Norway Gunman Fired for 1.5 Hours on Island (BLOG)

OSLO, Norway (AP) -- A gunman who opened fire on an island teeming with young people kept shooting for 1.5 hours before surrendering to a SWAT team, which arrived 40 minutes after they were called, police said Saturday.

Survivors of the shooting spree have described hiding and fleeing into the water to escape the gunman, but a police briefing Saturday detailed for the first time how long the terror lasted - and how long victims waited for help.

When the SWAT team did arrive, the gunman, who had two firearms, surrendered, said Police Chief Sveinung Sponheim.

"There were problems with transport to Utoya," where the youth-wing of Norway's left-leaning Labor Party was holding a retreat, Sponheim said. "It was difficult to get a hold of boats, but that problem was solved when the SWAT team arrived."

At least 85 people were killed on the island, but police said four or five people were still missing. Divers have been searching the surrounding waters. Police earlier said there was still an unexploded device on the island, but it later turned out to be fake.

The attack followed a car bomb outside a government building in Oslo, where another seven people were killed. Police are still digging through rubble there, and Sponheim said there are still body parts in the building.

Police have not identified the suspect, but Norwegian national broadcaster NRK say he is 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik.

Authorities have not given a motive for the attacks, but both were in areas connected to the Labor Party, which leads a coalition government.

Officials have said the suspect visited Christian fundamentalist websites and had links to a rightist party. Mazyar Keshvari, a spokesman for Norway's Progress Party - which is conservative but within the political mainstream - said that the suspect was a paying member of the party's youth wing from 1999 to 2004.

Police said he is talking to them and has admitted to firing weapons on the island. It was not clear if he had confessed to anything else he is accused of. Police said he retained a lawyer, but the attorney did not want to be named.

"He has had a dialogue with the police the whole time, but he's a very demanding suspect," Sponheim said.

Earlier in the day, a farm supply store said they had alerted police that he bought six tons of fertilizer, which is highly explosive and can be used in homemade bombs.

In all, 92 people have been killed in what Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg said was peacetime Norway's deadliest day. The Oslo University hospital said it has so far received 11 wounded from the bombing and 19 people from the camp shooting.

"This is beyond comprehension. It's a nightmare. It's a nightmare for those who have been killed, for their mothers and fathers, family and friends," Stoltenberg told reporters Saturday.

Gun violence is rare in Norway, where the average policeman patrolling in the streets doesn't carry a firearm. Reports that the assailant was motivated by political ideology were shocking to many Norwegians, who pride themselves on the openness of their society. Indeed, Norway is almost synonymous with the kind of free expression being exercised by the youth at the political retreat.

Stoltenberg vowed that the attack would not change those fundamental values.

"It's a society where young people can ... have controversial opinions without being afraid," he told reporters.

Norway's royal family and prime minister led the nation in mourning, visiting grieving relatives of the scores of youth gunned down. Buildings around the capital lowered their flags to half-staff. People streamed to Oslo Cathedral to light candles and lay flowers; outside, mourners began building a makeshift altar from dug-up cobblestones. The Army patrolled the streets of the capital, a highly unusual sight for this normally placid country.

The city center was a sea of roadblocks Saturday, with groups of people peering over the barricades wherever they sprang up, as the shell-shocked Nordic nation was gripped by reports that the gunman may not have acted alone. Police have not confirmed a second assailant but said they are investigating witness reports.

The queen and the prime minister hugged when they arrived at the hotel where families are waiting to identify the bodies. Both king and queen shook hands with mourners, while the prime minister, his voice trembling, told reporters of the harrowing stories survivors had recounted to him.

On the island of Utoya, panicked teens attending a Labour Party youth wing summer camp plunged into the water or played dead to avoid the assailant in the assault. A picture sent out on Twitter showed a blurry figure in dark clothing pointing a gun into the water, with bodies all around him.

The carnage began Friday afternoon in Oslo, when a bomb rocked the heart of Norway. About two hours later, the shootings began at the youth retreat, according to a police official. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.

The blast in Oslo, Norway's capital and the city where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded, left a square covered in twisted metal, shattered glass and documents expelled from surrounding buildings.

The dust-clogged scene after the blast reminded one visitor from New York of Sept. 11. People were "just covered in rubble," walking through "a fog of debris," said Ian Dutton, who was in a nearby hotel.

Asked whether all victims at Utoya died from gunshot wounds or if some had drowned, Stoere, the foreign minister, said "you will likely see a combination."

A 15-year-old camper named Elise who was on Utoya said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.

"I saw many dead people," said Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn't want her to disclose her last name. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."

Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said.

She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.

At a hotel in the village of Sundvollen, where survivors of the shooting were taken, 21-year-old Dana Berzingi wore pants stained with blood. He said the fake police officer ordered people to come closer, then pulled weapons and ammunition from a bag and started shooting.

Several victims "had pretended they were dead to survive," Berzingi said. But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.

"I lost several friends," said Berzingi, who used the cell phone of one of those friends to call police.

An official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the attack "is probably more Norway's Oklahoma City than it is Norway's World Trade Center." Domestic terrorists carried out the 1995 attack on a federal building in Oklahoma City, while foreign terrorists were responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Aerial images broadcast by Norway's TV2 showed members of a SWAT team dressed in black arriving at the island in boats and running up the dock. People who had stripped down to their underwear moved in the opposite direction, swimming away from the island toward the mainland, some using flotation devices.

The United States, European Union, NATO and the U.K., all quickly condemned the bombing, which Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague called "horrific" and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen deemed a "heinous act."

"It's a reminder that the entire international community has a stake in preventing this kind of terror from occurring," President Barack Obama said.

Obama extended his condolences to Norway's people and offered U.S. assistance with the investigation. He said he remembered how warmly Norwegians treated him in Oslo when he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009.

