Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Court gives "Millennium Bomber" tougher 37-year sentence

Court gives "Millennium Bomber" tougher 37-year sentence


Court gives "Millennium Bomber" tougher 37-year sentence

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:25 PM PDT

A file image of an artist rendering of Ahmed Ressam during his arraignment at the Federal Courthouse in SeattleSEATTLE (Reuters) - "Millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam, whose original 22-year prison term was deemed too lenient by an appeals court, was re-sentenced to 37 years behind bars on Wednesday for a foiled New Year's Eve 1999 plot to set off explosives at Los Angeles International Airport. Federal prosecutors who appealed the original punishment had asked the Seattle-based district judge presiding over the case to impose a new sentence that would require Ressam, an Algerian national, to spend the rest of his life in prison. ...


Three killed, two wounded in twin shootings near Los Angeles

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:07 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire at a small business and a nearby home owned by members of the same family in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding two others before fleeing in a stolen car, authorities said. It was unclear what motivated the gunman to commit the back-to-back shootings, which erupted shortly after 11 a.m. about two blocks apart in a blue-collar neighborhood, Downey police Lieutenant Dean Milligan said. ...

International vote monitors warn Texas: Don't mess with us

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:26 PM PDT

VIENNA/AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - International election monitors took a dim view on Wednesday of Texas' threat to prosecute them if they observe voting in the state a bit too closely on November 6. The exchange pitted the Vienna-based human rights watchdog Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe against Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who warned the OSCE not to interfere with polling in state elections. ...

Texas executes man for 1991 stabbing-strangulation murder

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:26 PM PDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas prison officials on Wednesday executed a man for the gruesome 1991 murder a women who was stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick and strangled with stereo wire at her Dallas-area apartment, state officials said. Bobby Lee Hines, aged 19 at the time of the killing, was sharing a next door apartment with a maintenance man who had master keys to all the units in the building, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ...

ABC News wants "pink slime" lawsuit moved to federal court

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:09 PM PDT

Beef product known as pink slime is shown to government officials during a tour of the Beef Products Inc.'s plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska(Reuters) - ABC News sought on Wednesday to move to federal court a meat processor's defamation lawsuit over reports about lean finely textured beef, a product that critics have labeled "pink slime." Lawyers for the network filed to transfer the case, brought last month by Beef Products Inc, the leading producer of the product, from of a state court in South Dakota and to a federal court in the state. BPI is seeking $400 million in compensatory damages for lost profit it says was caused by ABC's reports. ...


Teenager arrested in Colorado schoolgirl dismemberment

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:14 PM PDT

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado teenager has been arrested on suspicion of abducting and killing a 10-year-old girl who disappeared on her way to school and was later found dismembered, a crime that left Denver-area parents gripped with fear, police said on Wednesday. Jessica Ridgeway vanished on October 5 in the Denver suburb of Westminster, and a man reported finding her backpack on a sidewalk in front of his house two days later, 6 milesfrom where she was last seen. ...

Chicago school board approves deal that ended teacher strike

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:05 PM PDT

Students make their return to Whitney Young High School in ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago Board of Education approved a new contract on Wednesday with public school teachers, closing the book on a bitter dispute over school reforms that triggered the first strike by unionized educators in the city in 25 years. The three-year deal, which union members overwhelming ratified earlier this month, will give teachers an average pay raise of 17.6 percent over four years if the contract is extended an extra year. "This contract is the result of two sides coming together to put our students first," David Vitale, the board's president, said in a statement. ...


Texas opens first 85-mph highway in U.S., but trucks may shun it

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:55 PM PDT

LOCKHART, Texas (Reuters) - Everything's bigger in Texas including, as of Wednesday, the speed limit. A new 41-mile (65-kilometer) stretch of toll road between San Antonio and Austin is now open with an 85-mph (137-kph) speed limit, the highest posted speed limit in the United States. State transportation officials hope that the speed limit will be an incentive for motorists to pay the roughly $12 toll to drive on the 90-mile (145-km) road. Joe Krier, who is on the board of the private company that built the new road, said there is no reason why motorists should not drive that fast. ...

