EGYPT WITHDRAW AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL OVER AMBUSH

CAIRO (AP) — Egypt said early Saturday it will withdraw its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of five Egyptian security forces in what it called a breach of a peace treaty, sharply escalating tensions between the two countries after a cross-border ambush that killed eight Israelis.

Retaliatory violence between Israel and the Islamic militant group Hamas also spiked in the aftermath of Thursday's attack. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 Palestinians, most of them militants, in the Gaza Strip, and nine Israelis have been wounded by Palestinian rockets fired into southern Israel.

The Egyptian troops were killed as Israeli soldiers pursued suspected militants from the Gaza Strip who crossed the border from the Sinai Peninsula into southern Israel, killing eight Israelis on Thursday. It was the deadliest attack on Israelis in three years.

There were conflicting statements about how the Egyptians were killed, but an Egyptian Cabinet statement said it held Israel "politically and legally responsible for this incident," which it deemed a breach of the 1979 peace treaty between the two countries. It demanded an immediate investigation.

In strong language, it said Israel was to blame because lax security from its side allowed the ambush to take place.

"The Egyptian ambassador to Israel will be withdrawn until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities, and receive an apology from its leadership over the sad and hasty remarks about Egypt," the Cabinet statement said.

It was the first time in nearly 11 years that Egypt decided to withdraw its ambassador from Israel. The last time was in November 2000 when the Egyptians protested what they called excessive use of violence during the second Palestinian uprising.

The decision to withdraw Egyptian Ambassador Yasser Reda came as hundreds of protesters have staged demonstrations in front of the Israeli embassy in Cairo, raising a Palestinian flag and calling for expulsion of the Israeli ambassador in response to the killings.

Egypt's official news agency blamed the Israelis for shooting and killing the five while chasing militants who killed eight Israelis in Thursday's ambush across the border in southern Israel.

The Cabinet statement did not repeat that claim but accused Israel of trying to "shirk responsibility for the recklessness of Israeli security forces in protecting the borders."

Israeli officials did not immediately comment on Egypt's decision, although the military promised on Friday to investigate the shootings.

An Israeli military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, initially said a suicide bomber, not Israeli soldiers, killed the Egyptian security forces. He said the attacker had fled back across the border into Egypt and detonated his explosives among the Egyptian troops.

Israeli media also reported that some of the sniper fire directed at the Israeli motorists Thursday came from near Egyptian army posts and speculated that the Egyptian troops were killed in the cross fire.

It was not possible to reconcile the different versions.

"There was an exchange of fire between Israeli soldiers and terrorists on the Egyptian border following the deadly terror attack Thursday morning. We are investigating this matter thoroughly and will update the Egyptians," the Israeli military said Friday.

Thursday's attack signaled a new danger for Israel from its border with the Sinai Peninsula, an area that has always been restive but was kept largely under control by former Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak. The desert area has become increasingly lawless since Mubarak was ousted on Feb. 11 following a popular uprising.

Relations between the two countries have been chilly since they made peace in 1979, but Israel valued Mubarak as a source of stability with shared interests in containing Iran and its radical Islamic proxies in the region.

The violence could further damage ties if Egypt's political upheaval and a resulting power vacuum in Sinai allows Gaza militants, who had been pummeled by a punishing Israeli three-week war 2½ years ago, to open a new front against Israel in the frontier area.

Anger rose after Egyptian officials said Thursday's gunbattles killed five Egyptian security personnel. An Egyptian security official said three died Thursday and two others died of wounds on Friday.

"Israel and any other (country) must understand that the day our sons get killed without a strong and an appropriate response, is gone and will not come back," wrote Amr Moussa, former Arab League chief and now a presidential hopeful. He tweeted his statement along with, "the blood of our martyrs which was spilled while carrying out their duties, will not be shed in vain."

Gunmen crossed the border from Egypt on Thursday and set up an ambush along a 300-yard (meter) strip, armed with automatic weapons, grenades and suicide bomb belts, the Israeli military said.

They opened fire on a civilian bus heading toward the Red Sea resort city of Eilat, hitting a number of passengers, then riddled another passing bus and two cars with bullets and rigged a roadside bomb that detonated under an army jeep rushing to the scene. At the same time, Palestinian mortar gunners in Gaza opened fire at soldiers along the Gaza-Israel border fence.