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II wrote to Norway's King Harald to offer her condolences and express her shock and sadness at the shooting attacks in his country.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said the United States knew of no links to terrorist groups and early indications were the attack was domestic. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was being handled by Norway.

AP

Amy Winehouse Found Dead After a Suspected Drug Overdose (BLOG)

Singer Amy Winehouse has been found dead at her home in Camden, north London, at the age of 27, police have confirmed.

The London Ambulance Service was called to her flat just after 4pm but were unable to save her life.

"On arrival, officers found the body of a 27-year-old female who was pronounced dead at the scene," a police statement said.

Her death is being treated as unexplained and inquiries are continuing into the circumstances, it added.

The Back To Black artist had cancelled all tour dates and engagements last month
after a series of erratic public appearances.

She had been troubled by drink and drugs problems throughout her career.


skynews

East Coast hit by searing heat, records broken (BLOG)

BOSTON (Reuters) - East Coast residents sought refuge on Friday from sweltering temperatures, flocking to beaches, pools and air-conditioned malls as the mercury climbed toward the triple-digits.

The temperature in New York's Central Park hit 102 degrees, shattering a 1957 record of 101 degrees, according to Accuweather.com.

The National Weather Service issued excessive heat warnings and advisories for wide swaths of the country's mid-section and along the East Coast from Maine to Georgia.

"Heat index values will range from 105 to 115 plus today from Boston to New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Richmond, affecting millions of people along the I-95 corridor," the National Weather Service said.

Related: How to recognize, avoid "hyperthermia"

Higher-than-normal temperatures were likely to hover over the eastern half of the United States for "the next couple of weeks," the Weather Service said.

In Pittsburgh, city worker Brian Hilliard was sweating heavily as he tossed recycling bags into a truck.

"We're drinking gallons of water, and we're just killing ourselves today," he said.



At a nearby supermarket, teenager Jenny Marze said she had been seeking relief inside the air-conditioned store.

"It's like an arctic rush in there, but out here it's like Mexico or something," she said.

The heat roasted the Midwest for nearly a week, potentially responsible for at least 34 deaths in ten states, before it moved east.

On Thursday, an 18-year-old cadet at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., collapsed and died during outdoor training exercises. Military authorities were investigating whether the afternoon heat played a role, a spokesman said.

In Michigan, rolling power blackouts were instituted to help relieve stress on power plants, according to the Weather Service. It said 30,000 people were without power in Detroit.

In New York City, the heat prompted power provider Consolidated Edison to reduce voltage in some neighborhoods, a so-called brownout. The company said increased use of air conditioners could push power usage to a record on Friday.

PJM, the nation's biggest power grid operator, said consumers used a record amount of power on Thursday and it expected near-record demand on Friday.

Offering a low-energy option in the heat, food bloggers posted a recipe for "Car-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies."

"Park your car in the sun on a 100F+ day," the recipe on Baking Bites advised. "Place baking sheet on car dashboard."

The cookies take up to three hours to bake, it said.

East Coast cities should expect to near or surpass record highs, according to AccuWeather.com.

The midday temperatures in Newark, N.J. and Baltimore were 104 degrees, breaking both cities' 1957 record of 101 degrees.

"Today in the Midwest and the Northeast, it's not only record heat, but the humidity is unusually high as well. It's kind of a double-whammy," said AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Tom Kines.

Thunderstorms rolled through the Midwest on Friday, providing some relief from the stifling heat.

"There's a frontal boundary draped across central Iowa into north central Illinois that has been the focus for spotty thunderstorm development," said Jim Keeney, a National Weather Service meteorologist. "South of that boundary will be stuck in the heat and humidity for the next week."

But to the north, temperatures have cooled significantly from where they were earlier in the week. A chance of rain, will continue in that area through the weekend. As the system moves out by early next week, temperatures should be in the lower 80's in the region, Keeney said.

Outside Philadelphia, at the King of Prussia shopping mall, pedestrian traffic has been up about 20 percent this week due to the weather, said marketing manager Kathy Smith.

"Lots of strollers, lots of kids and lot of parents trying to beat the heat," she said.

At Busch Gardens in Virginia, workers at the amusement park's zoo were distributing blocks of ice to wolves and hosing down all its animals frequently.

The park's daily sheep walks and predator presentations were suspended until the heat dissipates, a spokesman said.

In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo extended hours at state swimming pools, beaches and parks through Saturday evening.

That cool welcome, however, did not extend to several New York City waterfronts affected by a raw sewage discharge into the Hudson River after a treatment plant fire.

Citing the sewage, the health department advised against swimming at four city beaches and against any activity such as kayaking on the Hudson River, parts of the East River and the Harlem River.

(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York, Daniel Lovering in Pittsburgh, Dave Warner in Philadelphia, Matthew Ward in Chesapeake, Virginia and Karin Matz in Chicago; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst and Jerry Norton)

End of an era for US spaceflight as Atlantis lands (BLOG)

The shuttle Atlantis cruised home for a final time Thursday, ending its last mission to the International Space Station and closing a 30-year chapter in American space exploration.

Under cover of darkness, the shuttle glided seamlessly to a predawn landing at Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 am (0957 GMT), marking the formal retirement of the shuttle program and leaving Russia as the world's only taxi to the ISS.

"Mission complete, Houston," shuttle commander Chris Ferguson said as the black and white orbiter, emblazoned with an American flag, rolled to a stop.

"The space shuttle has changed the way we view the world. It has changed the way we view our universe," he said. "There was a lot of emotion today but one thing is indisputable: America is not going to stop exploring."

Twin sonic booms erupted over Florida moments before the shuttle came home to perfect summer weather with cloudless skies and hardly any wind at the Kennedy Space Center.

"Hearing the sonic booms as Atlantis came home for the last time really drove it home to me that this has been a heck of a program," said Mike Moses, space shuttle launch integration manager.

