BBC: Americas
18 Jun 2013 at 5:46pm
18 Jun 2013 at 5:50pm
18 Jun 2013 at 6:36pm
18 Jun 2013 at 1:49pm
18 Jun 2013 at 6:40pm
18 Jun 2013 at 7:38am
18 Jun 2013 at 12:13pm
18 Jun 2013 at 11:50am
18 Jun 2013 at 10:26am
18 Jun 2013 at 3:06am
18 Jun 2013 at 4:08am
17 Jun 2013 at 2:53pm
18 Jun 2013 at 9:29am
Chicago Tribune
by Andrew Osborn
18 Jun 2013 at 6:43pm
18 Jun 2013 at 5:30pm
Prosecutors and defense attorneys have settled on 40 prospective jurors to move on to the second round of questioning in the George Zimmerman second-degree-murder trial, Circuit Judge Debra Nelson announced Tuesday. The prospective panel is made up of 16 men and 24 women. They were chosen after being questioned extensively about what they knew about the shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin last year in Sanford.
by By Jeff Weiner and Rene Stutzman , Orlando Sentinel
18 Jun 2013 at 5:15pm
by Patricia Zengerle and Tabassum Zakaria
18 Jun 2013 at 5:01pm
by By Richard Winton, Andrew Blankstein and Kate Mather
18 Jun 2013 at 4:57pm
by Joseph Lichterman
18 Jun 2013 at 4:03pm
by Todd Benson
18 Jun 2013 at 3:12pm
by By Michael Muskal
18 Jun 2013 at 2:44pm
18 Jun 2013 at 2:26pm
SANFORD - Attorneys have reached an important milestone in the trial of George Zimmerman: They've found 40 potential jurors who survived the pretrial publicity phase of questioning, and can move on to other topics.
by By Rene Stutzman and Jeff Weiner , Orlando Sentinel
18 Jun 2013 at 2:13pm
by Guy Faulconbridge and Kate Holton
18 Jun 2013 at 12:52pm
by By Ken Bensinger
18 Jun 2013 at 12:41pm
by Richard Valdmanis
18 Jun 2013 at 12:32pm
Yahoo: US News
By David Alexander and Phil Stewart WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A top U.S. military official declared "the days of Rambo are over" as the Pentagon unveiled its plans on Tuesday for integrating women into combat infantry positions following 12 years of war in which they fought and died in Iraq and Afghanistan while barred from front-line fighting jobs. The plans, which call for gender-neutral job requirements like scaling walls and lifting 55-pound (25-kg) tank ammunition, will require more years of study, education and training before some services open combat jobs to women. ...
18 Jun 2013 at 5:08pm
By John Shiffman and Mark Hosenball (Reuters) WASHINGTON - U.S. intelligence officials on Tuesday identified two of the more than 50 classified cases in which they say National Security Agency eavesdropping helped thwart terrorist plots including a planned attack on the New York Stock Exchange. The other, a San Diego money laundering investigation tied to financing for a Somali militia, is among the 27 cases cited in a Reuters report Tuesday in which the U.S. government filed public notice that it used a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant. ...
18 Jun 2013 at 5:28pm
Oklahoma executes man convicted of killing couple in robbery By Heide Brandes OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oklahoma executed a man on Tuesday convicted of stabbing an elderly couple to death during a robbery in 2000 that netted about $73, some of which he and convicted accomplices used to buy tacos. James Lewis DeRosa was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m. CDT (1907 ET) after a lethal injection, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Corrections said. He was the second person executed in Oklahoma this year and the 16th in the United States. ...
18 Jun 2013 at 5:12pm
Journalist Michael Hastings dead at 33 Michael Hastings, the award-winning journalist whose explosive 2010 Rolling Stone profile of U.S. Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal ("The Runaway General") led to McChrystal's resignation, died in an early morning car accident in Los Angeles on Tuesday, the magazine said. He was 33. "Hard-charging, unabashedly opinionated, Hastings was original and at times abrasive," Rolling Stone, where [...]
18 Jun 2013 at 5:23pm
Husband still needs a kidney for his wife Larry Swilling has been on a months-long quest: He's searching for a kidney for his wife. The 78-year-old, who has been looking for a compatible kidney donor for 76-year-old Jimmie Sue since last September, has caught the attention of the Web. But almost a year later, and despite lots of good will and plenty of [...]
