WASHINGTON — Congress failed to override President Bush's veto of legislation requiring the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Wednesday, a defeat for anti-war Democrats that triggered immediate talks on a new measure to fund the conflict.

The vote in the House was 222-203, 62 shy of the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto. With few exceptions, Republicans stood fast with Bush in the wartime clash.

"I'm confident we can reach agreement," the president said moments after the vote as he sat down at the White House with leaders of the Democratic-controlled Congress who have vowed repeatedly to force him to change his war policy.

Democrats flashed defiance, yet signaled they were ready to make significant concessions such as jettisoning the troop withdrawal timetable in order to gain Bush's signature on a replacement measure. There was early talk in both parties of setting goals for the government of Iraq to meet as it strives to develop a self-defending, democratic society.

"Make no mistake, Democrats are committed to ending this war," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "We hope to do so in unison with the president of the United States," she said on a day of carefully scripted political drama at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue.

TRAIN WITH SHUTTLE BOOSTERS DERAILS

MYRTLEWOOD, Ala. — A freight train carrying segments of the space shuttle's solid rocket boosters derailed Wednesday after a bridge collapsed, authorities said. Six people aboard the train were reported injured.

NASA said it was not immediately known whether the equipment was damaged. But space agency spokesman Allard Beutel in Washington said the accident should not delay any shuttle launches.

The cause of the bridge collapse was under investigation.

The shuttle's twin boosters are 150 feet tall and consist of four propellant segments each. They are used during liftoff and the first two minutes or so of flight to help the spacecraft break free of Earth's orbit, and are then jettisoned into the sea, after which they are recovered, refurbished and reused.

It was a leak of burning gas between two segments of a solid booster rocket that caused the Challenger explosion that killed seven astronauts in 1986.

AL-QAIDA 'PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1 IN IRAQ'

WASHINGTON — President Bush on Wednesday declared al-Qaida "public enemy No. 1 in Iraq," placing increasing emphasis on the terror network forever associated with the deadliest attack in U.S. history.

The president also seemed to offer another definition of success in Iraq — not a lack of violence, but a livable level for citizens.

In a speech to construction contractors, Bush put a heavy focus on al-Qaida, which carried out the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. In doing so, he sought more bluntly to cast the unpopular Iraq war in terms that U.S. citizens could connect to their own lives.

"For America, the decision we face in Iraq is not whether we ought to take sides in a civil war, it's whether we stay in the fight against the same international terrorist network that attacked us on 9/11," Bush said. "I strongly believe it's in our national interest to stay in the fight."

On Capitol Hill and across the nation, support for the war has long eroded as sectarian bloodletting gripped Baghdad. In the eyes of Democratic lawmakers and much of the war-weary public, U.S. forces have been dragged into a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis.

GONZALES SUBPOENAED OVER ROVE E-MAILS

WASHINGTON — Senators subpoenaed Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday, ordering him to provide all e-mails related to presidential adviser Karl Rove and the firings of eight federal prosecutors.

"It is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committee's inquiry have not been produced," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., wrote in a letter to Gonzales. The subpoena gives Gonzales until May 15 to turn over the information.

Not accepting the White House's explanation that some Rove-related e-mails may have been lost, Leahy subpoenaed any in the custody of the Justice Department. Leahy pointed to Rove's lawyer's statement that some of those the White House claims might be lost had been turned over to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald as part of the investigation into the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

It was unclear whether any were related to the prosecutor firings, but congressional investigators believe that if Fitzgerald could retrieve some e-mails for his investigation, those related to the firings of U.S. attorneys are also recoverable.

The White House has said it is trying to recover e-mails that were lost but has not promised to give any to congressional investigators.

GAY EX-GOVERNOR BECOMES EPISCOPALIAN

NEWARK, N.J. — The nation's first openly gay governor has become an Episcopalian and been accepted into a seminary, according to a published report.

Former Gov. James E. McGreevey, who was raised as a Roman Catholic, was officially received into the Episcopal religion on Sunday at St. Bartholomew's Church in New York, said the Rev. Kevin Bean, vicar at the church.

