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"I am so happy to be home, and I want to thank everybody for all your prayers. I just want time now to be with my family." _ A statement by Gina DeJesus, one of three women allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused for years inside a padlocked Cleveland house. ___ ""We knew where the responsibility rested ...They've tried to point a finger at people more senior than where we found the decisions were made." _ The diplomat who wrote a highly critical report on security at a U.S. outpost in Benghazi,...

A day before a 12-year-old boy was arrested for the stabbing death of his 8-year-old sister, his mother described him as "protective" of his younger sibling. Leila Fowler's killing last month shook the quiet community of Valley Springs, southeast of Sacramento, and set off an intense manhunt. Her brother was in the home at the time and told police he saw a man run from the scene. Days later, the boy appeared with his father and stepmother at a vigil for his sister. On Friday, as speculation...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Monday: 1. WHAT A STRONG VICTORY MEANS FOR PAKISTAN'S SHARIF A mandate that could make it easier to tackle the country's problems, including growing power outages, weak economic growth and shaky government finances. 2. WHY CLOTHING COMPANIES HAVE A HARD TIME LEAVING BANGLADESH It's one of the few places that has enough workers, capacity and experience to provide high volume, low prices, good quality...

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier became the highest paid public college president of 2011-12 when he was forced out over his handling of the sex abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, according to a survey released Sunday. The Chronicle of Higher Education's annual ranking of public college presidents' earnings said Spanier's $2.9 million pay, which included $1.2 million in severance and $1.2 million in deferred compensation, put him well ahead of his...

Police stormed a New Jersey home early Sunday and fatally shot a registered sex offender who had held his girlfriend's three children hostage, ending their 37-hour ordeal and recovering the bodies of the captives' mother and another sibling, authorities said. Officers initially went to the home in South Trenton Friday afternoon after a relative of 44-year-old Carmelita Stevens said she hadn't spoken to her in weeks and was worried, authorities said at a news conference Sunday. Upon further investigation,...

Billionaire Ted Turner can keep his Yellowstone National Park bison calves. The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports ( http://bit.ly/YDARva ) in a story published Sunday that Gallatin County Judge Holly Brown dismissed a request by a coalition of wildlife advocates to overturn an agreement Turner made with the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks. The agreement transferred dozens of bison to Turner's private ranch near Bozeman to be taken care of for five years. In exchange, Turner gets...

The three women allegedly imprisoned and sexually abused for years inside a padlocked Cleveland house asked for privacy Sunday, saying through an attorney that while they are grateful for overwhelming support, they also need time to heal. Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus, and Michelle Knight remain in seclusion, releasing their first statements since they were found May 6 when Berry escaped and told a 911 dispatcher, "I'm free now." They thanked law enforcement and said they were grateful for the support...

Authorities said Sunday that four people found shot to death in a southern Indiana home were a couple who lived there and two of their male friends. Daniel Burton, the 27-year-old son of the woman who was killed, arrived home from work Saturday night and found two of the victims dead in the living room of his Waynesville home, Bartholomew County Sheriff Mark Gorbett said. He said Burton called police, who found the other two victims, including Burton's 53-year-old mother, Katheryn Burton....

Top 10 recipients, in total compensation, among public college leaders in 2011-12. 1. Graham Spanier (x), Pennsylvania State University, $2,906,271 2. Jay Gogue, Auburn University, $2,542,865 3. E. Gordon Gee, Ohio State University, $1,899,420 4. Alan Merten (x), George Mason University, $1,869,369 5. Jo Ann Gora, Ball State University, $984,647 6. Mary Sue Coleman, University of Michigan, $918,783 7. Charles Steger, Virginia Tech, $857,749 8. Mark Yudof, University of California, $847,149...

Strong winds have pushed huge ice sheets ashore at a northern Minnesota lake and right up to people's doorsteps. WCCO-TV reports that the ice from Lake Mille Lacs (MILL LAX) reached the doors and windows at the Izatys (eye-ZEHT'-ees) Resort on Saturday morning. National Weather Service Meteorologist Shawn Devinny says 30 to 40 mile an hour winds pushed the water into the ice, driving it ashore. He says the winds were lighter Sunday and the shoreline got a reprieve. The Department of Natural...