18 Jun 2013 at 3:38pm
The money mattress: A Spanish invention stores cash in beds For Spanish businessman Paco Santos, the safest place to keep money is still under a mattress?or rather, inside it. Santos, according to NPR, who was laid off from Spain?s largest mattress manufacturer three years ago, is the inventor of the Caja de ahorros Micolchon, or ?My Mattress Safe." It's a plush, padded mattress with a [...]
18 Jun 2013 at 2:12pm
Stranded teens rescued by helicopter from atop cliff A pair of California teens were rescued by helicopter from atop an 8,600-foot cliff after they became stranded and were unable to climb down, CNN reports. The California Highway Patrol dispatched a helicopter and a small plane to retrieve them. With winds gusting up to 30 mph and the teenage boys, 16 and 17, perched [...]
18 Jun 2013 at 10:51am
FBI offers $65,000 for info on 2008 Times Square bomber The FBI and the New York City Police Department announced on Tuesday an award of up to $65,000 for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect or suspects behind the unsolved 2008 bombing of the U.S. Armed Forces Recruiting Station in Times Square. Additionally, the FBI released videos of the key suspect [...]
18 Jun 2013 at 10:43am
Officials: Unattended campfire caused Calif. fire MARIPOSA, Calif. (AP) ? An unattended campfire near a main route into Yosemite National Park has grown into a blaze that has led to the evacuations of 1,500 people and 800 homes, officials said Tuesday.
18 Jun 2013 at 6:50pm
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York state lawmakers on Tuesday announced plans to create a financial restructuring board and binding arbitration process to help struggling municipalities manage their finances. The legislation, which will be taken up by the state legislature soon, is designed to shore up fiscally distressed communities with shrinking tax bases and high expenses. ...
18 Jun 2013 at 6:48pm
United Dreamliner diverted due to possible oil filter problem SEATTLE (Reuters) - United Airlines said on Tuesday that a Boeing Co 787 on its way to Tokyo from Denver was diverted to Seattle after an indication of a problem with an oil filter in an engine, but the plane landed without incident. The unscheduled diversion is the latest hiccup for Boeing's newest plane, which has been beset by problems and only recently returned to the skies after regulators grounded it worldwide due to trouble with its batteries. ...
18 Jun 2013 at 6:42pm
McALESTER, Okla. (AP) ? Oklahoma executed a 36-year-old man on Tuesday for taking part in the brutal killing of a ranching couple 13 years ago.
18 Jun 2013 at 6:35pm
ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) ? A mentally disabled woman charged with shoplifting a candy bar asked to be jailed because three people "had been mean to her" ? then went on to tell authorities about her time spent in unfathomably cruel servitude, along with her young daughter, at the hands of three people, authorities said Tuesday.
18 Jun 2013 at 6:19pm
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Oklahoma executes inmate for couple's 2000 deaths
Oklahoma executes inmate for couple's 2000 deaths
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 6:36 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
James Lewis DeRosa was killed by lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester, becoming the state's second inmate executed this year.
Strapped to the gurney in the penitentiary's death chamber, though, he had nothing to say before the fatal mixture of drugs was pumped into his veins.
According to prosecutors, DeRosa had worked on the Plummers' ranch in the Le Flore County community of Poteau, and on the day of the killings, he and accomplice John Eric Castleberry went there under the pretense of looking for work.
DeRosa and Castleberry persuaded the couple to let them into their home and then attacked them, stabbing the couple over and over and slashing both their necks, prosecutors said.
At his clemency hearing before the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board last month, DeRosa spoke via a video link from prison about how he had found religion and turned his life around behind bars.
Another inmate, 39-year-old Brian Darrell Davis, is scheduled to die next Tuesday, after Fallin rejected the parole board's recommendation to commute his sentence to life.
by By TIM TALLEY, Associated Press
3 charged with enslaving disabled Ohio mom, child
3 charged with enslaving disabled Ohio mom, child
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 6:29 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) ? A mentally disabled woman charged with shoplifting a candy bar asked to be jailed because three people "had been mean to her" ? then went on to tell authorities about her time spent in unfathomably cruel servitude, along with her young daughter, at the hands of three people, authorities said Tuesday.
On several occasions, according to an FBI affidavit, the suspects injured her and ordered her to go to an emergency room for pain medication they would then take for themselves.
