The CIA maintained a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Operations forces this week, U.S. officials said.

The secret CIA facility was used as a base of operations for one of the most delicate human intelligence gathering missions in recent CIA history, one that relied on Pakistani informants and other sources to help assemble a "pattern of life" portrait of the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where bin Laden was found, the officials said.

Documents seized in the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound have yielded a bonanza of new intelligence, from names and locations of terrorist suspects to chilling details of al-Qaeda plots to attack targets in the United States and beyond, U.S. officials said Thursday.

Among the files recovered from captured computers and flash drives were documents detailing a previously unknown plan to attack the U.S. commuter rail network, intelligence officials confirmed. The plan, which described a sabotage attack to occur on this year's 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was being actively considered as recently as February 2010, Obama administration officials said.

On Capitol Hill, the death of Osama bin Laden has triggered renewed calls from legislators in both parties for the United States to speed up its withdrawal from Afghanistan.

But it does not seem to have removed the two political obstacles that have kept these same lawmakers from putting real pressure on the White House in the past.

They still lack the support of either party's leadership. And they still do not have an urgent piece of legislation — a bill central to the war effort — to force a distracted Congress to focus on Afghanistan.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's army chief warned Thursday that any repeat of the type of U.S. commando operation that killed Osama bin Laden would be viewed as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty and would imperil military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.

The combative statement came as a senior U.S. defense official said Pakistan would have to take "very concrete and visible steps" to persuade Congress to continue providing $3 billion in annual military and economic assistance.

GREENVILLE, S.C. — In their first formal debate, a group of GOP presidential contenders on Thursday hailed the death of Sept. 11 mastermind Osama bin Laden but said that long-awaited success has not tempered their view that President Obama has been weak in his international leadership.

Obama deserves credit for "making a tough call and being decisive as it related to finding and killing Osama bin Laden," said former Minnesota governor Tim Pawlenty. But he added: "That moment is not the sum total of America's foreign policy."

NEW YORK — Standing before the president was a flower wreath meant to signify closure for families of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, four days after U.S. commandos killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. It also represented completion of a circle at the Ground Zero site, from crematorium to cemetery to construction site. But the thing about a wreath is that it's just a ring with a hole in the middle of it — and maybe that was appropriate.

There will always be a gaping hole where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. In its footprint on Thursday was a raw open plaza with half-laid stone and gravel trenches, where President Obama paid a brief tribute with a long minute of silence.

Lawmakers from both parties opened budget talks with the White House on Thursday with a tacit agreement to focus on areas where they might find common ground that could produce significant savings and to postpone consideration of divisive issues such as higher tax rates and a dramatic overhaul of Medicare.

Democratic and Republican negotiators plan to broadly scrutinize the budget — targeting spending, tax breaks and other areas where they could save money — as they work toward a deal to rein in the spiraling national debt and smooth passage of a bill to raise the legal limit on government borrowing.

The most exasperating fact of life for a U.S. senator is not wrestling with those impossible, angry windbags across the aisle. The true test of civility is forging a relationship with that one other person who was sent to Washington to work alongside you. That unwanted sibling with whom you must share everything: a beloved home state, a prestigious job and all the voters out there in the dark.

If you happen to be members of the same party? Even worse.

Same-state rivalries abound in the Senate. And delicious tales of clashing egos and epic grudges are widely shared — doled out by insiders like pieces of Hill candy. Some of these special relationships matter more than others. For years, tensions along the border of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry fascinated Senate-watchers, because both Massachusetts patricians had such sway.

The pollsters are predicting that the nine-point "Osama Bounce" for President Obama will fade in a few weeks. So maybe the annoying partisan debate about who gets credit for killing the terrorist will also go away.

Republicans, quick to claim that torture works — though of course this country doesn't torture, but if it did, that would have been the key to getting clues to Osama bin Laden's hideout — said Obama just followed the map that Bush II handed him. Democrats countered by reviving the failure to get bin Laden in Tora Bora.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan's army chief warned Thursday that any repeat of the type of U.S. commando operation that killed Osama bin Laden would be viewed as a violation of Pakistani sovereignty and would imperil military and intelligence cooperation between the two countries.

The combative statement came as a senior U.S. defense official said Pakistan would have to take "very concrete and visible steps" to persuade Congress to continue providing $3 billion in annual military and economic assistance.

