In a lengthy and emotional interview with The Associated Press in his Statehouse office, the governor described five meetings with Maria Belen Chapur over the past year, including two romantic, multi-night stays with her in New York before they met there again intending to break up.

He said he met her two other times, including their first meeting in 2001 at an open-air dance spot in Uruguay.

“There was some kind of connection from the very beginning,” he told The Associated Press, though he said neither that meeting nor a 2004 coffee date in New York during the Republican National Convention were romantic.

His interview was the first disclosure of any liaisons with Chapur in the United States and contradicted a public confession last week during which Sanford admitted to a total of five encounters over their eight-year relationship.

He previously announced he would reimburse the state for money spent during a government trip to Brazil and Argentina in June 2008 when he saw Chapur. It was then, he said, that their relationship became physical, and the e-mails they’d exchanged for years reflected their anguish over what they had done.

“Now I am frightened,” he told the AP, describing his state of mind at the time. “It was before safe. But now it’s not safe. We gotta put the genie back in the bottle.”

He insists no public money was used for any other meetings with her.

He saw Chapur again in mid-June of this year, visiting Argentina without telling his staff he was going to be out of the country. He instead led them to believe he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

By the time he returned to a puzzled public, staff and family, his public image and emotional state had unraveled. He admitted the affair at a rambling press conference.

Now Sanford is attempting to salvage his personal and professional lives. He and wife Jenny, parents of four sons, say they are trying to reconcile their 20-year marriage but have not been sharing the same house for several weeks. Jenny Sanford found out about the relationship in January when she discovered a letter the governor had written to his mistress. She did not immediately return a message seeking comment Tuesday.

The governor said he met Chapur in Punta Del Este, Uruguay, in 2001 after his final term in Congress and before his first term as governor. He said the two struck up an e-mail correspondence after meeting on a dance floor — a chance encounter during which he counseled her into the night about her failing marriage.

For the next seven-plus years, Sanford said, the two exchanged messages, sometimes sporadically.

They met in New York two more times in 2008: two nights in Manhattan in September and three nights in the Hamptons in November. Each time, Sanford claims he flew coach, paid for it himself, paid for the hotels in cash and told his staff he was reachable via cell phone.

“At that point I was very careful, everything was paid for in cash,” Sanford said. “And you won’t find a credit card record.”

In early 2009, after Jenny Sanford discovered the affair, the couple went into counseling. She has told The Associated Press that he asked her several times to visit the mistress and she refused.

But the governor claims he wanted to end the affair in person and, with his wife’s permission, went to New York with a “trusted spiritual adviser” serving as chaperone. The three went to church and dinner together and parted ways the same night.

But he visited Chapur again in Argentina on June 18, the trip that brought the whole affair to light.

Bernard Madoff was sentenced Monday to 150 years in prison for stealing billions of dollars from hundreds of investors over decades in one of the largest Ponzi schemes in history.

U.S. District Judge Denny Chin called the scope of the fraud “staggering” and gave the 71-year-old financier the maximum sentence allowed, ensuring Madoff would live out his days behind bars. The probation department had recommended a 50-year term, while the defense lawyer had sought 12 years behind bars for his client.

With the verdict, Chin said he was sending a message “that Mr. Madoff’s crimes were extraordinarily evil, and that this kind of manipulation of the system is not just a bloodless crime that takes place on paper, but one instead that takes a staggering toll.”

Cheers and applause erupted from the gallery as Chin announced the verdict.

Before the sentence was handed down, Madoff faced the wrath of nine of the hundreds of people he cheated in the fraud that wiped out fortunes large and small. Although he showed no emotion during their testimony, he did offer an apology to family and victims.

“I dug myself deeper into a hole” as the scheme progressed, Madoff said, adding that he would “live with this pain, this torment, for the rest of my life.”

The victims who came forward testified that they had suffered financial ruin because of Madoff’s fraud.

“How could somebody do this to us? How could this be real? We did nothing wrong,” said Dominic Ambrosino, a retired New York City corrections officer. “We will have to sell our home and hope to survive on Social Security alone.”

