WASHINGTON — Anti-war Democrats in the Senate failed in an attempt to cut off funds for the Iraq war on Wednesday, a lopsided bipartisan vote that masked growing impatience within both political parties over President Bush's handling of the four-year conflict.

The 67-29 vote against the Democrats' measure left it far short of the 60 needed to advance. But more than half the Senate's Democrats supported the move, a marked change from last summer when only a dozen members of the rank and file backed a troop withdrawal deadline.

"It was considered absolute heresy four months ago" to stop the war, said Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, author of the measure to cut off funds for most military operations after March 31, 2008. Nowhere was the shift more evident than among the Senate's Democratic presidential contenders.

For the first time, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, Barack Obama of Illinois and Joe Biden of Delaware joined Sen. Chris Dodd in lending support to the notion of setting a date to end U.S. participation in the war.

Among them, only Clinton stressed the procedural nature of her vote, declining to say she would ultimately vote to cut off funding if given a chance. "I'm not going to speculate on what I'll be voting on in the future," she told reporters, although her spokesman, Philippe Reines, said flatly that the New York lawmaker supports the legislation.

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Bloody, deadly day in Gaza City

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Israeli aircraft launched missiles at Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, killing at least five people, after Hamas fired rocket barrages into Israel in an apparent attempt to draw Israel into increasingly violent Palestinian infighting.

Hamas gunmen fatally shot six guards from the rival Fatah movement and mistakenly ambushed a jeep carrying their own fighters, killing five. In all, 16 Palestinians were killed in Palestinian infighting Wednesday — the bloodiest day since violence broke out in the Gaza Strip four days ago.

The streets of central Gaza City echoed with gunfire and were empty except for gunmen in black ski masks. Terrified residents stayed home from school and work, huddling in dark homes after electricity to some neighborhoods was cut off by a downed power line.

At nightfall, Hamas announced its intention to begin observing a unilateral cease-fire, and President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah also called on the warring parties to hold their fire. However, similar truces the two previous evenings did not hold.

In four days of fighting, 41 people have been killed and dozens more have been injured — not including the dead from the Israeli airstrikes. Most of the dead have been from Fatah. The violence threatened to bring down the Palestinians' two-month-old unity government — and brought the Palestinians dangerously close to all-out civil war.

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Mortars hammer U.S.-controlled Green Zone yet again

BAGHDAD — Mortar rounds hammered the U.S.-controlled Green Zone for a second day Wednesday, killing at least two people, wounding about 10 more and raising new fears for the safety of workers at the nerve center of the American mission in Iraq.

About a dozen shells crashed into the 3.5-square-mile area of central Baghdad about 4 p.m., sending terrified pedestrians racing for the safety of concrete bunkers.

Motorists abandoned their cars and sprinted for cover. Sirens wailed and loudspeakers warned people to seek safety.

No American casualties were reported, and the two dead as well as most of the wounded were Iraqis, U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor said.

An Iraqi security officer said one of the dead was a driver for the staff of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose office is in the Green Zone. The officer spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not supposed to release the information.

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Britain's Prince Harry will not serve in Iraq

LONDON — Britain's army reversed course Wednesday and announced that Prince Harry will not be sent to Iraq with his regiment due to "specific threats" from insurgents that expose the third in line to the throne to an unacceptable degree of risk.

Harry had been expected to deploy to southern Iraq in the next few weeks but Army Chief of Staff Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, who recently traveled to Iraq, said the situation there had become too dangerous and media scrutiny of the plans had exacerbated the situation.

The 22-year-old prince, who had long dreamed of leading his tank unit in Iraq, said he is disappointed but respected the decision.

Dannatt said the move was due to specific threats to the prince and risks to the safety of his fellow soldiers.

"There have been a number of specific threats, some reported and some not reported, that relate directly to Prince Harry as an individual," Dannatt said. "These threats exposed him and those around him to a degree of risk I considered unacceptable."

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2 humpback whales swim to outskirts of Sacramento

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A pair of wayward humpback whales continued their improbable odyssey Tuesday, swimming to the outskirts of the state capital.

The whales eluded marine biologists and law enforcement patrols who had searched for them throughout the day but were spotted Tuesday evening by a helicopter pilot for KCRA-TV in the deep water shipping channel south of Sacramento.

Footage showed the whales — believed to be a mother and her calf — plying the canal about two miles south of the Port of Sacramento. They were headed upriver toward the turning basin used for deep-water ships, a journey of more than 50 miles from the point where the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers merge at Suisun Bay.

"We have seen the whales; they're back," said Jim Milbury, a spokesman with the National Marine Fisheries Service.

He said a team of experts was planning to arrive in Sacramento on Wednesday to assess the health of the whales and how they can be lured back toward the ocean.

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City successful in curbing childhood obesity

SOMERVILLE, Mass. — More fruits and vegetables were added to school lunches. Restaurants offered smaller portions. Crosswalks even got a fresh coat of paint to encourage walking and biking. The whole city of Somerville went on a diet to curb childhood obesity, and researchers say it worked.

Tufts University nutrition experts found public schoolchildren in this Boston suburb avoided gaining about a pound of excess weight compared with their 8-year-old counterparts in two nearby communities. The results of the study were published last week in the journal Obesity.

The report covered the first year of the 2003-04 study involving 1,696 children in first, second and third grades. If other communities take similar steps, the findings could help children avoid becoming overweight as they grow older, said Christina Economos, who led the program called "Shape Up Somerville: Eat Smart Play Hard."

Researchers picked Somerville, a city of 77,500, because it has a large population of minority children in low-income families. Only 3 percent of the town's land is set aside for children to walk and play safely, a situation that fuels a sedentary lifestyle.

In the weeks before the study, researchers met with parents, teachers and school officials to explain the importance of avoiding meals high in fat and sugar and encouraging children to be active, Economos said.

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Kathy Hilton says young people can learn from Paris

NEW YORK — Kathy Hilton hopes young people will learn from her 26-year-old socialite daughter, Paris, who is facing 45 days in jail for violating her probation.

"We can only hope that something positive will come from all of this. Hopefully, young people who look up to people like Paris will learn from this," Hilton said in a statement read Wednesday on ABC's "The View" by co-host Barbara Walters.

Kathy Hilton called her Tuesday night and offered the statement, Walters said.

"She didn't say 'my child didn't do it' or 'this is terrible,"' said Walters, who has an adult daughter. "She's saying, 'You have to take responsibility.' I thought it was a very strong and very good statement."