The CIA maintained a safe house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad for a small team of spies who conducted extensive surveillance over a period of months on the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. Special Operations forces this week, U.S. officials said.

The secret CIA facility was used as a base of operations for one of the most delicate human intelligence gathering missions in recent CIA history, one that relied on Pakistani informants and other sources to help assemble a "pattern of life" portrait of the occupants and daily activities at the fortified compound where bin Laden was found, the officials said.

UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. panel investigating the source of Haiti's 2010 cholera outbreak has turned up circumstantial evidence suggesting that U.N. peacekeepers may have introduced a lethal strain of the disease into the Haitian population in the fall, triggering an epidemic that has so far killed more than 4,500 people and sickened another 300,000.

But the panel stopped short of blaming the blue-helmeted forces for causing the cholera outbreak, saying that the elements contributing to the spread of the disease — including poor sanitation and a dysfunctional health care system — were so varied as to make it impossible to identify a specific culprit.

SANAA, Yemen — The U.S. military used a drone to strike Thursday at an al-Qaeda target in Yemen, the first such U.S. attack using unmanned aircraft in that country since 2002, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials.

Two al-Qaeda operatives were killed in the attack in the remote, mountainous Yemeni governorate of Shabwa early Thursday, a Yemeni security official said.

Drones operated by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command were redeployed in Yemen last year as part of a secret U.S. effort to reinvigorate the hunt for al-Qaeda operatives in the country.

PUEBLA, Mexico — People in the United States make a bigger deal about Cinco de Mayo than Mexicans in Mexico do.

North of the border, Cinco de Mayo involves a lot of beer and nachos, and it is celebrated in every city with a bar, even if no Mexicans are around.

In Mexico, though, there's an awesome reenactment of a ferocious cavalry charge and hand-to-hand combat with machetes. Plus, cannons. Lots.

ROME — The Obama administration intends to use some of the billions of dollars in frozen assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his government to provide humanitarian and other assistance to Libyans affected by the ongoing civil war, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

The move, announced at a high-level meeting here on how to shore up Libya's bedraggled rebels, appeared to be the first time a country has sought to tap some of the massive Libyan wealth blocked by U.N. sanctions in February.

UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. panel investigating the source of Haiti's 2010 cholera outbreak has turned up circumstantial evidence suggesting that U.N. peacekeepers may have introduced a lethal strain of the disease into the Haitian population in the fall, triggering an epidemic that has so far killed more than 4,500 people and sickened another 300,000.

But the panel stopped short of blaming the blue-helmeted forces for causing the cholera outbreak, saying that the elements contributing to the spread of the disease — including poor sanitation and a dysfunctional health care system — were so varied as to make it impossible to identify a specific culprit.

PUEBLA, Mexico — People in the United States make a bigger deal about Cinco de Mayo than Mexicans in Mexico do.

North of the border, Cinco de Mayo involves a lot of beer and nachos, and it is celebrated in every city with a bar, even if no Mexicans are around.

In Mexico, though, there's an awesome reenactment of a ferocious cavalry charge and hand-to-hand combat with machetes. Plus, cannons. Lots.

UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. panel investigating the source of Haiti's 2010 cholera outbreak has turned up circumstantial evidence suggesting that U.N. peacekeepers may have introduced a lethal strain of the disease into the Haitian population in the fall, triggering an epidemic that has so far killed more than 4,500 people and sickened another 300,000.

But the panel stopped short of blaming the blue-helmeted forces for causing the cholera outbreak, saying that the elements contributing to the spread of the disease — including poor sanitation and a dysfunctional health care system — were so varied as to make it impossible to identify a specific culprit.

PUEBLA, Mexico — People in the United States make a bigger deal about Cinco de Mayo than Mexicans in Mexico do.

North of the border, Cinco de Mayo involves a lot of beer and nachos, and it is celebrated in every city with a bar, even if no Mexicans are around.

In Mexico, though, there's an awesome reenactment of a ferocious cavalry charge and hand-to-hand combat with machetes. Plus, cannons. Lots.

ROME — The Obama administration intends to use some of the billions of dollars in frozen assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his government to provide humanitarian and other assistance to Libyans affected by the ongoing civil war, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

The move, announced at a high-level meeting here on how to shore up Libya's bedraggled rebels, appeared to be the first time a country has sought to tap some of the massive Libyan wealth blocked by U.N. sanctions in February.

