William, Kate off to Canada, US in first tour (AP)

OTTAWA, Ontario – Prince William and Kate arrive in Canada on Thursday for their first official overseas trip since their wedding, in a visit that is expected to draw record-numbers of star-struck crowds and well-wishers hoping to catch a glimpse of the royal couple.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge will celebrate Canada Day in Ottawa, open the Calgary Stampede and go canoeing in the Northwest Territories during their nine day-tour of their future realm before taking off to Los Angeles.

"The response we've gotten is overwhelming," Canadian Heritage Minister James Moore told The Associated Press. "We're already now having to adjust some of our plans from moving the couple in and around the capital here, closing off some streets and moving people around."

The royal couple left London's Heathrow Airport on a Royal Canadian Air Force plane Thursday morning. The duchess wore a navy blue knee-length dress by the French designer Roland Mouret paired with a navy blazer by Toronto-based Smythe les Vestes. William wore his customary dark blue suit with a red tie.

Canada's prime minister has unveiled a personal flag for use during William's visit. It is the first flag to be created by Canada for a member of the royal family since 1962, when the queen adopted a personal flag for her own use in Canada. Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the flag was approved by the queen and William.

The young prince plans to demonstrate his skills as a helicopter rescue pilot by taking part in a water landing demonstration, and the couple is scheduled to put on aprons and take part in a cooking workshop in Quebec City.

But the couple won't be welcomed by all. Some anti-royal protests are expected in the French-speaking province of Quebec, with small groups planning protests in Quebec City and Montreal.

Canadian officials have estimated the royal visit will cost the Canadian government about US$1.55 million dollars (CA$1.5 million dollars), not including security.

The prince and Kate jet to Los Angeles on July 8 and will host a gala dinner there the next night to introduce up-and-coming British film talent to Hollywood executives.

The southern California trip includes a $4,000 three-course meal and a charity polo match up close with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, as they are formally known. So far, about 1,000 VIP tickets have been sold to the polo match along with about 400 general admission passes, raising nearly $4.4 million for the July 9 event. William plans to play in the match, and his wife will award the trophy to the winning team.

Decades have passed since Canadians abandoned the Union Jack and replaced "God Save the Queen" with "O Canada." Ordinarily, most Canadians are indifferent to the monarchy. However the 85-year-old Queen Elizabeth II — William's grandmother — remains Canada's titular head of state, is portrayed on its coins and stamps and has visited 22 times as queen.

"For a new generation of Canadians it's a new introduction for themselves into the monarchy," Moore said.

Sheri Gray, 50, of Manitouwadge, Ontario said her husband and her altered their travel plans so they could take in the royal visit. They arrived early Thursday morning to set up lawn chairs outside Ottawa's National War Memorial, where William and Kate are due to lay a wreath after arriving from the airport.

"My grandma was a big royal family supporter. I can't wait to see Will and Kate," Gray said. "I really liked Diana. It will be really nice to see her son and his new wife."

Her husband David called it a once in a lifetime opportunity.

"It's the next generation. It's like a breath of fresh air for them after the past they've had with the previous ones," he said.

William and Kate will do a walkabout at the memorial before heading to a reception where William and Harper are scheduled to speak. A barbecue for young people follows that.

This royal couple is expected to draw thousands and more than 1,300 journalists are accredited. William got a reception fit for a rock star the last time he visited Canada as a 15-year-old in 1998. He wowed teenage girls who wolf-whistled him when he visited Vancouver, British Columbia, with his father Prince Charles. William looked aghast at the commotion back then. That trip was the first official foreign visit for him since the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a car crash in Paris in August 1997.

William will be celebrating Canada's birthday on Friday, the same day his mother would have turned 50.

He is due to say a few words at a number of stops. Kate is not scheduled to speak.

The couple will travel from the sub-Arctic to oil-rich Calgary, Alberta, from busy Montreal to bucolic Prince Edward Island of "Anne of Green Gables" fame. They'll sit around a campfire with young people, dress casual for the Calgary rodeo, join a cookout in Quebec City and hand out flags to newly-minted Canadians at a citizenship ceremony.

