But several GOP sources, including some former White House officials, said John Snow has told several White House officials he intends to resign. However, they said, Snow has not spoken to Bush about it.

At a news conference Thursday night, Bush -- asked whether Snow had given him "any indication that he intends to leave his job any time soon" -- said, "No, he has not talked to me about resignation. I think he's doing a fine job. After all, our economy is, it's strong. ... He's done a fine job."

But several current and past administration officials have said the president has been ready to replace Snow for the past year. They said the White House has been searching for an "acceptable alternative" but has had difficulty getting someone to accept the position.

In January, CNN confirmed that one of those who had refused the job was Time Warner CEO Dick Parsons.

A former White House official in frequent contact with Snow said that in December the secretary indicated he wanted to leave in early spring, though he agreed to stay until the White House found a replacement.

It is not clear whether Snow has set a timetable for his departure, sources said, or whether he is trying to nudge the president along to find a replacement. Sources would not confirm a Washington Post report that Snow's last day would be July 3.

Snow is due to leave June 8 for the G8 finance ministers summit in St. Petersburg, Russia. Sources said it is likely he would want to be in Washington, standing next to the president, when he announces his resignation, meaning that if he plans to make the announcement soon it would be either in the 10 days after the Memorial Day weekend and before the summit, or soon after he returns from the summit June 11.

Officials told CNN they do not feel it would weaken his position during the summit if his resignation were announced beforehand.

Possible replacement candidates

Several sources gave CNN the following assessments on people who have been mentioned as possible replacements for Snow:

- Stephen Friedman, the president's former chief economic adviser: a real possibility. He's available, and Bush likes him. He is a former Goldman Sachs chief executive.

- Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez: chances unknown. His name has been floated for several months.

- Don Evans, former commerce secretary: not likely. Although he's very close to Bush, and his name is often mentioned, no one has reached out to him, the sources said.

- David Mulford, ambassador to India: not likely. He was once considered high on the list, but some of the sources said they believe that was largely through self-promotion. He is a former treasury undersecretary.

- Robert Kimmitt, Snow's deputy: not likely. The Dubai Ports World deal, which was initially approved by the committee he heads, damaged his prospects.

- Robert Zoellick, deputy secretary of state: not happening. He wanted the job, and it has long been known he would resign if he didn't get it, sources said. They said he has indicated to colleagues during the past several weeks that he intends to resign and go back to work in the private sector. He is a former U.S. trade representative.

Federal Emergency Management Agency, said he is "confident the American public will be well-served" by Paulison.

Despite a push to get Paulison confirmed before the June 1 start of the annual storm season, his nomination hit several temporary snags.

On Wednesday, members of the Senate Homeland Security Governmental Affairs Committee questioned irregular travel expense deductions on three years worth of his tax returns. Paulison said Thursday he would refile amended returns to correct any errors, satisfying the committee.

But hours later, Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky., said he would block Paulison's nomination to protest FEMA's failure to develop an appeals system for property owners whose flood insurance claims are rejected. FEMA administers the national flood insurance program.

By Friday morning, however, Bunning dropped his threat after being assured by Chertoff - in a phone call and a letter - that FEMA would establish an appeals process soon.

Paulison has served as acting FEMA director since September, taking over the beleaguered agency two weeks after Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. He has had a three-decade-long firefighting career, including a stint as chief of the Miami-Dade County fire department and head of the U.S. Fire Administration.

The Senate also confirmed David L. Norquist as Homeland Security's chief financial officer, and former Secret Service director Ralph Basham as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Kissinger was angry apparently because Japan, a key US ally, defied the foreign policy of the United States, which at that time had diplomatic ties only with Taiwan.

Tanaka established diplomatic relations with China on September 29, 1972, a year after the
United Nations expelled Taiwan in favor of China.

It was only seven years later that the United States restored formal links with Beijing and severed official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Nixon however made a landmark visit to China much earlier -- in February 1972 -- to end 20 years of frosty relations between the two countries.

