News For Saturday Aug 30, 2008 News For Saturday Aug 30, 2008

U.S. U.S.

Gustav swells to dangerous Cat 3 storm off Cuba - Added 1 hour ago

Gustav swelled to a fearsome Category 3 hurricane early Saturday with winds of 115 mph as it approached western Cuba on a track to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast three years after Hurricane Katrina. The U.S. National...

Some leave Gulf Coast ahead of likely evacuations - Added 1 hour ago

As city officials detailed plans for an evacuation that could be called over the weekend, some residents weren't waiting to be told to leave. Cars packed with clothes, boxes and pet carriers drove north among heavy...

Maine artist creates HOPE image decades after LOVE - Added 1 hour ago

The Maine artist who brought LOVE to the world is doing the same with HOPE. Robert Indiana decades ago created the pop icon LOVE, known worldwide with its letters stacked two to a line, the letter "o" tilted on its...

Source: Petraeus submitted report on troop cuts - Added 1 hour ago

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has given his military superiors and Defense Secretary Robert Gates his initial recommendation on when to resume a U.S. troop withdrawal and at what pace, a senior...

NYPD: former detective arrested as 'Bling Bandit' - Added 3 hours ago

He was a respected former NYPD detective and a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War who struggled in recent months with inoperable liver cancer. But now Athelson Kelson is charged with bank robbery, identified by...

Army Experience Center offers simulations at mall - Added 4 hours ago

"Heads up! Enemy helicopter inbound!" It's not something you'd expect to hear at a store in an American shopping mall but, then again, not many malls have Black Hawk helicopter simulators. The new Army Experience...

Small plane crashes near Calif. airport; 3 injured - Added 4 hours ago

A small plane overshot a runway and crashed into some power lines near Bob Hope Airport. Three people inside the aircraft were injured, authorities said. The Cessna 172 single-engine plane landed upside down in the...

Guests for the Sunday TV news shows - Added 5 hours ago

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: ___ ABC's "This Week" _ Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Kerry, D-Mass. ___ CBS' "Face the...

Hurricane Gustav plows through Cayman Islands - Added 6 hours ago

Hurricane Gustav plowed through the Cayman Islands toward Cuba, gathering strength on a journey that could take it to the U.S. Gulf Coast as a fearsome Category-3 storm three years after Hurricane Katrina. Gustav,...

Mother of missing Fla. toddler arrested again - Added 6 hours ago

!!-- pobj:FLORL101-0829082233 -->!!-- pobj:FLORL102-0829082236 -->The mother of a missing Florida girl was back in jail on check fraud and theft charges just over a week after being released on bond for charges related...

Obama to attend Ohio congresswoman's service - Added 7 hours ago

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will be among the speakers at a memorial service Saturday for the late U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones of the Cleveland area. The 58-year-old Tubbs Jones died Aug. 20 from...

Co-defendant in Pa. collar-bomb to plead guilty - Added 7 hours ago

A co-defendant in the bizarre bank robbery plot that led to the collar-bomb death of a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man more than five years ago will plead guilty next week, his defense attorney told The Associated Press...

Train, propane tanker collide in Okla., killing 2 - Added 8 hours ago

A train slammed into a propane tanker truck in north-central Oklahoma on Friday, triggering a huge explosion that killed two people and injured a third, authorities said. "It blew the semi tanker apart," Oklahoma...

Today in History - Aug. 30 - Added 8 hours ago

Today is Saturday, Aug. 30, the 243rd day of 2008. There are 123 days left in the year. Today's Highlight in History: On Aug. 30, 1983, Guion S. Bluford Jr. became the first black American astronaut to travel in space...

In New Orleans, no shelter for those who stay - Added 9 hours ago

!!-- AUDIO:323,319 -->Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the...

Bush treated to Marines parade - Added 9 hours ago

President Bush witnessed cannons firing, guns flinging and heavy marching at a Marines parade Friday night while visiting their barracks. The president and his wife Laura arrived at dusk at the Marine Barracks...

Polygamous church sues to reverse court judgment - Added 9 hours ago

Attorneys for a polygamous church sued a court-appointed accountant on Friday, seeking to reverse an $8.8 million judgment against its $110 million property trust. In papers filed in 3rd District Court church attorney...