Harper is the most pro-monarchy Canadian leader since the 1950s, and his ambition is to foster a national identity that is more conservative and more aware of its historical roots.

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New settlement push in CFTC oil manipulation case (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – One of the biggest oil market manipulation cases undertaken by regulators is entering a new phase in which a judge will mediate settlement talks, three years after the case was launched.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission case against the U.S. unit of Optiver Holding BV, a Netherlands-based trading firm, has been referred to U.S. Magistrate Judge Theodore Katz for settlement, according to a filing in the U.S. district court in Manhattan.

The June 15 order marks a departure from a long series of legal submissions since the CFTC in July 2008 charged Optiver with using a rapid-fire trading program to manipulate crude, gasoline and heating oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

According to the futures regulator, Optiver reaped a $1 million profit in 2007 by "banging the close." This is an illegal strategy in which a firm accumulates a large position just before the market closes, and offsets that position at the close itself, manipulating prices through sheer volume of trades.

The case revealed details about computer software called the "hammer" that rapidly entered a series of orders to allegedly manipulate markets.

It also included emails and phone recordings showing efforts by traders at Optiver's Chicago branch to "move," "whack" and "bully" oil prices -- providing rare insight into the dark side of high-speed electronic trading, which has grown rapidly in the last decade.

The latest court order was signed by Chief Judge Loretta Preska, who had handled the case from the beginning. No date had been set for mediation, and the scope of Katz's involvement is not immediately clear.

A CFTC spokesman and Stacie Hartman, a lawyer for Optiver, declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation. A lawyer for one of the three Optiver employees named in the lawsuit did not immediately return requests for comment.

NEW ENFORCEMENT POWERS, PRESSURES

Mediation can signal outstanding disagreements that the court or the opposing parties believe a judge, acting as a facilitator, can help resolve. The process is not legally binding, and talks could fall apart, resulting in further litigation.

"A lot of times, the CFTC wants to have some agreed-to facts and that's a negotiated instrument," said a lawyer who deals sometimes with the regulator and requested anonymity.

Often, this lawyer said, the CFTC will seek a trading ban, which "could be a sticking point. Obviously that's a pretty severe sanction."

CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has been zeroing in on market manipulation with tough talk and new enforcement powers granted in last year's Dodd-Frank financial overhaul.

The law requires the agency to show only that a trader acted in a manner that could disrupt the market, making it easier to prove a case -- though it would not apply retroactively to Optiver.

Reflecting a more aggressive stance, the CFTC in May sued oil trader Arcadia Petroleum for manipulation in its biggest such case.

Commodity markets have been a focus of greater regulatory attention since crude oil prices soared close to $150 a barrel in 2008. This stoked criticism in Washington over speculation and worries over unfair and damaging trading practices.

While prices crashed during the financial crisis, they have traded back above $100 this year, renewing political pressure on the CFTC. Crude for August delivery traded Wednesday around $93.13 a barrel.

Optiver is a household name in Chicago's and Amsterdam's electronic trading communities, where it is known for market making and arbitrage strategies in options and other derivatives.

The proprietary firm trades its own money, employs some 600 people, and is a member of a newly formed European lobby group to weigh in on rule changes for high-frequency traders.

(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer, additional reporting by David Sheppard, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Robert MacMillan)

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Exclusive: S&P to deeply cut U.S. ratings if debt payment missed (Reuters)

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States would immediately have its top-notch credit rating slashed to "selective default" if it misses a debt payment on August 4, Standard & Poor's managing director John Chambers told Reuters.

Chambers, who is also the chairman of S&P's sovereign ratings committee, told Reuters on Tuesday that U.S. Treasury bills maturing on August 4 would be rated 'D' if the government fails to honor them. Unaffected Treasuries would be downgraded as well, but not as sharply, he said.

