WASHINGTON — The Army on Tuesday censured a retired three-star general for a "perfect storm of mistakes, misjudgments and a failure of leadership" after the 2004 friendly-fire death in Afghanistan of Army Ranger Pat Tillman.

Army Secretary Pete Geren asked an Army review panel to decide whether Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger should also have his rank reduced.

Geren told a Pentagon news conference that, while Kensinger was "guilty of deception" in misleading investigators, there was no intentional Pentagon cover-up of circumstances surrounding the former pro football player's death — at first categorized by the military as being from enemy fire.

"He failed to provide proper leadership to the soldiers under his administrative control. ... He let his soldiers down," Geren said. "General Kensinger was the captain of that ship, and his ship ran aground."

At least six other officers received lesser reprimands.

U.S. DEATH TOLL IN IRAQ IN JULY AT 73

BAGHDAD — American military deaths for July rose to 73 on Tuesday with the report of a Marine killed in combat, but the toll was still the lowest in eight months as the U.S. said it was gaining control of former militant strongholds.

By contrast, July was the second-deadliest month for Iraqis so far this year, according to an Associated Press tally.

U.S. military officials, while saying they were heartened by the downturn in American deaths, cautioned it was too early to predict a sustained trend.

"We had said over the summer it's going to get harder before it gets easier," said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver, a military spokesman in Baghdad. "We're hoping that we're in the easier part, but we still obviously have a long way to go."

Nevertheless, the daily average for U.S. troop deaths in July was at least 2.35 — higher than the daily average of 2.25 last year, and remarkably consistent with average daily casualties in 2005, at 2.32, and 2004, at 2.33.

This was also the deadliest July for U.S. troops since the war began. For the previous three years, the month of July saw a relatively low death toll. In July 2006, 43 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq, and 54 died in each of the previous two Julys.

Iraqi deaths rose, with at least 2,024 civilians, government officials and security forces killed in July, about 23 percent more than the 1,640 who died violently in June, according to AP figures compiled from police reports nationwide. That made July the second-deadliest month for Iraqis so far this year; at least 2,155 Iraqis were killed in May.

The figures are considered only a minimum based on AP reporting. The actual number is likely higher, as many killings go unreported or uncounted.

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS LEAVES HOSPITAL

WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John Roberts walked out of a hospital in Maine Tuesday, released a day after he suffered a seizure. The White House said he told President Bush he was doing fine. Roberts strode briskly out of the Penobscot Bay Medical Center in Rockport, Maine, wearing a blue sport coat, open collar shirt and slacks.

He waved to onlookers before getting into a waiting sports utility vehicle for a short trip to a dock, where he then took a pontoon boat to his summer home on Hupper Island, near Port Clyde, Maine.

Roberts had no response when a reporter hollered, "How are you feeling?"

The chief justice, 52, plans to continue his summer vacation, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said. She said that doctors found no cause for concern after evaluating Roberts.

Roberts was hospitalized after he fell on a dock near his home on Monday. He had a prior unexplained seizure in 1993. Bush had called Roberts earlier Tuesday, and press secretary Tony Snow said the president was assured the chief justice was doing well.

EDWARDS CRITICIZES U.S. ARMS DEAL

WASHINGTON — Democrat John Edwards said the Bush administration's plan to sell $20 billion worth of weapons to friendly Arab states amounted to a foreign policy of convenience and he will take a tougher stance with Saudi Arabia if elected president.

Edwards said the United States should require the Saudi government to shut down the movement of terrorists across its borders, help stabilize the Iraqi government and participate more seriously in regional security before they are offered weapons.

"Whether it's Iraq or terrorism, the Saudis have fallen way short of what they need to be doing," the 2004 vice presidential nominee told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "And the Bush administration's response is to sell them $20 billion worth of arms, which is short-term and convenient and not what the United States should be doing."

Edwards is the first Democratic presidential candidate to speak out against the deal. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Saudi Arabia Tuesday as part of a two-day visit with Arab allies that opened talks on the proposed U.S. arms package.

Edwards said the arms deal could backfire by giving Iran an incentive to build its nuclear strength.

OWNER CHARGED WITH KILLING EMPLOYEES

ATLANTA — The owner of a car dealership killed two employees because they kept asking for pay raises, police said Tuesday.

Rolandas Milinavicius was charged in the shooting deaths of Inga Contreras, 25, and Martynas Simokaitis, 28. All three are from the eastern European nation of Lithuania but had been living in Atlanta, authorities said.

Milinavicius, who was having financial problems, told police he shot the two Thursday after they kept asking for more pay, said police in East Point, which is just outside Atlanta.

Milinavicius, 38, turned himself in two days after the shootings and confessed to the killings, telling them he was under a lot of stress, East Point police Capt. Russell Popham said.

"As I understand, the employees were not really happy about the pay, and they had questioned him about it over the course of time," Popham said. "That morning he said he just snapped."

237 REASONS TO HAVE SEX

WASHINGTON — After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It's more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.

College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex — they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and "it feels good," according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.

Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: "I was attracted to the person."

Researchers at the University of Texas spent five years and their own money to study the overlooked why behind sex while others were spending their time on the how.

"It's refuted a lot of gender stereotypes ... that men only want sex for the physical pleasure and women want love," said University of Texas clinical psychology professor Cindy Meston, the study's co-author. "That's not what I came up with in my findings."

ABC MORNING ANCHOR SET FOR SURGERY

NEW YORK — ABC "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts discovered she had breast cancer after following her own advice about early detection in a story about former colleague Joel Siegel's cancer death. Roberts, who announced her diagnosis on Tuesday's show, will undergo surgery on Friday.

"Hearing the words and saying it and seeing — it's surreal," Roberts, 46, told viewers in an on-air conversation with co-anchor Diane Sawyer.

Siegel, the ABC morning show's longtime film critic, died of colon cancer last month. During an ABC tribute to him, Roberts did a story about how early detection is key to surviving cancer. She went home that night and examined her breasts.

She found a lump. Roberts went in for follow-up tests and the cancer was discovered not in a mammogram, but in a more advanced ultrasound test and later biopsy.