In a soft voice, she pleaded guilty to one count each of conspiracy, access device fraud, bank fraud and money laundering and two counts of aggravated identity theft. Robreno has scheduled sentencing for Oct. 17.

Kirsch has been in custody for more than a week since deciding to skip house arrest in favor of jail in anticipation of a prison sentence.

Her attorney, Ronald Greenblatt, has said that Kirsch faces a mandatory sentence of at least two years in prison. Kirsch has captivated an international audience since photos of her - looking well-endowed and flirtatious and sometimes in a bikini - circulated on the Internet after her arrest.

Kirsch and her one-time boyfriend, Edward K. Anderton, a University of Pennsylvania graduate, are accused of stealing identification of friends, co-workers and neighbors to get fake ID used to finance a lavish lifestyle. They are accused of stealing more than $116,000 from their victims. Anderton pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced in September.

The members of the Supreme Court, by age:

John Paul Stevens, 88

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 75

Antonin Scalia, 72

Anthony Kennedy, 71

Stephen Breyer, 69

David Souter, 68

Clarence Thomas, 60

Samuel Alito, 58

John Roberts, 53

The last 10 justices to leave the Supreme Court, with their age and date of retirement:

Sandra Day O'Connor, 75, Jan. 31, 2006

William Rehnquist, 80, Sept. 3, 2005-x

Harry Blackmun, 85, Aug. 3, 1994

Byron White, 76, June 28, 1993

Thurgood Marshall, 83, Oct. 1, 1991

William Brennan, 84, July 20, 1990

Lewis Powell, 79, June 26, 1987

Warren Burger, 79, Sept. 26, 1986

Potter Stewart, 66, July 3, 1981

William Douglas, 77, Nov. 12, 1975

The filing marked the first time prosecutors at the world's first permanent, global war crimes court have issued charges against a sitting head of state.

Luis Moreno-Ocampo asked a three-judge panel at the International Criminal Court to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir to prevent more deaths. Some 2.5 million people have been forced from their homes in Darfur and are still under attack from government-backed janjaweed militia.

"Genocide is a crime of intention — we don't need to wait until these 2.5 million die," he said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Moreno-Ocampo was undeterred by concern that his indictment against al-Bashir might lead to vengeance against Darfur refugees and the closing of Sudan's doors to relief agencies and possibly peacekeeping troops.

In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected condemned inmate Christopher Scott Emmett's argument that Virginia's procedure was unconstitutional.

Emmett's lawyers claimed the procedure risks substantial harm because it does not allow for a second dose of anesthesia to make sure an inmate is unconscious before paralyzing and heart-stopping drugs are injected.

The appeals court said there is no evidence that the first dose of anesthesia has ever failed to render an inmate unconscious.

The ruling came on the day another Virginia inmate — Kent Jermaine Jackson — was executed by lethal injection for killing his 79-year-old neighbor. The 26-year-old Jackson, sentenced to death for the 2000 killing of Beulah Mae Kaiser, was pronounced dead at 9:18 p.m.

Emmett is scheduled to be executed July 24 for the 2001 bludgeoning death of a co-worker in Danville.

The appeals court said Virginia's protocol for administering the three-drug concoction is "largely identical" to that of Kentucky, which was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in April.

The three-member panel of judges threw out the government's appeal in the case in which a watchdog group is trying to find out how often prominent religious conservatives visited the White House and Vice President Dick Cheney's residence.

Despite the ruling against the White House, the decision does not necessarily mean that visitor logs will be subject to public disclosure.

The White House can still raise a variety of legal arguments in an attempt to keep the identities of White House visitors secret.

But appeals court Judge David Tatel said the document request from the private group is narrowly drawn and can be processed.

The document request from Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington would not require the president, Cheney or their staffs to sort through mountains of files, said Tatel.

Investment firms didn't draw such loans for the week ending July 9. They borrowed just $1.7 billion in the previous week ending July 2, down from $6.1 billion in the week before that. Such borrowing rose as high as $38.1 billion in early April.

The Fed opened its emergency program to investment firms on March 17.

At that time, the investment houses were given similar loan privileges as commercial banks after a run on Bear Stearns pushed the nation's fifth-largest investment bank to the brink of bankruptcy. The situation raised fears that other Wall Street firms might be in jeopardy. Bear Stearns was eventually taken over by JPMorgan Chase in a deal that involved the Fed's financial backing.

Banks, meanwhile, averaged $12.9 billion in daily borrowing over the past week. That compared with $14.9 billion in the previous week.

The identities of commercial banks and investment houses are not released.

In the broadest use of the central bank's lending power since the 1930s, the Fed in March scrambled to avert a market meltdown by giving investment houses a place to go for emergency overnight loans. The program will continue for at least six months. Commercial banks and investment companies now pay 2.25 percent in interest for the loans.

Separately, as part of efforts to relieve credit strains, the Fed auctioned $21.3 billion in Treasury securities to investment companies Thursday.

The auction drew bids for less than the $25 billion the Fed was making available, which was viewed as possible sign of some improvements in credit conditions.

In exchange for the 28-day loans of Treasury securities, bidding companies can put up as collateral more risky investments. These include certain mortgage-backed securities and bonds secured by federally guaranteed student loans.

The auction program, which began March 27, is intended to make investment companies more inclined to lend to each other. A second goal is providing relief to the distressed market for mortgage-linked securities and for student loans.