2 airliners nearly collide over Atlantic - Added 9 hours ago

Two airliners were one minute from colliding when at least one of the planes turned away from the other over the Atlantic Ocean this week, federal authorities said Friday. The National Transportation Safety Board said...

In New Orleans, no shelter for those who stay - Added 10 hours ago

!!-- AUDIO:323,319 -->Police with bullhorns plan to go street to street this weekend with a tough message about getting out ahead of Hurricane Gustav: This time there will be no shelter of last resort. The doors to the...

Report: NASA studies extending shuttle to 2015 - Added 10 hours ago

NASA's staff will study whether the space shuttle program could continue operating past its scheduled retirement in 2010, according to an internal e-mail sent this week. The e-mail obtained by The Orlando Sentinel...

Ex-private eye, lawyer, convicted of conspiracy - Added 12 hours ago

Former Hollywood private eye Anthony Pellicano and his entertainment lawyer co-defendant were convicted Friday of charges linked to the wiretapping of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian's former wife in a child support...

RI diocese pays $1.3M to settle 4 abuse claims - Added 12 hours ago

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence will pay $1.3 million to four people who said they were abused by priests, lawyers announced Friday. The settlements were reached in June and will go to the victims or their...

Bacteria in water at Okla. E. coli outbreak site - Added 12 hours ago

Bacterial contamination has been found in well water at a northeast Oklahoma restaurant linked to an E. coli outbreak that killed a man and sickened dozens of others, state health officials said Friday. Department of...

Plea deal accepted for Calif. man who killed wife - Added 13 hours ago

A judge on Friday accepted a plea deal that reduced the murder charge for a software programmer who led authorities to his wife's body after his initial conviction. Hans Reiser, 44, was found guilty in April of...

4th inmate captured in NM jailbreak, 4 at large - Added 13 hours ago

A fourth inmate who escaped from an eastern New Mexico jail has been captured, authorities said. Victor Sotelo, 26, was arrested without incident Thursday night at a duplex in southeast Albuquerque, District Attorney...

Ariz. ballot campaign on affirmative action ends - Added 13 hours ago

Supporters of a proposal to ban affirmative action in Arizona said Friday they were abandoning a lawsuit aimed at getting the measure on the Nov. 4 ballot. The Arizona Civil Rights Initiative campaign had contested the...

Hundreds of mink set loose from Utah farm - Added 13 hours ago

Animal rights activists broke into a mink farm and released hundreds of the animals from their pens, police said. Lindsey McMullin said "animal rights terrorists" hit his South Jordan farm, about 18 miles south of Salt...

Ex-Tenn. professor denies he violated secrets law - Added 13 hours ago

!!-- pobj:TNKV103-0825081707 -->A retired University of Tennessee professor accused of passing secrets from his work on a U.S. Air Force contract to two foreign graduate students testified Friday that he didn't break...

Hide-and-seek turns up abandoned baby in bushes - Added 13 hours ago

A 6-year-old girl playing hide-and-seek with her grandmother found a newborn baby girl abandoned in a vacant lot next to her home. Lilliana Williams-Rodriguez told her grandmother Thursday evening that she had found a...

Katrina's unclaimed dead entombed, Gustav looms - Added 13 hours ago

!!-- AUDIO:08298330,08298332 -->At 9:38 a.m. on Friday, about 200 mourners rang handbells to mark the moment three years ago when New Orleans' levees were breached by high waters from Hurricane Katrina, flooding most...

Retired NYPD detective charged with bank robbery - Added 13 hours ago

A highly respected retired NYPD detective with inoperable liver cancer was charged with bank robbery Friday after authorities identified him as the so-called Bling Bandit, suspected of pulling off nine heists while...

Guests for the Sunday TV news shows - Added 13 hours ago

Guest lineup for the Sunday TV news shows: ___ ABC's "This Week" _ Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain; Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and John Kerry, D-Mass. ___ CBS' "Face the...

Acquittal of ex-Marine sparks debate over law - Added 14 hours ago

Some members of the civilian jury that acquitted a former Marine accused of war crimes in Iraq say they weren't qualified to judge actions in combat, and military and legal experts said the case raises serious questions...

Coroner: Cyanide suicide victim was schizophrenic - Added 14 hours ago

A coroner says a man who killed himself with cyanide in a Denver hotel room had been suffering from schizophrenia. Medication to treat the disorder was found in Saleman Abdirahman Dirie's system. His body was found two...

