Interim Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos struck a tentative deal with party leaders to boost economic competitiveness and extend spending cuts after euro-area finance chiefs told them an increase in the 130 billion-euro ($170 billion) aid package wasn

President Obama offered a new line of reasoning for hiking taxes on the rich on Thursday, saying at the National Prayer Breakfast that his policy proposals are shaped by his religious beliefs.

Obama said that as a person who has been "extraordinarily blessed," he is willing to give up some of the tax breaks he enjoys because doing so makes economic, and religious sense.

"For me as a Christian, it also coincides with Jesus’s teaching that for unto whom much is given, much shall be required," Obama said, quoting the Gospel of Luke.

Obama wants to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire for the richest Americans, and he has embraced the idea that wealthy Americans should not be paying a lower effective tax rate than those in the middle or lower classes.

He has argued that those policies offer Americans a "fair shot" and increased equality, while implying that the policies favored by Republicans do not.

But the overt connection between religious beliefs and political policies is new.

"I know that far too many neighbors in our country have been hurt and treated unfairly over the last few years," Obama said. "And I believe in God’s command to love thy neighbor as thyself. I know a version of that golden rule is found in every major religion and every set of beliefs."

An administration official speaking on background told CNN that Obama viewed the speech as chance to explain his personal faith practices and to show "his desire to step in the gap for those who are vulnerable."

So what does the Bible say about taxes?

Not too much. The Bible is silent on whether capital gains should be taxed at 15% or a higher rate. Ditto for other types of investment income. Payroll tax holidays are not mentioned.

"If you did a search on taxes in the Bible, you are not going to find a lot that’s helpful for this discussion," said O. Wesley Allen, a Bible scholar at Lexington Theological Seminary.

CNN Belief Blog

Complicating matters, Allen said that one of the most commonly cited Bible passages about taxes is frequently misinterpreted instant credit reports.

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is asked whether it is lawful for Jews to pay taxes to Caesar, a Roman dictator.

Jesus tells his questioners to give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.

"That passage is often quoted as saying Jesus said to pay taxes. That’s not what it is," Allen said. "It’s important to remember that the people asking this question are trying to trick him. He gets out of the trap more than he answers the question."

Perhaps a better parallel is gleaning — an Old Testament practice in which farmers are encouraged to leave the crops on the edges of their fields for orphans and widows.

"As a commandment, that functions as a tax on the rich for the sake of the poor," Allen said.

Allen said there are many passages throughout the Bible that mandate the poor and widowed should be cared for. "But it doesn’t dictate the policies that should be pursued to accomplish that," he said.

The speech comes at a tricky time for a White House fully engaged in efforts to reelect the president.

The administration was still doing damage control over a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services policy that forces religious schools and institutions that offer employee health insurance to cover FDA-approved contraceptives.

The move has angered many Catholics in particular, who oppose the use of contraceptives on religious grounds, and view the policy as an intrusion on their religious liberty.

Since he has been in Washington, Obama has not formally joined a church. For nearly 20 years he was a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.

The president and his staff have noted the logistical difficulties of a sitting president attending services, but he has visited several churches in Washington and worshiped privately with his family at Camp David.

– CNN’s Eric Marrapodi contributed to this report. 

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People outside the Fed have

AMR Corp. said at the time of its Nov. 29 bankruptcy filing that it was forced to file because of the need to achieve a more competitive labor structure. Most other major U.S. airlines have already cut labor costs by their own trips through bankruptcy over the last 10 years.

Among the moves that American’s unions expect include having aircraft flown overseas to low-cost maintenance facilities for the extensive overhaul required for planes on a regular basis. Most U.S. airlines, including United Continental (, Fortune 500), Southwest Airlines (, Fortune 500) and Delta Air Lines (, Fortune 500), already have costly maintenance performed at overseas facilities.

AMR (), which owns both American and feeder airline American Eagle, is the only major carrier to perform the work in-house at U.S. facilities.

"This is the dirty little secret of U.S. aviation. You don’t know where the plane that you’re flying was repaired," said Jamie Horwitz, spokesman for the Transport Workers Union. "You assume standards are high for the person who works on your fuel line, but it doesn’t necessarily follow."

The Transport Workers represent 11,000 mechanics at American and its feeder airline, American Eagle, as well as 15,000 other ground workers such as baggage handlers, plane cleaners and dispatchers. It is vowing to fight any company plans to shift work overseas.

"(On Wednesday) we get the bad news, but it’ll be the beginning of a prolonged battle," said Horwitz.

Horwitz said there are two major American-owned facilities doing the heavy maintenance work — one in Tulsa, Okla., which has 6,500 union members, and another outside of Dallas with 2,200 union members.

Horwitz and industry experts say almost all other U.S. airlines already have outsourced regular overhaul maintenance required for aircraft to facilities in countries such as China, El Salvador and throughout South America.

Mike Boyd, an industry consultant, said U.S. maintenance workers are far more efficient performing the maintenance, but probably are paid three times as much.

"When you have very low wages in El Salvador or China, that’s very hard to compete with," Boyd said.

Horwitz said the Transport Workers Union is hopeful it will be able to block any attempt by American to shift the heavy maintenance work overseas.

"We think the environment about creating jobs, keeping jobs, offshoring work to Third-World countries like El Salvador, it’s a much different issue today than in 2003 when other airlines went through bankruptcy," he said. "We certainly would like to make it a major issue in Congress."

The unions representing pilots and flight attendants previously said they’re prepared for the company to try to institute longer hours in a bid to increase productivity. American flight crews work shorter hours than their counterparts at other major carriers. That would likely cut the flight crew jobs as well.

AMR spokesman Tim Smith wouldn’t comment on what the company will lay out for the employees, saying it will be the start of a negotiating process.