ROME — The Obama administration intends to use some of the billions of dollars in frozen assets belonging to Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi and his government to provide humanitarian and other assistance to Libyans affected by the ongoing civil war, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday.

The move, announced at a high-level meeting here on how to shore up Libya's bedraggled rebels, appeared to be the first time a country has sought to tap some of the massive Libyan wealth blocked by U.N. sanctions in February.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bill Haas won twice on the PGA Tour last year. He gladly would trade his season with a guy who only won once.

Haas was talking about Matt Kuchar, and he wasn't interested in the nearly $5 million that Kuchar earned last year to win the PGA Tour money title. What impressed him the most was Kuchar's 11 top-10 finishes.

That's where Haas is lacking.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Tom Lehman has never been in this position before on the Champions Tour.

Lehman enters Friday's second round of the Regions Tradition at Shoal Creek, the tour's first major, in sole possession of the lead. It's a first for the Champions Tour's hottest player, thanks to a bogey-free, 5-under 67 in the opening round.

Lehman took a one-stroke lead over Nick Price, Mark Calcavecchia, Wayne Levi and Chien-Soon Lu, all of whom were still out on the course trying to catch him after his mostly trouble-free round finished.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Bill Haas won twice on the PGA Tour last year. He gladly would trade his season with a guy who only won once.

Haas was talking about Matt Kuchar, and he wasn't interested in the nearly $5 million that Kuchar earned last year to win the PGA Tour money title. What impressed him the most was Kuchar's 11 top-10 finishes.

That's where Haas is lacking.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Of all the times Bill Haas has played Quail Hollow, he never had a round quite like this.

Haas had stress-free birdies on all the par 5s and did little wrong on the rest of the holes Thursday in the Wells Fargo Championship, matching the tournament record for lowest opening round with an 8-under 64.

It was his best score by four shots at Quail Hollow on the PGA Tour, and way better than two dozen rounds he played when he would tag along with his father, Jay Haas, on the special trips they made to the course.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Sergio Garcia wants to play in the U.S. Open. He hasn't decided whether he'll play in a qualifying tournament, if needed, to do so.

Garcia put himself into contention at the Wells Fargo Championship on Thursday with a 3-under 69 that left him five shots behind first-round leader Bill Haas. Garcia needs to play well in the next month in hopes of boosting his world ranking from 72 into the top 50 to get an exemption into next month's U.S. Open at Congressional.

"Four good weeks, get into the U.S. Open and move on from there," Garcia said.

In the winning-is-everything culture of big-time college basketball, coaches typically leave their posts for one of two reasons: They're fired for their teams' poor performance or they quit before their contracts are up, bailing for bigger paychecks and more prestige elsewhere.

Maryland's Gary Williams followed neither script Thursday, choosing an unremarkable afternoon to announce that he was retiring after 22 seasons, "fiercely proud" of the program he had helped build at College Park, leading his alma mater to a national championship, two NCAA Final Fours and a 461-252 record.

On the night in 2002 that Maryland won the national championship, I was standing on the Georgia Dome floor with Gary Williams's daughter, Kristin. As she watched her father cut down the last strand of net, she said, "Maybe now he can relax a little."

I laughed and said something like, "Have you met your father?"

Relaxing was never something Gary Williams was any good at during his remarkable career as a basketball coach. On that same night, when I congratulated him on reaching the top of the mountain he had spent his entire adult life trying to scale, he shook his head almost as if he was bewildered. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do with myself tomorrow."

Pittsburgh's Jamie Dixon, Arizona's Sean Miller, Notre Dame's Mike Brey and Villanova's Jay Wright are expected to be high on Maryland's target list as the school looks to replace Gary Williams, Maryland's winningest coach who unveiled his plans to retire Thursday.

Thanks in large part to Maryland's impressive facilities and the Washington area's deep pool of high school basketball talent, the school's head coaching position is widely considered among the nation's top 15 to 20 college basketball jobs, a vacancy that will attract a strong pool of candidates. And Maryland is expected aim for a high-profile successor to Williams.

No one said "great for Gary" yesterday. No one began a tribute to Gary Williams on the eve of his retirement as Maryland's men's basketball coach with, "It's about time the man got some peace and serenity. Good for him."