Indiana dad gets 18 months for killing family cat - Added 14 hours ago

A man was sentenced to 18 months in prison after admitting he forced his 7-year-old daughter to kill the family cat by holding a knife in her hand and making her stab the pet. "I am extremely sorry for what I did,"...

Radar used to search for couple missing since '85 - Added 15 hours ago

Homicide investigators used ground-penetrating radar Friday to determine if the bones of a long-vanished couple were buried in the backyard. Newlyweds Jonathan and Linda Sohus lived in the San Marino home before...

Forecasters: Gustav strengthens into a hurricane - Added 15 hours ago

!!-- AUDIO:236,231 -->On the same day that residents marked the three-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's wrath, another storm strengthened into a hurricane miles away and threatened to hit the Gulf Coast once...

Ask AP: Commercial biodiesel, the nation's cash - Added 15 hours ago

Let's say everyone in the country woke up one day and decided to take their money out of the bank and bury it in the yard. Does the nation's banking system have enough cash to convert everyone's virtual money into bills...

Hurricane victims rebuild fortress-like homes - Added 15 hours ago

!!-- pobj:FLPEJ102-0602080251 -->!!-- pobj:FLPEJ104-0602080253 -->!!-- pobj:FLPEJ101-0602080251 -->Floodwaters 5 feet deep filled sculptor and retired Navy Cmdr. Robert Noguere's bayfront home when Hurricane Ivan made...

Smithsonian to make large cuts to executives' pay - Added 15 hours ago

At least 17 Smithsonian Institution executives with six-figure salaries will see future pay cuts _ many in the tens of thousands of dollars _ under reforms adopted by the museum complex. According to figures released...

Hurricane-force winds, heavy rain hit Phoenix area - Added 15 hours ago

!!-- pobj:AZPHP101-0829081502 -->!!-- pobj:AZPHP102-0829081505 -->A series of fast-moving thunderstorms packing winds of up to 100 mph plowed through the Phoenix area, leaving tens of thousands without power, damaging...

Trying to get up to speed, Slow Food makes US push - Added 15 hours ago

A lush, under-the-stars spread of handmade bread, gourmet olives and fine wine makes an unlikely launch for a weekend dedicated to ending hunger, empowering poor nations and transforming farming as we know it. Welcome...

Body parts scheme ringleader pleads guilty in Pa. - Added 15 hours ago

A man who made millions of dollars by plundering hundreds of bodies sent to funeral homes and selling their often-diseased parts and tissues to medical companies pleaded guilty Friday to a raft of charges that could...

Lawyer: Guilty plea coming in Pa. collar-bomb case - Added 15 hours ago

A defense attorney says his client will plead guilty to conspiracy in a bizarre 2003 bank robbery that led to the collar-bomb death of a Pennsylvania pizza delivery man. Attorney Jamie Mead of Erie said Friday that...

Demand for military bomb techs at all-time high - Added 16 hours ago

Many things have gone wrong for Navy Senior Chief Tommy Gura while disarming nearly 200 improvised explosive devices in Iraq. He's been shot at and targeted for mortar attacks. His robots have blown up and he's lost...

Ohio jury convicts mom in microwaved-baby case - Added 16 hours ago

A mother was convicted Friday of killing her month-old daughter by burning her in a microwave oven, with jurors rejecting a defense attorney's claims there was evidence that someone else was responsible. China Arnold,...

Source: Petraeus submitted preliminary Iraq report - Added 16 hours ago

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, has given his military superiors and Defense Secretary Robert Gates his initial recommendation on when to resume a U.S. troop withdrawal and at what pace, a senior...

Ala. judge's goof could mean prison for ex-soldier - Added 16 hours ago

!!-- pobj:ALMOP101-0413061126 -->Patrick Lett returned to south Alabama when he finished an unblemished 17-year Army career, including two tours in Iraq. Then his father died, he couldn't find work to support his two...

NC man charged, accused of threatening Obama - Added 16 hours ago

A North Carolina man has been formally indicted on a charge that he threatened to shoot Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert said Friday that 48-year-old Jerry M....

Calif. farmers use guns, poison to safeguard crops - Added 17 hours ago

Farmers in "America's Salad Bowl" are turning into hunters _ stalking wild pigs, rabbits and deer _ to keep E. coli and other harmful bacteria out of their fields. It's part of an intense effort to prevent another...