"If the U.S. government misses a payment, it goes to D," Chambers said. "That would happen right after August 4, when the bills mature, because they don't have a grace period."

Fears of a technical default have been rising after budget negotiations between Democrats and Republicans fell apart in Washington earlier this week. Even a brief default by the United States would immediately increase the country's borrowing costs, weighing on the fragile economic recovery and eroding the dollar's status as a reserve currency.

On August 4, the Treasury Department is due to pay off $30 billion in maturing short-term debt.

With the debt talks stalled, new ideas are surfacing such as prioritizing debt payments. But Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner warned lawmakers on Wednesday that such a move would still cause investors to shun U.S. Treasury securities.

Geithner said that because the United States now borrows roughly 40 cents of every dollar it spends, prioritizing payments with no debt limit increase would require cutting 40 percent of all government expenditures.

S&P is not the first agency to say it will downgrade the United States if a payment is missed. Rival credit rater Moody's on June 2 was the first to say it would downgrade the United States shortly after a possible ceiling-related default, but not as deeply -- to the Aa range.

Chambers insisted that the likelihood of a U.S. default is "extremely low," as S&P expects a last-minute increase to the country's debt ceiling just like it has happened for more than 70 times since the 1960s.

He also noted a default on U.S. Treasuries -- a benchmark against which all other debt is measured -- would dwarf any worries about U.S. credit ratings as global markets would crumble.

Chambers made clear, however, that S&P is more worried about the ability of the U.S. government to meaningfully cut its deficit over the next two years, with presidential elections in 2012 making a bipartisan agreement much tougher.

S&P is so far the only of the big-three credit ratings agencies to revise the outlook on the U.S. AAA credit rating to negative. It has said it sees a one-in-three chance of a downgrade within the next two years.

Moody's Investors Service and Fitch Ratings have expressed concern about the pace of budget negotiations in Washington, but still maintain a stable outlook on U.S. ratings.

Yet they have been more vocal about the risks of a "technical default" in August. Fitch said earlier this month it would cut U.S. issuer ratings to "restricted default" if the government misses a more substantial debt payment on August 15.

The U.S. Treasury reached the country's $14.3 trillion debt limit on May 16 and has been making use of extraordinary measures to keep servicing its debt since then. It will run out of alternatives to avoid a default on August 2, Geithner has said.

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Federer upset by Tsonga in Wimbledon quarterfinals (AP)

WIMBLEDON, England – Six-time champion Roger Federer was upset in the Wimbledon quarterfinals for the second straight year Wednesday, squandering a two-set lead for the first time at a Grand Slam tournament and losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-4, 6-4.

Federer barely looked challenged while winning the first two sets against the 12th-seeded Frenchman. But the Swiss star, who had been 178-0 in matches in which he had won the opening two sets at a major tournament, was broken one time in each of the last three sets.

"It's kind of hard going out of the tournament that way, but unfortunately it does happen sometimes," said Federer, who was playing in his 29th straight major quarterfinal. "At least it took him sort of a special performance to beat me, which is somewhat nice."

Federer may be right. The 16-time Grand Slam champion finished the match with only 11 unforced errors, half as many as Tsonga, but it didn't help him get close to breaking Tsonga's serve when he needed it.

"I was two sets down and I break. I did a good game of return and after that it was just amazing," said Tsonga, who had 63 winners, five more than Federer. "I just played unbelievable, served unbelievable and now I'm here, I'm in semifinal and I can't believe it."

Tsonga will face second-seeded Novak Djokovic, who defeated 18-year-old Australian qualifier Bernard Tomic 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. Later Wednesday, defending champion Rafael Nadal was playing Mardy Fish, while No. 4 Andy Murray was scheduled to take on Feliciano Lopez on Centre Court.

Federer was seeking to equal Pete Sampras' record of seven Wimbledon singles titles. He breezed through his opening four matches, losing only one set, and played his usual elegant game against Tsonga.

In the first set, Federer earned his one and only break point of the match in Tsonga's first service game, and converted it. He held the rest of the way, and then won the second set in the tiebreaker.