U.S. sues Mississippi officials over student arrests

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:53 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department sued Mississippi state and local officials on Wednesday over what it called a "school-to-prison pipeline" that violates the rights of children, especially black and disabled youths. The suit alleges that police officers in Meridian, Mississippi, routinely arrested students who were suspended from school, even when they had no probable cause to believe the students had committed a crime. ...

Suspected gunman in custody after Atlanta church shooting

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:35 PM PDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A former employee at a suburban Atlanta megachurch was taken into custody on Wednesday, only hours after he was said to have walked into the church with a gun and opened fire, killing a man leading a prayer service, police said. Multiple gunshots rang out in the chapel of the World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia, around 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT). The suspected gunman was identified as Floyd Palmer, a 52-year-old former church maintenance worker who resigned from his job in August, said Fulton County Police Corporal Kay Lester. ...

Three killed, two wounded in twin shootings near Los Angeles

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:40 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire at a small business and a nearby home owned by members of the same family in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding two others before fleeing in a stolen car, authorities said. It was unclear what motivated the gunman to commit the back-to-back shootings, which erupted shortly after 11 a.m. local time about two blocks apart in a blue-collar neighborhood near a Coca-Cola bottling plant, Downey police Lieutenant Dean Milligan said. ...

U.S. death toll rises to 24 in meningitis outbreak

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:42 PM PDT

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2012 file photo, a closeup view through the lens of a microscope and magnified on the computer screen shows the meningitis causing fungus Exserohilum rostratum at the Mycotic lab at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. The staff and technicians have been working around the clock to confirm cases and inform the public regarding the multi-state meningitis outbreak that has resulted in 14 deaths. The fungal outbreak is believed to have started at New England Compounding Center where a steroid injection shipment was contaminated with the fungus. (AP Photo/Pouya Dianat, File)(Reuters) - The death toll from a U.S. outbreak of fungal meningitis due to injections of tainted steroid medication has reached 24 with Indiana now reporting a third death, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. Eight new cases of meningitis were reported, pushing the total nationally to 312 cases in 17 states, the CDC said. Five joint infections caused by injections also have been reported, bringing the total number of infections to 317. The number of cases has continued to mount despite the recall of the product by the New England Compounding Center. ...


Editor of Mormon-themed website quits church to avoid discipline

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:19 PM PDT

SALT LAKE CITY (Reuters) - The Florida-based editor of a Mormon-themed website has left the church rather than face disciplinary action and possible excommunication over writings that he said prompted accusations of apostasy. David Twede's posts on MormonThink.com offer his account of the history of the church's political involvement, criticism of fellow Mormon and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, and the author's take on Mormon beliefs about the nature of God and temple ceremonies. ...

Occupy Wall Street leads church to cancel Halloween party

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 01:56 PM PDT

An Occupy Wall Street sign is seen in front of the Trinity Church where people sleep on the sidewalk in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - A historic Manhattan church has canceled its annual Halloween celebration due to an ongoing standoff with remnants of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Trinity Church, an Episcopalian congregation located where Wall Street meets Broadway, usually invites neighborhood children to watch classic silent films such as "Frankenstein" and "Dracula." The church is breaking the tradition this year due to Occupy protesters and the homeless camping on the sidewalk outside, the latest casualty in an ongoing standoff. ...


Suspect in DC lobby group shooting faces terrorism charge

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 12:40 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The suspect in an August shooting at a conservative Washington, D.C., lobbying group was charged with terrorism under a grand jury indictment on Wednesday. A grand jury charged suspect Floyd Corkins II, 28, with seven District of Columbia offenses in the August 15 shooting at the Family Research Council, the U.S. Attorney's office said in a statement. Corkins, of Herndon, Virginia, is the first person charged under a local 2002 anti-terrorism law, the statement said. ...

Barnes & Noble says thieves tampered with PIN pads

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:38 PM PDT

A Barnes and Noble book store is shown here in Encinitas May 20, 2008NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc said on Wednesday that customers who shopped at 63 of its stores as recently as last month may have had their credit or debit card information stolen in what the U.S. bookstore chain called a "sophisticated criminal effort." The retailer, which operates a total of almost 700 bookstores, said that federal law enforcement authorities have been informed of the breach and that it is supporting their investigation. ...


