WASHINGTON — President Bush today announced a set of modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults that have contributed to turbulent financial markets over recent weeks.

Housing analysts said it was highly likely the limited steps Bush outlined will be expanded in coming weeks by a Democrat-controlled Congress intent on responding to growing voter anxiety as up to 2 million homeowners worry about losing their homes.

Officials in the troubled housing industry said the important thing was that the administration had finally offered a proposal, a step they said should help calm global financial markets that have been on a rollercoaster ride in recent weeks as investors worried about a serious credit crunch.

"This is not a cure-all, but it is good to see something coming out of the White House," said David Seiders, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders. "It is good for markets, both domestically and internationally, to see that the White House is facing the problem head on and at least starting to do something about it."

Bush's comments came the same day that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke pledged to do everything necessary to protect the economy from the market turmoil. His comments to a Fed conference in Wyoming were seen as a strong signal that the central bank was moving closer to cutting a key interest rate, possibly as soon as its next meeting Sept. 18.

Idaho Sen. Craig to announce plans Saturday, considering resigning after sex sting

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho Sen. Larry Craig will announce his career plans Saturday after widespread calls from fellow Republicans to resign over a men's room sex sting, his spokesman said today.

Dan Whiting, Craig's spokesman, said the senator would hold a news conference in Boise Saturday but would not say whether he will step down. Idaho Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter already appears to have settled on a successor: Lt. Gov. Jim Risch, according to several Republicans familiar with internal deliberations.

Craig has been out of public view since Tuesday, but Republican sources in Idaho said he spent today making calls to top party officials, including the governor, gauging their support.

There has been virtually none publicly.

Asked today at the White House if the senator should resign, President Bush said nothing and walked off stage.

Sen. John Warner will not seek sixth term; retirement offers valuable opportunity to Democrats

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Republican Sen. John Warner of Virginia, one of the most authoritative voices in Congress on the military and a key figure in the debate over Iraq, said today he will not seek a sixth term in 2008.

Warner, 80, was elected in 1978, after the dashing former Navy secretary campaigned alongside his wife at the time, Elizabeth Taylor.

Warner is leaving what would have been a safe seat for the Republicans if he had chosen to run again. His departure gives Democrats a better chance to protect or even expand their one-seat majority in the Senate.

Warner said he still feels spry enough for the rigors of the Senate, but he did not want to push it for another six years.

"I want to be fair to this wonderful state, which has been eminently fair to me all these years," Warner said.

Military chiefs tell Bush of concerns about growing strain from long Iraq deployments

WASHINGTON — At a key juncture in the Iraq war, the military chiefs conveyed to President Bush today their concern about a growing strain on troops and their families from long and repeated combat tours.

Bush met privately at the Pentagon with the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary Robert Gates in preparation for decisions about how long to sustain the U.S. troop buildup in Iraq, whether to change course this fall and how to save the health of a heavily stressed Army and Marines Corps.

Indications are that Bush intends to stick with his current approach, at least into 2008, despite persistent pressure from the Democrat-led Congress — including some prominent Republicans — to find a new course.

Bush's critics point to mounting evidence that while the troop buildup may have halted the escalation of sectarian violence in Baghdad, the Iraqis are making almost no headway toward political reconciliation.

There are no signs that the Pentagon's top generals and admirals are pushing for an early end to the war, but they are concerned not only about strains on troops but also about the possibility that the heavy focus on counterinsurgency warfare in Iraq leaves the military ill-prepared in the event of a crisis elsewhere.

Duke lacrosse rape case prosecutor Nifong found in contempt for lying about DNA report

DURHAM, N.C. — Mike Nifong, the disgraced former Durham County district attorney, was held in criminal contempt of court today for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.

Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III immediately moved to consider a punishment for Nifong, who has already been stripped of his law license and has resigned from office. He faces as many as 30 days in jail and a fine as high as $500.

Reading his decision from the bench minutes after the conclusion of two days of testimony, Smith said Nifong "willfully made false statements" to the court in September when he insisted he had given defense attorneys all results from a critical DNA test.