But Tsonga finally got his first break in the third set, and another in the fourth and another in the fifth.

"He can come up with some good stuff and some poor things at times," Federer said. "He had basically good return games along the way in the third, fourth, and fifth. I think especially the third set, the break I get is very unusual. He chips back a couple, they stay in."

Those were the Frenchman's only three breaks, and they were just enough to send Federer home early again.

Federer has won six titles at the All England Club, including five in a row from 2003-07. He lost to Nadal in the 2008 final in what is considered by many to be one of the greatest matches ever, and then beat Andy Roddick for the championship a year later, winning 16-14 in the fifth set.

Last year, he lost to eventual runner-up Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals.

"It's the biggest champion in my sport," Tsonga said. "He achieved a lot of things and he's just the best player in the world and I'm just so happy to win against him, especially on grass because it's maybe one of his favorite surface and I'm just so happy today."

On Court 1, Djokovic overcame a tough match against his protege, holding on to reach the semifinals for the third time in his career.

Djokovic has been practicing with Tomic on-and-off since the two became friends last year in Australia, but this was the first meeting between the two in a competitive match.

After Tomic put a forehand into the net on match point, the pair had a brief chat at the net. Then, with the crowd applauding, Djokovic did the same while motioning toward Tomic.

"It was a very even match. In the first set I felt I played quite well," said Djokovic, who finished the match with fewer winners than Tomic, 43-39. "Then I played one really bad service game and he got back into the match. And from that moment on, he was the better player."

At the start, Djokovic appeared to have little to worry about, rolling through the first set and on his way to a fifth straight major semifinal. But Tomic didn't quit, instead breaking Djokovic to take a 3-1 lead in the second set and eventually evening the match.

"He is such an unpredictable player. He's very young, and obviously, first quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for him means a lot," Djokovic said. "But he didn't have anything to lose, so he was hitting a lot of winners today."

Tomic again went up a break in the third, but that's when Djokovic got going. The two-time Grand Slam champion won five straight games to take the third set, and then won the first two games in the fourth. Although Tomic got back on serve at 2-2 and was two points from winning the set at 5-4, Djokovic soon broke to take a 6-5 lead and held for victory.

"It was really hard to predict where he's going to go. He was not making a lot of unforced errors from the baseline, and that made my life really difficult," Djokovic said. "I tried to change the pace, but he was better at that. We were playing cat and mouse, I think. But in the end, I'm just happy to get through."

Djokovic started the 2011 season by winning 41 straight matches, but that came to an end with a loss to Federer in the French Open semifinals. If the Serb reaches the final at the All England Club for the first time this year, he will guarantee himself the No. 1 ranking. He can also claim the top ranking if Nadal fails to defend his title.

Tomic was the youngest man to start in the men's draw this year, and is the youngest to reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals since Boris Becker defended his title in 1986.

"I definitely think I belong with these guys," Tomic said. "I mean, sooner or later I'll play a player like Novak or Rafa and Roger where I'll have a win, but until then I've got to improve."

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Police, protesters clash for 2nd day in Egypt (AP)

CAIRO – Egyptian security forces clashed for a second day in Cairo Wednesday with hundreds of youths demanding that the country's military rulers speed up prosecution of police officers accused of brutality during mass protests that forced Hosni Mubarak to step down. More than 1,000 people have been injured, a senior official said.

In scenes reminiscent of the 18-day uprising that ousted Mubarak on Feb. 11, riot police deployed around the Interior Ministry building and fired in the air or used tear gas as demonstrators threw rocks and firebombs. The fighting left streets littered with rocks and debris and a heavy, white cloud of tear gas hung over the area.

By late afternoon, army troops backed by armored vehicles took over from riot police who had been protecting the Interior Ministry, closing all roads leading to the complex, the official Middle East News Agency, MENA, reported.

The protests attest to the ongoing upheaval in Egypt nearly five months after Mubarak stepped down. The country is struggling with a worsening economic crisis and as a security vacuum that has led to a surge in crime.