According to an FBI affidavit, the mother and child were denied food at times or given leftovers; on one occasion when they hadn't eaten all day, the mother was given a plate of food and ordered to feed a pet dog.
The trio looted the woman's bank account and public assistance and on several occasions injured her and ordered her to go to the emergency room for pain medication, according to the affidavit.
The woman told investigators the trio learned of her plan to try to escape and punished her by shaving her hair into a Mohawk and using a marker to write slut, ''tramp and whore on her face and chest.
The trio kept the mother and daughter under surveillance with a baby monitor, according to the affidavit, and at one point, the woman was lured back with ice cream.
According to Hyde, she bought that argument and made up the enslavement allegation.
by THOMAS J. SHEERAN, Associated Press, By THOMAS J. SHEERAN and KANTELE FRANKO, Associated Press
Author, teacher of endangered Lakota language dies
Author, teacher of endangered Lakota language dies
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 6:29 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Albert White Hat, who was instrumental in teaching and preserving the American Indian language and translated the Hollywood movie "Dances with Wolves" into Lakota for its actors, died last week surrounded by loved ones at a South Dakota hospital.
The first native Lakota speaker to publish a Lakota textbook and glossary, White Hat was considered an activist for traditional ways of living, according to his daughter, Emily White Hat.
Wilhelm Meya, executive director of the Lakota Language Consortium, a nonprofit seeking to revitalize the Lakota language, called White Hat a "warrior" for the language.
[...] we can reverse that trend, the language will continue to be very much in danger.
"He did so much research and knowledge of the Lakota language itself that those of who are young, who are learning to teach the Lakota language, he encouraged all of us," added Tina Martinez, co-chair of the Lakota Studies Department at Sinte Gleska University.
by By KRISTI EATON, Associated Press
Chef describes kids' grief over Jackson's death
Chef describes kids' grief over Jackson's death
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 5:13 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Michael Jackson's personal chef described for jurors the home lives of the children during the final months of the singer's life and their ongoing grief over their father's death nearly four years ago.
Gone are the freewheeling days when the children, Prince, Paris and Blanket Jackson played with their father and traded jokes at the dinner table, chef Kai Chase told jurors Tuesday.
Daughter Paris Jackson cries and no longer wants parties for her birthday since her father hosted a private circus for her 11th birthday.
Youngest son Blanket, who remains home-schooled, wears a T-shirt with his father's image every Friday, she said.
Chase recounted for jurors her interactions with Jackson, his children and her ongoing work with the singer's mother and children for jurors hearing Katherine Jackson's negligent hiring case against concert promoter AEG Live LLC.
After weeks of testimony about Jackson's business dealings with AEG, Chase's testimony returned the trial's focus to the King of Pop and his offspring.
Chase's testimony provided a look into the lives of Jackson's three children before and after their father's death in June 2009.
by By ANTHONY McCARTNEY, AP Entertainment Writer
IRS worker: No political bias against tea party
IRS worker: No political bias against tea party
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 4:23 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
WASHINGTON (AP) ? An Internal Revenue Service manager and self-described conservative Republican said the close scrutiny of tea party groups' tax forms originated in his Cincinnati IRS office and not in Washington, according to a full transcript of his interview by congressional investigators released Tuesday.
Shafer, a 21-year IRS veteran who told his questioners that he is a conservative Republican, said that after the IRS Exempt Organizations office in Washington expressed interest in the first tea party case, he decided to ask his screeners look for similar applications.
Cummings, top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in a letter to that panel's chairman that the testimony "debunks conspiracy theories about how the IRS first started reviewing these cases."
While conceding that investigators have concluded that some IRS officials were aware of the inappropriate targeting of conservative groups, Cummings wrote, "These facts are a far cry from accusations of a conspiracy orchestrated by the White House to target the president's political enemies."
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the committee chairman, said Cummings' release of the transcript "will serve as a road map for IRS officials to navigate investigative interviews with Congress."
by By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press
Scientists: Timber in Lake Michigan centuries old
Scientists: Timber in Lake Michigan centuries old
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 4:16 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
(AP) ? A wooden beam embedded at the bottom of northern Lake Michigan appears to have been there for centuries, underwater archaeologists announced Tuesday, a crucial finding as crews dig toward what they hope is the carcass of a French ship that disappeared while exploring the Great Lakes in the 17th century.