The assailants killed eight people, six civilians and two Israeli troops responding to the incursion. Israel said it killed seven assailants.

Hamas, which controls Gaza, praised the attacks but denied any involvement. Israel holds Hamas responsible for all violence coming from the Palestinian territory and retaliated by striking the group.

"This is a response to the terror attacks executed against Israel in the last 24 hours," the military said.

Israeli aircraft struck several targets in Gaza, killing five Palestinian militants late Thursday and five more on Friday, including a senior member of the Islamic Jihad, according to Palestinian hospital officials. Two civilians were also reported dead.

One of the rockets launched from Gaza Friday smashed through a roof of a Jewish seminary, damaging a synagogue in the port city of Ashdod and wounding six Israelis who were standing outside, Israeli emergency services said. Another hit an empty school while a third, aimed at the city of Ashkelon, was intercepted by the new Israeli anti-missile system known as Iron Dome.

On Saturday, one of those rockets seriously injured two people in the port city of Ashdod, police said.

A senior Israeli military officer who briefed reporters by phone said at least 15 Palestinians from Gaza took part in the assault. He also spoke on condition of anonymity according to military regulations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited some of the wounded in the hospital Friday. "We killed the head of the group that sent the terrorists, but this is just an initial response," he said. "We have a policy to extract a very heavy price from those that attack us and that policy is being implemented in the field."

Israel said the attackers had come from Gaza and made their way into neighboring Sinai and from there into Israel. The attack was the deadliest for Israel since a Palestinian gunman killed eight people in a Jerusalem religious seminary in 2008.

Israeli aircraft hit multiple targets in Gaza, the military said. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said at least four militants were killed and a dozen injured Friday.

One strike hit a motorcycle carrying senior militants from the Palestinian group Israel says is behind Thursday's violence. Another five militants including the group's leader were killed Thursday night.

At the United Nations, diplomats said that Lebanon blocked the Security Council during a closed meeting on Friday from condemning the terrorist attacks in southern Israel. The United States had circulated a draft press statement to the council, which requires the support of all 15 council nations.

"We think the council needs to speak out on this issue," said the U.S. deputy ambassador, Rosemary DiCarlo. "We find it regrettable that because of one delegation we couldn't issue that in a timely way."

___

Deitch reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writer Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations and Amy Teibel in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

SURVEYS SPRISSING FINDING : TEA PARTY LESS POPULER THAN ATHEIS AND MUSLIM

In an op-ed article in the New York Times, Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard, and David E. Campbell, a political scientist at Notre Dame, say they have collected data indicating that the tea party is "less popular than much maligned groups like 'atheists' and 'Muslims.'"
But Campbell says the tea party was really an afterthought in their research.
"We didn't go into this study to look at the tea party," Campbell said in an interview with The Ticket.
The professors were following up on research they conducted in 2006 and 2007 for their book "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us" and decided to add the tea party and atheists to their list of survey queries. By going back to many of the same respondents, the professors gleaned several interesting facts about the tea party.
One of their more surprising findings, Campbell concedes, (and one drawing national attention) is that the tea party drew a lower approval rating than Muslims and atheists. That put the tea party below 23 other entries--including Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Republicans and Democrats--that the professors included on their survey of "a representative sample of 3,000 Americans."
By examining which respondents became supporters of the tea party, Campbell and Putnam's survey "casts doubt on the tea party's 'origin story,' " they write in the Times--though, in fairness, it's perhaps difficult to generalize on the movement's origins from a poll sample of 3,000 respondents.
Early tea partiers were described as "nonpartisan political neophytes," Campbell and Putnam write, but their findings showed that tea partiers were "highly partisan Republicans" who were more likely than others to have contacted government officials.
"They are overwhelmingly white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they still do," they went on.
In addition to being socially conservative, the study found  a close tie between religion and the tea party, whose supporters seek out "deeply religious" elected officials.
"This helps to explain why candidates like Michele Bachmann and Rick Perry are just as much about the public presentation of themselves as religious people as fiscal conservatives," Campbell told The Ticket.
Campbell said Tuesday that he does not regard his research as politically motivated.  "I don't have a particular dog in this or any other political fight," he said.
"We actually didn't go into this study primarily to look at the tea party," he told the Ticket. "The primary purpose of the study is to update what we learned about religion in America."

