WASHINGTON — President Bush has chosen Robert Zoellick, a one-time U.S. trade representative and former No. 2 official at the State Department, to lead the World Bank, a senior administration official said Tuesday.

Bush will announce the decision on Wednesday.

Zoellick would succeed Paul Wolfowitz, who is stepping down June 30 after findings by a special bank panel that he broke bank rules when he arranged a hefty compensation package in 2005 for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, a bank employee.

The controversy led to calls from Europeans, the bank's staff, aid groups, Democratic politicians and others for Wolfowitz to resign from the poverty-fighting institution.

Bush's selection of Zoellick must be approved by the World Bank's 24-member board.

BUSH ATTACKS IMMIGRATION PLAN OPPONENTS

GLYNCO, Ga. — President Bush attacked opponents of an immigration deal Tuesday, suggesting they "don't want to do what's right for America."

"The fundamental question is, will elected officials have the courage necessary to put a comprehensive immigration plan in place," Bush said against a backdrop of a huge American flag.

He described his proposal — which has been agreed to by a bipartisan group of senators — as one that "makes it more likely we can enforce our border — and at the same time uphold the great immigrant tradition of the United States of America."

Bush spoke at the nation's largest training center for law enforcement.

He chose the get-tough setting as conservative critics blast a Senate proposal as being soft on people who break the law. Hoping to blunt that message, Bush emphasized that any new options for immigrants and foreign workers would not start until tougher security is in place.

CINDY SHEEHAN 'RESIGNS' AS PROTEST LEADER

FORT WORTH, Texas — Cindy Sheehan, the soldier's mother who galvanized an anti-war movement with her monthlong protest outside President Bush's ranch, said Tuesday she's done being the public face of the movement.

"I've been wondering why I'm killing myself and wondering why the Democrats caved in to George Bush," Sheehan said while driving from her property in Crawford to the airport, where she planned to return to her native California.

"I'm going home for awhile to try and be normal," she said.

In what she described as a "resignation letter," Sheehan wrote in her online diary on the Daily Kos blog: "Good-bye America ... you are not the country that I love, and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can't make you be that country unless you want it.

"It's up to you now."

RUSSIA SAYS NEW MISSILES CAN INVADE DEFENSE SYSTEMS

MOSCOW — Russia tested new missiles Tuesday that a Kremlin official boasted could penetrate any defense system, and President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe would turn the region into a "powder keg."

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a "preliminary" test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential Kremlin favorite to succeed Putin next year. Both he and Putin have said repeatedly that Russia would continue to improve its nuclear arsenals and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic — NATO nations that were in Moscow's front yard during the Cold War as Warsaw Pact members.

Russia has bristled at the plans, dismissing U.S. assertions that the system would be aimed at blocking possible attacks by Iran and saying it would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

ILL-TRAINED SECURITY GUARDS PROTECT TERRORIST TARGETS

WASHINGTON — Legions of ill-trained, low-paid private security guards are protecting tempting terrorist targets across the U.S.

Richard Bergendahl is one of them. He fights the war on terrorism in Los Angeles, protecting a high-rise office building for $19,000 a year. Down the block is an even taller skyscraper, identified by President Bush as a building chosen for a Sept. 11-style airplane attack.

Bergendahl, 55, says he often thinks: "Well, what am I doing here? These people are paying me minimum wage."

The security guard industry found itself involuntarily transformed after September 2001, from an army of "rent-a-cops" to protectors of the homeland. Yet, many security officers are paid little more than restaurant cooks or janitors.

And the industry is governed by a maze of conflicting state rules, according to a nationwide survey by The Associated Press. Wide chasms exist among states in requirements for training and background checks. Tens of thousands of guard applicants were found to have criminal backgrounds.

TEXAS MOM HANGS SELF, 3 CHILDREN

HUDSON OAKS, Texas — A young mother who may have been depressed apparently hanged three of her small daughters and herself in a closet using pieces of clothing and sashes, authorities said Tuesday.

A fourth child, an 8-month-old daughter, was also found dangling in the closet but was rescued.

"It's horrendous. That's all I can say," Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler said. Authorities did not immediately identify the dead children, ages 5, 3 and 2.

After the 23-year-old woman failed to show up for work, her sister, who lived nearby, forced her way into the locked residence in the Oak Hills mobile home park, about 25 miles west of Fort Worth in this rural community of 1,600 people.

The sheriff said the sister rescued the infant when she realized the baby girl was still alive. The infant was listed in good condition Tuesday at a Fort Worth hospital, Fowler said.

BRIT GETS PERSONAL ON BLOG

LOS ANGELES — Britney Spears says she "hit rock bottom," in a message posted on her Web site about the end of her marriage and her time in rehab.

"Recently, I was sent to a very humbling place called rehab. I truly hit rock bottom. Till this day I don't think that it was alcohol or depression," the 25-year-old pop star writes. "I was like a bad kid running around with ADD (attention deficit disorder)."

Spears completed a monthlong stay at a luxury Malibu rehabilitation treatment facility in March after a series of run-ins with the paparazzi that included a stop at a San Fernando Valley hair salon, where she was caught on video shearing her own locks. Other photos splashed across the Internet appeared to reveal Spears out partying wearing nothing underneath her short skirts.

She was seen going out with Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan after filing for divorce from aspiring rapper Kevin Federline last November, just two months after giving birth to their second child, Jayden James. The pair also have an older son, Sean Preston, now 20 months.

The couple reached a divorce settlement in March.

STOCKS HIGHER FOLLOWING TAKEOVER DEALS

NEW YORK — Wall Street eked out a modest gain Tuesday as investors, wary about the upcoming release of the Federal Reserve minutes, bought cautiously amid a series of new takeover deals and upbeat consumer confidence figures.

Stocks drew support from news that a consortium of banks led by Royal Bank of Scotland PLC said it will bid 71.1 billion euros, or $95.5 billion, for the Netherlands' ABN Amro, besting an offer from Barclays PLC. Other takeover news included an announcement that Tishman Speyer Properties and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. are buying Archstone-Smith Trust for at least $13.5 billion.

But trading was erratic with the minutes from the Federal Reserve's last meeting scheduled to be released Wednesday. The minutes could provide some insight into future interest rate moves; many investors are hoping for a rate cut later this year. Wall Street also digested strong consumer confidence data, and a report on housing prices.

"It's a bit of a wishy-washy day ... people are starting to get their sea legs back after a long weekend," said Joe Ranieri, managing director in equity trading at Canaccord Adams.