More than 70 law enforcement officers were part of the ongoing hunt Sunday for a Northern California man wanted in the killing of his wife and two young daughters. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department said SWAT teams from three counties, federal officials and local police continued to search through the rugged terrain of California's remote North Coast for Shane Franklin Miller. On Saturday two helicopters and an armored vehicle joined the effort. Miller, 45, is suspected of slaying...

Authorities believe that a slain 18-month-old girl whose body was found over the weekend was killed on the eastern Kansas farm where her mother and two men were killed, and that the child's body was later disposed of in the next county. An Osage County deputy found the girl's body on Saturday. Although she hasn't been positively identified, Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said investigators were confident the body was that of Lana Leigh Bailey, who went missing with her mother more than...

More than 70 law enforcement officers are part of the hunt for a Northern California man wanted in the killing of his wife and two young daughters. The Humboldt County Sheriff's Department says SWAT teams from three counties, federal officials and local police continue Sunday to search through the rugged terrain of California's remote North Coast for Shane Franklin Miller. On Saturday two helicopters and an armored vehicle joined the effort. The 45-year-old Miller is suspected of slaying...

Brennan's, a New Orleans restaurant that famously invented the Bananas Foster dessert six decades ago, is more recently known for a long-running family clash over ownership of the French Quarter eatery. Infighting among relatives of the restaurant's late founder, Owen Edward Brennan, flared up last month when a shareholder meeting led to a standoff inside the restaurant. Police were called to intervene. The heated confrontation ended with a temporary truce, but the tangled family dispute is heading...

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she supports a woman's right to choose to have an abortion, but feels her predecessors' landmark Roe v. Wade ruling 40 years ago was too sweeping and gave abortion opponents a symbol to target. Ginsburg, one of the most liberal members of the nation's high court, spoke Saturday at the University of Chicago Law School. Ever since the decision, she said, momentum has been on abortion opponents' side, fueling a state-by-state campaign that has placed...

At age 88, John Rigas could be a poster child for inmates who might seek early release from prison because of the hazards of advanced aging. The former cable television mogul, convicted of fraud after his company collapsed into bankruptcy in 2002, already has fought cancer and had triple-bypass heart surgery. But he and others like him had little hope that an application for compassionate release would get a serious look before a recent report by the Department of Justice's inspector general called...

Each Wednesday, barber Anthony Cymerys sets up his chair in the shade of an oak tree in Hartford's Bushnell Park. For longtime clients, the homeless or those just down on their luck, the fee is always the same: a hug for a haircut. The 82-year-old Cymerys, who is known as Joe the Barber, began offering his services 25 years ago after retiring from a career in business. He had cut hair for his family but decided to put his clippers to work for the less fortunate after being inspired by a church...

Deciding which police officers killed in the line of duty belong on a national memorial usually is driven by facts and presents few obstacles. But this year, two cases show that it isn't always so black-and-white to honor the nation's fallen men and women in blue. This year, the cases of two inductees highlight different challenges facing leaders of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which holds a vigil Monday for 321 officers added to the wall in Washington, D.C. Detective...

Five months after ordering across-the-board spending reductions, improved revenue collections have Gov. Deval Patrick's administration considering whether to now restore some of those cuts. A group of mostly Republican lawmakers has sent a letter to Patrick, specifically urging him to reverse cuts that hit local aid programs for cities and towns. The letter says communities around the state have been negatively impacted by the cuts, which the governor ordered in December after lower than expected...

Combat helicopter pilot Prince Harry of Britain along with Olympic swimming champion Missy Franklin joined an American naval officer who had been blinded in Afghanistan in launching the Warrior Games for wounded service members. Lt. Bradley Snyder, Harry and Franklin lifted a torch Saturday to ignite an Olympic-style cauldron, after completing the last leg of a brief torch relay at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs to formally start the games. . It was a touching start...