DREAMING OF OWNING A SUPERCAR BUY USED

These are heady times for some used cars. With the economy still teetering and credit hard to come by, car shoppers looking for used car deals — particularly on gas-sipping economy machines and small SUVs — are finding prices are up some 20% since January, according to Kelly Blue Book.

But there’s another side of the used-car coin that’s decidedly in the buyer’s favor: The high-end side. So-called supercars were once by definition built in small numbers; an extreme example would be the 39 GTOs Ferrari made by hand in the early ‘60s, which today trade for double-digit millions. But the advent of the high-tech factory and computer age has meant that in the past 10 to 15 years very powerful cars were built in comparatively large numbers. Translation: your dream machine likely has plummeted in price.

“There’s no question that amazing cars like the Ferrari 360 Modena (1999 to 2005) are in the, shall we say, more affordable range now, around $75,000 when they were twice that,” says Keith Martin, publisher of Sports Car Market magazine and host/appraiser of Discovery HD Theater’s What’s My Car Worth? “But there’s a caveat. You’re not getting a free lunch, even if the price is way less than the original sticker. Buying a used supercar means being super sure maintenance was done right. Or else things get pricey very fast.”

Martin says that German-made sports cars tend to wear better than their competitors to the south, but that’s assuming the cars’ original owners were meticulous about their machines.

One smart buy is Porsche’s iconic 911, especially the somewhat maligned model known as the 996 (1999-2005), says Sam Cameron, salesman with sports car broker Cars Dawydiak in San Francisco. “Some Porsche purists don’t like the look of that model, or the fact that it was the first water-cooled 911 to come along,” he says. “But if you don’t mind those things, you can find them for $25,000 well preserved, and even some rough ones as low as the teens.”

Here are half a dozen more once-pricey supercars whose values — though perhaps not their appeal — have sunk in recent years:

Dodge Viper

Robin Corps / Flickr

(1991-2010; buy a solid used example for $25,000; when new around $80,000)

You have to smile when you see a Viper rumbling down the street. It’s just that outrageous, a bit like a cartoonish star of Pixar’s Cars franchise come to life. Designer Tom Gale’s creation was always aimed squarely at the high-test(osterone) set, with its massive V-10 and a mandatory manual transmission. The meek need not apply.

“It’s just a monster, and a lot of car for the money,” says Martin. “If it’s been well taken care of, you’re good to go. There are no huge electrical issues or complicated engine servicing issues with this car. Just straight ahead American muscle.”

Acura NSX

Cook24v / Flickr

(1990-2005; $30,000; when new around $90,000)

The NSX has always been polarizing. Is it the nicest-looking Japanese coupe ever built, or merely the homeliest wanna-be Italian racer ever made? Take your pick, but what’s not up for debate is that the car offers bulletproof reliability, a low-slung seating position, and a parent company that does have some claim to racing (Indy and F1) fame.

“The NSX is definitely one way into ownership of an exotic car, but having said that, it’s never gotten anyone excited visually,” says Martin. “The buyers of these cars are saying ‘Look how well I spent my money,’ which is fine. But supercar ownership isn’t really about being a good deal.”

BMW M3

Maik-T. Š. / Flickr

(E46 model, 2001-2006; $20,000; brand new, $55,900)

Ever since its introduction in 1988, BMW’s M3 sports coupe (and occasionally its four-door brother) has stood for the Munich company’s racing heritage and track victories. The E46 was a watershed in the evolution of the M3 species, known for its 333-hp, six-cylinder, non-turbo engine that got those ponies from a mere three liters of displacement.

“Whenever I go to BMW events, I see people racing them around and I want one,” jokes Martin. “But I wouldn’t buy one with more that 50,000 miles on it, and I’d be very sure it’s been properly serviced, as those cars can get very expensive to repair.”

Bentley Continental GT

(2003— ; $65,000; brand new, $189,900)

This is a hulking two-door, four-seat coupe in the grandest of European GT traditions—GT meaning “gran turismo,” a car meant to be packed with belongings and driven across the continent very quickly. The secret is that it’s essentially a re-bodied version of parent company VW’s 12-cylinder Phaeton sedan. But there’s no shame in that when you feel it blast off.

“This is an elegant machine that hasn’t changed its look since it was introduced, and a good used one is a far cry from what a new GT will set you back,” says Martin. “That it’s a Volkswagen means good things for the used-car shopper.”

