What should Public Safety Director Frank Straub do?
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UN reports over 500 rapes in eastern Congo
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United Nations on Tuesday reported more than 500 systematic rapes were committed by armed combatants in eastern Congo since late July - more than double the number previously reported....
EU decries 'barbaric' plans to stone Iranian woman
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- The international crossfire over Iran's stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery intensified Tuesday with a top European Union official calling it "barbaric" and an Iranian spokesman saying it's about punishing a criminal and not a human rights issue....
CO firefighters to step up attack on Boulder blaze
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) -- Firefighters planned to ramp up their battle Tuesday against a wildfire that forced about 3,000 people to flee their homes as the wind-whipped blaze filled the surrounding canyon with heavy smoke and spit flames....
AP sources: Former FBI man implicated in CIA abuse
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A former CIA officer accused of revving an electric drill near the head of an imprisoned terror suspect has returned to U.S. intelligence as a contractor, training CIA operatives after leaving the agency, The Associated Press has learned....
Grim outlook for Democrats puts House up for grabs
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Their control of the House in peril, Democrats are playing defense all across the country. Disgruntled voters, a sluggish economy and vanishing enthusiasm for President Barack Obama have put 75 seats or more - the vast majority held by Democrats - at risk of changing hands....
US church to go ahead with Sept. 11 Quran burning
GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- A Christian minister vowed Tuesday to go ahead with plans to burn copies of the Quran to protest the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks despite warnings from the White House and the top U.S. general in Afghanistan that doing so would endanger American troops overseas....
Police: Md. shooting suspect surrenders in Pa.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) -- Police say a Maryland man accused of firing a high-powered rifle at his ex-girlfriend in a suburban Washington, D.C., apartment complex garage has surrendered to authorities in Pennsylvania....
San Francisco reconsidering gun ban in transit ads
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Bus shelter advertisements featuring a woman holding a shotgun and promoting a gun rights conference have popped up around San Francisco....
Sect leader Jeffs fights extradition to Texas
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Polygamous sect leader Warren Jeffs is fighting extradition from Utah to Texas, where he faces criminal charges of bigamy, aggravated sexual assault and assault....
Authorities: Ohio man ignored maggots on sick wife
CINCINNATI (AP) -- A grand jury has indicted an Ohio man in the death of his ailing wife, who was found with rotting bedsores on her body and maggots that apparently had been on her before she died....
Group: Iraqi reporter's killing highlights dangers
NEW YORK (AP) -- The killing of an Iraqi journalist, shot dead by unidentified gunmen Tuesday, highlights the dangers facing reporters in a conflict that has claimed more media workers' lives than any since World War II, a watchdog group said....
Feds: Army base gunman threatened to kill Obama
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) -- A former soldier accused of demanding mental treatment as he took hostages at gunpoint at a Georgia Army hospital later told investigators he planned to kill President Barack Obama and former President Bill Clinton, federal prosecutors said in court documents filed Tuesday....
NYC mayor defends minister's right to burn Quran
NEW YORK (AP) -- Mayor Michael Bloomberg says a minister's plan to burn the Muslim holy book on Sept. 11 is "distasteful" but says the minister has a right to do it....
LAPD chief defends deadly shooting
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Police Chief Charlie Beck on Tuesday defended an officer's shooting of a knife-wielding man whose death sparked a violent protest in which demonstrators pelted police with rocks and bottles....
Kansas man charged with murdering burned teen
GREAT BEND, Kan. (AP) -- A 36-year-old factory worker who spent much of his adult life in prison was charged Tuesday with sexually assaulting and murdering a 14-year-old girl whose badly burned body was found behind gravel piles at the asphalt plant where he worked....
WTC steel column installed at 9/11 museum
NEW YORK (AP) -- A salvaged 50-ton steel column was hoisted onto a support structure Tuesday at the World Trade Center site, where it will eventually serve as part of the entryway to the 9/11 Memorial and Museum....