A standoff with an armed man who police said took multiple hostages extended to a third day early Sunday as authorities worked to negotiate his surrender and his captives' release. The man, whose identity has not been released, remained holed-up in a two-story red brick house in South Trenton, authorities said. The standoff began Friday afternoon. Trenton police Lt. Stephen Varn declined to give any details on the number of people being held, their ages or relationship to the armed man....

Authorities on Saturday arrested the 12-year-old brother of an 8-year-old girl who was mysteriously stabbed at her home in a rural Northern California community last month. The boy, who was not identified, will be charged with homicide, Calaveras County Sheriff Gary Kuntz told reporters. The April 27 attack on Leila Fowler shook the tightknit Valley Springs community of about 7,400 people and set off a massive manhunt. The boy had told police he found his sister's body and encountered an intruder...

At last, it is written. Four years after he began his project to write out every word of the Bible, Phillip Patterson penned the very last lines Saturday at an upstate New York church. "Every single curly-q, every single loop, it was all worth it," said Patterson, 63, moments after inking the final two verses of the King James Bible. "I'm really going to miss this writing." It took Patterson just a few minutes to copy the final lines of the Book of Revelation before a crowd of about 125 people...

One of the most liberal members of the U.S. Supreme Court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg could be expected to give a rousing defense of Roe v. Wade in reflecting on the landmark vote 40 years after it established a nationwide right to abortion. Instead, Ginsburg told an audience Saturday at the University of Chicago Law School that while she supports a woman's right to choose, she feels the ruling by her predecessors on the court was too sweeping and gave abortion opponents a symbol to target. Ever...

Scott and Robin Spivey had a sinking feeling that something was wrong with their home when cracks began snaking across their walls in March. The cracks soon turned into gaping fractures, and within two weeks their 600-square-foot garage broke from the house and the entire property _ manicured lawn and all _ dropped 10 feet below the street. It wasn't long before the houses on both sides collapsed as the ground gave way in the Spivey's neighborhood in Lake County, about 100 miles north of San...

It probably happens to most drivers. Heading home after an overtime shift and the eyelids flutter. Up all night with a sick baby and you rest your eyes for just a moment on the way to dropping off the kids at school. Drowsy drivers often make it safely to their destination, but for some, the consequences are devastating. "To this day I still hear my boys crying out, yelling for Daddy, when they were told the news," says Jackie Califano, the widow of a New York police officer killed when a suspected...

Crews in eastern Kansas used boats and sonar equipment Saturday as the search continued for an 18-month-old girl presumed dead after the bodies of her mother and two men were found at a farm home earlier in the week. Franklin County Sheriff Jeff Richards said investigators looking for the body of Lana Leigh Bailey were scouring ponds and other waterways in the area near the farm outside Ottawa. "We haven't found her, and we're going to continue ... until we do," Richards said during a Saturday...

Two inmates who fled a Kansas prison face several charges in Missouri where they're accused of trying to ambush the officers pursuing them and of attempting to kidnap the mayor of the small town where they were eventually captured after less than a day on the run. Platte County Prosecutor Eric Zahnd said Allen M. Hurst and Scott A. Gilbert were in the county jail on $5 million cash bond after being charged with 12 felonies Saturday. Hurst, 31, and Gilbert, 49, are accused of escaping from the...

Jake Anderson didn't have to delve too deep into the University of Missouri's agricultural economics program before realizing he was destined to return to the 1,500-acre family farm. After all, that's been the Anderson family trade since 1891, when his great-great grandfather came to Callaway County from Sweden. What the self-described "farm kid" was less certain of was how to manage a volatile business where market price fluctuations are common, the weather is unpredictable and long-term planning...

Army civilian personnel specialist Tracey Leven recalls the time she tried to use a breast pump to express milk in a military office years ago. Instead of "breast pump in use," she was required to put a sign on the door reading, "occupied." That didn't stop two male soldiers from using their keys to open the locked office. "They were surprised. I was covered up, so there wasn't any kind of issue," said Leven, a 29-year-old who works at the 3rd Army headquarters here in South Carolina. Now the...