All anyone said was, "Sad day for Maryland."

"Real sad day," said Walt Williams, who starred on Gary's first team in College Park. "I looked at him on the sideline this year, up close. He displayed the same kind of intensity he displayed when I played for him 20 years ago."

Gary Williams's retirement as Maryland men's basketball coach evoked memories, elicited tributes and triggered speculation over who will succeed him. But perhaps no reactions were more important to the immediate future of the Terrapins' program than those of current recruits.

Within an hour of the news breaking Thursday afternoon, New Jersey point guard Sterling Gibbs, one of Maryland's top two recruits for next season, told Web sites that he and Baltimore forward Nick Faust were going to reconsider their college choice.

John Wall hasn't made a final decision about returning to Kentucky to take summer school courses, but his former coach, John Calipari, has already extended an invitation for the Wizards point guard to work out in Lexington if the league, as expected, has a lockout.

"I told him, if there is a lockout. You come back with us," Calipari said on Wednesday in Chicago, where he watched another former pupil, Derrick Rose, accepted the Maurice Podoloff trophy as the league's most valuable player at age 22. "I said, 'Use our building. We've got facilities here. Whatever you want, if you need to, if there is a lockout, stay here. Be here in the mornings.' "

John Wall hasn't made a final decision about returning to Kentucky to take summer school courses, but his former coach, John Calipari, has already extended an invitation for the Wizards point guard to work out in Lexington if the league, as expected, has a lockout.

"I told him, if there is a lockout. You come back with us," Calipari said on Wednesday in Chicago, where he watched another former pupil, Derrick Rose, accepted the Maurice Podoloff trophy as the league's most valuable player at age 22. "I said, 'Use our building. We've got facilities here. Whatever you want, if you need to, if there is a lockout, stay here. Be here in the mornings.' "

PHILADELPHIA — At 3:40 Thursday afternoon, Manager Jim Riggleman and hitting coach Rick Eckstein called every hitter in the Washington Nationals' clubhouse into Riggleman's office. They closed the door. Riggleman and Eckstein spoke first. A few players followed. "All positive," one player said later.

"Usually," Riggleman said, "you like to have those meetings when you're facing an emergency starter or something." Riggleman had called his meeting hours before his team faced Roy Halladay, "the best pitcher "I've ever faced," said Jerry Hairston, who has faced 826 of them.

At 3:40 this afternoon, Manager Jim Riggleman and hitting coach Rick Eckstein called every hitter present in the clubhouse into Riggleman's office. They closed the door. Riggleman and Eckstein spoke first, and a few players followed. The dozen or so men stayed in the room for 35 minutes, pouring out at 4:15 p.m., past that days' lineup card, which displayed why the meeting intended to relax and spark the Nationals' hitters may not have been well-timed.

"Usually," Riggleman said, "you like to have those meetings when you're facing an emergency starter or something. There's no magic to facing Roy."

Jayson Werth has seven RBIs this season, which is a dangerous assessment of Werth without considering the context. Werth has started slow with the Nationals – he's hitting .227 with a .320 on-base percentage and a .400 slugging percentage, all well below his career averages.

But his RBI total – which ties him for 217th in the majors – still says less about him than the players around him. This year, 80 of Werth's 125 plate appearances – 64 percent – have occurred with the bases empty. The league average is 56 percent. And remember, at least once a game Werth is guaranteed not to lead off an inning.

Rick Ankiel will miss at least one more game after tonight with a wrist injury he suffered Monday night. Ankiel received an X-ray on his sprained right wrist, which came back negative. But swelling and pain have kept from even taking batting practice the past few days.

He'll miss one "if not two more" games, Manager Jim Riggleman said. "He's not feeling real good swinging the bat. I'm not sure when we'll get him back in there. I'm certainly anxious to get him back in there."

Michael Morse, who was a late scratch last night with right knee soreness, is also out tonight's lineup. Morse said his knee is feeling better, and Riggleman said he's "more playable" than Ankiel. Riggleman said the disabled list has not been a consideration for either player.

Nationals

1. Espinosa, 2B

2. Cora, 3B

LAS VEGAS — Boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. is facing new misdemeanor harassment charges accusing him of threatening two homeowner association security guards outside his Las Vegas home.