Teenager arrested in Colorado girl's killing

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:21 PM PDT

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (Reuters) - A teenager has been arrested in connection with the killing of a 10-year-old Colorado girl who was abducted on her way to school and later found dismembered. Jessica Ridgeway, 10, went missing on October 5 in the Denver suburb of Westminster. Police said that they had taken 17-year-old Austin Sigg into custody on Tuesday. ...

Kennedy relative convicted of murder denied parole

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 11:33 AM PDT

SUFFIELD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Kennedy relative Michael Skakel on Wednesday was denied parole in his first try to persuade authorities he has served enough of his 20-years-to-life prison sentence for the 1975 murder of his young neighbor. Skakel, 52, maintained his innocence in the murder of 15-year-old Martha Moxley, telling the parole board at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution he hoped the real killer would be brought to justice someday. "I did not commit this crime," said Skakel, a nephew of Ethel Kennedy and the late Robert F. ...

FBI veteran named to head New York division

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:04 AM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - George Venizelos, a 21-year veteran of the FBI, has been named the new head of the agency's New York field office, the largest outside of Washington, according to an internal email obtained by Reuters. Venizelos has headed the FBI's Philadelphia division since 2010, according to the email written by Acting Assistant Director in Charge Mary Galligan. No official start date has been set, the email said. FBI spokesmen declined to comment. Venizelos could not immediately be reached. ...

Georgia parents indicted for starving and banishing son

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:44 AM PDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A Georgia grand jury has returned felony indictments against the mother and stepfather of a small, thin 18-year-old who turned up at a Los Angeles bus terminal last month and told police about years of abuse and starvation at the hands of his parents. The Paulding County grand jury handed down the indictment earlier this week against Mitch Comer's mother, Sheila Marie Comer, and stepfather, Paul Matthew Comer, on eight counts of child cruelty, false imprisonment and kidnapping. ...

Trump to give $5 million to charity if Obama releases records

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:46 AM PDT

Donald Trump speaks to a dinner hosted by the Sarasota County Republican Party honoring him as Statesman of the Year in Sarasota, FloridaNEW YORK (Reuters) - Donald Trump offered to pay $5 million to the charity of President Barack Obama's choice if Obama releases his college and passport records, the real estate mogul and television personality said on Wednesday. "Frankly, it's a check that I very much want to write," Trump said in a YouTube video released via his Twitter and Facebook pages. Trump has questioned whether Obama's birth certificate issued by the state of Hawaii is legitimate, suggesting Obama was not born in the United States, which could have made him ineligible for the White House. ...


Death toll from West Nile virus tops 200: government

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:44 AM PDT

DALLAS (Reuters) - The U.S. outbreak of West Nile virus has killed 219 people this year, after another 36 deaths from the mosquito-borne disease were reported last week, government figures showed Wednesday. In what is the second-worst year on record for the disease, the total number of cases of West Nile virus across the United States grew to 4,725, with 194 new cases reported, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. ...

Texas scheduled to execute man for 1991 murder

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:18 AM PDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas on Wednesday is scheduled to execute a man who murdered a woman in 1991, stabbing her repeatedly with an ice pick and strangling her with stereo wire at her Dallas-area apartment. Bobby Lee Hines, then 19, was staying next door to Michelle Wendy Haupt, 26, in the apartment of a man who did maintenance work for the complex and had master keys to all the apartments, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ...

Immigrants come out of the shadows to fulfill a dream

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 10:18 AM PDT

Handout photo of Carlos Roa during a protest outside the Broward Transitional Center an immigration detention center in Pompano Beach FloridaTAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Carlos Roa celebrated this summer when the Obama administration announced a new program to defer deportation for young undocumented immigrants. But two months into the program, the 25-year-old activist has yet to apply. Roa, whose parents brought him here from Venezuela when he was two, is facing many of the same worries and complications as thousands of the other young immigrants, who call themselves "Dreamers" after the failed Dream Act legislation of 2010 that sought to put them on a path to citizenship. ...


Indiana candidate sorry about rape comment; Romney stands by him

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:45 PM PDT

Indiana Republican U.S. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock, speaks with volunteers in Jeffersonville, IndianaINDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - The Republican candidate for the Senate in Indiana, Richard Mourdock, said on Wednesday he was sorry if anyone misunderstood a comment on rape and abortion, and White House hopeful Mitt Romney's campaign said he would stand by the controversial candidate. Mourdock made comments at a Senate debate on Tuesday night that some critics interpreted as condoning rape. At a hastily called news conference on Wednesday, Mourdock said he abhors rape and violence against women. "I apologize that they came away" with that interpretation, he said. ...