SWAT teams from three counties and a team from the California Department of Corrections, as well as federal law enforcement officials and local police have joined the hunt for a Northern California man wanted in the killing of his wife and two young daughters. The extra help _ which includes two helicopters and an armored vehicle _ comes as law enforcement officials continued Saturday to search through the rugged terrain of California's remote North Coast for Shane Franklin Miller, said Humboldt...

A judge has ruled that a nun and two other protesters must remain in jail until they are sentenced in September for breaking into a nuclear weapons plant in Tennessee. Sister Megan Rice and protesters Michael Walli and Greg Boertje-Obed (bohr-CHEE' OH-bed') were convicted Wednesday of sabotaging the plant and damaging federal property last year at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge. The sabotage charge carries a maximum prison term of up to 20 years. The damaged property charge has...

Workers in New York City carefully replaced the boom of a massive crane on Saturday, more than six months after it was twisted and warped by Superstorm Sandy and left dangling dangerously over the streets of Manhattan. Early in the morning construction crews began lifting the boom to its lofty position above 57th Street. The crane's top is about 1,000 feet up. Residents of two nearby apartment buildings were ordered out Friday as a precaution. The city's buildings department began letting people...

As relatives of the Cleveland kidnapping and rape suspect recounted claims of his unnerving paranoia and violent outbursts, DNA testing confirmed the man accused of holding three women captive for nearly a decade is the father of a 6-year-old girl who also escaped from the house. Ariel Castro, charged with rape and kidnapping, remained jailed Friday under a suicide watch on $8 million bond while prosecutors weighed more charges, including some that might carry the death penalty....

When he was hired in 2010 as chef at Virginia's historic Executive Mansion, Todd Schneider came with celebrity cachet, claiming connections to cooking world stars such as Martha Stewart and Paula Deen. And when a cable channel toured the governor's mansion, Schneider was cast as co-star to first lady Maureen McDonnell, showing off the gardens he tended and the kitchen he ran. Schneider served a platter of oatmeal, raisin and granola cookies to the Lifetime host as the beaming first lady looked...

Marc Fucarile lost his right leg above the knee in the Boston Marathon bombing, and doctors are still fighting to save his shattered left one. He has second- and third-degree burns and a piece of shrapnel lodged in his heart. He's lost track of how many surgeries he's had, with more still ahead. But he won't allow the pain or the uncertainty of his future shake his spirit or destroy his faith in humanity. "There are so many more good people than bad," Fucarile says during an interview with The...

Autopsies have been completed on two teenage brothers who were reported missing in northwest Ohio this week and found dead after a third teen directed authorities to their bodies. Authorities aren't releasing the results as they continue their investigation and weigh whether to file more charges against a teen who pleaded not guilty to a grand theft auto charge Friday in juvenile court. The two who were found dead_ 14-year-old Blaine Romes and 17-year-old Blake Romes _ lived together with the...

A lawyer for a Texas paramedic arrested on charges of possessing bomb-making material says his client will plead not guilty and had no connection to the fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people last month. Waco attorney Jonathan Sibley said in a prepared statement Saturday that his client, Bryce Reed anxiously awaits his next court appearance Wednesday, which will include a detention hearing. Authorities arrested Reed on Friday, but stressed that he has not been linked to the April 17...

Todd Schneider came with a lot of celebrity cachet when he was hired in 2010 as chef at Virginia's historic Executive Mansion and he was soon cast as the co-star with first lady Maureen McDonnell when a cable channel toured the governor's residence, the gardens he tended and the kitchen he ran. As the beaming first lady looked on, Schneider served up a platter of oatmeal, raison and granola cookies to the host as the Lifetime show flashed still photos of Gov. Bob McDonnell, in a blue apron, working...

Even with Republicans holding unprecedented political power across the South, Democrats remain mostly in charge of urban centers in otherwise conservative states. Yet increasingly that control is threatened, not at the ballot box, but by Republican-led legislatures reaching into local governing decisions, often over objections. In Georgia and North Carolina, GOP efforts range from regionalizing the Charlotte airport, the Atlanta metro transit system and the Asheville water system to redrawing...