“Life has been a living hell. It feels like the nightmare we can’t wake from,” said Carla Hirshhorn.

Tom Fitzmaurice accused Madoff of cheating his victims “so he and his wife, Ruth, could live a life of luxury beyond belief.”

Another victim, Michael Schwartz, told Madoff he wished a jail cell would be the disgraced financier’s coffin.

Madoff has already been ordered to forfeit assets worth more than $170 billion — the amount prosecutors say “flowed into the principal account to perpetrate the Ponzi scheme.” The amount includes all his personal property, real estate, investments and $80 million in assets that his wife — who has not been charged — had claimed were hers. The order left her with $2.5 million.

After the sentencing, Ruth Madoff said in a statement that she felt “betrayed and confused” by the actions of her husband. “The man who committed this horrible fraud is not the man whom I have known for all these years.”

She added: “Not a day goes by when I don’t ache over the stories that I have heard and read.”

The exact amount of the fraud has yet to be calculated, largely because it was so vast and went on for so long. Weeks before Bernard Madoff’s December arrest, statements showed that his firm had $56 billion in accounts.

Madoff’s case has become symbolic of Wall Street greed and a laissez-faire attitude toward federal oversight. Madoff, a former Nasdaq chairman, had earned a reputation as a trusted money manager with a track record of delivering stellar returns in good markets and bad. His clients — ranging from Florida retirees to celebrities such as Steven Spielberg, actor Kevin Bacon and Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax — consistently enjoyed steady double-digit returns.

On March 12, Madoff pleaded guilty to securities fraud and other charges, saying he was “deeply sorry and ashamed.” He insisted that he acted alone, describing a separate wholesale stock-trading firm run by his sons and brother as legitimate.

The terms require the Madoffs to sell a $7 million Manhattan apartment where Ruth Madoff still lives. An $11 million estate in Palm Beach, Fla., a $4 million home in Montauk and a $2.2 million boat will be put on the market as well.

Aside from an accountant accused of helping Madoff hide the scheme, no one else has been criminally charged. But family members as well as brokerages that recruited investors have come under intense scrutiny by the FBI, regulators and a court-appointed trustee overseeing the liquidation of Madoff’s assets.

In bankruptcy filings, trustee Irving Picard said family members “used customers’ accounts as though they were their own,” putting Madoff’s maid, boat captain and house sitter in Florida on the company payroll and paying nearly $1 million in fees at high-end golf clubs in Florida and on Long Island, N.Y.

Picard has sought to reclaim ill-gotten gains by freezing Madoff’s business bank accounts and selling off legitimate portions of his firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. (Its season tickets for the New York Mets went for $38,100.) He also is suing big money managers and investors for billions of dollars, claiming they were Madoff cronies who also cashed in on the fraud.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Just found out Michael Jackson has died. He was 50 years old. Michael suffered a heart attack earlier this afternoon at his home paramedics tried to revive him but were unable to. We’re told when paramedics arrived Jackson had no pulse and they never got a pulse back. Jackson was said to be dead on arrival of the paramedics. Once at the hospital, the staff tried to resuscitate him but he was completely unresponsive. We will provide more details as they become available.

Michael Joseph Jackson (born August 29, 1958) is an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. The seventh child of the Jackson family, he debuted on the professional music scene at the age of 11 as a member of The Jackson 5 and began a solo career in 1971 while still a member of the group. Referred to as the “King of Pop” in subsequent years, five of his solo studio albums have become some of the world’s best-selling records: Off the Wall (1979), Thriller (1982), Bad (1987), Dangerous (1991) and HIStory (1995).

In the early 1980s, he became a dominant figure in popular music and the first African-American entertainer to amass a strong crossover following on MTV. The popularity of his music videos airing on MTV, such as “Beat It”, “Billie Jean” and Thriller—credited for transforming the music video into an art form and a promotional tool—helped bring the relatively new channel to fame. Videos such as “Black or White” and “Scream” made Jackson an enduring staple on MTV in the 1990s. With stage performances and music videos, Jackson popularized a number of physically complicated dance techniques, such as the robot and the moonwalk. His distinctive musical sound and vocal style influenced hip hop, pop and contemporary R&B artists.

