The CIA employed sophisticated new stealth drone aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said.

Using unmanned planes designed to evade radar detection and operate at high altitudes, the agency conducted clandestine flights over the compound for months before the May 2 assault in an effort to capture high-resolution video that satellites could not provide.

The aircraft allowed the CIA to glide undetected beyond the boundaries that Pakistan has long imposed on other U.S. drones, including the Predators and Reapers that routinely carry out strikes against militants near the border with Afghanistan.

Since January, six senators have engaged in difficult negotiations and made painful concessions in a politically dangerous quest for something that has long eluded Washington: a bipartisan compromise to control the nation's mounting debt.

By Tuesday evening, however, the "Gang of Six" was on the verge of collapse. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) withdrew from the bipartisan working group, saying the senators simply could not overcome the polarizing political pressure that each faces. The group's two other Republicans said it would be hard to continue without Coburn.

More than 1,000 applicants began lining up this week outside a former Hoover vacuum plant here in the hopes of joining a surprising trend in this part of the nation's manufacturing heartland: new jobs.

Come June, the plant will be churning out EdenPure space heaters, vacuums, air purifiers and other small appliances once made in China. The turnabout for this factory and scores of others across the long-suffering Rust Belt offers vivid evidence of a budding revival in American manufacturing that has been a key driver of the economic recovery.

Testing their new clout in the world economy, developing nations began pressing Tuesday to strip Europe of its traditional hold on the top job at the International Monetary Fund, as pressure mounted on embattled managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn to resign.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner added what may be a decisive voice to the debate Tuesday when he said during a speech in New York that Strauss-Kahn's arrest on sexual assault charges means he is "obviously not in the position to run the IMF." Geithner called for acting managing director John Lipsky, the agency's No. 2, to be more formally recognized as the IMF's interim head.

MASON CITY, Iowa — Newt Gin­grich's first outing as a 2012 presidential candidate has confirmed and even deepened Republicans' doubts that the former House speaker has the discipline it will take to be a credible contender.

The second day of his 17-city swing through Iowa again saw Gingrich in full damage-control mode and seeking to tamp down the backlash that he generated with remarks Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," in which he criticized a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare and defended a central tenet of the Democrats' health-care law.

Since January, six senators have engaged in difficult negotiations and made painful concessions in a politically dangerous quest for something that has long eluded Washington: a bipartisan compromise to control the nation's mounting debt.

By Tuesday evening, however, the "Gang of Six" was on the verge of collapse. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) withdrew from the bipartisan working group, saying the senators simply could not overcome the polarizing political pressure that each faces. The group's two other Republicans said it would be hard to continue without Coburn.

MASON CITY, Iowa — Newt Gin­grich's first outing as a 2012 presidential candidate has confirmed and even deepened Republicans' doubts that the former House speaker has the discipline it will take to be a credible contender.

The second day of his 17-city swing through Iowa again saw Gingrich in full damage-control mode and seeking to tamp down the backlash that he generated with remarks Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press," in which he criticized a GOP plan to overhaul Medicare and defended a central tenet of the Democrats' health-care law.

HOUSTON — Doctors will replace a piece of Gabrielle Giffords' skull with a plastic implant on Wednesday, another encouraging step in the Arizona congresswoman's recovery from a gunshot to the head more than four months ago.

The surgery — coming just days after Giffords traveled to Florida to watch her astronaut husband launch into space — was confirmed to The Associated Press by two people familiar with the congresswoman's care. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the information has not officially been released.

A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers is calling on Congress to look into the nation's housing-construction program for the poor, citing years-long delays and other breakdowns that have thwarted the production of hundreds of affordable-housing projects.

Senate Banking Chairman Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Sen. Richard C. Shelby (Ala.), the panel's ranking Republican, said Monday that they will seek to investigate the Department of Housing and Urban Development's HOME program, which delivers $2 billion a year to local housing agencies to build and renovate homes around the country.

The CIA employed sophisticated new stealth drone aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said.

Using unmanned planes designed to evade radar detection and operate at high altitudes, the agency conducted clandestine flights over the compound for months before the May 2 assault in an effort to capture high-resolution video that satellites could not provide.