The question of meting out justice to those responsible for the deaths of some 850 protesters during the uprising, as well as for regime stalwarts charged with corruption, is among the most divisive in post-Mubarak Egypt. Many of those who took part in the uprising accuse the ruling military of showing too much reverence to key figures of the old regime and lenience with senior police commanders accused of ordering the killing of protesters.

Gigi Ibrahim, one of the protesters, said security forces rained tear gas on them.

"It was like January 25," she said, referring to the first day of the uprising. "The protesters have enough anger, either because change has not come or because the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces hasn't done enough" to meet their demands.

MENA quoted Assistant Health Minister Abdul-Hameed Abazah as saying that of the injured, some 900 were treated on the spot and more than 120 went to hospitals.

Most of the injured suffered from gas inhalation or concussions, officials said. At least 18 cars and 11 stores were damaged.

Ambulances ferried the wounded to hospitals, and volunteer doctors and nurses treated others on sidewalks.

The military issued a statement on its Facebook page claiming the clashes were designed to "destabilize the country" and drive a wedge between the groups behind the uprising and the security forces. It called on Egyptians not to join the protests.

Some of the protesters used scarves to shield them from tear gas. They pelted police cars with rocks and advanced when the riot police lines retreated. The main chant back in January and February was "The people want to oust the regime." But that has been replaced by screams of "The people want to oust the field-marshal" — a reference to Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's longtime defense minister and chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces that has taken over. Some of the youth groups behind the uprising see Tantawi as tainted because he was a key member of the Mubarak regime.

Critics also charge that Tantawi's policies are designed to keep the old order, and accuse him of deliberately stalling the process of purging Mubarak loyalists and failing to reform the hated Interior Ministry and its security agencies.

The clashes are likely to widen the rift between many Egyptians and the police, blamed for most of the human rights abuses during Mubarak's nearly three decades in power. They also are likely to delay efforts aimed at empowering the police to fully take back the streets. Police melted away following deadly clashes with protesters during the first few days of the uprising and army troops replaced them.

Mubarak's security chief, former Interior Minister Habib el-Adly, is on trial along with several of his top aides for ordering the use of deadly force against protesters. This week, his trial was adjourned until July 25, a decision that touched off clashes between relatives and police deployed outside the courthouse. Some of the victims' relatives want Mubarak to be included in the case against el-Adly.

Mubarak has been under arrest at a hospital in the Red Sea resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh and has been separately charged with ordering the killing of the protesters. Both men face the death penalty if convicted.

The clashes began Tuesday evening when some 100 people, claiming to be relatives of the uprising's victims, tried to storm a ceremony held at a Nile side theater to honor the memory of 10 protesters killed in the uprising. Clashes between them and security guards at the theater began when they were denied entry. The men pelted the theater with rocks.

Police arrested seven of the attackers, but the rest headed to the road outside the state television building across the river. They persuaded relatives of the victims staging a sit-in outside the building to join them. Together, they marched to the Interior Ministry, where they clashed with police and later headed to the nearby Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the uprising. They battled the police again until authorities ordered the police to pull back.

There were an estimated 6,000 protesters at the peak of the riots late Tuesday night.

Wednesday's clashes centered on streets leading to the Interior Ministry close to the downtown campus of the American University in Cairo.

Tahrir Square was closed to traffic on Wednesday, but about 1,500 protesters remained out on the streets.

A key youth group, April 6, described the police's handling of the latest protests as "brutal" and called in a statement for a sit-in in central Cairo to protest what it said was the failure to implement many of the demands from the uprising and to show solidarity with the families of the uprising's victims.

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Experts contest DNA evidence in Knox appeals trial (AP)

ROME – Amanda Knox won a crucial legal victory Wednesday as an independent forensic report said that much of the DNA evidence used to convict the American student and her co-defendant in the murder of her roommate is unreliable and possibly contaminated.