Pharmacy heists are up amid popularity of Rx drugs
GLENPOOL, Okla. (AP) -- Less than a couple months after Nick Curtin opened a pharmacy in suburban Tulsa in 2008, the store was burglarized twice in one week. And just last year a masked man robbed him at gunpoint, making off with 1,800 pills....
Mother of Ohio man killed by bear favors pet ban
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- The mother of an Ohio man who was fatally mauled by a bear has thrown her support behind an exotic pet ban being written in the state....
Police: Calif. drunk driver hits 9, drags toddler
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Police in California say a drunken driver hit nine people with his SUV and critically injured a 2-year-old girl who was dragged more than 50 feet along a Santa Ana street....
Ill. prosecutors to seek death in frozen baby case
ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) -- Prosecutors will seek the death penalty against a woman charged with the murder of a newborn girl whose frozen body was found in a plastic bag on a dead-end road in northern Illinois....
2 of 3 holdout unions at Philly newspapers to vote
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Creditors poised to take over Philadelphia's two major newspapers could inch closer to a sale if three holdout labor groups approve contract offers this week....
Baby dies as vehicle plunges into S. Calif. river
APPLE VALLEY, Calif. (AP) -- The California Highway Patrol says a 1-year-old boy has drowned after his drunken father drove an off-road vehicle into a river in the San Bernardino County desert....
Schapiro: Anxiety on plunge may have fueled exodus
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The head of the Securities and Exchange Commission says anxiety over the "flash crash" on Wall Street on May 6 may have contributed to the withdrawal of retail investors from the stock market in recent months....
Runaway Ohio convert gains legal US residency
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- A lawyer for a Christian convert who ran away from her parents says the now-18-year-old woman has gained permanent U.S. residency after living in Ohio as an illegal immigrant....
Yellow jackets sting Mass. woman 500-plus times
ATTLEBORO, Mass. (AP) -- Fire officials say a Massachusetts woman who fell onto a yellow jackets' nest in her yard was stung more than 500 times....
Holloway lawyer dismisses Van der Sloot claims
NEW YORK (AP) -- The lawyer for the mother of an Alabama teen who disappeared in Aruba has dismissed claims by the Dutchman suspected in the case that he extorted money from the parents to get back at them....
Florida inmate loses appeal for victim's truck
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- A Florida appellate court has ruled against a death row inmate who was convicted of killing a couple and then petitioned to keep a vintage pickup that belonged to one of the victims....
Using Che Guevara image riles some Cuban Americans
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Some Cuban Americans in south Florida are upset to see a picture of revolutionary Che Guevara promoting an irreverent car race....
Boston Dawna, the Batman of Venice Beach, retires
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Hipsters, hustlers, celebrities, thieves, dope peddlers and just about everyone else in gritty, quirky Venice Beach know Boston Dawna. You can't miss the one-woman crime fighter....
The nation's weather
Tropical Storm Hermine was forecast to continue losing strength as it moved over southern Texas and northeastern Mexico on Tuesday....
Montana plane crash revives 'lap child' debate
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Federal transportation safety officials are using the crash of an overloaded plane in Montana to revive a debate about whether infants and toddlers should be allowed to travel on the laps of adults....
No sign of man in 4-day search of Calif. landfill
PITTSBURG, Calif. (AP) -- Volunteers and police have finished a fourth day of searching a Northern California landfill without finding any sign of 35-year-old Frederick Sales....
Police arrest man who scaled San Francisco tower
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- San Francisco police arrested a man who scaled the exterior of a 58-story downtown skyscraper Monday and unfurled an American flag at the top....
NY firefighter, manhole worker die; fumes cited
TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) -- A New York firefighter who climbed down into a manhole to try to rescue a worker apparently overcome by fumes has died along with the man he tried to save....
Appeals court panel denies stay for Wash. inmate
YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has denied a Washington state death row inmate's request for an emergency stay of his execution....