The aircraft allowed the CIA to glide undetected beyond the boundaries that Pakistan has long imposed on other U.S. drones, including the Predators and Reapers that routinely carry out strikes against militants near the border with Afghanistan.

The CIA employed sophisticated new stealth drone aircraft to fly dozens of secret missions deep into Pakistani airspace and monitor the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, current and former U.S. officials said.

Using unmanned planes designed to evade radar detection and operate at high altitudes, the agency conducted clandestine flights over the compound for months before the May 2 assault in an effort to capture high-resolution video that satellites could not provide.

The aircraft allowed the CIA to glide undetected beyond the boundaries that Pakistan has long imposed on other U.S. drones, including the Predators and Reapers that routinely carry out strikes against militants near the border with Afghanistan.

TRIPOLI, Libya — Reports that a top official in the government of Moammar Gaddafi has defected gained strength here Tuesday, as a spokesman for the Libyan government said the regime has been unable to make contact with the man.

Shokri Ghanem, Libya's top oil official, left Libya on Monday to go to Tunisia on "official business," said Moussa Ibrahim, spokesman for the Libyan government. Ibrahim told The Washington Post that Libya had not been able to reach Ghanem since Monday night.

But a Tunisian official said Tuesday that Ghanem — described in leaked State Department cables as, at one time, one of the few people in Libya who could openly challenge Gaddafi — had traveled to Tunisia for personal, not official, reasons.

JERUSALEM — Pressed at home and abroad to take the initiative and break the impasse in Middle East peacemaking, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will travel to Washington this week with demands and hints of compromise, while accusing the Palestinians of slamming the door on peace.

But with no bold plan of his own to put on the table, Netanyahu has drawn fire from domestic critics who say he risks leaving the field open to the Palestinians, whose drive for recognition of statehood at the United Nations in September is gathering steam.

The president of Tokyo Electric Power Co. came to an evacuation center here to apologize to whoever would listen. One of them was Yoshio Sato, wearing a pink trucker cap and a graphic T-shirt marked with a skeleton.

Sato had fled his home during the nuclear emergency at the Tepco-operated Fukushima Daiichi power plant. He left behind his job and almost all of his possessions. His new outfit came from a discount store — angry rebel's attire that seemed fitting to him when Masataka Shimizu came by unannounced to say he was sorry.

IPOJUCA, Brazil — Here on Brazil's northeast coast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dreamed of building an oil refinery and naming it after a Brazilian adventurer who had fought for Venezuela's independence. The joint venture with Brazil, he said in trips here, would help unify Latin America against his adversary, the United States.

The $15 billion refinery is now two years away from completion, but with little input from Venezuela or its mercurial president, who for years backed projects regionwide in his drive to make Venezuela the vanguard of a new era in Latin America.

IPOJUCA, Brazil — Here on Brazil's northeast coast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dreamed of building an oil refinery and naming it after a Brazilian adventurer who had fought for Venezuela's independence. The joint venture with Brazil, he said in trips here, would help unify Latin America against his adversary, the United States.

The $15 billion refinery is now two years away from completion, but with little input from Venezuela or its mercurial president, who for years backed projects regionwide in his drive to make Venezuela the vanguard of a new era in Latin America.

Haitians living in the United States under temporary protected status will be granted an 18-month extension of the program, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday, allowing them to remain here through Jan. 22, 2013.

The program, which gives temporary legal status to foreign nationals whose homelands are in crisis, was extended to Haitians after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in their country. Those with proof of continuous residence in the United States since that date could apply to remain here legally for 18 months, regardless of their status when they applied.

IPOJUCA, Brazil — Here on Brazil's northeast coast, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dreamed of building an oil refinery and naming it after a Brazilian adventurer who had fought for Venezuela's independence. The joint venture with Brazil, he said in trips here, would help unify Latin America against his adversary, the United States.

The $15 billion refinery is now two years away from completion, but with little input from Venezuela or its mercurial president, who for years backed projects regionwide in his drive to make Venezuela the vanguard of a new era in Latin America.