Astronauts emerged from the spacecraft and greeted NASA officials and mission managers, exchanging hugs, kisses and smiles as they admired the orbiter for a final time.

"I just want to salute this crew, welcome them home, and let them know how proud we are of them," NASA administrator Charles Bolden said.

"Children... who dream of being astronauts today won't get to fly on the space shuttle, but one day they may walk on Mars.

"I was proud to be a part of the shuttle program and will carry those cherished memories and experiences with me for the rest of my life," the former astronaut said through tears. "But I am also ready to get on with the next big challenge."

The bittersweet end to the storied shuttle career came 42 years after US astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the Moon as part of the Apollo 11 mission.

The last shuttle mission, known as STS-135, was a nearly 13-day trip to restock the ISS for a year with several tons of supplies and food.

Over the course of the program, five NASA shuttles -- Atlantis, Challenger, Columbia, Discovery and Endeavour -- have comprised a fleet designed as the world's first reusable space vehicles.

Since the first shuttle space flight launched on April 12, 1981, the five shuttles have traveled more than 542 million miles (872 million kilometers), and carried 355 people from 16 different countries, NASA said.

Columbia exploded in 2003 and Challenger was destroyed in 1986 in accidents that killed a total of 14 crew members.

Those disasters left only three in the space-flying fleet, along with Enterprise, a prototype that never flew in space. The quartet will become museum pieces in the coming months.

At Kennedy Space Center, and also at mission control in Houston, employees were joyful and nostalgic.

"I saw grown men and grown women crying today, tears of joy to be sure," said Mike Leinbach, space shuttle launch director.

Critics have assailed the US space agency for lacking focus with the space shuttle gone and no next-generation human spaceflight program to immediately replace it.

The astronaut corps now numbers 60, compared to the 128 employed in 2000, and thousands of people are being laid off from Kennedy Space Center. But NASA chiefs say future missions to deep space should revive hope in the US program.

"I recognize that change is really hard, but huge growth or huge improvement comes from change," said Bill Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for space operations.

NASA is building a Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle it hopes could send humans to an asteroid in 2025 and explore Mars by 2030, while it turns over low-orbit space travel and space station servicing to commercial ventures.

A commercial launcher and capsule built by a private corporation in partnership with NASA may be ready to tote crew members as early as 2015.

Until the private sector fills the void left by the shuttle's retirement, the world's astronauts will rely on Russian Soyuz rockets for rides to the ISS.

"Savor the moment, soak it in, and know you are the best -- the best in the world. Your work here has made America and the world a better place," said flight director Tony Ceccacci as he signed off for a final time.

"It's been an unbelievable and amazing journey."

R. Kelly Speaks Up after Undergoing Throat Surgery

R. Kelly has thanked his fans for all the love and support given to him after he underwent throat surgery. Yesterday (July 20), he broke the news that he had to go through an emergency procedure on his throat and it could sideline him from the music business for some time.

The R&B star followed it up with a message on Twitter, which read, “I’d like to thank everybody for their love, concern and support. I WILL BE BACK!”

Kelly had told his fans about his throat problems a week ago when he tweeted, “I refuse to take another cup of theraflu! I feel like my throat is coming back. I’ve been in bed sweating like crazy.”

The 44-year old singer’s representative then gave more details about the medical procedure performed on his client. He released a PR, which read: “[Kelly's] undergoing an emergency procedure at Northwestern Memorial Hospital yesterday to drain an abscess on one of his tonsils.”

It continued, “Kelly had visited a throat specialist earlier in the day complaining of severe throat pain. Following a preliminary exam, he was rushed to Northwestern Memorial for the procedure. It is not known when the multi-platinum recording star, who just completed the U.S. leg of his worldwide ‘Love Letter’ Tour, will be able to resume performing.”

The ‘I Believe I Can Fly’ crooner concluded his North American tour a week ago and is scheduled to make an appearance at Reggae Sumfest this coming weekend too. However, his illness means that it is highly unlikely that he will honor his commitment.

Missing Toddler Found After Night in Corn Field (BLOG)

A toddler who disappeared into a South Dakota corn field late Sunday was found safe Monday morning after a desperate search, local media reported.

The two-year-old wandered out of the field on Monday after his mom used a loudspeaker to call out to him, according to Keloland-TV.

Taydon Faulhaber was in the field near Plankinton with his father when he ran off amid the searing temperatures affecting the region.

Nearly 200 people scoured the area, but the search proved difficult because of the field's size and the height of the corn, Keloland-TV.

Aurora County Emergency Manager David Baker told the TV station that the search had been growing "more desperate" as time passed.

Faulhaber does not appear to have any injuries but he is getting checked out by medical personnel.

msn

Meet Grandma Who Was Stuck in Swamp Mud for 4 Days (VIDEO)

How does something like this happen, you may ask? Doctors don't even know! Watch the vid:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Your thoughts?

Police bust prostitution ring catering to Wall Street (BLOG)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A high-end prostitution ring catering to Wall Street clients who often would spend over $10,000 for a night bingeing on sex and cocaine has been busted and 17 people indicted, authorities said on Wednesday.

"The business of high-end prostitution is enormously profitable," Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes told a news conference, adding that the ring earned more than $7 million over three years.

Hynes said clients often spent in excess of $10,000 in a single night. He said they were "all high-end customers coming from the financial markets. People with nothing but money."

The prostitution service, named High Class NY, was run 24 hours a day out of an office in Brooklyn and charged from $400 to $3,600 an hour for its services, according to the 144-count indictment. It also provided customers with cocaine and other narcotics, the indictment said.

Police said the sophisticated business ran several escort websites and used dummy corporations with misleading names and codes during business-related phone calls.

Among those websites were discreteclub.com, cupiddirect.com and angelofyourchoice.com. Many of the websites were still online on Wednesday afternoon.