Kennedy relative convicted of murder denied parole

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:10 AM PDT

FILE - In this Jan. 24, 2012 file photo, Michael Skakel looks up while listening to a statement from John Moxley, brother of victim Martha Moxley in court in Middletown, Conn. Skakel's first parole hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, at McDougall-Walker Correctional Institution in Suffield. Officials say Skakel is eligible to be released next spring if parole officials approve it. He is serving 20 years to life for fatally beating Martha Moxley with a golf club in Greenwich when they were 15-year-old neighbors. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, Pool, File)SUFFIELD, Connecticut (Reuters) - Kennedy relative Michael Skakel on Wednesday was denied parole in his first attempt to persuade authorities he has served enough of his 20 years-to-life prison sentence for the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old neighbor. Skakel, 52, closed his eyes as the decision was announced at a hearing at MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution, then looked back at a dozen supporters in the room. About a half dozen friends and family members of the victim, Martha Moxley, remained silent as the decision was announced. ...


GM unveils redesigned V8 engine for 2014 Corvette

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 09:59 AM PDT

PONTIAC, Michigan (Reuters) - General Motors Co said the redesigned 2014 Chevrolet Corvette that goes on sale next year will get a new 450-horsepower V8 engine. The engine, designated LT1, displaces 6.2 liters and is the fifth generation of GM's "small block" V8 engine family. Versions of the LT1 are expected to be used in other GM products, GM sources said, including the automaker' s redesigned 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickup trucks. ...

U.S. elderly, middle-aged see higher obesity rates: poll

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 08:29 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Here's one more reason to dread aging: older Americans are seeing a greater increase in obesity rates, according to a survey released on Wednesday. Data from nearly 600,000 U.S. adults showed that people aged 18 and older were more likely to be obese than they were in 2008, according to the Gallup survey. Researchers noted a significant jump among adults in their 40s, 70s and 80s. ...

Supreme Court upholds stay of execution for Florida man

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 04:09 AM PDT

Florida Department of Corrections photograph of John Errol FergusonTALLAHASSEE, Florida (Reuters) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a last-minute federal appeals court ruling granting a stay of execution to a mentally ill Florida man convicted of killing eight people, including two teenagers, during the 1970s. John Errol Ferguson, 64, had been scheduled to be executed around 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) but his lawyers filed a flurry of appeals late Tuesday arguing he should not be put to death because he is mentally insane. The ruling by the 11th U.S. Circuit of Appeals establishes a schedule for additional briefs to be filed in Ferguson's case by November 6. ...


Immigrants come out of the shadows to fulfill a dream

Posted: 23 Oct 2012 10:06 PM PDT

Undocumented UCLA students Gutierrez and Gonzales attend workshop for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in Los Angeles, CaliforniaTAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Carlos Roa celebrated this summer when the Obama administration announced a new program to defer deportation for young undocumented immigrants. But two months into the program, the 25-year-old activist has yet to apply. Roa, whose parents brought him here from Venezuela when he was two, is facing many of the same worries and complications as thousands of the other young immigrants, who call themselves "Dreamers" after the failed Dream Act legislation of 2010 that sought to put them on a path to citizenship. ...


Suspected gunman in custody after Atlanta church shooting

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:28 PM PDT

ATLANTA (Reuters) - A former employee at a suburban Atlanta megachurch was taken into custody on Wednesday, only hours after he allegedly walked into the church with a gun and opened fire, killing a man leading a prayer service, police said. Multiple gunshots rang out in the chapel of the World Changers Church International in College Park, Georgia, around 10 a.m. The suspected gunman was identified as Floyd Palmer, a 52-year-old former church maintenance worker who resigned from his job in August, said Fulton County Police Corporal Kay Lester. ...

Texas executes man for 1991 stabbing-strangulation murder

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:26 PM PDT

AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Texas prison officials on Wednesday executed a man for the gruesome 1991 murder a women who was stabbed repeatedly with an ice pick and strangled with stereo wire at her Dallas-area apartment, state officials said. Bobby Lee Hines, aged 19 at the time of the killing, was sharing a next door apartment with a maintenance man who had master keys to all the units in the building, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. ...