Haitians living in the United States under temporary protected status will be granted an 18-month extension of the program, the Department of Homeland Security announced Tuesday, allowing them to remain here through Jan. 22, 2013.

The program, which gives temporary legal status to foreign nationals whose homelands are in crisis, was extended to Haitians after the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake in their country. Those with proof of continuous residence in the United States since that date could apply to remain here legally for 18 months, regardless of their status when they applied.

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Sweden and the U.S. are providing $2.6 million to Haiti to help prevent sexual assaults in the settlement camps that emerged after last year's earthquake and to fight child trafficking, a foreign aid group said Tuesday.

The International Organization for Migration, or IOM, said it received $1 million from the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency to install solar lights in 20 of the more established settlements in the Port-au-Prince area. The funds will also provide counseling and other services for survivors of sexual violence in the camps that house an estimated 680,000 people.

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. — Tournaments on three continents this week could go a long way toward deciding who gets in the U.S. Open. The top 50 in the world ranking published Monday are exempt from qualifying.

David Toms, who lost in a playoff at The Players Championship, went from No. 75 to No. 46 this week. He is not on the bubble, but likely safe unless a few other players behind him all have a good week at Colonial. Toms has not missed the U.S. Open since 1998.

Ryo Ishikawa, meanwhile, tied for 12th last week on the Japan Golf Tour and fell three spots to No. 53. He is playing this week in the Totoumi Hamamatsu Open, and because Japan gets far fewer world ranking points, he likely will need a top finish to avoid qualifying.

GLADSTONE, N.J. — The Sybase Match Play Classic hasn't started, but the advantage already belongs the long hitters on the LPGA tour.

More than nine inches of rain fell on the Hamilton Farm Golf Club last month and the hilly course became even wetter on Monday and Tuesday. To make matters worse, there's more heavy showers predicted on Wednesday.

The draw for the 64-player field was held at a press conference Tuesday with the top 32 players in the 64-player field drawing a golf ball to determine who they would face. A designated official drew for players not at the conference.

BRYAN, Texas — Tennessee's Erica Popson brings a four-tournament winning streak into the NCAA women's golf championship.

Popson is the first NCAA Division I golfer to win four tournaments in a row since Lorena Ochoa captured seven straight from 2001-02.

The sophomore hopes to continue her winning streak that began in March. She will lead the Volunteers in the 24-team tournament starting Wednesday.

CROMWELL, Conn. — Bubba Watson is leading the FedEx Cup standings and has won three times on the PGA Tour in the last year.

But the long-hitting left-hander says he's not ready to become the face of American golf.

Watson spoke Tuesday at the TPC River Highlands, the course where he won his first PGA Tour title last June. Since then, Watson has won twice more: at Torrey Pines in January, and at the Zurich Classic in April.

Dalonte Hill will join Maryland Coach Mark Turgeon's coaching staff, sources with knowledge of the situation confirmed Tuesday.

Also, Turgeon's top assistant at Texas A&M, Scott Spinelli, is expected to join the staff later this week.

That tandem, along with holdover Bino Ranson, will give the Terps a formidable recruiting tandem.

SECAUCUS, N.J. — It was nearly a year ago, when John Wall was seated on a couch in the Los Angeles home of his agent, Dan Fegan, pondering his future and anxiously awaiting the results of the NBA draft lottery. When the Washington Wizards won the No. 1 pick, Wall was surprised, but not nearly as shocked as former majority owner Irene Pollin, whose wide-open mouth and widened eyes encapsulated the stunning development for a franchise that rarely experiences much luck.

A month after completing his rookie season, Wall was sent to NBA Entertainment studios here to represent the team as the undisputed face of the franchise. He wanted to borrow Pollin's yellow blazer, or possibly bring some pearls, but when those efforts failed, Wall brought the only good luck charm he could find: His mother, Frances Pulley.

