Two dead, 9 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building

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• Two dead, 9 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building
• U.N. to invade Texas? "Ridiculous," says world body
• Judge rules Trayvon Martin shooter can travel to meet lawyer
• Minnesota lawmakers approve $167.5 million flood aid package
• Accused Colorado gunman told classmate he wanted to kill people
• Isaac bears down on Haiti, south Florida under storm watch
• Former CFO of Philadelphia archdiocese sentenced to 7 years
• Gay marriage backers ask high court to decline California case
• US Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating
• Randy Travis cited for assault in fight at Texas church
• Two dead, 8 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building
• U.S. Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating
• South Dakota schedules first execution in five years
• U.S. court strikes down graphic warnings on cigarettes
• PBF to run more Bakken crude at Delaware City
• Cyclone Joyce degenerates into remnant low: NHC
• Murdoch's Sun defies royals, prints naked Harry pics
• Attorney predicts tough road for Casey Anthony after probation
• U.S. farmers hope Isaac will bring drought relief
• Martin Luther King tape found in attic heads for sale
• Ex-Navy SEAL behind bin Laden book faces threats, investigation
• N.Y. gunman described as quiet, friendly neighbor
• Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis admits defrauding supporters
• Armstrong's foundation sees donation spike but faces challenges
• Two dead, 8 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building
• Minnesota lawmakers approve $167.5 million flood aid package
• Armstrong's marketing appeal may survive title loss
• U.N. to invade Texas? "Ridiculous," says world body
• Barge traffic moves after another Mississippi River snarl

Two dead, 9 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:31 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - An out-of-work fashion designer fatally shot a former co-worker near the Empire State Building on Friday and was then killed in a blaze of gunshots by police, stunning tourists and commuters outside of one of New York's most popular landmarks. Nine bystanders were wounded, possibly all of them by police bullets, though none of their injuries were life-threatening, police said. Much of the day, police listed the casualty total at 10 people but late Friday changed the number to 11. ...

U.N. to invade Texas? "Ridiculous," says world body Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Maybe President Barack Obama should just settle it in a gun duel with a Texas judge, instead of calling on the United Nations to invade the state. The United Nations scoffed on Friday at claims by a judge in Lubbock County, Texas, that U.N. troops could invade the southern U.S. state to settle a possible civil war, which the judge warned could be sparked if Obama is re-elected in November. "It's absolutely ridiculous," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, when asked if the United Nations had any plans to invade Texas. ...

Judge rules Trayvon Martin shooter can travel to meet lawyer Posted: 24 Aug 2012 12:21 PM PDT ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - The former neighborhood watch volunteer charged in the shooting of unarmed, black teenager Trayvon Martin can travel outside the Florida county where he lives, but only to visit his lawyer's office, a judge ruled on Friday. George Zimmerman has been restricted to Seminole County in central Florida under the terms of his $1 million bond. He is charged with second-degree murder in the February 26 shooting death of Martin. The judge's ruling was in response to a motion filed by Zimmerman's lawyer, Mark O'Mara, asking that he be allowed to move outside the county. ...

Minnesota lawmakers approve $167.5 million flood aid package Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:54 PM PDT MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Minnesota legislators approved $167.5 million of disaster aid on Friday for Duluth and other northeastern Minnesota communities devastated by flooding and high winds in June that ripped up roads and homes and killed zoo animals. State representatives voted 125-3 to approve the disaster aid legislation and senators voted 60-7 in a special session that lasted about two hours. No changes were permitted in the aid package agreed to on Wednesday by Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and legislative leaders from both parties. Dayton signed the bill later on Friday. ...

Accused Colorado gunman told classmate he wanted to kill people Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:45 PM PDT (Reuters) - Accused Colorado gunman James Holmes had conversations with a classmate in March about wanting to kill people, four months before the suburban Denver rampage in which he is accused of shooting dead 12 moviegoers, a court document showed on Friday. "Evidence gathered so far indicates ... the defendant had conversations with a classmate about wanting to kill people in March 2012, and that he would do so when his life was over," prosecutors wrote in the filing. ...