Plane crash on NV street kills 1, injures 3
HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) -- A small plane crashed and burst into flames on a street in a southern Nevada residential neighborhood Monday, killing one person and badly injuring three others, authorities said....
Floating cooler saves man after boat capsizes
PRESQUE ISLE TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- The U.S. Coast Guard says a floating cooler helped save a man whose boat capsized in Lake Huron in northern Michigan....
Little Rock 9 member Jefferson Thomas dies in Ohio
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Jefferson Thomas was fast and athletic and often played pickup basketball with white students while growing up in Little Rock in the 1950s....
4 killed in SW La.; cops look for dark SUV
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) -- Southwestern Louisiana authorities are investigating the killings of four people whose bodies were found in a mobile home....
Big Island fire leaves family of 7 without home
PAHOA, Hawaii (AP) -- A Big Island family of seven is without a home after a fire engulfed their single-story house in the Nawawale subdivision of Pahoa....
UNICEF refocuses on poorest of poor children
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The U.N. children's agency says it has failed to reach millions of the world's neediest boys and girls in slums and remote countryside and is shifting to a strategy of getting critical health care services to the poorest of the poor....
High waves knock man off pier into Lake Michigan
LUDINGTON, Mich. (AP) -- Police in Michigan have dive teams searching for a man they believe drowned in Lake Michigan after high waves knocked him off a pier in Ludington....
Coyote killed; may have attacked 2 in NYC suburb
RYE BROOK, N.Y. (AP) -- Police have killed a coyote believed to the same animal that attacked a teen and a toddler in two separate incidents within about an hour in a New York City suburb....
Tenn teacher accused of holding teens at gunpoint
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) -- Police have accused a high school teacher of holding teenagers at gunpoint after he found them ghost-hunting in a Tennessee graveyard....
St. Lucia soccer team honors slain scorer in NY
NEW YORK (AP) -- Members of a St. Lucian soccer team played in remembrance of a slain teammate as they took the field for a final match in a New York City tournament....
MIAMI (AP) -- Hurricane watches issued for coasts of Mexico, Texas as Tropical Storm Hermine approaches....
Olympia, 2-war naval veteran, battles for survival
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- The USS Olympia, a one-of-a-kind steel cruiser that returned home to a hero's welcome after a history-changing victory in the Spanish-American War, is a proud veteran fighting what may be its final battle....
Evangelist preaches against Islam near 9/11 site
NEW YORK (AP) -- An Internet evangelist from Florida has begun holding services near ground zero to preach against Islam as debate continues over plans for a nearby Muslim community center....
6 small earthquakes shake parts of Oklahoma
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- For the second time in less than a week, six small earthquakes have been recorded in a single day in central Oklahoma....
Backyard volunteers helping track firefly numbers
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The yellow-green streaks of fireflies that bring a magical air to summer nights, inspire camp songs and often end up in jars in children's bedrooms may be flickering out in the nation's backyards as suburban sprawl encroaches on their habitats....
Greenest state behind the waste-to-energy race
LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- Government officials from around the world used to come to this port city to catch a glimpse of the future: Two-story piles of trash would disappear into a furnace and eventually be transformed into electricity to power thousands of homes....
Racial violence changes student _ and school
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Duong Nghe Ly can't wait to begin his senior year at South Philadelphia High School. A day of violence there last year changed his life, and he wants to learn if his school has been transformed as well....
Endangered or not, wolf killings set to expand
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Government agencies are seeking broad new authority to ramp up killings and removals of gray wolves in the Northern Rockies and Great Lakes, despite two recent court actions that restored the animal's endangered status in every state except Alaska and Minnesota....
9 years gone, everyone's a ground zero stakeholder
NEW YORK (AP) -- It is a place of sacrifice. A place of mourning. A place people pass by on their way to grab lunch. It's a place where tourists crane their necks to snatch a glimpse around barriers walling off an enormous construction site - which is also what it is....
