WASHINGTON — The Army is considering whether it will have to extend the combat tours of troops in Iraq if President Bush opts to maintain the recent buildup of forces through spring 2008.

Acting Army Secretary Pete Geren testified Tuesday that the service is reviewing other options, including relying more heavily on Army reservists or Navy and Air Force personnel, so as not to put more pressure on a stretched active-duty force.

Most soldiers spend 15 months in combat with a guaranteed 12 months home, a rotation plan that has infuriated Democrats because it exceeds the service's goal of giving troops equal time home as in combat. In coming weeks, the Senate will vote on a proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., that would restrict deployments.

"It's too early to look into the next year, but for the Army we have to begin to plan," Geren told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "We have to look into our options."

Gen. David Petraeus, Iraq war commander, suggested Sunday that conditions on the ground might not be stable enough by September to justify a drop in force levels, and he predicted that stabilizing Iraq could take a decade. Earlier this year, Bush ordered the deployment of some 30,000 additional troops as part of a massive U.S.-led security push around Baghdad and the western Anbar province.

78 KILLED IN BAGHDAD MOSQUE BOMBING

BAGHDAD — A truck bomb struck a Shiite mosque Tuesday in central Baghdad, killing 78 people and wounding more than 200, even as about 10,000 U.S. soldiers northeast of the capital used heavily armored Stryker and Bradley fighting vehicles to battle their way into an al-Qaida sanctuary.

The troops, under cover of attack helicopters, killed at least 22 insurgents in the offensive, the U.S. military said.

The thunderous explosion at the Khulani mosque in the capital's busy commercial area of Sinak sent smoke billowing over concrete buildings, nearly a week after a bombing brought down the twin minarets of a revered Shiite shrine in the northern city of Samarra and two days after officials lifted a curfew aimed at preventing retaliatory violence from that attack.

Gunfire erupted after the blast, which police said occurred in a parking lot near the mosque, causing the outer wall and a building just inside it to crumble.

Police and hospital officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared retribution, said at least 78 people were killed and 218 were wounded, adding that the toll could rise as bodies were pulled from the debris.

BUSH, OLMERT SEEK TO BOLSTER ABBAS

WASHINGTON — President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sided emphatically Tuesday with a weakened Mahmoud Abbas, hoping extra money and warm words would give the moderate leader primacy over the Islamic militant Hamas in the newly divided Palestinian territories.

"He has spoken out for moderation," Bush said at an Oval Office strategy session with Olmert. "He is a voice that is a reasonable voice amongst the extremists in your neighborhood."

"Like you, I want to strengthen the moderates," echoed Olmert, who promised "to make every possible effort to cooperate" with Abbas.

It was not the first time Bush has felt the need to prop up Abbas, but this is a period of particular upheaval and uncertainty.

Bloody street battles in the Gaza Strip ended with Hamas seizing control last week of the tiny coastal territory from Abbas' Fatah security forces. The rout prompted Abbas to evict Hamas from the Hamas-Fatah coalition government, a move Hamas decries as illegal.

S.C. TREASURER INDICTED ON COCAINE CHARGES

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel, a former real estate developer who became a rising political star after his election last year, was indicted Tuesday on federal cocaine charges.

Ravenel and another man were accused of distributing less than 500 grams of the drug starting in late 2005.

Ravenel started his political career in 2004, funding his own campaign for a U.S. Senate seat. He finished a close third in the Republican primary.

Ravenel was founder of the Ravenel Development Corp., a commercial real estate development company. His father, Arthur Ravenel Jr., was a powerful politician from Charleston who served eight years in the U.S. House and is a former state representative and state senator.

Thomas Ravenel is also the state chairman for former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign.