"We need a competitive cost structure," he said. "It doesn’t necessarily mean we get to that the way others have done."

He also wouldn’t comment on whether the company will seek to move its pension plans, which it estimates are underfunded by $5 billion, to the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., a federal agency that protects the pensions of workers in private-sector retirement plans.

The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has issued numerous statements since the American bankruptcy that it would seek to keep the airline from dumping its pensions on the agency, which is already facing a deficit of its own. The agency’s estimate is that the American pensions are underfunded by $10 billion.

If the company is successful in shifting its pensions to the agency, workers would likely lose promised retiree health-care benefits. Many, especially the pilots, would have their pension benefits slashed. 

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The Monday report quoting Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi also says that the shell was an “intelligent” munition with the capability to identify its own targets.

The report was accompanied by footage showing an artillery piece firing a shell, followed by an explosion in the desert.

The report does not give details on specifications of the shell. It could not be independently verified.

Iran occasionally announces the production and testing of military equipment, ranging from torpedoes to missiles and jet fighters.

The country’s military has run a program dating from 1992 which aims at self-sufficiency in producing modern weaponry.

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Gross domestic product, the value of all goods and services produced, climbed at a 2.8 percent annual pace following a 1.8 percent gain in the prior quarter, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 79 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 3 percent increase. Growth excluding a jump in inventories was 0.8 percent.

Federal Reserve officials this week said they were concerned about the economy

Earnings in 2010 may fall by as much as 55 percent from what the bank had claimed, Enterprise announced today. Profits could be cut as much as 33 percent from the bank’s previous reports for the first nine months of last year.

Enterprise Financial, parent of Clayton-based Enterprise Bank, said  that it discovered an “inadvertent” accounting error that overstated profits from loans taken on from failed banks.  Enterprise bought failed banks in recent years in the Phoenix area and Olathe, Kansas, a Kansas City suburb.

Enterprise shares any losses on those loans with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. under the company’s original agreement to buy those failed banks.

The bank holding company delayed the release of its fourth-quarter and full-year results, and canceled an analyst conference call on earnings scheduled for Thursday. It didn’t say when it would release those results.

Enterprise said it expects to keep its “well capitalized” designation under federal bank safety rules.

“We do not believe the error involved any part of our core banking business,” Enterprise President and CEO Peter Benoist said in a press release.  He said trends remain favorable for loan quality, growth of commercial loans and deposits.

Despite the mistake, Benoist said Enterprise still made a profit in 2010 and last year from the failed banks it purchased.  Benoist said he expects those profits to continue this year.

The accounting errors will lower 2010’s earnings-per-share to 20 to 25 cents, the bank said.  It had previously reported a 45 cent per-share profit.

For the first nine months of last year, the bank said it would report earnings of 98 cents to $1.15 per share.  It previously reported $1.46.  Earnings for all of last year should be $1.20 to $1.35 per share, the bank said.

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Civil protection chief Franco Gabrielli also told reporters Sunday that relatives of a Hungarian woman have told Italian authorities that she had telephoned them from aboard the ship and that they haven’t heard from her since the Jan. 13 accident. He said it was possible that a woman’s body pulled from the wreckage by divers on Saturday might be that of the unregistered passenger.

He said, however, that the identity of that body and three male bodies found a few days earlier have yet to be established. Twenty people, most of them passengers, are still missing.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

GIGLIO, Italy (AP) _ Rescuers on Sunday resumed searching the above-water section of the capsized Costa Concordia cruise liner, but choppy seas kept divers from exploring the submerged part, where officials have said there could be bodies.

Civil protection officials said that until the waves slacken off, divers will not swim into the submerged part of the vessel near the port of Giglio, a tiny island off the Tuscan coast.

Coast Guard divers have been concentrating on parts of the ship where survivors have said many passengers were awaiting evacuation the night of Jan. 13 after the Concordia’s hull was gashed by a reef as the cruise liner came too close to the island.

After divers on Saturday extracted a woman’s body from a corridor near what had been an evacuation staging point, the death toll rose to 12. Twenty people, most of them passengers, are still missing.

So far, the Concordia’s fuel tanks are holding, but special crews are waiting for the end of rescue efforts so they can extract 2,200 metric tons (nearly half a million gallons) of heavy fuel.

In a separate undersea mission, police divers on Saturday swam into the captain’s cabin to retrieve his safe, suitcases and documents guaranteed personal loan approval.

The Italian captain is under house arrest as prosecutors investigate him for suspected manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning the ship while many of the 4,200 passengers and crew were still aboard.

Rescuers are racing against the clock, because the Concordia has been slightly shifting on its precarious perch on a rocky ledge of seabed close to where the seabed steeply plunges.

The search had been interrupted early Sunday after instruments monitoring any movement of the Concordia indicated that vessel had shifted slightly.

Three bodies were found in waters around the ship in the first hours after the accident. All the bodies found since then have been recovered by divers inside the Concordia. The victims were apparently unable to escape the lurching ship during a chaotic evacuation launched almost an hour after the accident.

Operator Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of U.S.-based Carnival Cruise Lines, has said that Capt. Francesco Schettino had deviated without permission from the vessel’s route in an apparent maneuver to sail close to the island and impress passengers.

Schettino, despite audiotapes of his defying Coast Guard orders to scramble back aboard, has denied he abandoned ship while hundreds of passengers were desperately trying to get off the capsizing vessel. He has said he coordinated the rescue from aboard a lifeboat and then from the shore.

Light fuel, apparently from machinery aboard the capsized ship, has been spotted in the water, authorities said Saturday, but there has been no indication that any of the heavy fuel oil has leaked from the ship’s double-bottomed tanks.

Giglio is in the middle of a national marine park renowned for its pristine waters.

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