Nursing women at a major Army headquarters in South Carolina don't have to hide in a rest room if they want to breast-feed their babies or express milk for their young. Women soldiers and civilian employees as well as spouses visiting the headquarters are celebrating the very low-tech room. This $100 million command center now has a room set up exclusively to support nursing mothers, just as moms everywhere celebrate Mother's Day on Sunday. Army spouse Dianna Troyer says she's excited the Army...

"Bombs or terrorist attacks must not stop voters from using their right to vote. People will have to decide what kind of Pakistan they want. If they vote for the wrong party, they will suffer for another five years." _ Islamabad voter Humayon Qaiser, 70, as at least 10 people have been killed as Pakistanis head to the polls. ___ "No one heard me. It was so bad for me. I never dreamed I'd see the daylight again." _ Bangladesh seamstress Reshma Begum who was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed...

Students on some of Pennsylvania's college campuses might be carrying more than books. At least five Pennsylvania state-owned universities are now allowing guns on campus after the state's lawyers concluded that an outright ban on weapons was likely unconstitutional. Kutztown, Shippensburg, Edinboro, Slippery Rock and Millersville universities have all quietly changed their policies over the past year to reflect the advice of lawyers in the governor's office and the Pennsylvania State System...

Newtown parents Steven Uhde and Peter Barresi didn't want the town to abandon the Sandy Hook Elementary School property where 20 first-graders and six educators were killed in December and build a new school elsewhere, saying that would be like letting the gunman win. So they were glad Friday night when a task force of 28 local elected officials voted unanimously in favor of a plan calling for tearing down Sandy Hook School and constructing a new building on the same property. "I think our message...

Texas law enforcement officials on Friday launched a criminal investigation into the massive fertilizer plant explosion that killed 14 people last month, after weeks of largely treating the blast as an industrial accident. The announcement came the same day federal agents said they found bomb-making materials belonging to a paramedic who helped evacuate residents the night of the explosion. Bryce Reed was arrested early Friday on a charge of possessing a destructive device, but law enforcement...

A task force of elected officials on Friday recommended tearing down the Connecticut elementary school where 20 first-graders and six educators were shot dead in December and rebuilding on the site. The group of 28 Newtown elected officials voted unanimously in favor of a plan that would construct a new building on the property where the existing Sandy Hook Elementary School is located. The proposal now goes to the local school board and ultimately before voters as a referendum. Parent Daniel...

A North Carolina man was sentenced Friday to four life terms for plotting to behead federal witnesses whose testimony helped convict him for his role in an earlier plot to slaughter U.S. servicemen and their families. Hysen Sherifi, 29, was one of six Raleigh-area Muslims convicted in 2011 of planning to attack the Marine base in Quantico, Va., and overseas targets. Shortly after starting his 45-year prison sentence in the terror case, Sherifi approached another inmate to help him hire a hit...

A bus carrying a high school girls softball team overturned Friday in far-western Kentucky, injuring several students. Kentucky State Police say the school bus was carrying the Union County High School girls' softball team and had 28 people on board when the accident occurred on U.S. 60 just before 5 p.m. CDT, in Livingston County, along the Ohio River. The bus ran off the right shoulder, then swerved to the other side of the road, rotating 180 degrees before rolling on to its side, State Police...

Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told a gathering of union leaders Friday that he has not decided on a possible run for U.S. Senate in 2014, but indicated he would need their support if he does. The two-term governor is considering a bid to replace fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, who is stepping down after six terms. Addressing the Montana AFL-CIO annual convention in Billings, Schweitzer said he has been receiving lots of calls from people urging him to run. He said it would be a family...

Britain's Prince Harry charmed dozens of dignitaries, British expatriates, students and military officers at a cocktail party welcoming him to Colorado Friday night and then joined the crowd in singing "Happy Birthday" to Olympian Missy Franklin, who was celebrating her 18th birthday. Harry went table-to-table for about an hour at the party at the Sanctuary Golf Club south of Denver. He asked Franklin, attending with her parents, for a rundown of her medals while he took some ribbing about the...