CLINTON SPOOFS 'SOPRANOS' IN WEB VIDEO

WASHINGTON — The scene: A diner and a jukebox. A nostalgic song. A cut to black. It worked as a finale for "The Sopranos." It now marks a new beginning for "The Clintons." Hillary Rodham Clinton's presidential campaign on Tuesday unveiled its new campaign song with a Web video that spoofs the final scene of the popular HBO mobster series.

The video and the announcement of Celine Dion's "You and I" as the official Clinton tune cap a monthlong, interactive Internet campaign that drew more than a million viewers to the Clinton campaign Web site and to YouTube, the popular online video display room.

The selection of Dion, who was born in Canada, resulted in some smirking accusations from Republicans that Clinton had "outsourced" her music. In fact, Dion's "You and I" has done a turn as a theme song already — for Air Canada in 2004.

But the song campaign and the video also illustrates the growing effort by some of the more technologically savvy campaigns to connect with voters and potential donors in clever, relatively inexpensive formats that are infused with pop culture references, contemporary themes or intimate moments.

Just this week, the campaign of former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, posted a video featuring Romney's wife, Ann, narrating scenes of Christmas vacation last year when the family reached the decision to pursue the White House.

VATICAN ISSUES 10 COMMANDMENTS FOR DRIVERS

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican on Tuesday issued a "Ten Commandments" for motorists to keep them on the road to salvation, warning drivers against the sins of road rage, abuse of alcohol or even simple rudeness.

The unusual document from the Vatican's office for migrants and itinerant people also warned that automobiles can be "an occasion of sin" — particularly when used to make a dangerous passing maneuver or when used by prostitutes and their clients.

And it suggested prayer might come in handy — performing the sign of the cross before starting off and saying the rosary along the way. The rosary was particularly well-suited to recitation by all in the car, it said, since its "rhythm and gentle repetition does not distract the driver's attention."

Cardinal Renato Martino, who heads the office, told a news conference the Vatican felt it necessary to address the pastoral needs of motorists because driving has become such a big part of contemporary life.

He cited World Health Organization statistics that said an estimated 1.2 million people are killed in road crashes each year and as many as 50 million are injured.

BREAST CANCER GENES CAN COME FROM DAD

CHICAGO — A deadly gene's path can hide in a family tree when a woman has few aunts and older sisters, making it appear that her breast cancer struck out of nowhere when it really came from Dad.

A new study suggests thousands of young women with breast cancer — an estimated 8,000 a year in the U.S. — aren't offered testing to identify faulty genes and clarify their medical decisions.

Guidelines used by insurance companies to decide coverage for genetic testing should change to reflect the findings, said study co-author Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel of City of Hope Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif. Testing can cost more than $3,000.

"Interestingly, it's about Dad," Weitzel said. Half of genetic breast cancers are inherited from a woman's father, not her mother. But unless Dad has female relatives with breast cancer, the faulty gene may have been passed down silently, without causing cancer. (Men can get genetic breast cancer, too, but it's not common.)

Weitzel said doctors often overlook the genetic risk from the father's side of the family.

HASSELBECK WOULDN'T CALL ROSIE A FRIEND

NEW YORK — Elisabeth Hasselbeck says she and Rosie O'Donnell aren't on the best of terms nearly one month after their on-air dustup on "The View." "Truthfully, I think a friend is someone who you have positive communications with, so I don't know if I would define us as friends right now," the 30-year-old co-host tells syndicated TV show "Access Hollywood" in an interview scheduled to air Tuesday.

"I did define us as friends, but I'm not going to make the leap to assume that we will or will not be friends in the future," Hasselbeck says.

The heated squabble — broadcast live on a split-screen as the two co-hosts traded accusations and personal digs — led to O'Donnell's early departure from the ABC daytime chatfest. O'Donnell called Hasselbeck "cowardly" for not saying anything in response to talk-show critics who accused her of calling U.S. troops terrorists.

"We had so many conversations and a true friendship," says Hasselbeck, the more conservative of the pair. "If you looked at the big picture, I always looked at us on the same team, even though our politics were so different."