Headlines from Reuters AP Top News at 3 p.m. EST [Feb 4]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.13

trillion budget today that would give the military the biggest increase in two decades to pursue the war on terrorism while doubling spending on homeland security. However, the budget also proposed steep cuts across a wide swath of other government programs from highway construction to farm subsidies, reductions that Democrats contended were being made to protect Bush's favored tax cuts. After four years of surpluses, Bush's budget projects the government will go in the red through 2004, including a $106 billion deficit this year.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay canceled

an appearance today before a Senate committee investigating the bankrupt energy giant, and lawmakers swiftly arranged to issue a subpoena to compel his testimony. The Senate Commerce Committee plans to vote on a subpoena tomorrow morning -- 24 hours after Lay had been scheduled to testify on the largest bankruptcy in the nation's history. "We feel the appropriate approach now is to issue a subpoena," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said. "He certainly has a right to claim his Fifth Amendment rights when he does appear."

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (AP) -- Five Palestinian gunmen were killed

in the Gaza Strip today in what Palestinian officials said was a targeted Israeli missile attack at their car. The Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a radical PLO faction, said it would avenge the five members of its military wing. "Retaliation will come very soon and will shake the land under the feet of the occupiers," a DFLP leaflet said. The deaths came at a time of top-level Israeli-Palestinian contacts aimed at exploring truce prospects.

TOKYO (AP) -- Sensing their best opportunity yet to unseat

the prime minister, Japan's opposition parties submitted a no-confidence motion in Parliament today targeting Junichiro Koizumi's Cabinet, amid a collapse in the leader's once lofty approval ratings over the dismissal of his charismatic foreign minister. The motion was not directly linked to last week's abrupt firing of Makiko Tanaka, but rather accused Koizumi's agriculture minister of mishandling the nation's mad cow disease outbreak.

KARACHI, Pakistan (AP) -- Marian Pearl, the pregnant wife of

kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, issued an impassioned appeal today for his life and said she was willing to die in his place. Pearl's abductors last released a photo of him Wednesday, with a threat to kill him in 24 hours. An earlier e-mail demanded that Washington return Pakistani prisoners held at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for trial in Pakistan. The Bush administration has ruled out any negotiations.

MAZAR-E-SHARIF, Afghanistan (AP) -- Main militia factions

made plans today to withdraw from northern Afghanistan's biggest city and forge a new security force in a broad attempt to calm one the nation's most volatile regions, an envoy to the negotiations said. The planned withdrawal also includes pledges from all sides to eventually demobilize tens of thousands of fighters who have protected the warlords' interests for years. The warlords pose some of the biggest challenges to the interim government.

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- A former Malaysian army

captain accused of playing host to two of the Sept. 11 hijackers will not be extradited to the United States, the government said today. Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said Yazid Sufaat, arrested after returning to Malaysia from Afghanistan, would be dealt with under Malaysian law.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Doubts about corporate America's accounting

practices further soured investors on the stock market today and sent prices sharply lower. Just before 3 p.m. EST, the Dow Jones industrial average is down 159.14 at 9,,748.12, while the Nasdaq Composite Index has dropped 42.49 to 1,868.75.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Blue Devils were the top-ranked team in

The AP college basketball poll today, their 12th week this season leading the Top 25 and the 88th time in school history they have been No. 1. Only UCLA, with 128 weeks, has spent more time on top of the rankings, which began in January 1949. Duke (20-1), which beat rival North Carolina and Clemson last week, received all 71 first-place votes from the national media panel -- its third straight week and eighth overall this season as a unanimous pick -- to break a tie with Kentucky for the second-most weeks at No. 1.