, starring Amanda Seyfried, has been shooting in Los Angeles since Dec. 20.

During the call, the woman caller says the group of friends had turned Moore's head to the side and was holding her down. The dispatcher tells her not to hold her down but to wipe her mouth and nose and watch her closely until paramedics arrive.

"Make sure that we keep an airway open," the dispatcher says. "Even if she passes out completely, that's OK. Stay right with her."

The phone is passed around by four people, including a woman who gives directions to the gate and another who recounts details about what Moore smoked or ingested. Finally, the phone is given to a man named James, so one of the women can hold Moore's head.

There was some confusion at the beginning of the call. The emergency response was delayed by nearly two minutes as Los Angeles and Beverly Hills dispatchers sorted out which city had jurisdiction over the street where Moore lives.

As the call is transferred to Beverly Hills, the frantic woman at Moore's house raises her voice and said, "Why is an ambulance not on its way right now?"

"Ma'am, instead of arguing with me why an ambulance is not on the way, can you spell (the street name) for me?" the Beverly Hills dispatcher says.

Although the estate is located in the 90210 ZIP code above Benedict Canyon, the response was eventually handled by the Los Angeles Fire Department.

By the end of the call, Moore has improved.

"She seems to have calmed down now. She's speaking," the male caller told the operator.

Moore and Kutcher were wed in September 2005.

Kutcher became a stepfather to Moore's three daughters — Rumer, Scout and Tallulah Belle — from her 13-year marriage to actor Bruce Willis. Moore and Willis divorced in 2000 but remained friendly.

Moore and Kutcher created the DNA Foundation, also known as the Demi and Ashton Foundation, in 2010 to combat the organized sexual exploitation of girls around the globe. They later lent their support to the United Nations' efforts to fight human trafficking, a scourge the international organization estimates affects about 2.5 million people worldwide.

Moore can be seen on screen in the recent films "Margin Call" and "Another Happy Day." Kutcher replaced Charlie Sheen on TV's "Two and a Half Men" and is part of the ensemble film "New Year's Eve."