Kissinger's outburst against the Japanese is an example, confirmed by other documents, of his often difficult, sometimes antagonistic, relationship with Japan, a society that he had great difficulty understanding, said The National Security Archive, a private, independent clearing house for declassified documents, based at George Washington University in Washington.

The offending language used by Kissinger was "an extraordinary example in the documents of how he gets acerbic sometimes and makes comments behind people's backs," William Burr, a senior analyst at the archive, told AFP.

Burr edited "The Kissinger Transcripts: A Verbatim Record of US Diplomacy, 1969-1977," comprising more than 2,100 memoranda of conversations, many of them near-verbatim transcripts, detailing talks between Kissinger and US and foreign leaders and official.

Angry over the Japanese Prime Minister's prospective visit to China, Kissinger also refused to meet a foreign ministry official from Tokyo who wanted to discuss with him privately the trip's agenda, according to the documents.

The documents also showed that Kissinger told China in 1972 that the United States might accept a Communist takeover of South Vietnam if it occurred after a withdrawal of American troops.

"While we cannot bring a communist government to power, if, as a result of historical evolution it should happen over a period of time, if we can live with a Communist government in China, we ought to be able to accept it in Indochina," Kissinger told then Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai.

He told Zhou that, for credibility reasons, the United States could not meet Hanoi's demand for the "overthrow" of South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu.

But, once US forces had left Indochina, Kissinger declared, the White House would accept the results of historical change, according to the documents.

All US military forces withdrew from South Vietnam in 1973, in accordance with the Paris Peace Accords signed with North Vietnam. Saigon fell two years later.

"This project will keep our economy growing by creating jobs and ensuring that businesses can expand. And it will make America less dependent on foreign sources of energy, eventually by up to a million barrels of crude oil a day -- a nearly 20 percent increase over our current domestic production," he said, calling on the US Senate to pass a similar bill.

The Senate has blocked previous attempts to permit oil drilling in the area, and environmental groups say scores of rare and endangered wildlife species would be put at risk by the proposal.

The House bill, which passed by a vote of 225 to 201, directs the US Secretary of the Interior to begin leasing a portion of the refuge along Alaskas northern coast for oil exploration.

Republicans have lobbied for years to allow exploration of Alaska's environmentally-sensitive wildlife refuge.

Investigators earlier this month had focused on Gawn based on information from witnesses and tipsters. After his apartment was searched, he was arrested for investigation of a probation violation but was released the next day on $25,000 bail.

While in custody, Gawn admitted he stole explosives, according to an affidavit from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The ATF obtained an arrest warrant for Gawn on May 18 after he did not turn himself in for arraignment in federal court.

The warrant accuses him of being a felon in possession of explosives.

Most of the dynamite has been recovered from an impounded vehicle and in front of two fire stations. Thirty-nine sticks remain missing, officials said.

Gawn told authorities two weeks ago that the missing sticks were destroyed by water from a car wash, according to the ATF affidavit. The bureau is still trying to account for the missing sticks, said John D'Angelo, an ATF special agent.

Authorities did not offer a motive for the theft, which was reported May 3.

"I think he got himself into something he couldn't get out of," said Gawn's wife, Amy.

"I'm glad he's in jail. That makes me feel a little better," said Greg Paul, owner of the Gold Mountain Mine Co., the Big Bear mine from which the explosives were stolen.

The Department of Motor Vehicles, the U.S. version of the old Soviet bread line, is among the top spots where Americans hate to wait. But grocery stores are the worst.

Almost one in four in the AP-Ipsos poll picked the grocery checkout as the line where their patience is most likely to melt like the ice cream turning to goo in their cart.

And it seems people don't mellow with age. The survey found older people to be more impatient than younger people.

Nor does getting away from the urban pressure cooker make much difference. People in the country and the suburbs can bear a few more minutes in a line before losing it than city inhabitants can, but that's it.

In short, Americans want it all NOW. Or awfully close to now.

"If you ask the typical person, do you feel more time-poor or money-poor, the answer almost always is time-poor," says Paco Underhill, an authority on what draws and drives away shoppers.

