WASHINGTON — Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire today became the first Republican in Congress to call for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' dismissal, hours after President Bush expressed confidence in his embattled Cabinet officer.

Gonzales has been fending off Democratic demands for his firing in the wake of disclosures surrounding the ousters of eight U.S. attorneys — dismissals Democrats have characterized as a politically motivated purge.

Support from many Republicans had been muted, but there was no outright GOP call for his dismissal until now.

"I think the president should replace him," Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I think the attorney general should be fired."

Bush, at a news conference in Mexico, told reporters when asked about the controversy: "Mistakes were made. And I'm frankly not happy about them."

But the president expressed confidence in Gonzales, a longtime friend, and defended the firings. "What Al did and what the Justice Department did was appropriate," he said.

CHIQUITA TO PAY $25M TO SETTLE TERRORISM PROBE

WASHINGTON — Banana company Chiquita Brands International said today it has agreed to a $25 million fine and admit paying a Colombian terrorist group for protection in a volatile farming part of the country.

The settlement resolves a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with terrorist organizations in Colombia.

In court documents filed today, federal prosecutors said the Cincinnati-based company and several unnamed high-ranking corporate officers paid about $1.7 million between 1997 and 2004 to the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia.

The AUC has been responsible for some of the worst massacres in Colombia's civil conflict and is responsible for a sizable percentage of the country's cocaine exports. The right-wing group was designated by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization in September 2001.

Prosecutors said the company made the payments in exchange for protection. The company also made similar payments to the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, according to prosecutors.

DEMOCRATS GET WAR RESOLUTION TO SENATE FLOOR

WASHINGTON — Democratic-backed legislation to withdraw U.S. combat troops from Iraq cleared an initial Senate hurdle today, but Republicans confidently predicted they had the votes to defeat it. President Bush backed them up with a veto threat.

The legislation, calling for combat troops to return home over the next 12 months, "would hobble American commanders in the field and substantially endanger America's strategic objective of a unified federal democratic Iraq," the White House said in a written statement.

The strong veto message underscored the intensifying struggle between the administration and the new Democratic-controlled Congress, which is determined to end U.S. participation in a war that has claimed the lives of more than 3,100 Americans and cost more than $300 billion.

Democrats in the House and Senate are advancing different bills calling for the withdrawal of troops, and Bush has threatened to veto both.

In the House, Democratic leaders said during the day they were building support behind legislation to require the withdrawal of troops by Sept. 1, 2008, if not sooner. That plan faces its first test vote tomorrow in the Appropriations Committee.

BUSH OPTIMISTIC ON IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION

MERIDA, Mexico — President Bush pledged today to intensify his push for languishing immigration legislation, standing alongside Mexican President Felipe Calderon who acknowledged he has relatives picking vegetables in the U.S.

Calderon said the family members pay taxes in the United States and "probably handle that which you eat, the lettuce, etc." But he avoided saying whether they were there legally.

The joint news conference with Calderon was Bush's last appearance in a weeklong Latin America tour that included stops in Brazil, Uruguay, Colombia and Guatemala. The trip was designed to emphasize U.S. aid for the region and counter criticism that the United States has neglected Latin America.

The president was generally warmly received throughout his travels, and streets were packed with curious onlookers. Still, there were protests at nearly every stop, and Bush was shadowed from afar by Venezuela's fiery leftist president, Hugo Chavez, who conducted his own tour of Latin America and taunted the president nearly daily.

U.S. immigration laws were a prime topic for Bush. The president said his most important ally in getting Congress to overhaul immigration rules may be a longtime nemesis of Republicans, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass. Once Republicans put aside differences and settle on a course, Bush said, Kennedy may be the one to lead the charge in the now-Democratic Congress because of his vast legislative experience.

LOUISIANA GOVERNOR EXPRESSES OUTRAGE AT CORPS OVER FAULTY PUMPS

NEW ORLEANS — Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco lashed out at the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday for installing defective pumps at three major drainage canals just before the start of last summer's hurricane season.

"This could put a lot of our people in jeopardy," Blanco said. "It begs the question: Are we really safe?"

She called for a congressional investigation into how the Corps allowed it to happen.

Citing internal documents, The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Corps installed the 34 pumps last year in a rush to fix the city's flood defenses, despite warnings from one of its experts that the machinery was defective and likely to fail in a storm.

At the same time, the Corps, the White House and state officials were telling residents that it was safe to come back to New Orleans, which was devastated in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina breached the city's floodwalls.

JURY VOTES FOR DEATH PENALTY FOR KILLER OF 9-YEAR-OLD JESSICA LUNSFORD IN FLORIDA

MIAMI — A jury decided Wednesday that a convicted sex offender should get the death penalty for the kidnapping, rape and murder of 9-year-old Jessica Lunsford, who was buried alive in trash bags just yards from her home.

The jury, on a 10-2 vote, brushed aside pleas for mercy and a life sentence from defense lawyers based on claims that John Evander Couey, 48, is mentally retarded and suffers from chronic mental illness. Jurors deliberated for about one hour.

The final decision on Couey's fate will be made in several weeks by Circuit Judge Richard Howard, who is not bound by the jury's recommendation but is required to give it "great weight."

The Lunsford family showed no overt emotion when the decision was read, nor did Couey.

Couey, 48, was convicted last week of taking Jessica in February 2005 from her bedroom to his trailer about 150 yards away, where he raped and killed her. Despite an intensive search, the third-grader's body wasn't found until about three weeks after she disappeared — in a grave outside Couey's home.

FDA WARNS ALL PRESCRIPTION SLEEPING PILLS CAN SOMETIMES CAUSE 'SLEEP-DRIVING'

WASHINGTON — All prescription sleeping pills may sometimes cause sleep-driving, federal health officials warned Wednesday, almost a year after the bizarre side effect first made headlines when Rep. Patrick Kennedy crashed his car after taking Ambien.

It's a more complicated version of sleepwalking, but behind the wheel: getting up in the middle of the night and going for a drive — with no memory of doing so.

The Food and Drug Administration wouldn't say exactly how many cases of sleep-driving it had linked to insomnia drugs, but neurology chief Dr. Russell Katz said the agency uncovered more than a dozen reports — and is worried that more are going uncounted.

Given the millions of prescriptions for insomnia drugs, Katz called the problem rare, and said he was unaware of any deaths. But because sleep-driving is so dangerous — and there are precautions that patients can take — the FDA ordered a series of strict new steps Wednesday.

First, the makers of 13 sleep drugs must put warnings on their labels about two rare but serious side effects.

FAMILY: ROCKER BRAD DELP'S DEATH WAS SUICIDE

CONCORD, N.H. — The family of Brad Delp, the lead singer for the band Boston, said his death was a suicide.

"He was a man who gave all he had to give to everyone around him, whether family, friends, fans or strangers," the family said in a statement relayed by police Wednesday. "He gave as long as he could, as best he could, and he was very tired. We take comfort in knowing that he is now, at last, at peace."

Delp, 55, died Friday at his Atkinson home.

Toxicology tests by the state medical examiner's office showed that Delp committed suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning, said Lt. William Baldwin. Police said Delp had sealed himself inside a bathroom with two charcoal grills sometime between 11:30 p.m. Thursday and Friday afternoon, when he was found by fiancee Pamela Sullivan.

Delp also left two notes taped to a door and letters to his family and Sullivan. Baldwin said police do not know the contents of the letters.