Chevrolet Corvette

reggie b / Flickr

(Z06 model, 2005— ; $50,000; brand new, $74,375)

Everything about this iteration of the venerable Corvette is meant to impress, from its scandalous 7-liter engine pumping out 505 hp to its weight-saving aluminum frame (replacing steel in other models). What’s more, though this Indy 500 pace car delivered blinding 0-60 mph sprints of 3.6 seconds, it managed to do so while delivering respectable mileage (15/24 mpg; city/highway).

“This is really an amazing value for a car with 500 horsepower,” says Martin. “But perhaps what’s even better is that the biggest price is the car itself. Compared with other exotics, there really shouldn’t be many hidden gotchas with the cost of ownership.”

Lamborghini Gallardo

KlausNahr / Flickr

(2003— ; $100,000; brand new, $212,000)

Italian automakers have made huge strides with reliability in recent years, including Lamborghini. Of course, that may be because it’s owned by Audi and part of the Volkswagen Group. The Gallardo has been a huge hit for the company — some 10,000 have been built to date — due in large part to a blend of well-built German mechanicals and rakish Italian-inspired styling. The best of both worlds.

“Germans tend to like having their cars work. But a Porsche, say, will never have the sex appeal as a Ferrari. The Gallardo is a wonderful mix of the two,” says Martin. “I’m very high on this car. If I had to go out a buy a used supercar today, that’d be the one.

HONDA RECALL 1.5 MILLION ACCORD'S CRVS AND ELEMENTS TO PROGAM TO REPROGAM TRANSMISSION SOFWARE

Honda is recalling about 1.5 million vehicles to make a software change to reduce the chance of automatic transmissions being damaged, the automaker told the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In a letter dated Wednesday, Honda told the safety agency that the affected vehicles were the 2005-10 Accord equipped with the 4-cylinder engine, the 2007–10 CR-V and the 2005–8 Element.

In a separate statement released on Friday, Honda said a software update was needed to “ease the transition between gears” and reduce the likelihood that the transmission’s secondary shaft bearing would be damaged if the transmission were to be shifted quickly between reverse, neutral and drive. The automaker said such an operation would be typical if the vehicle were stuck in mud or snow.

Honda said it was not aware of any accidents related to the problem.

The automaker has experienced a series of automatic transmissions problems over the years, including a recall of 1.1 million vehicles in 2004 and a class-action settlement in 2006.

Some owners who had their transmissions repaired under the 2004 recall have complained of experiencing failures after the presumed fixes were performed. Other owners who received warranty extensions as part of the class-action settlement reported transmission failures beyond the additional-coverage period secured in the settlement.

In other actions this week:

• Chrysler is telling the owners of about 300,000 minivans to bring the vehicles back in to fix an air bag problem that was thought to be remedied under a separate action in November.

The air bags could deploy without the vehicle being involved in a crash if condensation were to leak from a drain onto the module that controls the air bags, the automaker noted in a document posted Thursday on the agency’s Web site.

The affected models are the 2008 Dodge Grand Caravan, Chrysler Grand Voyager and Chrysler Town & Country.

Last November, Chrysler recalled the same minivans because condensation could leak from a drain onto the module that controlled the air bags. It consequently modified the drainage system. But in its new report to the safety agency, the automaker said that fixing the drain was not enough and many of the air bag modules required replacement to avoid the same malfunction risk.

• Ford recalled about 1.1 million pickups because the straps holding the vehicles’ gas tanks could rust, allowing the tanks to break free. The automaker was responding to an investigation by the safety agency that covered 2.7 million vehicles.

Ford, with the approval of  the agency, is recalling only vehicles sold or registered in states where road salt is used heavily, which is known as a geographic recall.

The vehicles being recalled are the 1997–2003 F-150; 2004 F-150 Heritage; 1997–99 F-250 with a gross vehicle weight under 8,500 pounds; and 2002–3 Lincoln Blackwood.

• The agency has intensified its investigation into wheel-stud fractures on 317,000 Ford Fusions and Mercury Milans from the 2010 model year.



The agency said it was aware of 29 complaints about the studs breaking, including four where the wheel separated from the vehicle. There were no reports of accidents.

In January, the agency began a preliminary evaluation of the problem. In response, Ford told the agency that “significant noise and or vibration is present prior to any risk of a wheel separation and that it is highly unlikely that a vehicle would fracture all five wheel studs simultaneously.”

Despite Ford’s assertions, the agency’s upgraded investigation, called an engineering analysis, indicates the agency has reason for concern.