The prostitution and drug service also advertised its wares on popular social networking websitessuch as Craigslist and backpage.com, said Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office.

Bruno added that many of the clients could possibly be forced to pay fines of up to $250 in addition to attending a one-night multiple hour educational program for "Johns," or customers of prostitutes.

High Class NY even had a law firm draw up employment contracts for its prostitutes, who described themselves as models and fraudulently agreed to refrain from sexual contact with clients, police said.

"They were on the high-end of sophistication," said Vice Detective Joe Panico.

Indicted were High Class NY owner, Mikhail Yampolsky and his wife, Bronislava, who allegedly used the proceeds from their business to finance expensive trips to Atlantic City and luxury car purchases, Hynes said.

Also indicted were Yampolsky's son Alexander, stepson Jonathan, 11 managers and supervisors and two investors, Efim Gorelik and Yakov Maystrovich, he said.

Each of the investors had put $700,000 into High Class NY and were being paid back with interest, he said.

Each of those indicted faces the possibility of 25 years in prison if convicted. Two prostitutes face separate indictments on prostitution and drug charges.

Philadelphia cracks down on texting and walking (BLOG)

Philadelphia has taken what most savvy travelers would call a "safety" issue and turning it into a legal one ... sort of. The city is issuing warnings to pedestrians who walk down the street and text or play on their smartphones.

The practice, while annoying to other pedestrians and motorists who may suffer from your lack of paying attention, isn't illegal, but highly discouraged.

"Pedestrians may be reminded to be more aware of their surroundings; however, there are no citations issued by the PPD for texting while walking," said Rina Cutler, Philadelphia Deputy Mayor for Transportation and Public Utilities, in a statement obtained by NBC Philadelphia.

The only offense for which one can receive a ticket is jaywalking.

The city is using grant money to fund the cost of increased enforcement.

What do you think, friends of the City of Brotherly Love? Should texting and walking be a ticket-able or warn-able offense? Will you be more cognizant of your texting behavior when you next visit Philadelphia?

Ivanka Trump Gives Birth To Baby Girl (BLOG)

The boardroom just got a little bit bigger for the Trump family.

Ivanka Trump announced today that she and husband Jared Kushner welcomed their first child, a daughter, on Sunday in New York.

"This morning [Jared] and I welcomed a beautiful and healthy little baby girl into the world," Trump, 29, announced via Twitter. "We feel incredibly grateful and blessed. Thank you all for your support and well wishes!"

Among the happy couple's supporters is the new mom's father, real estate mogul and star of "The Apprentice," Donald Trump, who called in to "Fox & Friends" to announce the new addition's name on Monday, according to GossipCop.com.

"I just left the hospital," he said. "The baby is beautiful and her name is Arabella Rose."

Ivanka and Kushner wed in October 2009.

wonderwall

Bank of America reports huge loss (BLOG)

Bank of America said on Tuesday that it lost $9.1 billion in the second quarter, due to its record-breaking settlement over subprime mortgage claims stemming from the financial crisis.

Its earnings amounted to a swing into a loss of 90 cents a share, in line with analysts' forecasts after the bank set aside $14 billion last month to compensate angry investors for their losses on dodgymortgage-backed securities.

Without the mortgage settlement and other exceptional items, the bank would have posted a profit of $3.7 billion, or 33 cents per share, Bank of America said in its quarterly earnings report.

"Obviously, the solid performance in our underlying businesses continues to be clouded by the costs we are absorbing from our legacy mortgage issues," chief executive Brian Moynihan said in a statement.

The bank's revenues in the April-June period were $13.2 billion, a drop of 55 percent from the same period last year. Analysts had expected revenues of $12.3 billion.

Bank of America, the largest bank in the United States in terms of deposits, announced a settlement last month aimed at resolving issues from its disastrous 2008 acquisition of mortgage lenderCountrywide Financial.

Until 2008, Countrywide played a leading role in generating mortgages that were bundled into securities and resold to investors.

Following a downturn in the US housing market, though, such mortgage-backed securities plunged in value, triggering the global financial crisis.

Bank of America's proposed $8.5 billion payout to 22 big private investment groups, which still needs court approval, is the largest such settlement by a financial institution stemming from the crisis.

Along with that sum, Bank of America also set aside $5.5 billion for pending liabilities to other investors not included in the settlement.

"The company continues to work through legacy issues, but it has been costly, and there is still more work to do," analysts with Nomura Equity Research said in a research note.

Bank of America's shares had slumped 1.7 percent on the New York Stock Exchange shortly before 1500 GMT on Tuesday.

In contrast, shares of its number-two rival Wells Fargo rallied 4.0 percent after the San Francisco-based bank reported that its net income surged 30 percent to $3.73 billion in the second quarter.

Wells Fargo's earnings per share were 70 cents, just beating analysts' consensus expectations of 69 cents.

Weighed down by a sluggish economy, its revenues were $20.39 billion, around 5 percent less than the second quarter of 2010 but still a modest uptick from first-quarter 2011 revenues of $20.33 billion.

"Our business fundamentals were strong with increased revenues, loans and deposits, lower operating costs, improved credit quality and higher capital levels," Wells Fargo chief executive John Stumpf said in a statement.

The slowing economy also weighed on investment-banking titanGoldman Sachs, which reported that its second-quarter net income was $1.05 billion, below analysts' expectations.

Goldman's revenues were $7.28 billion, down 18 percent from the same quarter of 2010 and 39 percent lower than in the first quarter of this year. Analysts had expected revenues of $8.14 billion.

"During the second quarter, the operating environment was more difficult given global macroeconomic concerns," Goldman's chairman and chief executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a statement.

Goldman shares were down 0.5 percent at about 1500 GMT.

Chrysler suspends workers caught drinking on TV (BLOG)

DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler Group LLC said Tuesday it has suspended nine workers without pay after a Detroit television station aired footage of them allegedly drinking and smoking marijuana before their shifts at an area plant.