The ship, commanded by the French explorer Rene Robert Cavelier de la Salle, was never seen again after setting sail in September 1679 from an island near the entrance of Green Bay, in what is now northern Wisconsin, with a crew of a six and a cargo of furs.
[...] Michel L'Hour, director of France's Department of Underwater Archaeological Research and a shipwreck expert, said the timber appears to be a bowsprit, which is a spur or pole that extends from a vessel's stem.
L'Hour said the French archaeologists drew their conclusion about the beam's age after observing differences between the section above the lake floor and the portion below the surface that the pit has exposed.
When the excavation finally got underway last Friday, divers expected to find an object similar to the Griffin's reputed size a couple of feet below the surface, based on sonar readings.
[...] the wreckage could be in surprisingly good condition after being encased in cold mud for 334 years because it wouldn't have been exposed to oxygen, which causes wood and metals to deteriorate, said Dave Miller, an archaeologist with Great Lakes Exploration Group.
by By JOHN FLESHER, Associated Press
Utah man shot in church upgraded to fair condition
Utah man shot in church upgraded to fair condition
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 4:09 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
OGDEN, Utah (AP) ? A Utah man shot in the head during a Father's Day Mass was upgraded to fair condition Tuesday ? just a few hours after his son-in-law was charged with attempted homicide in the shooting.
On his 66th birthday, James Evans was moved out of the intensive care unit at McDay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, another step in what doctors expect to be a full recovery.
Doctors said Evans will need reconstructive surgery and rehab to learn to swallow and speak again.
Police say Jennings pulled a gun from his waistband and fired a single shot at the back of Evans' head, nearly killing him.
[...] Jennings stole a truck from a nearby neighbor at gunpoint and led police on a highway chase, police said.
Over the years, he's pleaded no contest to felony charges of receiving a stolen vehicle, criminal trespassing and pleaded guilty to theft charges and a felony charge of attempting to tamper with a witness or juror.
Ory Hernandez says she has cried, enraged that violence came to the house of worship, and was at a loss for words when her son told her, "I didn't know there were any bad guys in this town, mommy."
by By BRADY McCOMBS, Associated Press
AP sources: 4 US troops killed in Afghanistan
AP sources: 4 US troops killed in Afghanistan
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 4:03 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
The transition to Afghan-led security means U.S. and other foreign combat troops will not be directly carrying the fight to the insurgency, but will advise and back up the Afghan forces as needed with air support and medical evacuations.
by By ROBERT BURNS, AP National Security Writer
18 mayors: Limit use of food stamps to buy soda
18 mayors: Limit use of food stamps to buy soda
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 4:03 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs the food stamp program, declined to comment on Tuesday's letter; representatives for House Speaker John Boehner and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, to whom the letter was addressed, didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
Proposals to stop people from using the benefit to buy soda, candy and other items seen as unhealthy have been floated for decades; opponents have said such restrictions would be paternalistic and might discourage needy people from getting the subsidies.
Earlier this month, Bloomberg wrote to Senate Agriculture Committee members to applaud a proposal to have the USDA conduct a two-state test of limiting the use of food stamps to buy unhealthy food and drinks.
The mayors' letter also expressed concerns about the legislation's proposed cuts in funding for food stamps and suggested providing incentives to use them for fruits and vegetables.
by By JENNIFER PELTZ, Associated Press
Rural lawmakers push for farm bill votes in House
Rural lawmakers push for farm bill votes in House
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 4:24 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Though it has support from rural lawmakers across the political spectrum, it is unclear whether Republican leaders will be able to gather the votes they need to pass the bill.
Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California is a "likely no" on the bill, according to an aide, and No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland called the food stamp cuts "irresponsible" on Tuesday.
House Agriculture Chairman Frank Lucas, R-Okla., pleaded for votes on the House floor Tuesday, saying a robust farm policy is necessary to avoid farm crises like those in the 1930s and 1980s.
Lucas called his bill the "most reform-minded bill in decades," saying it would make needed cuts to food stamps and eliminate $5 billion a year in direct payments, subsidies that are paid to farmers whether they grow or not.
Any alterations to the delicate balance of farm subsidy support included in the bill could cause members who represent the regions or crops affected to turn on it.