"We walk in the door with the clock ticking with various degrees of loudness in our heads. And if I get to the checkout and if I have the perception it's not working efficiently, often that clock gets even louder."

In other words, it's not just how long you wait, but how you wait. Creative merchants turn waiting time into something approaching quality time. A lot don't.

A free-for-all deli counter that doesn't let people take numbered tickets is a flashpoint for frayed nerves. But if managers approach shoppers in a long line and help shepherd them to the right counter, they'll have happier sheep.

The typical supercenter shopper spends 25 to 30 minutes in the store, but many think they've been there an hour, Underhill says. His company, Envirosell, monitors the behavior of shoppers and sellers across the U.S. and in other countries.

Americans are demanding. Half in the AP-Ipsos poll said they refuse to return to businesses that made them wait too long. Nearly one in five owned up to speaking rudely to someone in the last few months when they weren't served efficiently.

Hana Sklar, 23, lives in New York and wants things done, yes, in a New York minute.

A native of Australia, where "it's relaxing, calm, everyone takes their time," Sklar now lives in Brooklyn and says she typically loses patience after waiting less than one minute in a line or on the phone.

The snail's slither to the post office counter drives her the nuttiest. "By the time you get there and it's your turn, there are only two people working there," she said. "It's not only me getting angry. Everyone is talking about it."

Now meet one of the most patient men in America. John Vivian, 72, of Lantana, Fla., can wait "hours" on hold on the phone. "I spent 23 years in the military and if you spent 23 years in the military, you don't lose your patience."

He worked for just as long behind the post office counter, giving him a really thick skin. "Life is too short to be upset," he says.

Underhill says post offices and some DMVs have improved in recent years but grocery stores are notably poor at managing crowds, especially considering busy times are so predictable.

One solution: Online ordering of routine purchases, which make up 80 percent of the shopping cart.

This would transform the store into a series of "pleasure centers" where people linger over the gourmet cheeses, fancy breads and fine wines, then pick up the bagged-and-ready staples they ordered earlier from the home or work computer.

Overall, 60 percent in the survey said they can usually wait no more than 15 minutes in a line before losing their cool.

Their fuses are even shorter on the phone.

Nearly four in five respondents in the survey said their patience has run out while being kept on hold.

As if by some cruel joke, phoning the phone company is often a path to madness.

"I stayed on the phone once for an hour, just to see how long it would take," said Janet Collier, 76, of Macdon, N.Y. "It was just stubbornness."

Asked if she finally gave her carrier an earful, she laughed and said, "I'm not with them anymore."

Exasperation with phones extends to cell service. Underhill described cellular company stores as "locations of last resort" for customers who have been put through all manner of nuisance trying to get their service needs met or their questions answered on the phone or computer. Many come in those doors already upset.

In the survey, 54 percent said they can wait no more than five minutes on hold before losing their patience. Only 7 percent could bear more than 20 minutes.

However long the wait, people strongly prefer hearing recorded music while on hold and appreciate periodic estimates of remaining waiting time, the poll indicates. Most did not want to be held hostage to talk radio or company ads, and less than one-third wanted silence.

Altogether, 1,003 adults took time out from their evening to answer questions for the poll March 28-30. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

The woman heard one of her children screaming from an adjacent room in the Loews Hotel, and when she walked into the room she saw her husband going off the balcony, Hernandez said.

She looked over the railing and saw her husband and her two children lying on a mezzanine roof that is about two floors above the ground.

Hernandez said that despite the marital problems, the family had been celebrating the couple's 10th wedding anniversary.

"It's a terrible tragedy. It's unfortunate that this gentleman was so selfish and in an effort to get back at his wife he took the two most loved people in the world away from her," Hernandez said.

Hernandez said the woman did not know why her husband killed the children and himself.

"There was no indication that he would be capable of doing something as horrible as this," Hernandez said.

People in neighboring rooms said they did not hear any noises, Hernandez said.

A Loews Hotel spokeswoman in Miami would not comment.