Jackson has donated and raised millions of dollars for beneficial causes through his foundation, charity singles and support of 39 charities. Other aspects of his personal life, including his changing appearance and behavior, generated significant controversy, damaging his public image. Though he was accused of child sexual abuse in 1993, the criminal investigation was closed due to lack of evidence and Jackson was not charged. The singer has experienced health concerns since the early 1990s and conflicting reports regarding the state of his finances since the late 1990s. Jackson married twice and fathered three children, all of which caused further controversy. In 2005, Jackson was tried and acquitted of further sexual abuse allegations and several other charges.

One of the few artists to have been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame twice, his other achievements include multiple Guinness World Records—including one for “Most Successful Entertainer of All Time”—13 Grammy Awards, 13 number one singles in his solo career—more than any other male artist in the Hot 100 era—and the sales of over 750 million albums worldwide. Cited as one of the world’s most famous men, Jackson’s highly publicized personal life, coupled with his successful career, has made him a part of popular culture for almost four decades.

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s press conference Wednesday afternoon was just one more piece in an already strange tale. In a rambling statement during which he teared up at times, Sanford apologized to everyone possible: his wife and children, his staff, the people of South Carolina, the press.

Then he got around to the point: “The bottom line is this: I’ve been unfaithful to my wife. I developed a relationship with what started as a dear, dear friend from Argentina.”

As part of that admission, Sanford also announced that he will resign as chairman of the Republican Governor’s Association in order to have time to reconcile with his family and with South Carolinians.

One thought: Sanford’s repeated invocation of “moral absolutes” and “God’s laws” doesn’t seem like an accident here. Though Sanford rambled during that part of his address, and made it come off as slightly odd, it may actually help him quite a bit. The tale of someone who’s fallen, then realized his sin and asked for forgiveness, is popular in the evangelical community, and plays well in that segment of the GOP base. Think Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker — even Bristol Palin’s pregnancy last year got played in a similar fashion.

Still, whatever appeal that has, it probably won’t be enough to save Sanford’s hopes of winning the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, something that seems very unlikely now.

Obama, who has been accused by some Republicans of being too timid in his response to events in Iran, declared himself “appalled and outraged” by the deaths and intimidation in Tehran’s streets — and scoffed at suggestions he was toughening his rhetoric in response to the criticism.

He suggested Iran’s leaders will face consequences if they continue “the threats, the beatings and imprisonments” against protesters. But he repeatedly declined to say what actions the U.S. might take, retaining — for now — the option of pursuing diplomatic engagement with Iran’s leaders over its suspected nuclear weapons program.

“We don’t know yet how this thing is going to play out,” the president said. “It is not too late for the Iranian government to recognize that there is a peaceful path that will lead to stability and legitimacy and prosperity for the Iranian people. We hope they take it.”

Obama borrowed language from struggles throughout history against oppressive governments to condemn the efforts by Iran’s rulers to crush dissent in the wake of June 12 presidential elections. Citing the searing video circulated worldwide of the apparent shooting death of Neda Agha Soltan, a 26-year-old young woman who bled to death in a Tehran street and now is a powerful symbol for the demonstrators, Obama said flatly that human rights violations were taking place.

“No iron fist is strong enough to shut off the world from bearing witness to peaceful protests of justice,” he said during a nearly hourlong White House news conference dominated by the unrest in Iran. “Those who stand up for justice are always on the right side of history.”

The eighth extended news conference of Obama’s presidency also veered into the intricacies of the health care reform debate, the effectiveness of the economic stimulus package and a revealing personal moment in which he acknowledged he still is an occasional smoker despite trying to quit.

“I would say I’m 95 percent cured, but there are times where I mess up,” the president said the day after signing an anti-smoking bill into law. He said he doesn’t smoke daily, nor does he light up in front of his children.