Isaac bears down on Haiti, south Florida under storm watch Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:16 PM PDT PORT-AU-PRINCE (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac strengthened on Friday as its lashing rains took aim at flood-prone Haiti, but it was not expected to become a hurricane until it barreled into the Gulf of Mexico early next week. On its current path, forecasters said Isaac would hit Cuba and the southern tip of Florida before making landfall anywhere from the Florida Panhandle in the northwestern part of the state to Alabama and as far west as New Orleans. Forecasters put the entire coast of south Florida under tropical storm watch as of 5 p.m. EDT (2100 GMT) on Friday. ...

Former CFO of Philadelphia archdiocese sentenced to 7 years Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:35 PM PDT PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - The former chief financial officer of the Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia was sentenced on Friday to two to seven years in prison for stealing more than $900,000 from the church. After she serves her prison term, Anita Guzzardi, 43, of Camden County, New Jersey, will remain on probation for seven years, Common Pleas Court Judge Ellen Ceisler said at the sentencing. Guzzardi had pleaded guilty to theft by deception, forgery and unlawful use of a computer. ...

Gay marriage backers ask high court to decline California case Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:23 PM PDT (Reuters) - Two California couples asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday to refuse to hear an appeal by gay marriage foes, an outcome that would let same-sex marriage stand in the nation's most populous state. Two lower courts have struck down the 2008 ban known as Proposition 8, and last month backers of the measure asked the Supreme Court to step in. Their request came a week after the high court was asked to review a separate Massachusetts case challenging the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which defines marriage as exclusively between a man and a woman. ...

US Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:19 PM PDT (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France wins and handed a lifetime ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency on Friday, but he remained defiant as supporters rallied around the American cyclist. Saying that "enough is enough," Armstrong issued a statement late on Thursday indicating that would not challenge USADA charges he had doped throughout his career, although he continued to deny he had ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ...

Randy Travis cited for assault in fight at Texas church Posted: 24 Aug 2012 11:32 AM PDT (Reuters) - Grammy-winning country star Randy Travis has been cited for assault in a fight outside a church in a Dallas suburb after the singer stepped into an argument between an estranged husband and wife, police said on Friday. The incident happened on Thursday night in the parking lot of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, said the city's police spokesman, who downplayed reports that the singer was drunk at the time. "Witnesses are reporting and our investigation revealed that Mr. Travis assaulted the husband," said Officer David Tilley, adding that Travis was a friend of the ...

Two dead, 8 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:55 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - An out-of-work fashion designer fatally shot a former co-worker near the Empire State Building on Friday and then was killed in a blaze of gunshots by police, stunning tourists and commuters outside of one of New York's most popular landmarks. Eight bystanders were wounded, possibly all of them by police bullets, though none of their injuries were life-threatening, police said. Officials said that women's accessories designer Jeffrey Johnson, 58, had been laid off from Hazan Imports a year ago and that while working there, had been locked in a dispute with the victim. ...

U.S. Anti-Doping Agency strips Armstrong of titles for cheating Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:41 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong was stripped of his record seven Tour de France wins and handed a lifetime ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) on Friday, but he remained defiant as supporters rallied around the American cyclist. Saying, "enough is enough", Armstrong sent out a statement late on Thursday indicating that he would not challenge USADA's charges he had doped throughout his career, though he continued to deny he ever used performance-enhancing drugs. ...

South Dakota schedules first execution in five years Posted: 24 Aug 2012 11:40 AM PDT (Reuters) - A South Dakota inmate, who killed a prison guard during a failed escape attempt, has been scheduled to die by lethal injection in October in what would be the state's first execution in five years, officials said on Friday. Eric Robert, who had pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of guard Ronald Johnson at the South Dakota State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls, waived his right to let a jury decide whether the death penalty should be imposed and has sought execution. ...