WJBK-TV aired the story about the workers at the Trenton Engine Plant last week. The station said it was tipped off by other workers at the plant. The plant employs around 500 people who make V-6 engines for the Jeep Grand Cherokee, Dodge Grand Caravan and other vehicles.

Chrysler said it identified the workers using the station's video. All nine have been suspended without pay while the company investigates and determines what action should be taken.

This is the second time in a year that the station has reported on Chrysler workers drinking and smoking before a shift. Last fall, the company fired two workers and gave two others unpaid, one-month layoffs after the station took video of them drinking beer before the start of their shift at aDetroit assembly plant.

Japan scare grows over radiation-tainted beef (BLOG)

A scare over radiation-tainted beef in Japan spread on Monday as more cows from seven farms in the Fukushima region were found to have been trucked across the country after eating contaminated straw.

The 411 cattle, from the same prefecture as the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, were sent to meat processing centres in six other regions including Tokyo between March 28 and July 6, prefecutural officials said.

The food scare started a week ago when meat contaminated with radiation from 11 cows at a farm just outside the 20-kilometre Fukushima nuclear no-go zone was reported to have been moved around the country and probably eaten.

On Sunday, Japanese media reported that meat from another 132 cattle that ate straw tainted with high levels of radioactive caesium are known to have been shipped to 36 of Japan's 47 prefectures.

Some supermarkets in the capital Tokyo have put up signs warning about radioactive beef.

The Japanese government is expected on Tuesday to ban all beef shipments from Fukushima prefecture, where the atomic plant is still emitting radiation fourth months after it was hit by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Japan has not set up a centralised system to check food for radiation, relying instead on testing carried out by local authorities.

On Monday, Fukushima officials told a news conference that they detected up to 157,000 becquerels of radioactive caesium per kilogram in straw used at the farms -- about 520 times the government-designated limit.

64 missile warheads stolen from Romanian train (BLOG)

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Dozens of small, old rocket warheads were stolen from a train carrying military equipment from Romania to Bulgaria, officials said Monday.

Authorities promised that the 64 warheads posed no danger to the public but offered varying explanations why.

The Romanian national police said there was no risk because they were not attached to rockets. Spokesman Florin Hulea declined to provide further details.

Two daily newspapers cited officials close to the investigation as saying the warheads did not contain explosives. The papers,Evenimentul Zilei and Adevarul, did not identify their sources.

Bulgaria's Economy Ministry said the warheads belonged to 122mm (4.8-inch) diameter Grad rockets, which are typically fired from vehicle-mounted multiple-rocket launchers.

It said in a statement the shipment was part of a transfer of "nonfunctional components and parts" for reprocessing at the VMZ factory — one of Bulgaria's largest military factories — inSopot, central Bulgaria, where the components and parts were to be replaced and the warheads prepared for sale.

"The fuses (warheads) were transported separately from the projectiles," the ministry added.

Transport police in the central city of Brasov told the Mediafax news agency that the warheads were in four boxes in one of the cars on a train carrying equipment from a Romanian company that produces artillery shells and ground-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles.

Romanian officials also tried to portray the Saturday theft as accidental.

Eugen Badalan, a member of the parliamentary defense committee, said the thieves "had no idea what they stole," and prosecutors said they were investigating whether the components were stolen by scrap metal thieves.

However, only one of the eight cars on the 27-car train was broken into.

Mediafax reported that railway workers noticed the seals on a carriage door were broken, and the door was not properly closed, when the train reached Giurgiu, a Danube port that bordersBulgaria.

The Bulgarian Defense Ministry confirmed in a press release that the recipient of the fuses was a Bulgarian company, not its armed forces. It said the Interior Ministry's Dangerous Weapons Control Service had issued a permit for the transport of the delivery.

The train was loaded on Friday and stopped under guard overnight in the central Romanian town of Brasov, about 166 kilometers (103 miles) north of Bucharest, according to transport police. After leaving Saturday, it stopped for one hour in the mountain resort of Predeal.

Romanian national state company Romarm said the Bulgarian company was responsible for train security.

Overnight Protest Follows After San Francisco Police shoot Unarmed Teenager 5 Times (BLOG,VIDEO)

Police in riot gear responded to a demonstration in San Francisco's Mission and Bayview districts in the middle of the night overnight following an officer-involved shooting that left one man dead.

The angry, but mostly controlled crowd gathered near 16th and Valencia streets and walked through the Mission and Bayview around 1 a.m. Sunday morning. Police said there were reports of garbage being thrown into the street and several newspaper racks being overturned, but they made no arrests.



Video from the scene showed the crowd ending their protest at the 16th Street BART station. One protester said they ended their march at that location and time because that's where the last BART train left the City and it was "their ride" home.

The group gathered in response to an officer involved shooting that happened at 4:45 p.m. Saturday afternoon that left a 19-year-old man dead.

San Francisco police said officers shot the man because he was firing shots at them as he ran from them. The police initially confronted the unidentified man as part of a routine fare inspection on Muni. They said he took off on foot as he was being detained on the Muni platform.

Witnesses to the shooting said that the man was unarmed when he was shot by police. San Francisco police dispute that.

The SFPD explain the investigation this way in a published release:

Information is still preliminary. The officers detained a 19 year old male suspect on the Muni light rail platform. This suspect then ran from the police officers who pursued him on foot. It appears that the suspect was armed with a gun and fired at the pursuing officers. At least one of the officers returned fire, in self defense, wounding the suspect. The suspect was transported to the hospital with life threatening injuries. He was pronounced deceased at 7:01 p.m.

Officers could be seen searching for a gun in the hours following the shooting, but appeared to be unsuccesful.

Bay City News says the shooting is being investigated by the District Attorney's Office and the Office of Citizen Complaints as well as by the police department.