McGreevey has entered the church's "discernment" phase, which usually precedes seminary work, Bean told The Star-Ledger of Newark in a report posted Wednesday on its Web site.

It's unclear whether McGreevey hopes to become a priest. He did not return several messages left Wednesday by The Associated Press.

McGreevey, 49, shocked the nation in August 2004 by proclaiming himself "a gay American" who had an extramarital affair with a male aide, and said he would resign that November. The aide denies having an affair and claims he was sexually harassed by the former governor.

MAN DIES OF THIRST, BUT WATER WAS AVAILABLE

BOULDER, Utah — By Day 2 in the blazing Utah desert, Dave Buschow was in bad shape. Pale, wracked by cramps, his speech slurred, the 29-year-old New Jersey man was desperate for water and hallucinating so badly he mistook a tree for a person.

After going roughly 10 hours without a drink in the 100-degree heat, he finally dropped dead of thirst, face down in the dirt, less than 100 yards from the goal: a cave with a pool of water.

But Buschow was no solitary soul, lost and alone in the desert. He and 11 other hikers from various walks of life were being led by expert guides on a wilderness-survival adventure designed to test their physical and mental toughness.

And the guides, it turned out, were carrying emergency water on that torrid summer day.

Buschow wasn't told that, and he wasn't offered any. The guides did not want him to fail the $3,175 course. They wanted him to dig deep, push himself beyond his known limits, and make it to the cave on his own.

WEIRD IDEAS ABOUT BEE DISAPPEARANCE

BELTSVILLE, Md. — The answer to what happened to America's vanishing honeybees is simple, a caller told entomologist May Berenbaum: Bee rapture. They were called away to heaven.

No, wait, it's Earth's magnetic field, another caller told the University of Illinois professor.

And when Berenbaum went on the Internet, she found a parody news site that quoted her as blaming rapper Kevin Federline and his concerts for the disappearance of the bees. Berenbaum loved it.

The sudden disappearance of one-quarter of America's honeybees has brought out some strange ideas and downright myths.

"I just can't get any work done," Berenbaum said. "I'm overwhelmed by e-mails. I can't keep up."

ASHLEE SIMPSON CONFIDENT INSIDE AND OUT

NEW YORK — Ashlee Simpson, who made headlines last year when she turned up with a new image and profile, says she's still the same on the inside. "I feel very confident with the way I look," the 22-year-old singer says in Cosmopolitan magazine's June issue, on newsstands Tuesday. "But I felt just as confident the way I looked before. I've always been confident with who I am."

Simpson — the sister of 26-year-old Jessica Simpson, another tabloid fixture — raised eyebrows when she debuted a more feminine look and softer profile, fueling speculation that she'd removed the bump that made her nose distinctive. When asked last spring if she'd had surgery, she told The Associated Press: "Maybe — who knows!"

Though she's been seen recently with Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, Simpson has a soft spot for surfer dudes.

"It's really hard for me to like Hollywood-type guys," she says. "I like guys who are relaxed and chill and who think I'm sexy no matter what I do. And I like guys who are into surfing. They're cute and seem more laid-back, and I'm a pretty laid-back person."

Simpson, who is working on her third album, says she has matured both as a person and an artist.

BREWERS TOPS IN MLB AFTER SWEEPING CARDS

MILWAUKEE — Carlos Villanueva pitched four scoreless innings of relief for injured starter Chris Capuano, helping the Milwaukee Brewers complete a sweep of the dazed St. Louis Cardinals with a 4-0 victory Wednesday.

With three consecutive wins over the reigning World Series champions, who still seem to be reeling after the death of reliever Josh Hancock, Milwaukee has won nine of 11 overall and has the best record in baseball at 18-9.

Prince Fielder hit a two-run single off Anthony Reyes (0-5) for the Brewers, who finished their first home sweep of St. Louis since taking four games in April 2002.

St. Louis has lost five in a row. The Cardinals are off Thursday, but players will travel to Tupelo, Miss., to attend a memorial service for Hancock, killed in a highway wreck early Sunday.