U.S. court strikes down graphic warnings on cigarettes Posted: 24 Aug 2012 09:33 AM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Friday struck down a law that requires tobacco companies to use graphic health warnings, such as of a man exhaling smoke through a hole in his throat. The 2-1 decision by the court in Washington, D.C., contradicts another appeals court's ruling in a similar case earlier this year, setting up the possibility the U.S. Supreme Court will weigh in on the dispute. The court's majority in the latest ruling found the label requirement from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration violated corporate speech rights. ...

PBF to run more Bakken crude at Delaware City Posted: 24 Aug 2012 10:21 AM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - PBF Energy said on Friday it plans to expand its crude shipments by rail to its 180,000 barrel-per-day Delaware City refinery to take advantage of cheaper North American crudes at the expense of more expensive foreign crudes. PBF plans to double its crude by rail shipments to its Delaware City refinery to 40,000 barrels per day by September, with total crude by rail capacity exceeding 110,00 bpd by January 2013. The company currently runs 20,000 bpd of North Dakota Bakken and Western Canadian Heavy crude at is refinery. ...

Cyclone Joyce degenerates into remnant low: NHC Posted: 24 Aug 2012 07:48 AM PDT (Reuters) - Post-tropical cyclone Joyce has degenerated into a remnant low, about 1,030 miles east of the Leeward Islands, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said on Friday. The low was moving west-northwest at about 15 miles per hour (24 km per hour), with some increase in forward speed expected during the next couple of days, the NHC said. (Reporting by Naveen Arul in Bangalore)

Murdoch's Sun defies royals, prints naked Harry pics Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:00 AM PDT LONDON (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's Sun tabloid on Friday became the first British newspaper to defy the royal family by printing pictures of Prince Harry cavorting naked in Las Vegas, stoking a debate about what papers can print in the name of press freedom. While newspapers across the globe have published the images of Queen Elizabeth's grandson naked with an unnamed woman after they appeared on a U.S. gossip website on Wednesday, the British media had decided not to do so until this point. ...

Attorney predicts tough road for Casey Anthony after probation Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:06 AM PDT ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Casey Anthony, the young Florida mother found not guilty of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, completed a year of probation early on Friday but her attorney said freedom would be limited for the woman widely reviled after the acquittal. Anthony, who had been on probation for check fraud, will "always be imprisoned by her reputation, deserved or not," Orlando lawyer Charles Greene told Reuters. ...

U.S. farmers hope Isaac will bring drought relief Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:45 AM PDT CHICAGO (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Isaac, poised to hit Cuba on Saturday, will likely bring minimal relief from the worst U.S. drought in more than half a century, with rains expected in a limited area in the U.S. Southeast or possibly further west into Alabama and Mississippi, an agricultural meteorologist said on Friday. "Computer maps have been all over the place but it looks like the storm will make landfall in Florida Sunday. That would bring the most rain, probably an inch to four inches or more in the southeast," said Andy Karst, meteorologist for World Weather Inc. ...

Martin Luther King tape found in attic heads for sale Posted: 23 Aug 2012 08:44 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A previously unknown audio tape of an interview with slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was discovered recently in the attic of a Tennessee home, and a New York collector who bought the recording says he plans to offer it for sale next week. The 10-minute reel-to-reel recording was made on December 21, 1960, nearly three years before King's famed "I Have a Dream" speech and more than seven years before he was gunned down in Memphis, Tennessee, collector Keya Morgan told Reuters on Thursday. ...

Ex-Navy SEAL behind bin Laden book faces threats, investigation Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:36 PM PDT WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The former U.S. Navy SEAL who authored a soon-to-be-published book about the raid that killed Osama bin Laden is now facing threats against his life in addition to possible criminal prosecution. An official al Qaeda website on Friday posted a photograph and the name of the former Navy commando responsible for the book, calling him "the dog who murdered the martyr Sheikh Osama bin Laden." The head of U.S. ...