The review's findings that DNA testing used in the first trial was below international standards will undoubtedly boost Knox's chances of overturning her murder conviction.

The review by the two court-appointed independent experts had been eagerly awaited: With no clear motive for the brutal murder of Meredith Kercher and contradicting testimony heard in court, the DNA evidence was key to the prosecution's case.

Knox was convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher — a Briton with whom she shared an apartment while both were exchange students in Perugia — and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years.

Both have denied wrongdoing and are appealing. A verdict in the appeals trial is expected in the fall.

Knox, a 23-year-old from Seattle, was "very happy" to hear about the review, her mother said.

"She's breathing for the first time in years," Edda Mellas told The Associated Press. But, she added, "We're not celebrating until Amanda walks out of jail."

Prosecutors maintained in the first trial that Knox's DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife they believe to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher's DNA was found on the blade. They say Sollecito's DNA was found on the clasp of Kercher's bra.

Those findings were disputed by the defense, and the appeals court granted an independent review at their request. A similar attempt by Knox's defense had been turned down in the first trial.

The independent experts say in the report filed to the Perugia court on Wednesday and obtained by the AP that the genetic profile attributed to Kercher is "unreliable" and cannot be attributed with certainty.

They said results may have been contaminated on both the blade and bra clasp.

Regarding the blade, the experts said: "We believe that the technical tests are not reliable."

The experts also said the original testing did not follow any of the recommendations of the international scientific community for dealing with "low-copy number" DNA testing, which requires fewer human cells than traditional genetic testing methods.

They also said that "international procedures for inspection and international protocols for gathering and sampling exhibits have not been followed."

"It cannot be ruled out that the result obtained ... may stem from contamination," according to the 145-page report.

The experts reached similar conclusions regarding the bra clasp. The bra was recovered off the floor of the crime scene only several weeks after the Nov. 1, 2007 fatal stabbing of the 21-year-old Kercher.

"The exhibit was retrieved 46 days after the crime, in a context that was highly suggestive of ambient contamination," the report said.

However, the review concurred with the original testing in saying that the genetic profile on the knife's black plastic handle could be attributed to Knox. The knife was found at Sollecito's apartment.

The defense had long maintained DNA traces were inconclusive and that they might have been contaminated when they were collected and analyzed.

"We've been waiting for three years for this," Knox attorney Luciano Ghirga said. "It finally came."

The two experts — Stefano Conti and Carla Vecchiotti from Rome's Sapienza University — will present their review in court July 25. Then, the court will hear forensic consultants for the prosecution and for the Kercher family, who is part of the trial as civil plaintiffs.

"We are surprised and stunned by such a categorical judgment," said Francesco Maresca, the Kerchers' lawyer, adding that the forensic experts who carried out the original testing were serious professionals. He said he would seek en explanation for "such drastic conclusions."

The independent experts had been assigned to either conduct a retest or, if not possible, assess the accuracy of the original testing. They began their review in February and soon found that DNA traces were too small for a retest. So, they moved on to reviewing the original analyses to assess whether they were reliable and up to standard.

Initially given about three months to conclude their report, they sought and were granted an extension of about 40 days.

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Scientists monitor air as fire burns near NM lab (AP)

By P. SOLOMON BANDA and SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, Associated Press P. Solomon Banda And Susan Montoya Bryan, Associated Press – 14?mins?ago

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. – As crews fight to keep a New Mexico wildfire from reaching the nation's premier nuclear-weapons laboratory and the surrounding community, scientists are busy sampling the air for chemicals and radiological materials.

Their effort includes dozens of fixed-air monitors on the ground, as well as a "flying laboratory" dispatched by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The special twin-engine plane is outfitted with sensors that can collect detailed samples.

Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico requested the agency's help early on in the monitoring effort near the Los Alamos National Laboratory. EPA officials said the flying lab was set to make its initial data-collection fight Wednesday, and state and federal officials have vowed to make findings from all the monitoring efforts public.