Former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer told a gathering of union leaders Friday that he has not decided on a possible run for U.S. Senate in 2014, but indicated he would need their support if he does. The two-term governor is considering a bid to replace fellow Democrat U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, who is stepping down after six terms. Addressing the Montana AFL-CIO annual convention in Billings, Schweitzer said he has been receiving lots of calls from people urging him to run. He said it would be a family...

A pack of dogs remained under quarantine at a Mojave Desert shelter on Friday as investigators tried to determine whether they were involved in a mauling that killed a jogger. By afternoon, Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide investigators had not announced any DNA match between the six pit bulls seized Thursday and the four believed to have attacked the woman in the high desert neighborhood of Littlerock earlier in the day, Deputy Guillermina Saldana said. The county coroner's office identified...

A man angry at his neighbors went on a rampage in a bulldozer Friday on Washington's Olympic Peninsula, damaging four homes, knocking one off its foundation and cutting power to thousands of people, authorities said. Barry Alan Swegle was booked into the Clallam County Jail for investigation of malicious mischief following the incident in Port Angeles, 65 miles west of Seattle. A voice mail message left at a phone listing for the 51-year-old was not immediately returned. Sheriff's spokesman...

The manhunt for a Northern California man suspected of killing his wife and two young daughters continues to expand as law enforcement officials ask for help from neighboring agencies. Officers from at least a dozen state and federal law enforcement agencies have fanned out across an area of rugged terrain along California's remote north coast where they believe 45-year-old Shane Franklin Miller has taken cover. Miller, considered armed and extremely dangerous, knows well the tree-lined...

An FBI agent who told police in Virginia that he fatally shot his estranged wife last month has been charged in her death. Media outlets say 43-year-old Arthur Gonzales was charged Friday with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony in the April 19 shooting death of Julie Serna Gonzales. Stafford sheriff's office spokesman Bill Kennedy says Gonzales turned himself in shortly after 6 p.m. He is being held at the Rappahannock Regional Jail without bond. During a...

A 27-year-old convicted felon was charged Friday in the deaths of a woman and two men whose bodies were found at an eastern Kansas farm home earlier this week, according to a criminal complaint. Kyle Flack also faces charges in the death of the woman's young daughter, whose body hasn't been found. Authorities say they presume 18-month-old Lana Leigh Bailey is dead based on evidence they have and that the search for her remains continues. Flack was charged with capital murder in the deaths of...

Two teenage brothers who had been reported missing were found dead after authorities were directed to their bodies by a third teen, who pleaded not guilty to a grand theft auto charge and was jailed, officials said. The brothers _ 14-year-old Blaine Romes and 17-year-old Blake Romes _ lived together with the third teen and their mothers inside a trailer home in Ottawa in northwest Ohio, neighbors said. The Associated Press previously identified the third teen, also a 17-year-old boy, but now...

A Southeast Texas woman is facing a felony charge for allegedly delaying hospital treatment of her teenage son's gunshot wound until she researched treatment options online. The incident happened Tuesday evening at the family's home in Santa Fe, about 30 miles southeast of Houston. Police say a friend of the 14-year-old son was playing with a handgun and pointed it at him when it went off, wounding the boy in the thigh. Police say the boy and his mother, Deborah Tagle, delayed seeking hospital...

Connecticut officials are setting aside millions of dollars to address backlogs in background checks that have soared into the thousands since the December school shooting in the state, which is one of several struggling with bottlenecks as people rush to buy guns ahead of new restrictions. Since the Dec. 14 massacre of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown reignited the debate over gun laws in the U.S., a host of factors have strained state background check systems,...

Two of three inmates who walked away from a northeast Kansas prison surrendered Friday afternoon at a northwest Missouri home where they had been holed up for hours, authorities said. Allen M. Hurst, 31, and Scott A. Gilbert, 49, walked out on to the back deck of a rural Edgerton home after several hours of negotiations with law enforcement, Platte County Sheriff's Capt. Erik Holland said. The whereabouts of 57-year-old Randy A. Ridens Sr., who escaped with the other two early Friday from Lansing...