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Rebekah Brooks Arrested in Hacking Scandal (BLOG)

LONDON — London police arrested Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's former British CEO, in the phone hacking and police bribery scandal Sunday, bringing the U.K. investigation into Murdoch's inner circle for the first time.

Brooks, 43, was arrested at a London police station at noon Sunday. The former editor of Murdoch's News of the World tabloid is being questioned on suspicion of conspiring to intercept communications — phone hacking — and on suspicion of corruption, which relates to bribing police for information.

A statement released on Brooks' behalf said she "voluntarily attended a London police station to assist with their ongoing investigation."

Sunday's arrest comes just days before Brooks, Murdoch and his son James are due to be grilled by a U.K. parliamentary committee investigating the hacking. The arrest throws Brooks' appearance before Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport committee into question; she would not have to answer questions that could prejudice a criminal investigation.

Brook's spokesman, David Wilson, said Sunday's appointment with police was prearranged on Friday but said she was not aware she was going to be arrested.

"Obviously this complicates matter greatly," Wilson said. "Her legal team will have to have discussions with the committee to see whether it would still be appropriate for her to attend."
Brooks, one of Murdoch's most loyal lieutenants, stepped down Friday as head of his British newspaper arm, News International. She was editor of the now-defunct News of the World between 2000 and 2003 when some of the phone hacking took place, but has always said she did not know that hacking was going on. That claim has been greeted with skepticism by many who worked there.

At an appearance before lawmakers in 2003, Brooks admitted that News International had paid police for information — an admission of possible illegal activity that went largely unchallenged at the time.

Police have already arrested nine other people connected to Murdoch's British media empire over allegations that the News of the World hacked into the phone voice mails of hundreds of celebrities, politicians, rival journalists and even murder victims. No one has yet been charged.

The arrest also piles more pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron, a friend and neighbor of Brooks, who has met with her many times and invited her to stay at his official country retreat.
Cameron is already under fire for hiring Andy Coulson, who resigned as News of the World editor after two employees were jailed for corruption in 2007, as his communications chief. Coulson resigned from Downing Street in January after police reopened their hacking investigation. He was arrested last week and questioned before being released on bail.

Brooks' arrest is another blow for Murdoch, who is struggling to tame a scandal that has already destroyed one of his British newspapers, cost the jobs of two of his senior executives and sunk his dream of taking full control of a lucrative satellite broadcaster, British Sky Broadcasting.
On Sunday, Murdoch took out a second newspaper ad promising that News Corp. will make amends for the phone hacking scandal. The ad in several U.K. Sunday newspapers, titled "Putting right what's gone wrong," said News Corp. would assist the British police investigations into phone hacking and police bribery. It vowed there would be "be no place to hide" for wrongdoers.
"It may take some time for us to rebuild trust and confidence, but we are determined to live up to the expectations of our readers, colleagues and partners," the ad said.

That follows a full-page Murdoch ad in Saturday's U.K. papers declaring, "We are sorry."
Last week Murdoch shut down the 168-year-old News of the World after it was accused of eavesdropping on cell phones for years. Sunday was the first day in Britain that the popular, gossipy, muckraking weekly was not on the newsstands.

Murdoch also abandoned his BSkyB takeover bid, and two of his senior executives resigned — Brooks and Wall Street Journal publisher Les Hinton.

But Murdoch's critics say that is not enough. Labour Party leader Ed Miliband said Sunday that Murdoch has "too much power" in Britain and his share of British media ownership should be reduced. With the News of the World gone, Murdoch now owns three national British newspapers — The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times — and a 39-percent share of BSkyB.

"I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20 percent of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News," Miliband told The Observer newspaper.

"I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organization. If you want to minimize the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous," he said.

Deputy prime Minister Nick Clegg agreed there should be greater plurality in the British media.
"A healthy press is a diverse one, where you've got lots of different organizations competing, and that's exactly what we need," Clegg told the BBC.

Clegg's Liberal Democrat party has asked Britain's broadcast regulator to consider whether News Corp. is a "fit and proper" owner of BSkyB — if not, Murdoch's current stake in BskyB could be in danger.

Cameron's Conservative-led government and the London police also are facing increasing questions about their close relationship with Murdoch's media empire.

Cameron has held 26 meetings with Murdoch executives since he was elected in May 2010 and invited several to his country retreat. Senior police officers also had close ties to Murdoch executives, even hiring as a consultant a former News of the World editor who has since been arrested for alleged hacking.

Home Secretary Theresa May plans to make a statement Monday in the House of Commons outlining her "concerns" about close police ties with News International.

Police are under pressure to explain why their original hacking investigation several years ago failed to find enough evidence to prosecute anyone other than News of the World royal reporter Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. Detectives reopened the investigation earlier this year and now say they have the names of 3,700 potential victims.

Records show that senior officers — including Paul Stephenson, the current chief of London's Metropolitan Police — have had numerous meals and meetings with News International executives in the past few years. The force also hired Neil Wallis, a former News of the World executive editor arrested last week in the phone hacking, as a part-time PR consultant for a year until September 2010.

Stephenson also stayed for free earlier this year at a health resort that employed Wallis to do its public relations. The police force said the stay had been arranged through the facility's managing director, a family friend, as Stephenson recovered from surgery. It said the police chief had not known that Wallis worked there.

Murdoch is eager to stop the crisis from further spreading to the United States, where many of his most lucrative assets — including the Fox TV network, 20th Century Fox film studio, The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post — are based.

The FBI has already opened an inquiry into whether 9/11 victims or their families were also hacking targets of News Corp. journalists.

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Casey Anthony Freed, Heads for Mystery Destination (BLOG, VIDEO)

ORLANDO, Fla. — Casey Anthony was freed from jail early Sunday, and her representatives whisked her away to a mystery destination.