In fact, Smith found, Nifong had provided the defense with a report on the DNA testing that he knew to be incomplete. The omitted data contained test results showing that DNA of multiple men, none of whom were lacrosse players, was on a woman who said she was attacked at a March 2006 party thrown by Duke's lacrosse team.

Presidential candidates focus on gay marriage after Iowa ruling

DES MOINES, Iowa — An Iowa county judge's ruling knocking down the state's same-sex marriage ban stirred up the presidential race today as Republicans jostled to stake out a position with the state's conservative voters in mind.

Mitt Romney was the first to seize on the ruling, promptly aligning himself with Iowa political leaders in denouncing the decision.

The former Massachusetts governor's swift criticism served to bolster the conservative image his campaign has been working hard to promote to Iowa's Republican voters. Romney stressed his support for a federal amendment that would ban same-sex marriage, a stand that distinguishes him from his top rivals, who have said they prefer to leave such decisions to the states.

"The ruling in Iowa ... is another example of an activist court and unelected judges trying to redefine marriage and disregard the will of the people as expressed through Iowa's Defense of Marriage Act," Romney said in a statement shortly after the ruling was made. "This once again highlights the need for a Federal Marriage Amendment to protect the traditional definition of marriage as between one man and one woman."

Today, Polk County Judge Robert Hanson, who ruled Thursday that the state's decade-old ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, issued a stay on his own ruling. The stay closed the window for any gay couples seeking to marry in Polk County.

Stocks finish higher after Bernanke, Bush speeches on credit markets, mortgages

NEW YORK — Wall Street closed out another erratic week with a big gain today after investors took comments from President Bush and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as reassuring signs Wall Street won't be left to deal with problems in the mortgage and credit markets on its own.

Investors balked early in today's session when comments from Bernanke didn't indicate a cut in the benchmark federal funds rate was imminent. However, they moved past some of their initial disappointment and appeared to concentrate on comments that the Fed would step in if needed.

Bernanke, speaking at the Fed's annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo., said the central bank will "act as needed" to prevent the credit crisis from hurting the national economy.

The major indexes fluctuated but held their gains after President Bush spoke about details of a plan to help borrowers facing trouble paying their mortgages.

"You've got all the speeches working for the market here," said Michael Church, portfolio manager at Church Capital Management in Philadelphia. "What we've seen in the last few weeks is that Ben Bernanke and the Federal Reserve are paying attention to what's going on. They will help correct the credit markets. For now, we're in a trading range and we have to sort through this mess."

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Firefighters bring wildfires in Greece under control as donors pledge millions in aid

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Promises of aid poured in from around Greece and overseas today as firefighters doused most of the huge wildfires that ravaged the Greek countryside for a week, killing 64 people.

The European Union said Greece would probably receive $237 million in emergency aid and could be eligible for $546 million more, depending on the amount of damage caused by the fires.

The U.S. Agency for International Development said it was providing $1.3 million in equipment and technical assistance, while the Greek government said China promised $1 million.

Damage was estimated at more than $1.6 billion.

"The fight is not yet over, but things are better," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said. "We must now think of the day after."

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Princes Diana's son remembers a loving mother; a bishop calls for an end to recriminations

LONDON (AP) — Princess Diana should be remembered as a loving, down-to-earth mother, Prince Harry said today at a memorial service where a bishop urged an end to a decade of bitterness over her death and her broken marriage.

The service organized by Prince William and Prince Harry climaxed a week of recalling Diana's life and re-fighting old battles, albeit in a far lower key than the emotional tidal wave that swept over Britain following her death 10 years ago.

In his eulogy, Harry said it was important "that we remember our mother as she would wish to be remembered, as she was: fun-loving, generous, down to earth and entirely genuine."

The service went off with typical royal dignity, following published criticism from one of Diana's friends that persuaded Prince Charles' second wife, Camilla, to abandon plans of attending. To the princess, her close friends and legions of Dianaphiles, Camilla was the other woman who destroyed the marriage.