The past 10 days in Iran have posed the strongest challenge to that nation’s clerical rule since the system was established 30 years ago in the 1979 Islamic revolution. Before Tuesday, Obama mostly kept to a modulated response, calculating that, given Iranians’ distrust of American involvement in their country, anything viewed as internal meddling from the White House would do the demonstrators more harm than good.

He also is deeply interested in preserving his promised policy concerning Iran and the threat its nuclear program poses: He contends the danger has only grown through decades of ruptured diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Tehran, particularly in the past eight years under President George W. Bush, and it is time to try to change that by re-establishing direct talks.

But Obama has been taken to task by some Republicans, accused of being too passive. Even with Iran’s blackout of foreign press and attempted communications shutdowns, chaotic images of riot police beating and shooting protesters have seized the world’s attention. At least 17 people have been killed.

Last Sunday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said: “The president of the United States is supposed to lead the free world, not follow it. He’s been timid and passive more than I would like.”

Obama chose a less cautious approach on Tuesday, more directly challenging Iran’s leaders to ease off and holding out the possibility of consequences if they do not.

“The Iranian government should understand that how they handle the dissent within their own country, generated indigenously, internally, from the Iranian people, will help shape the tone, not only for Iran’s future, but also its relationship to other countries,” Obama said.

He made clear that one recent overture to Iran — the authorization for U.S. embassies to invite Iranian officials to Independence Day parties — was likely to disappear without changes. “That’s a choice the Iranians are going to have to make,” Obama said.

With an array of U.S. sanctions already in place against Iran, there are few options at Obama’s disposal other than withdrawing his offer to talk. Regardless, Obama said it’s too early for him to be more specific. “We are going to monitor and see how this plays itself out before we make any judgments about how we proceed,” he said.

Answering a question from a Huffington Post writer that was solicited by the White House in advance, Obama was plainer than ever that the protesters’ beliefs that the election was stolen from opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi may be legitimate. The government declared an overwhelming re-election victory for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, while promising to look into scattered reports of irregularities, has ruled out annulling those results.

“We can’t say definitively what exactly happened at polling places throughout the country,” Obama said. “What we know is that a sizable percentage of the Iranian people themselves, spanning Iranian society, consider this election illegitimate. It’s not an isolated instance, a little grumbling here or there. There is significant question about the legitimacy of the election.”

In Obama’s comments, there also was a notable shift away from previous respectful references to Iran’s most powerful cleric, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, as the “Supreme Leader.” Obama didn’t use the term on Tuesday.

Asked if his stronger language was influenced by pressure from Republicans such as Graham and Sen. John McCain, Obama scoffed: “What do you think?” And he shot back at GOP critics: “Only I’m the president of the United States.”

Advisers realize the new tone poses a risk that the U.S. president will become a scapegoat for Iran’s leaders — just what Obama has sought to avoid. Administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe a sensitive strategy, said the disturbing images of the past few days warranted the tougher stance.

“I congratulate him for that, and we need to keep the pressure on them,” House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said after the news conference.

The president took the podium after a troublesome week for his five-month-old administration.

Fellow Democrats are fretting about the jaw-dropping cost estimates of reforming health care, a series of polls have underscored deep unease among independents and moderates over the soaring deficit, and his overall approval rating — while still high — has been slipping.

Obama pushed lawmakers to deliver on his ambitious goals of overhauling health care and energy, both in peril.

Also, acknowledging that the unemployment rate is going to climb over 10 percent, Obama said he’s not satisfied with progress so far from the $787 billion economic stimulus plan passed in January. He said aid must get out faster and some programs — like one aimed at helping save some homeowners from foreclosure — need adjustment.

Still, asked if he would call for more stimulus spending, he said: “Not yet, because I think it’s important to see how the economy evolves and how effective the first stimulus is.”

On health care, Obama left open the door to abandoning his demand that people under any revamped system have the option of choosing coverage from a government-funded program.

“We are still early in this process,” he said. “So, you know, we have not drawn lines in the sand other than reform has to control costs and that it has to provide relief to people who don’t have health insurance or are underinsured.”