Honda, Chrysler and Ford each described their recalls as voluntary, but under federal regulations, once a manufacturer is aware of a safety problem it has no choice but to notify the agency of its plan for a recall.
For more information or to report a safety problem, click here.

ITALY TO BALANCE BUGDET AMID FINANCIAL CRISIS

ROME (AP) — Italy pledged on Friday to work swiftly for a constitutional amendment requiring the government to balance its budget, as Rome feverishly tried to assure domestic and foreign investors its finances are sound and calm nervous markets in Europe.

Premier Silvio Berlusconi told a hastily convened evening news conference the government will "speed up measures" in its budget law approved last month by Parliament, "with the possibility of reaching a balanced budget by 2013 instead of 2014" as first planned.

His conservative government, now more than three years into its five-year term, will also work to amend the Constitution to include a requirement for a balanced budget, Berlusconi said.

Berlusconi, saying he conferred by phone with world leaders, announced that G-7 finance ministers will meet "within days" about the exploding financial crisis.

Later, his spokesman clarified that convening an "extraordinary meeting" of the G-7 finance ministers was still "at the reflection stage" with no decision yet taken, although Italy favored one.
Concern over the crisis was trans-Atlantic.
U.S. President Barack Obama spoke separately by phone with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel about the latest developments in Europe's sovereign debt crisis, the White House said.
Berlusconi, in turn, said at the news conference that he was set to speak to Obama later Friday.
The uncertainty stemming from the 17-nation's shared currency — used by some 330 million people across the continent — sent European shares plummetting this week, and was also seen as contributing to sending U.S. stock markets lower.
Italisn Finance Minister Giulio Tremonti, who stood beside Berlusconi, said a balanced budget could be achieved by 2013 by speeding up reform of Italy's extensive, and expensive, social welfare system, which includes national health care and generous retirement payments.
Also key to this goal, Tremonti said, would be what he promised as the "mother of all liberalization," especially in Italy's highly regulated world of labor.
"The principle that all will be allowed unless specifically forbidden" by labor laws will be the guiding principle of the government's strategy, Berlusconi said, vowing that that, too, would be soon enshrined in Italy's constitutional.

Italy's industrialists and mid-sized employers have complained for decades that Italy's strict laws making firing workers almost impossible discourages them from hiring more employees in moments of need.

Further strategy also includes privatization of sectors, which Tremonti didn't specify, and what he said would be a "speeding up" of investment to improve and modernize infrastructure, as a way to wake up Italy's slumbering economy.

Italy's Parliament went on vacation for a month earlier this week, but on Friday, responding to the quickly worsening economic nervousness, officials of the two chambers said key committees would keep working throughout August.

And all the lawmakers were expected to be summoned back to work as soon as the reforms pushed by Berlusconi is ready for a full vote.

Berlusconi's coalition, despite setbacks this year in local elections, has a comfortable majority in parliament assuming his often fickle ally, the Northern League, closes ranks.

The opposition center-left has been clamoring for Berlusconi to step down, insisting he has essentially done nothing in three years to create jobs or lower the tax burden on workers.

Berlusconi's pledges Friday night "are nothing new compared to the paucity of ideas shown by his government in recent months," said Rosy Bindi, an opposition leader.

Italy's borrowing costs rose above Spain's for the first time in more than a year, pushing European leaders to interrupt their vacations and look for a response to deepening fears about the health of the eurozone's No. 3 economy.

At the start of Europe's debt crisis 21 months ago, Italy was rarely grouped with the weaker members of the single currency zone, such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Many in the markets thought Spain, with its 20 percent unemployment rate, was vulnerable.
But the emergence of Italy as a potential victim over the past few weeks has highlighted just how vulnerable the eurozone is and how insufficient its anti-crisis measures are.
The yield on Italy's 10-year bond stands at 6.09 percent, ahead of Spain's equivalent of 6.04 percent — though both are lower than the euro-era highs earlier in the week and markedly below where they were at the start of the day, they're still not far from the levels that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek international financial help.

Worries that Italy and Spain maybe next in line led Merkel, vacationing in the Italian Alps, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, on the French Riviera, to take time from their holidays for a phone conference on the eurozone crisis. Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero spoke with Sarkozy and Berlusconi in separate phone conversations Friday.

Merkel's office said she spoke with Sarkozy, Berlusconi and British Prime Minister David Cameron.