"I know people are concerned about what's in the smoke," Udall said. He noted that the state, the Los Alamos lab and the EPA were all looking closely at air quality "so we can assure the public" there will be multiple layers of oversight.

The blaze had grown to more than 108 square miles by Wednesday morning, but firefighters managed to hold the line along the nuclear lab's southern boundary.

On its western edge, firefighters began targeted burns to rob fuel from the fire. Lab officials warned that people might see more smoke coming from the lab border, but they said there was no fire burning on the site as of mid-Wednesday.

Residents downwind have expressed concern about the potential of a radioactive smoke plume if the flames reach thousands of barrels of waste stored in above-ground tents at the lab.

Top lab officials and fire managers say there have been no releases of toxins. They say they're confident the flames won't reach key buildings or areas where radioactive waste is stored. As a last resort, foam could be sprayed on the barrels containing items that might have been contaminated through contact with radioactive materials to ensure they aren't damaged by fire, they said.

The site's manager for the National Nuclear Security Administration said he evaluated the precautions and felt comfortable. The agency oversees the lab for the Department of Energy.

"I have 170 people who validate their measures," Kevin Smith said. "They're in steel drums, on a concrete floor."

Despite the assurances, some residents remained concerned for the safety of their families and nearby communities.

"If it gets to this contamination, it's over — not just for Los Alamos, but for Santa Fe and all of us in between," said Mai Ting, a resident who lives in the valley below the desert mesas that are home to the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Chris Valvarde, a resident of the Santa Clara Pueblo about 10 miles north of Los Alamos, questioned officials at a briefing Tuesday evening, asking whether they had evacuation plans for his community. Los Alamos, a town of 11,000, already sits empty after its residents were evacuated ahead of the blaze, which started Sunday.

The wildfire has already sparked a spot fire at the lab. The fire Monday was quickly contained, and lab officials said no contamination was released.

Lab Director Charles McMillan said the barrels contain transuranic waste — gloves, toolboxes, tools — and other items that may have been contaminated. An anti-nuclear group had estimated there could be up to 30,000 55-gallon drums stored at a site known as Area G, but lab spokeswoman Heather Clark said Wednesday there are 10,000 drums stored there under fire-retardant tents.

Los Alamos County Fire Chief Doug Tucker, whose department is responsible for protecting the lab, said the barrels are stacked about three high inside the tents.

Area G holds drums of cleanup from Cold War-era waste that the lab sends away for storage in weekly shipments, according to lab officials.

Flames were just across the road from the southern edge of the famed lab, where scientists developed the first atomic bomb during World War II. The facility cut natural gas to some areas as a precaution. The lab will be closed through at least Thursday.

The streets of Los Alamos were empty again Wednesday, with the exception of emergency vehicles and National Guard Humvees. Homeowners who had left were prepared: Propane bottles were placed at the front of driveways and cars were left in the middle of parking lots, away from anything flammable.

The wildfire has destroyed 30 structures south and west of Los Alamos, for many stirring memories of a blaze in May 2000 that destroyed hundreds of homes and buildings in town.

Favorable winds have helped firefighters, who were busy trying to keep the fire from moving off Pajarito Mountain to the west of Los Alamos and into two narrow canyons that descend into the town and the lab.

The lab, which employs about 15,000 people, covers more than 36 square miles and includes about 2,000 buildings at nearly four dozen sites. They include research facilities, as well as waste disposal sites.

Some facilities, including the administration building, are in Los Alamos, while others are miles from the town. Most of the buildings from the Manhattan Project that developed the first atomic bomb in the 1940s were built on what is now the town and are long gone. The spot fire Monday scorched a section known as Tech Area 49, which was used in the early 1960s for a series of underground tests with high explosives and radioactive materials.

Lab spokesman Kevin Roark said environmental specialists were monitoring air quality, but the main concern was smoke. Lab personnel and the state environment department were monitoring the air for radioactivity and particulates.

Additional ground-based monitors were on their way, some of which would be placed in neighboring Espanola and Santa Fe.

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