It was nearly a year ago, when John Wall was seated on a couch in the Los Angeles home of his agent, Dan Fegan, pondering his future and anxiously awaiting the results of the NBA draft lottery. When the Washington Wizards won the No. 1 pick, Wall was surprised, but not nearly as shocked as former majority owner Irene Pollin, whose wide-open mouth and widened eyes encapsulated the stunning development for a franchise that rarely experiences much luck.

A month after completing his rookie season, Wall was sent to NBA Entertainment studios in Secaucus, N.J., to represent the team as the undisputed face of the franchise. He wanted to borrow Pollin's yellow blazer, or possibly bring up some pearls, but when those efforts failed, Wall brought the only good luck charm he could find: His mother, Frances Pulley.

Only a year after he was sitting in a Los Angeles apartment, surprised to find out that he was likely going to be a Wizard instead of a New Jersey Net, John Wall will represent the franchise on stage at the NBA draft lottery on Tuesday night in Secaucus, N.J.

Wall averaged 16.4 points and 8.3 assists in 69 games, was a near-unanimous choice for the all-rookie team and finished second to Los Angeles Clippers all-star forward Blake Griffin, the 2009 No. 1 pick, for rookie of the year. But Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld believes that Wall should've claimed top rookie honors. While discussing the Wizards' prospects in the draft lottery, Grunfeld expressed his excitement with picking Wall as the franchise cornerstone last summer and said, "He should've been rookie of the year...except for the rule of a second-year player being eligible."

Irene Pollin brought her late husband Abe's 1978 NBA championship ring with her to Secaucus, N.J., last May and there was no denying its charm when she gasped with shock after the Wizards secured the right to draft John Wall with the No. 1 overall pick.

But another lucky charm that often gets overlooked is the miniature gold soccer ball latched to a chain that Wizards President Ernie Grunfeld stashed in his pocket as he sat in the back room to see the team's number combination came up.

Grunfeld will bring the childhood gift from his father, Alex, with him Tuesday, and Wall is expected to pack some other items — possibly the gold jacket that Irene Pollin wore — to help as the Wizards attempt to become the first team since Orlando in 1992 and 1993 to win the top pick in consecutive years.

The Nationals will use today's rainout as an opportunity to manage Jordan Zimmermann's season innings limit, skipping him until his next turn comes Sunday in Baltimore. Zimmermann had been schedule to start today until forecasted rain and thunderstorms postponed the game against the Pirates at Nationals Park.

The Nationals will remain on schedule with their probable pitchers otherwise, with Tom Gorzelanny and Livan Hernandez starting Wednesday and Thursday in New York, followed by Jason Marquis and John Lannan on Friday and Saturday in Baltimore.

Nationals owner Ted Lerner released a statement on the passing of Hall of Famer Harmon Killebrew, who played for the Washington Senators from 1954 through 1960, after which time the franchise moved to Minnesota and became the Twins:

"For baseball fans and Washingtonians there was a distinct sadness felt today with the passing of Harmon Killebrew," Lerner said in the statement. "Our family and the Nationals organization were honored to host Harmon for a game last season at Nationals Park. We shall long treasure that evening and the gentlemanly impression left by Harmon.

Today's game between the Nationals and Pirates, scheduled for 1:05 p.m., has been postponed due to the heavy rain forecasted for this afternoon. No make-up date has been decided, and it should be announced within the coming days. The Pirates and Nationals will play a series July 1-3 at Nationals Park, so that is one possibility for a make-up game.

The Nationals will announce later today how the rain affects their pitching rotation. Today's probable starter was Jordan Zimmermann, with Tom Gorzelanny and Livan Hernandez set to pitch Wednesday and Thursday in New York against the Mets.

The Nationals are now 17-16 since Ryan Zimmerman last played, an expectation-surpassing record built on many factors. Their rotation has punched up a 3.83 ERA while throwing 6 1/3 innings per start. Their defense has made 17 errors, including just two in the last 17 games. Drew Storen is 3-0 with nine saves and a 0.00 ERA in 18 innings.

But, you know, someone has to play third base, too.

Most often, 21 times in 33 games, that someone has been Jerry Hairston. When the Nationals signed Hairston this winter, they wanted an option in center field against left-handed starters and a middle infielder to help shepherd Ian Desmond and Danny Espinosa. He could play third base, but why would the Nationals ever need that?