Army studies concussions' effects on bomb techs
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- Motivated by the deaths of two friends in war-zone explosions, 1st Lt. Timothy Dwyer decided to become a bomb hunter....
Video shows calm scene after Denver plane crash
DENVER (AP) -- Newly released video shows firefighters arriving at the scene of a blazing plane crash at Denver International Airport and finding a calm scene....
For US Muslims, a 9/11 anniversary like no other
NEW YORK (AP) -- American Muslims are boosting security at mosques, seeking help from leaders of other faiths and airing ads underscoring their loyalty to the United States - all ahead of a 9/11 anniversary they fear could bring more trouble for their communities....
Race complicates reservation crime fight
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- For more than two hours on the night of May 16, 2007, Shane Maggi terrorized a Native American couple at their home on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Montana, pistol whipping them and firing bullets above the husband's head....
Who's often dreading college sendoff more? Parents
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- The hour when Ariana Kramer will begin her college career is fast approaching - and her parents are in an office supply store, disagreeing about hanging files, of all things....
NYC sanitation pier, trash trailers catch fire
NEW YORK (AP) -- The New York City Fire Department says a Manhattan sanitation pier that was the site of a smoky fire will need to be checked for stability....
Las Vegas casino evacuated after bomb threat
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- A man claiming to have a bomb around his chest prompted an evacuation of a Las Vegas casino for several hours....
AP Interview: Author leaving home next to Palins
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- Sarah Palin can take down the fence. Palin's neighbor of three months on Wasilla's Lake Lucille, author Joe McGinniss, is packing his bags and notebooks and leaving Sunday for his home in Massachusetts to write the book he has been researching on the former governor and GOP vice presidential candidate....
Rangel spends $111,000 on legal fees in 2 months
NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal campaign finance report shows embattled New York Rep. Charles Rangel has spent more than $111,000 on legal bills since July....
UPS identifies American crew killed in Dubai crash
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) -- Crew members from Kentucky and Florida were identified Saturday as the two people killed when a UPS cargo plane crashed shortly after takeoff outside Dubai....
Report: Blackwater created shell companies
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The security company Blackwater Worldwide formed a network of 30 shell companies and subsidiaries to try to get millions of dollars in government business after the company faced strong criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, The New York Times reported....
Fired, rehired teachers back at troubled RI school
CENTRAL FALLS, R.I. (AP) -- Teachers who were fired and ultimately rehired in a dispute that focused national debate over education reform have returned to their classrooms amid hopes that changes they agreed to will help improve student performance at their persistently troubled high school....
NTSB investigates San Francisco Bay plane crash
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say flight controls on a small plane that crashed in a lagoon off San Francisco Bay, killing three people on board, were in the correct position....
LA artists fight to save city's legacy of murals
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Every so often, Ernesto de la Loza drives around the city to check on the state of his murals. It's a short tour these days. Out of 42 swirling, vivid pieces he's painted, only seven remain, the rest lost to graffiti, whitewash and withering sun....
Police name casino winner robbed and killed in OC
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities have identified the man who they say went from big winnings at a Southern California casino to death at the hands of robbers....
Suspect in consulate deaths appears in Texas court
SAN ANTONIO, Texas (AP) -- A man who told Mexican authorities he ordered the March killing of a U.S. Consulate worker in Mexico has been extradited to the U.S. and appeared in a federal court in Texas, the San Antonio Express-News reported....
Muslims take to Minn. State Fair to repair image
FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (AP) -- Despite the smells of fried dough and roasted meat wafting from the Minnesota State Fair, Salim and Zuleyha Ozonder were focused on the people who were leaving, not the food or festivities beckoning from across the street....
3 LAX terminals shut down after guard leaves post
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Officials say three terminals at the Los Angeles International Airport were briefly shut down after an airport contract worker left an exit from a secure area unattended....
911 calls describe Discovery Channel gunman, IED
BALTIMORE (AP) -- A security guard who called 911 after a gunman entered Discovery Channel's headquarters calmly told the operator: "You're probably going to need a sniper."...