The charges filed Thursday in Las Vegas stem from an October dispute over parking with guards in the gated community where the undefeated prizefighter lives.

Mayweather's lawyer, Karen Winckler, didn't immediately respond to messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.

LAS VEGAS — Floyd Mayweather Jr. is facing new misdemeanor harassment charges accusing him of threatening two homeowner association security guards outside his Las Vegas home.

The charges filed Thursday stem from an October dispute with guards in the gated community where Mayweather lives.

Mayweather already faces a September trial on a misdemeanor battery charge stemming from allegations that he poked a 21-year-old guard in the face during a separate argument over parking tickets in November.

Let me just ask you this: Your 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, hasn't given you any real trouble so far, but you can tell you're getting on her nerves. (You, in this case, are a high-strung, divorced woman named Irene.) Of course, your daughter adores her absent dad, John, who does nothing much but be charming and pay the bills.

Anyway, this beautiful, somewhat aloof daughter who is going off to college in September, leaving you stuck in the proverbial empty nest, tells you she's going to be spending the weekend rock climbing with friends.

We're supposed to look at the emotionally comatose, middle-aged protagonist in "The Beaver" and see one man: a so-called "hopelessly depressed" character named Walter Black.

But it's initially impossible to look at Walter Black without seeing the actor who plays him: Mel Gibson, the once-beloved movie star best known lately for that series of angry rants recorded by ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva. Please take note of the key words in that sentence: "initially impossible."

Because here's the astonishing surprise about "The Beaver": Despite some missteps, this film stands as a moving portrait of a husband and father who reclaims his will to live with the unlikely help of a hand puppet. And the main reason it's so moving? Mel Gibson.

The ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox broadcast networks will continue taking turns airing the Primetime Emmy Awards through 2018, to the guaranteed tune of $66 million.

But the show might come to look different over the course of this new contract. A pull-push between the networks and the TV academy about dumping some categories has been tabled until next year.

According to the TV academy, which owns the trophy show, the networks have agreed to cough up a license fee of at least $8.25 million for each program — a.k.a. a little more than half of what CBS was paying Katie Couric annually to anchor its evening news. In making its announcement Wednesday night, the academy also said the $66 million figure would be over the life of the new contract.

Let me just ask you this: Your 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, hasn't given you any real trouble so far, but you can tell you're getting on her nerves. (You, in this case, are a high-strung, divorced woman named Irene.) Of course, your daughter adores her absent dad, John, who does nothing much but be charming and pay the bills.

Anyway, this beautiful, somewhat aloof daughter who is going off to college in September, leaving you stuck in the proverbial empty nest, tells you she's going to be spending the weekend rock climbing with friends.

The most exasperating fact of life for a U.S. senator is not wrestling with those impossible, angry windbags across the aisle. The true test of civility is forging a relationship with that one other person who was sent to Washington to work alongside you. That unwanted sibling with whom you must share everything: a beloved home state, a prestigious job and all the voters out there in the dark.

If you happen to be members of the same party? Even worse.

Same-state rivalries abound in the Senate. And delicious tales of clashing egos and epic grudges are widely shared — doled out by insiders like pieces of Hill candy. Some of these special relationships matter more than others. For years, tensions along the border of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry fascinated Senate-watchers, because both Massachusetts patricians had such sway.

When Terri White was cast in the Encores! concert staging of "Finian's Rainbow" two years ago, and then in the Broadway transfer that followed, it was like coming in out of the cold.

"I thought New York was done with me and I was done with New York," says White, in town now playing a veteran dancer in the upcoming revival of Stephen Sondheim's "Follies" at the Kennedy Center. "It had been 20 years since I'd done a Broadway show."

The freeze gets more literal: For a couple of months the previous autumn, White had actually been out on the street. Full shows were tough to come by, and the piano bars White worked for years were closing down. For a spell, there was no roof. White was homeless.

Let me just ask you this: Your 18-year-old daughter, Sadie, hasn't given you any real trouble so far, but you can tell you're getting on her nerves. (You, in this case, are a high-strung, divorced woman named Irene.) Of course, your daughter adores her absent dad, John, who does nothing much but be charming and pay the bills.

Anyway, this beautiful, somewhat aloof daughter who is going off to college in September, leaving you stuck in the proverbial empty nest, tells you she's going to be spending the weekend rock climbing with friends.