USA

Gov. Jon Corzine (D) of New Jersey furloughed some 45,000 state workers Saturday due to a budget crisis, caused when legislators failed to approve a sales tax increase by the fiscal year's end on June 30. Corzine has vowed to solve the state's long-term financial problems with $2.5 billion in budget cuts. Only essential government workers are on the job, which could close casinos overseen by furloughed state employees.

The National Weather Service said the Delaware River, swollen by a Northeastern deluge blamed for 16 deaths in several states, had fallen below flood stage over the weekend. Residents of waterlogged cities and towns, including Glen Estlle of Lambertville, N.J., have begun to clean up their homes while many others await word on when they can return from local and state inspectors.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab and her Canadian counterpart, David Emerson, signed a softwood-lumber trade agreement Saturday that ends a long-running, cross-border dispute. The deal, worked out in April, was inked at World Trade Organization talks in Geneva. The pact calls for lifting tariffs and quotas on Canadian lumber.

Intelligence officials are increasingly concerned that a program to secure the Pentagon's computer networks is years behind schedule, The Baltimore Sun reported Sunday. The National Security Agency began overhauling the system in 1999, but has seen deadlines for completing the work slide to 2012 and beyond despite more than 160,000 attempts to penetrate Defense Department computers last year.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) of California on Saturday ordered the release of dozens of intelligence documents compiled by the state Office of Homeland Security, The Los Angeles Times reported. The governor had come under bipartisan criticism for the content of the reports, two of which contained details about political and antiwar protests. A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the governor considered inclusion of those details "unacceptable."