She wore a bright pink Polo v-neck top as she was escorted out of the Orange County Jail shortly after midnight by her attorney Jose Baez and several heavily armed law enforcement officers. Anthony went to a waiting SUV, which whisked her away in a convoy closely followed by media helicopters.

Neither Anthony nor Baez said anything to the hundreds of reporters, spectators and protesters gathered outside. She said thank you to one of the sergeants on her way out, NBC News video journalist Tony Zumbado told msnbc cable television. Zumbado was one of three journalists allowed into the jail to witness the release.

The Orlando Sentinel said some in the crowd shouted: "Killer!"

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"It is my hope that Casey Anthony can receive the counseling and treatment she needs to move forward with the rest of her life," Baez said in a statement released to reporters.

Cable television station News 13 tweeted that Anthony was taken to Orlando Executive Airport, where many corporate and private aircraft are based. But the Orlando Sentinel said the SUV went to downtown Orlando and then into the parking garage of her attorney Cheney Mason's office, perhaps to switch vehicles.

Before her release, law enforcement officials put up plastic barricades around the jail's booking and release center, and about seven or eight deputies wearing bullet-proof vests patrolled the area. At least one officer carried an assault weapon. About five officers patrolled the area on horseback.

As midnight approached, upward of 100 spectators had gathered outside the jail. The crowd included about a half-dozen, sign-carrying protesters who had gathered there, despite a thunderstorm that dumped heavy rain over Orlando.

"This release had an unusual amount of security so, therefore, in that sense, it would not be a normal release," said Orange County Jail spokesman Allen Moore. "We have made every effort to not provide any special treatment for her. She's been treated like every other inmate.

Moore said there were no known threats received at the jail. Officials had a number of contingency plans in place, including plans in case shots were fired as she was released.
The 25-year-old Anthony was found not guilty July 5 of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee in June 2008. But she was convicted of lying to detectives about the girl's whereabouts. When Caylee's disappearance was reported in July 2008, Anthony told detectives several lies, including that she had been kidnapped by a nonexistent nanny.

With credit for the nearly three years she's spent in jail since August 2008 and good behavior, she had only days remaining when she was sentenced July 7 to four years.

Caylee's remains were found that December in woods near the home Casey Anthony shared with her parents. Her attorneys say that Caylee drowned in the family pool.

Prosecutors alleged that Anthony suffocated her daughter with duct tape because motherhood interfered with her lust for a carefree life of partying with friends and spending time with her boyfriend. However, some jurors have told various media outlets that the state didn't prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt as required for a conviction — although most have added that they don't think Casey Anthony is innocent.

Defense attorneys and sheriff's officials have not said where Anthony is heading.
"She is safer in jail than she is out here," said Mike Quiroz, who drove from Miami to spend his 22nd birthday outside the jail. "She better watch her butt. She is known all over the world."
Lamar Jordan said he felt a pit in his stomach when he saw Anthony walking out of jail.
"The fact that she is being let out, the fact that it is her child and she didn't say what happened, made me sick," Jordan said.

Earlier, Frank Klimek, wife Elaina and sons Michael, 14, and Christopher, 7, held signs proclaiming that Anthony would some day be judged by a higher power, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

But Klimek carried a sign urging people not to "do anything stupid."
One supporter of Anthony, David Antolic of Orlando, was in the minority outside the jail but told the Sentinel that he thought the news media had been unfair to her.

"She was given her due process," Antolic told the Sentinel. "She was tried. People need to respect that due process."

The vitriol directed at Anthony has been pointed: After the verdict, anger spilled onto social networks like Facebook and Twitter from people who had spent weeks watching the trial on local and cable television networks. On Friday, Anthony's legal team said it had received an emailed death threat with a manipulated photo showing the 25-year-old woman with a bullet hole in her forehead. It has been forwarded to authorities.

In Orlando and elsewhere, many remain convinced Anthony isn't totally innocent. David Waechter recorded the trial and watched it at home with his wife every day after work. He said Anthony was guilty of "something, for sure."

"I'm perplexed. You know there is something there, but you don't know what," he said. "Yet she is getting out."

Others who have witnessed Anthony's saga with front-row seats said they were ready for the media attention to die down.

"Most people I talk to, they're done with it," Mandy Williams, a 38-year-old county parks employee, said outside a busy grocery story. "When it came out she was not guilty, people were ticked off."

Steven Klosterman, who owns a property management company, said if Anthony were to stay in Orlando, "I think she'll wind up like her daughter," given the threats she has received.
"Good luck to her," said Klosterman, 43. "She's going to have a hard time."

Producer still hopes for $1M Casey Anthony interview
Security experts have said Anthony will need to hole up inside a safe house protected by bodyguards, perhaps for weeks, in case someone tries to make good on one of those threats. Anthony will not get special treatment beyond the protection any person would get if there were a credible threat, law enforcement authorities said.

Exactly where she will go remains unclear. It's unlikely she'll return to the home she once shared with her parents, as the trial left her family fractured. Baez argued during the trial that Caylee accidentally drowned in the family pool and that Casey Anthony's father, George, covered it up to make it look like a homicide. Baez also argued that George Anthony molested his daughter when she was a child — which resulted in psychological issues that caused her to lie and act without apparent remorse after Caylee went missing.

"Most of the time you can always go home, but she doesn't have that option," said Daniel Meachum, an Atlanta lawyer who has represented football star Michael Vick and actor Wesley Snipes. "Baez has to have somewhere for her to go for her to get herself together."

Anthony still faces a civil lawsuit. Attorneys for a woman who claimed Anthony defamed her had tried get her deposed before her release from jail but a judge ruled Friday that the deposition would take place in October. Also on Friday, Anthony filed notice that she will appeal the four misdemeanor counts of lying to law enforcement.

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Army finds Mexico's biggest marijuana plantation (BLOG)

TIJUANA, Mexico (AP) — Mexican soldiers have found the largest marijuana plantation ever detected in Mexico, a huge field covering almost 300 acres (120 hectares), the Defense Department said Thursday.