All agreed that "decisions made by the EU summit on July 21 should be implemented quickly," Merkel's office said in a statement.

At last month's huddle, eurozone leaders agreed to a sweeping deal that will grant Greece a new bailout — but likely make it the first euro country to default — and radically reshape the currency union's rescue fund, allowing it to act pre-emptively when crises build up.

But their options to what a leading EU policymaker described as "incomprehensible" movements in the markets appear limited.
Even a better than expected U.S. jobs report Friday failed to ease the pessimism that has gripped investors over the past few weeks.
It's only been two weeks since eurozone leaders agreed to expand the powers of its €440 billion ($623 billion) rescue fund that helped bail out Greece, Ireland and Portugal. The fund will be able to buy governments bonds and bail out banks, but the new powers will not be in place until parliaments approve the changes in September.

Analysts also warn that the fund is currently not big enough to rescue Italy, whose debt amounts to 120 percent of economic output, around double that of Spain. Only Greece has a bigger proportion to service in the eurozone.

Markets have put increasing pressure on Italy because of its chronically weak growth and a general lack of confidence in Berlusconi's ability or willingness to push through politically difficult measures to make the economy more productive.

___

David McHugh in Frankfurt, Germany, Geir Moulson in Berlin, and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.

TEXAS LAKE TURNS BLOOD RED

TEXAS LAKE TURNS BLOOD RED

A Texas lake that turned blood-red this summer may not be a sign of the End Times, but probably is the end of a popular fishing and recreation spot.

A drought has left the OC Fisher Reservoir in San Angelo State Park in West Texas almost entirely dry. The water that is left is stagnant, full of dead fish — and a deep, opaque red.

The color has some apocalypse believers suggesting that OC Fisher is an early sign of the end of the world, but Texas Parks and Wildlife Inland Fisheries officials say the bloody look is the result of Chromatiaceae bacteria, which thrive in oxygen-deprived water.

"It's just heartbreaking," said Charles Cruz, a fish and wildlife technician with Texas Parks and Wildlife in San Angelo, Tex.

Blood red reservoir

Texas is experiencing major drought this summer, with 75 percent of the state's area in an "exceptional" drought, the highest level, according to the National Drought Mitigation Center (NDMC). The state had hoped for some relief from Tropical Storm Don last week, but the system fizzled and brought only an inch or two of rain to areas near the coast.

The drought has taken its toll on a number of reservoirs in West Texas, Cruz told LiveScience. OC Fisher has never been completely full, Cruz said, but it was stocked with catfish, bass, sunfish and other popular targets for fishermen.

"We surveyed the lake, I believe it was last year, and we had a pretty good fish population out there," Cruz said. "It was pretty sickening going out there, watching lake levels just drop and drop and drop and seeing these nice trophy-sized bass just floating dead."

End times predictions

As of last week, all that remained of the lake was a small pond a few feet deep, Cruz said. There were thousands of dead fish, he said, but no sign of life.

Pictures of this blood-red pool circulated online in fishing forums and caught the notice of Indiana preacher Paul Begley, who said in a YouTube video that the lake might be evidence of the apocalypse as predicted by the Biblical book of Revelation. [End of the World? Top Doomsday Fears]

"The second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it turned into blood like that of a dead person, and every living thing in the sea died," the passage Begley cited reads. "The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs of water, and they became blood."

Begley may not have any more luck at predicting the end of the world than did Harold Camping, the radio preacher who set the date for May 21, 2011. But for as long as the drought persists, the OC Fisher reservoir is a reservoir no longer.

"I don't know what's left in there now. We haven't been back," Cruz said. "But I would guess it's probably pretty much gone already."

winehouse family hopes to set up drug rehab center

LONDON (AP) — The family of Amy Winehouse is seeking political backing to set up a drug rehabilitation center in her name.

The late singer's father, Mitch Winehouse, is meeting British politicians Monday to discuss a center aimed at young people.

He is due to have talks with crime minister James Brokenshire and opposition Labour politician Keith Vaz.

Drug treatment is currently offered through local health bodies, or at expensive private clinics. Rehabilitation workers say there is often a waiting list for the local bodies, while the latter is unaffordable for many.

Winehouse, who had struggled for years with drug and alcohol addiction, was found dead at her London home on July 23. The results of toxicology tests to determine the cause of death are due later this month.