Three killed, two wounded in twin shootings near Los Angeles

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 06:07 PM PDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A gunman opened fire at a small business and a nearby home owned by members of the same family in the Los Angeles suburb of Downey on Wednesday, killing three people and wounding two others before fleeing in a stolen car, authorities said. It was unclear what motivated the gunman to commit the back-to-back shootings, which erupted shortly after 11 a.m. about two blocks apart in a blue-collar neighborhood, Downey police Lieutenant Dean Milligan said. ...

Teenager arrested in Colorado schoolgirl dismemberment

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:14 PM PDT

WESTMINSTER, Colo. (Reuters) - A Colorado teenager has been arrested on suspicion of abducting and killing a 10-year-old girl who disappeared on her way to school and was later found dismembered, a crime that left Denver-area parents gripped with fear, police said on Wednesday. Jessica Ridgeway vanished on October 5 in the Denver suburb of Westminster, and a man reported finding her backpack on a sidewalk in front of his house two days later, 6 milesfrom where she was last seen. ...

ABC News wants "pink slime" lawsuit moved to federal court

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:09 PM PDT

Beef product known as pink slime is shown to government officials during a tour of the Beef Products Inc.'s plant in South Sioux City, Nebraska(Reuters) - ABC News sought on Wednesday to move to federal court a meat processor's defamation lawsuit over reports about lean finely textured beef, a product that critics have labeled "pink slime." Lawyers for the network filed to transfer the case, brought last month by Beef Products Inc, the leading producer of the product, from of a state court in South Dakota and to a federal court in the state. BPI is seeking $400 million in compensatory damages for lost profit it says was caused by ABC's reports. ...


Chicago school board approves deal that ended teacher strike

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 05:05 PM PDT

Students make their return to Whitney Young High School in ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - The Chicago Board of Education approved a new contract on Wednesday with public school teachers, closing the book on a bitter dispute over school reforms that triggered the first strike by unionized educators in the city in 25 years. The three-year deal, which union members overwhelming ratified earlier this month, will give teachers an average pay raise of 17.6 percent over four years if the contract is extended an extra year. "This contract is the result of two sides coming together to put our students first," David Vitale, the board's president, said in a statement. ...


Texas opens first 85-mph highway in U.S., but trucks may shun it

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:55 PM PDT

LOCKHART, Texas (Reuters) - Everything's bigger in Texas including, as of Wednesday, the speed limit. A new 41-mile (65-kilometer) stretch of toll road between San Antonio and Austin is now open with an 85-mph (137-kph) speed limit, the highest posted speed limit in the United States. State transportation officials hope that the speed limit will be an incentive for motorists to pay the roughly $12 toll to drive on the 90-mile (145-km) road. Joe Krier, who is on the board of the private company that built the new road, said there is no reason why motorists should not drive that fast. ...

U.S. sues Mississippi officials over student arrests

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 03:53 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department sued Mississippi state and local officials on Wednesday over what it called a "school-to-prison pipeline" that violates the rights of children, especially black and disabled youths. The suit alleges that police officers in Meridian, Mississippi, routinely arrested students who were suspended from school, even when they had no probable cause to believe the students had committed a crime. ...

US doctors can consider spinal taps for more steroid patients-CDC

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:42 PM PDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. doctors monitoring patients for signs of fungal meningitis can consider performing spinal taps, possibly weekly, on some of those who received contaminated steroid injections, even if they show no symptoms, health officials said on Wednesday. The revised guidelines from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reflect concern that the last groups of patients who received the steroid may be at a higher risk of deadly infection. The recommendation took some physicians by surprise. "Are we going to do spinal taps on thousands of people once a week?" asked Dr. ...

Barnes & Noble says thieves tampered with PIN pads

Posted: 24 Oct 2012 02:38 PM PDT

A Barnes and Noble book store is shown here in Encinitas May 20, 2008NEW YORK (Reuters) - Barnes & Noble Inc said on Wednesday that customers who shopped at 63 of its stores as recently as last month may have had their credit or debit card information stolen in what the U.S. bookstore chain called a "sophisticated criminal effort." The retailer, which operates a total of almost 700 bookstores, said that federal law enforcement authorities have been informed of the breach and that it is supporting their investigation. ...


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