[...] Republicans took control of the chamber and more than 200 new members have been elected ? many of them conservatives who replaced rural Democrats.
With leadership staying mostly on the sidelines, most of the lobbying has been left to the farm groups, Lucas and Minnesota Rep. Collin Peterson, the top Democrat on the agriculture panel.
by By MARY CLARE JALONICK, Associated Press
Hoffa mystery still fascinates after 4 decades
Hoffa mystery still fascinates after 4 decades
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 3:46 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
(AP) ? The latest possible resting place of Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa is an overgrown farm field where the normal calm of chirping crickets is being drowned out by a beeping backhoe, the chop of an overhead news helicopter and the bustle of reporters and onlookers.
Over the past day and a half, Grifka and a few dozen other Oakland Township residents gathered a couple of hundred yards from where FBI agents wearing hard hats and carrying shovels sifted through about a half-acre of red dirt for the remains of a man who became as large in death as he was leading one of America's most powerful labor unions.
Hoffa's rise in the Teamsters, his 1964 conviction for jury tampering and his presumed murder are Detroit's link to a time when organized crime, public corruption and mob hits held the nation's attention.
Detroit's long tradition of organized labor and auto manufacturing means the Hoffa saga still resonates with countless Michigan families.
The latest tip about Hoffa's remains came from a reputed Mafia captain Tony Zerilli, who, through his lawyer, said Hoffa was buried beneath a concrete slab in a barn in the Oakland Township field.
Forensic anthropologists from Michigan State University were bought in to help, along with state police dogs, which were led through the high grass in hopes that their sensitive noses might sniff out a clue.
by By COREY WILLIAMS, Associated Press
FBI digging at former home of famed NY mobster
FBI digging at former home of famed NY mobster
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 3:46 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) ? FBI agents with jackhammers and shovels were digging Tuesday under a New York City house once occupied by a famed gangster who inspired Robert De Niro's character in the movie "Goodfellas."
On Monday, FBI investigators descended on the Queens neighborhood that was also home base for the late mobster John Gotti and his Gambino crime family.
[...] he was witnessing what an FBI spokesman confirmed was an investigation at the red brick rowhouse ? situated down the street from a cemetery ? on a quiet tree-lined street in the borough's South Ozone Park neighborhood.
The lounge was purportedly a mob hangout where the airport robbery of a Lufthansa Airlines freight area is said to have been planned by a mobster so accomplished that crime writer Nicholas Pileggi dubbed him a "criminal savant."
[...] according to law enforcement officials, he also was linked to crimes including loan sharking, extortion, gambling and drug trafficking.
The mobster was arrested in 1982 for a parole violation ? associating with a known felon ? and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his part in a point-shaving scandal involving the Boston College basketball team.
by VERENA DOBNIK, Associated Press, By VERENA DOBNIK and JAKE PEARSON, Associated Press
Catholic religious order opens abuse files
Catholic religious order opens abuse files
Copyright 2013 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Updated 3:31 pm, Tuesday, June 18, 2013
NEW YORK (AP) ? A Roman Catholic religious order released an unusually candid report Tuesday outlining how its leaders failed for decades to stop sex abuse in its schools and other ministries.
The Capuchin Franciscan Province of St. Joseph, which spans 10 Midwestern states, asked experts in clergy sex abuse to provide a full accounting of abuse by examining all the order's records.
The auditors found the Province of St. Joseph hid abuse from parents and police, kept offenders in ministry long after their misconduct was known and spent far more on defense attorneys than on helping victims.
[...] they were thwarted when the order and the insurance company that covered settlement to victims allowed lawyers to take a win-at-all-costs strategy in civil lawsuits that was unnecessary and undermined the moral standing of the church, according to the findings.
The auditors said they interviewed victims, attorneys, friars and former friars and lay people who had worked in the province, while also reviewing minutes of meetings of the Provincial Council, a governing body of the order, dating back to the 1930s.
The records contained "coded language" such as "immorality" or "evil actions and speech" to describe molestation, making it impossible for the auditors to determine in some cases whether abuse had occurred.
Auditors said the Province of St. Joseph has made dramatic improvements in recent years in its response to abuse claims, including reaching out with compassion to victims and their families, and spending far more on counseling and other support for victims than for legal defense.
by By RACHEL ZOLL, AP Religion Writer