The plantation is four times larger than the previous record discovery by authorities at a ranch in northern Chihuahua state in 1984.

The pot plants sheltered under black screen-cloth in a huge square on the floor of the Baja California desert, more than 150 miles (250 kilometers) south of Tijuana, across the border from San Diego.

Army Gen. Alfonso Duarte said the screening, which is often used by regular farmers to protect crops from too much sun or heat, made it difficult to detect from the air what was growing underneath.

It was only when soldiers on the ground reached the isolated area Tuesday that they found thousands of pot plants as high as 2.5 yards (meters) tall. The average height of the plants was about 1.5 yards (meters). Duarte said they were not yet ready for harvest.

"We estimate that in this area, approximately 60 people were working. When they saw the military personnel, they fled," Duarte told reporters. A few were later reportedly detained at a nearby roadblock, but Duarte said no arrests were made at the scene.

He said traffickers could have harvested about 120 tons of marijuana from the plantation, worth about 1.8 billion pesos (about $160 million).

Video of the plantation showed a sophisticated system of piped-in irrigation to support the plants, which Duarte said was fed by two wells. The plantation also included some wooden outbuildings, presumably for use by people caring for the plants.

Troops will destroy the fields by burning them, Duarte said.

The site is the near the coastal town of San Quintin. Journalists were en route there Thursday under army escort.

While it's unknown how much of Mexican drug cartels' income comes from marijuana, recent discoveries suggest it remains a large-scale trade.

Last October, Mexican authorities made their largest-ever seizure of marijuana packaged for sale, a record 148 tons (134 metric tons) found in a number of tractor trailers and houses in Tijuana. They appeared to make up a major distribution center traced directly to Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, who has expanded the reach of his Sinaloa cartel along the U.S.-Mexico border since escaping from prison in 2001.

In November, U.S. and Mexican investigators found two long, sophisticated tunnels under the border between Baja California and California, along with more than 40 tons of marijuana in and around the tunnels.

The tunnels ran about 2,000 feet from Mexico to San Diego and were equipped with lighting, ventilation and a rail system for drugs to be carried on a small cart.

U.S. officials say they believe the tunnels also were the work of the Sinaloa cartel.

While the Arellano Felix or Tijuana cartel long dominated the drug trade in Baja California, the cartel has been greatly weakened by government hits on its leadership, and authorities say there are signs that the Sinaloa cartel now also operates in the area.

Duarte said he did not know which group operated the plantation found Tuesday.

Casey Anthony plans to appeal convictions for lying (BLOG)

ORLANDO, Fla (Reuters) - Casey Anthony will appeal her convictions on four charges of lying to detectives who investigated the 2008 disappearance and death of her 2-year-old daughter Caylee, according to a notice filed on Friday by her criminal defense attorneys.

Meanwhile, Anthony is scheduled to give sworn testimony on Tuesday in a defamation lawsuit after her civil lawyer failed Friday to secure an order blocking the videotaped deposition.

But Anthony may not answer any questions. In his motion to stop the deposition, lawyer Charles Greene said Anthony likely would assert her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination due to the status of her criminal case.

A Florida jury acquitted 25-year-old Anthony on July 5 of killing Caylee, whose skeletal remains were found in woods near the Anthony family home after a five-month search.

Anthony was convicted of misdemeanor charges of lying to the detectives searching for her then-missing daughter. Among other lies, Anthony said she left Caylee in June 2008 with a nanny named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez at an apartment complex in Orlando.

Anthony was sentenced to the maximum of four years in jail on four counts of providing false information to a law enforcement officer.

She will be released on Sunday after receiving credit for time served awaiting trial and good behavior.

The deposition on Tuesday will be conducted by lawyers for a woman named Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez, who claims her life was ruined by Anthony's allegation that a nanny by that name kidnapped Caylee.



The defamation lawsuit was filed in 2008 but put on hold during the criminal proceedings. Fernandez-Gonzalez's lawyers this week asked for an emergency order to compel Anthony to appear at the deposition, telling the judge they were concerned she would disappear after her release from jail.

Greene countered with a motion for an emergency protective order, arguing that Anthony was emotionally and mentally exhausted by the seven-week criminal trial and has had no time to prepare for her defense in the defamation case.

At a court hearing Friday morning, Greene immediately asked Judge Jose Rodriguez for a private bench conference.

When it was over, Rodriguez announced he would step down from the case and adjourned the hearing. Neither Greene nor Keith Mitnik, who represents Fernandez-Gonzalez, would discuss what transpired in the private discussion with the judge.

Mitnik said Anthony's deposition is still on.

"What was accomplished today in my opinion is she's now going to get out of jail, and we've got to wait and see if she shows up," Mitnik said.

Delta planes collide on runway at Boston airport (BLOG)

BOSTON (AP) — The wing of a Delta jet clipped the tail of an aircraft that provides regional air service for the carrier while both planes were on the runway and preparing to fly out of Boston on Thursday evening, forcing officials to remove both from service for inspections.

Local TV footage show the crash sheared off the tip of the Delta Boeing 767 and crumpled part of the smaller plane's tail.

Boston Logan International Airport spokesman Phil Orlandella said one person is complaining of neck pain after the crash.

There were no other injuries.

The incident involved Delta Flight 266 from Boston to Amsterdam which hit the vertical stabilizer ofAtlantic Southeast Airlines Flight 4904, also on departure from Boston to Raleigh-Durham, Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said.

Investigators were talking to crew and passengers of both aircraft, trying to figure out the circumstances surrounding the crash, Orlandella said.

The Delta jet returned to the gate and ASA passengers were transported by bus to the terminal.

Atlanta-based Delta says both aircraft have been removed from service for inspections. Passengers are being put on other planes.