Head of alleged trafficking scheme arrested
HONOLULU (AP) -- The head of a labor recruiting company accused of exploiting 400 workers from Thailand and forcing them to work on U.S. farms pleaded not guilty Friday, part of what the FBI calls the largest human-trafficking case charged in U.S. history...
2 abortion Drs. ordered to stop after Md. injury
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Maryland health officials have ordered two doctors to stop performing abortions after a woman was critically injured during a procedure last month....
Calif. wildfire sparked by migrants' signal blaze
CAMPO, Calif. (AP) -- Authorities say a wildfire burning in rural San Diego County was sparked by two illegal immigrants who set a signal fire after they got lost....
La. officials suspend abortion clinic's license
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) -- Louisiana health officials suspended an abortion clinic's license Friday, the first time the state has used its new authority to shut down such a facility over health and safety concerns....
Mesa woman burned after acid thrown in face
MESA, Ariz. (AP) -- Police are searching for a suspect who threw acid on the face of an Arizona woman who had arrived home and was getting out of her car....
Authorities: Fire at Tenn. mosque site was arson
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP) -- Federal investigators said Friday that a suspicious fire that damaged construction equipment at the site of a future mosque in Tennessee was arson and offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest....
Sacramento eatery takes 'dancing shrimp' off menu
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- A Sacramento restaurant agreed to stop serving live shrimp after an animal-rights group said the practice was cruel to the shellfish....
Colo. gubernatorial candidate refuses to back down
DENVER (AP) -- Dan Maes likes to brag about taking down the political machine in becoming Colorado's Republican gubernatorial nominee. The way he's going, it may be the only victory in a short-lived political career....
Prof in '03 plague scare sets off airport shutdown
MIAMI (AP) -- The suspicions airport security officials had when they saw the metal canister grew when they learned about the man who brought it in from the Middle East: a scientist who sparked a bioterrorism scare after he reported missing vials of plague samples seven years ago....
Mother of slain camper files claim in Phoenix
PHOENIX (AP) -- The mother of an Oklahoma man believed to have been killed by an Arizona prison escapee has filed a $10 million claim against Arizona and a wrongful death lawsuit against the private company that operates the prison that housed the fugitive....
Worker killed in chaotic gun battle at pharmacy
NORTH HIGHLANDS, Calif. (AP) -- A shootout in the Sacramento suburbs has left a pharmacy worker dead and police hunting for two drugstore robbers....
LA sheriff says almost all pot clinics criminal
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The Los Angeles County sheriff has escalated his war of words against California medical marijuana dispensaries, saying as many as 97 percent operate as criminal enterprises....
Correction: Alaska Senate
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) -- In a story Sept. 2 about the Alaska Senate, The Associated Press erroneously attributed a quote to University of Alaska Anchorage political science professor Carl Shepro. The following was said by Alaska Republican U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller on CNN's "John King, USA:" "So this is not a Joe Miller comes to D.C. and Social Security is gone, Medicare is gone. But what Joe Miller does do, and what those that I think are joining in this message do is get this ...
Plane hits Ore. home; pilot, homeowner survive
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- A small plane stalled and nose-dived into the roof of a house south of Portland on Friday, but the 70-year-old pilot and the homeowner survived....
Calif. Assembly limits media recording of sessions
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- The California Assembly this week began enforcing a long-forgotten rule that constrains media coverage of legislative debates by prohibiting audio or video recorders without permission....
Mexican drug kingpin gets 27 years in Ariz. prison
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- A Mexican man who prosecutors say headed a major drug-smuggling ring that shipped tons of marijuana into the U.S. was sentenced Friday to 27 years in prison and ordered to forfeit $4 million to the American government....
State report urges Mexico to improve human rights
The Obama administration is withholding $26 million in aid to Mexico, recommending that the government give more power to its human rights commission and crack down on abusive soldiers....
