(AP)The Senate voted Wednesday to slash the number of foreign workers who could come to the U.S. on temporary visas as part of a broad bipartisan immigration bill. A new guest worker program would be capped at 200,000 a year under the proposal, which passed 74-24 over strong opposition by the Bush administration.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the change, proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat, would interfere with a “central component” of the White House-backed immigration measure. That plan provided for 400,000 worker visas annually, plus an option to increase that number to 600,000 if market conditions demand it.

“The Bingaman amendment would eliminate this critical flexibility and cut the size of the temporary worker program in half,” Gutierrez said in a statement.

His comments came as the administration urged the Senate to approve the immigration legislation despite fresh criticism from presidential hopefuls and lawmakers in both parties.

The conservatives, liberals and centrists who worked out the deal are struggling to keep it intact. However, Senate leaders in both parties say it is important to have a vigorous debate. They have postponed a final vote until June.

“The proposal offers a much-needed solution for our nation’s broken immigration system,” the White House budget office said in a statement. “This proposal would deliver an immigration system that is secure, productive, orderly and fair.”

The measure would grant an estimated 12 million unlawful immigrants quick legal status and would at the same time toughen border security. It also would create a new workplace verification system to bar undocumented workers from getting jobs.

It would set up a point system for future immigration applicants that would place less emphasis on family connections and more on education and skills in demand by U.S. businesses.

Sen. Barack Obama, a Democratic presidential hopeful, announced plans to challenge the point system, saying it devalued family.

The scheme “constitutes at minimum a radical experiment in social engineering and a departure from our tradition of having family and employers invite immigrants to come,” Obama said, adding that he would work to phase it out.

A 2008 rival, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, said she would seek to lift new caps the measure would place on visas for family members of legal permanent residents.

Republicans sought to respond to conservative critics by trying to bolster security provisions and make it more difficult for illegal immigrants to get on a path to citizenship.

Sen. Lindsey Graham proposed cracking down on illegal border crossers with mandatory prison sentences.

“Everyone needs to know that America is changing its immigration laws. We’re going to be serious about enforcing them. If you break our laws, you do so at your own peril, and you will lose your freedom,” said Graham, R-S.C.

The Senate was also considering a proposal by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, that would allow visas to be revoked without court review.

“Current law allows aliens to run to the steps of our country’s courthouses and take advantage of our system,” Grassley said. He said potential terrorists could stay in the country unless lawmakers approved his change.

WARSAW, Poland—News Corp. has no plans to pull its television shows from iTunes like NBC Universal, but echoed the media industry’s calls for Apple to offer more flexible pricing, a top executive said in an interview on Tuesday.

Many sector watchers expected News Corp. () and other media groups to follow NBC Universal, which said last month it would not renew a deal to sell shows on iTunes because it wanted more flexibility in offering different packages and pricing.

But Peter Chernin, News Corp.’s president and chief operating officer, said Rupert Murdoch’s media group was not in a dispute with Apple (), though it would like a bigger voice in pricing its shows.

“Right now we have a perfectly good relationship with Apple,” Chernin told Reuters. “But let me say this, we’re the ones who should determine what the fair price for our product is, not Apple.”

Chernin’s decision to keep popular Fox shows such as “24″ and “Prison Break” on iTunes should be welcomed by Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is facing a growing revolt by some media companies over the pricing policies for audio and video downloads.

Earlier this summer, Vivendi’s () Universal Music Group declined to sign a long-term deal, leaving open the possibility of exclusive deals with another services.

An NBC Universal spokesman said it agreed with Chernin.

“Without question, content companies should set the wholesale price for the content they create,” he said.

Chernin spoke with Reuters during his visit to Poland, one of Europe’s fastest-growing media markets, where News Corp. is about to relaunch a television channel in which it has a 35 percent stake and managerial control.

“This is a market with tremendous opportunity for us,” he said. “This is where News Corp. tends to thrive. You have a reasonably entrenched competition that hasn’t been challenged as much as it should.”