N.Y. gunman described as quiet, friendly neighbor Posted: 24 Aug 2012 04:49 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - Neighbors of Jeffrey Johnson assumed the man who greeted them as he left home in a suit each morning was on his way to work -- until Friday when police say he started a gunfight near the Empire State Building that left him and a former co-worker dead. It turns out that Johnson, 58, had not been heading off all those mornings to his job as an accessories designer at Hazan Imports. He lost that position a year ago, police said. On Friday, armed with a loaded .45-caliber handgun, he returned to his old workplace on West 33rd Street near the Empire Street Building. ...

Armstrong teammate Floyd Landis admits defrauding supporters Posted: 24 Aug 2012 06:10 PM PDT LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former professional cyclist Floyd Landis, who implicated teammate Lance Armstrong in a doping scheme, agreed to a plea deal in federal court in San Diego on Friday, admitting he defrauded supporters out of nearly $500,000 by claiming that he himself had not doped, prosecutors said. Landis was in court on the same day Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from professional cycling after dropping his challenge to U.S. Anti-Doping Agency charges against him. ...

Armstrong's foundation sees donation spike but faces challenges Posted: 24 Aug 2012 05:05 PM PDT AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - The Lance Armstrong Foundation said on Friday that donations rose sharply as fans of the cancer nonprofit pledged support, but the organization faces long-term questions about its future now that its cycling champion founder was stripped of a record seven Tour de France titles. ...

Two dead, 8 wounded in gunfire near NY's Empire State Building Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:55 PM PDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - An out-of-work fashion designer fatally shot a former co-worker near the Empire State Building on Friday and then was killed in a blaze of gunshots by police, stunning tourists and commuters outside of one of New York's most popular landmarks. Eight bystanders were wounded, possibly all of them by police bullets, though none of their injuries were life-threatening, police said. Officials said that women's accessories designer Jeffrey Johnson, 58, had been laid off from Hazan Imports a year ago and that while working there, had been locked in a dispute with the victim. ...

Minnesota lawmakers approve $167.5 million flood aid package Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:54 PM PDT MINNEAPOLIS (Reuters) - Minnesota legislators approved $167.5 million of disaster aid on Friday for Duluth and other northeastern Minnesota communities devastated by flooding and high winds in June that ripped up roads and homes and killed zoo animals. State representatives voted 125-3 to approve the disaster aid legislation and senators voted 60-7 in a special session that lasted about two hours. No changes were permitted in the aid package agreed to on Wednesday by Democratic Governor Mark Dayton and legislative leaders from both parties. Dayton signed the bill later on Friday. ...

Armstrong's marketing appeal may survive title loss Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:27 PM PDT (Reuters) - Lance Armstrong's triumph over cancer and his fundraising efforts make him an effective pitchman even after his status as one of history's greatest cyclists was tarnished by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's decision to strip him of his championship titles, marketing experts say. ...

U.N. to invade Texas? "Ridiculous," says world body Posted: 24 Aug 2012 03:10 PM PDT UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Maybe President Barack Obama should just settle it in a gun duel with a Texas judge, instead of calling on the United Nations to invade the state. The United Nations scoffed on Friday at claims by a judge in Lubbock County, Texas, that U.N. troops could invade the southern U.S. state to settle a possible civil war, which the judge warned could be sparked if Obama is re-elected in November. "It's absolutely ridiculous," said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesman, Martin Nesirky, when asked if the United Nations had any plans to invade Texas. ...

Barge traffic moves after another Mississippi River snarl Posted: 24 Aug 2012 02:58 PM PDT TUPELO, Mississippi (Reuters) - Barge traffic resumed along an 11-mile (17.7 kilometer) stretch of the drought-ravaged Mississippi River near Greenville, Mississippi, but dozens of vessels waited their turn on Thursday to pass in the shrunken waterway. The Mississippi River, the country's primary highway for barge traffic, has dropped as much as 14 feet in the drought that has also withered crops in the Midwest and triggered wildfires in the West. The resulting changes in water currents and conditions have made navigation especially tricky and sometimes hazardous. ...

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