After the Nationals' 4-2 win last night, Manager Jim Riggleman readily acknowledged, "We got a lot of breaks tonight." The Nationals played well, particularly on defense, and Danny Espinosa provided a monster, clutch home run. But they also took advantage of moments when things just went their way.

The Pirates made a few odd base running moves, John Lannan pitched around 11 base runners in 6 1/3 innings and Drew Storen wriggled out of a jam with a rocket to left.

In the third, Lannan received a dual assist from his defense and overly aggressive - that's a euphemism for "foolish" – base running. Brandon Wood led off with a four-pitch walk, and Chris Snyder followed with a single to right-center. Wood raced around second for third. Roger Bernadina made a strong throw to third, and Hairston made a better scoop-and-tag, picking the ball with a backhand, shuffling to the base and nailing Wood.

NEW YORK — Sugar Ray Leonard says in his upcoming autobiography that he was sexually abused by a coach as a young boxer in the early 1970s.

In "The Big Fight: My Life In and Out of the Ring," the Hall of Famer writes than an unnamed "prominent Olympic boxing coach," who has since died, assaulted him in a car in a deserted parking lot across the street from a rec center after praising his bright future.

Leonard, who turned 55 on Tuesday, won a gold medal at the 1976 Games then went on to capture five world titles in five weight classes.

With "The Color of Night," Madison Smartt Bell delivers a superheated noir potboiler of unrelenting savagery that assumes proportions that are either cosmic or comic, depending on your taste for such things. The novel may make you cheer or vomit, but I guarantee you won't read anything else like it this year.

Bell's protagonist is a Nevada desert rat named Mae, a burnt-out survivor of the worst excesses of the '60s whose horrific past finds a psychic mirror in the Sept. 11 attacks. When she spots a long-lost lover in the news footage of the fall of the Twin Towers, it triggers a macabre chain of events that drives her deeper into the psychosis that has lain dormant within her for decades. Jarred out of her numbness by the images of destruction back East and flushed from her isolated existence after a bout of vigilante violence, she sets off on a desperate journey towards a final, bloody reckoning.

Charm buzzes all around Timothy Schaffert's new novel, but don't be fooled. It's the story of a steadfast, multi-generational family in a small Nebraska town . . . that just happens to be obsessed with death and missing children. "The Coffins of Little Hope" is like an Edward Gorey cartoon stitched in pastel needlepoint. Its creepiness scurries along the edges of these heartwarming pages like some furry creature you keep convincing yourself you didn't see.

I've complained in this space before about the profusion of child abductions in contemporary fiction — such an easy way to manipulate our sympathies — but Schaffert gets a pass because he's made that mania the very subject of this quirky tale. "It's unsettling," one character notes, "the delight we take in stories of endangered children." But in the small Midwestern town of this novel, 11-year-old Lenore may not be in danger. In fact, even if Lenore was snatched by her mother's weird boyfriend, she may still be alive.

How did it stay a secret so long?

For at least 10 years, throughout a spectacular and closely-scrutinized political career, Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to hide the existance of a love child with a member of his own household staff.

NEW YORK

ABC unveiled its resurrection of the campy '70s series "Charlie's Angels," of the '90s sitcom star Tim Allen and of bankrupt airline Pan Am to ad execs and members of the press Tuesday in in New York.

A Tim Allen sitcom, "Charlie's Angels," Pan Am Airlines, Snow White — everything old is new again at ABC.

Tina Fey studied drama at the University of Virginia. But that genteel Southern collegiate pedigree would hardly suit Liz Lemon, her "30 Rock" alter ego. Instead, we are told that Lemon — Northern and cerebral, but also middle-class and hopelessly dorky — attended Bryn Mawr College and the University of Maryland, "on a partial competitive jazz dance scholarship."