EMERGING MARKETS

Chernin declined to say how much News Corp. would invest to modernize Puls, which he expects to become a market leader. Murdoch said earlier this year it had spent $50 million so far.

While blockbuster deals to buy Dow Jones () and social networking site MySpace have dominated the headlines, News Corp also has been building its TV presence in Europe’s emerging markets.

In Turkey, the media conglomerate is considering a bid for broadcaster ATV and Sabah newspaper, which is expected to fetch at least $1.1 billion.

ATV and Sabah along with other media assets are set to go on sale in November after being seized from Turkish conglomerate Ciner Group by the state Savings Deposits Insurance Fund (TMSF) for alleged irregularities.

“We will certainly take a look at it … Whether or not we will do this (bid), we will decide within a month or so,” Chernin said.

Chernin, who oversees the operations of News Corp.’s top social networking site MySpace, also does not expect its fast-growing rival Facebook to be put up for sale any time soon.

Facebook, headed by 23-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg, has been steadily gaining ground on MySpace, prompting speculation that News Corp. may be interested in combining the two sites.

“I think Mark Zuckerberg is doing just fine. I don’t think he has any intention of selling it, IPO’ing it or anything else,” Chernin said.

Chernin also denied holding talks with Yahoo about capital ties, despite Murdoch’s comments that he would consider swapping MySpace for a 25 percent stake in Yahoo.

FOXNews.com is owned and operated by News Corporation.

BERLIN—The dollar sank to an all-time low against the euro Wednesday amid speculation that the Federal Reserve will soon cut interest rates by as much as half a percentage point.

The 13-nation euro rose as high as $1.3889 in afternoon European trading Д breaking through its previous record of $1.3852, reached on July 24. That compared with the $1.3832 it bought in New York late Tuesday.

The euro’s strength threatens to make European exports more expensive, and therefore less competitive Д although the currency’s movements this year have been gradual rather than abrupt.

The strong euro “is weighing on growth,” French Budget Minister Eric Woerth said after a Cabinet meeting in Paris on Wednesday.

While the weaker dollar makes U.S. exports more competitive, it diminishes the spending power of American tourists in Europe.

The dollar, which has hovered within a few cents of its record low in recent weeks amid a crisis over U.S. mortgage lending, has come under new pressure since the U.S. Labor Department issued unexpectedly poor August jobs data Friday.

The report heightened speculation that the Fed will cut interest rates at its Sept. 18 meeting. A cut from the current rate, 5.25 percent, would be the first in four years.

The new dollar low came as “traders continue to second-guess how (Fed Chairman Ben) Bernanke and his team will act” next week, said James Hughes, a market analyst at CMC Markets.

Lower interest rates, used to jump-start the economy, can weaken a currency by giving investors lower returns on investments denominated in the currency.

Bernanke offered no hints during a speech in Germany on Tuesday.

“The fact no mention of monetary policy was made in yesterday’s speech in Berlin has done little to placate the market, and we’re also seeing growing speculation that the Fed may elect to cut rates by a half a point as they try to steer the economy away from recession,” Hughes said.

The European Central Bank last week put its own two-year run of gradual interest rate rises on hold, but left many economists still expecting a quarter-point increase from the current 4 percent before the end of the year.

The dollar was little changed on Wednesday against the British pound, which edged up to $2.0321 from its level of $2.0317 in New York late Tuesday.

The U.S. currency was lower against the Japanese yen, even as Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced that he would resign, putting an end to his troubled year-old government. The dollar slid to 113.85 yen from 114.30 yen.

At Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, American newlyweds Doracy and Russell Harrison said the exchange rate had prompted changes in their honeymoon plans.

“Accommodation is where you really feel it,” said Doracy Harrison, 27, of Raleigh, North Carolina, a program manager at an aquatic center.

“We probably wouldn’t have come if were weren’t staying with friends. We haven’t been as gung-ho about eating out and have planned on low-key cafes instead of nicer places we’d usually eat.”