Real colleges pop up all over our fictional landscapes, their names invoked to breathe life and depth into characters. The universities of Minnesota and Virginia serve as backdrops in "Freedom," Jonathan Franzen's celebrated novel. "The Simpsons" caricatured the Seven Sisters in an episode touching on the collegiate aspirations of bookish daughter Lisa. ("Come to Radcliffe and meet Harvard men," they beckon. "Or come to Wellesley and marry them.") And the Oscar-winning film "The Social Network" essentially stars Harvard University — although the campus we see on-screen is actually that of a stand-in, Johns Hopkins University.

Playwright Christopher Durang can still build up a head of steam over the administration of President George W. Bush — the war in Iraq; domestic wiretapping; curtailing tax-supported stem cell research; Terri Schiavo's protracted final weeks.

Those sore subjects and the political polarization they stoked all figure in Durang's 2009 off-Broadway hit "Why Torture Is Wrong, and the People Who Love Them." The play will have its Washington area premiere at Capitol Hill Arts Workshop from May 26 through June 11 in a production by American Ensemble Theater .

NEW YORK

ABC unveiled its resurrection of the campy '70s series "Charlie's Angels," of the '90s sitcom star Tim Allen and of bankrupt airline Pan Am to ad execs and members of the press Tuesday in in New York.

A Tim Allen sitcom, "Charlie's Angels," Pan Am Airlines, Snow White — everything old is new again at ABC.

Tina Fey studied drama at the University of Virginia. But that genteel Southern collegiate pedigree would hardly suit Liz Lemon, her "30 Rock" alter ego. Instead, we are told that Lemon — Northern and cerebral, but also middle-class and hopelessly dorky — attended Bryn Mawr College and the University of Maryland, "on a partial competitive jazz dance scholarship."

Real colleges pop up all over our fictional landscapes, their names invoked to breathe life and depth into characters. The universities of Minnesota and Virginia serve as backdrops in "Freedom," Jonathan Franzen's celebrated novel. "The Simpsons" caricatured the Seven Sisters in an episode touching on the collegiate aspirations of bookish daughter Lisa. ("Come to Radcliffe and meet Harvard men," they beckon. "Or come to Wellesley and marry them.") And the Oscar-winning film "The Social Network" essentially stars Harvard University — although the campus we see on-screen is actually that of a stand-in, Johns Hopkins University.

NEW YORK

ABC unveiled its resurrection of the campy '70s series "Charlie's Angels," of the '90s sitcom star Tim Allen and of bankrupt airline Pan Am to ad execs and members of the press Tuesday in in New York.

A Tim Allen sitcom, "Charlie's Angels," Pan Am Airlines, Snow White — everything old is new again at ABC.

With "The Color of Night," Madison Smartt Bell delivers a superheated noir potboiler of unrelenting savagery that assumes proportions that are either cosmic or comic, depending on your taste for such things. The novel may make you cheer or vomit, but I guarantee you won't read anything else like it this year.

Bell's protagonist is a Nevada desert rat named Mae, a burnt-out survivor of the worst excesses of the '60s whose horrific past finds a psychic mirror in the Sept. 11 attacks. When she spots a long-lost lover in the news footage of the fall of the Twin Towers, it triggers a macabre chain of events that drives her deeper into the psychosis that has lain dormant within her for decades. Jarred out of her numbness by the images of destruction back East and flushed from her isolated existence after a bout of vigilante violence, she sets off on a desperate journey towards a final, bloody reckoning.

Charm buzzes all around Timothy Schaffert's new novel, but don't be fooled. It's the story of a steadfast, multi-generational family in a small Nebraska town . . . that just happens to be obsessed with death and missing children. "The Coffins of Little Hope" is like an Edward Gorey cartoon stitched in pastel needlepoint. Its creepiness scurries along the edges of these heartwarming pages like some furry creature you keep convincing yourself you didn't see.

I've complained in this space before about the profusion of child abductions in contemporary fiction — such an easy way to manipulate our sympathies — but Schaffert gets a pass because he's made that mania the very subject of this quirky tale. "It's unsettling," one character notes, "the delight we take in stories of endangered children." But in the small Midwestern town of this novel, 11-year-old Lenore may not be in danger. In fact, even if Lenore was snatched by her mother's weird boyfriend, she may still be alive.