Pakistan is expelling The New York Times' Islamabad bureau chief on the eve of national elections, accusing him of unspecified "undesirable activities," the newspaper said Friday. Declan Walsh, a longtime foreign correspondent who has been covering the country for the Times since January 2012, was handed a two-sentence letter early Thursday ordering him to leave, the newspaper said. Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson protested the expulsion in a letter to Pakistan's interior minister, Malik...

Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley said Friday that he won't attend Boston College's graduation because the Jesuit school's commencement speaker, Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny, supports legislation to permit abortion. The bill allows abortion if a doctor authorizes it to save a women's life. Opponents say the bill would lead to widespread abortion by also allowing it if a woman threatens suicide. In a statement Friday, O'Malley said abortion is "a crime against humanity" and the U.S. Conference...

The winter wheat crop is expected to be far smaller this season compared to last, particularly for hard red varieties used in bread, the U.S. Department of Agriculture reported Friday. In the first government projection on the harvest's anticipated size, the National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated winter wheat production will be down 10 percent to 1.49 billion bushels, due to fewer acres _ 32.7 million acres, some 6 percent fewer acres than a year ago _ and a 1.8-bushel decrease...

Think you've heard of every way possible to quit smoking? Etta Mae Lopez came up with a new one: slap a cop and go to jail, where smoking isn't allowed. Lopez smacked Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Matt Campoy in the face Tuesday as he left the main jail at the end of his shift. He grabbed her and took her inside the jail, where she slapped his arm as soon as he turned her loose. Once she was handcuffed, the 5-foot 1-inch Lopez told Campoy she picked him because he was in uniform and she...

Operators of a Missouri movie theater apologized Friday for a stunt in which an actor dressed in black, wearing body armor and carrying a fake rifle walked in to the movie house. The stunt occurred during a promotion for the movie "Iron Man 3" last weekend at the Goodrich Capital 8 Theaters in Jefferson City. Actors appeared at the theater, including some dressed as officers and one as Iron Man. Another actor was wearing what appeared to be assault gear and carrying a rifle. Some moviegoers were...

Federal prosecutors have released a surveillance video that was used in a case against a Border Patrol agent who was acquitted last month by a jury of a charge of choking a migrant. A judge on Thursday ordered the U.S. Attorney's office to release the footage in response to a petition by news organizations, including The Associated Press. In the video, Border Patrol agent Luis Fonseca is seen kneeing Adolfo Ceja in the thigh at a station in Imperial Beach in 2011, shortly after his arrest on...

A baby and a teenage passenger were killed when the child's mother was racing another car and crashed on Interstate 20 east of Atlanta early Friday, the Georgia State Patrol said. Kyrie Alassen Anderson, 22, was racing her Honda Accord near Conyers, about 25 miles east of Atlanta, and lost control of the car. The car hit a guardrail and traveled back across the westbound lanes of the highway before being hit by a Chevrolet pickup truck. Officials say the woman's 7-month-old baby and her 19-year-old...

John Brennan, who stripped naked last year to protest a security check at Portland's airport, said he expects to lose the first round of his legal fight against a $1,000 fine. Still, he plans to press his free-speech argument in an appeal and push for effective security checks that aren't as invasive. "I totally support airport screening," Brennan told The Oregonian ( http://bit.ly/10xrXBK ) newspaper in a story Thursday. "I just don't want it to be at the expense of my constitutional rights."...

A Carnegie Mellon University student was charged Friday with indecent exposure by campus police after a Catholic bishop complained about her parading nude from the waist down while dressed as the pope. A male student who was nude also was charged, but it wasn't immediately clear what he was doing during the Pittsburgh school's spring fine arts parade last month. CMU President Jared Cohon said Friday that the misdemeanor charges were filed in Allegheny County against the two students and the school...

High-ranking Oakland police officers are not being held properly accountable for the crimes occurring in the areas they oversee, according to a report by former Los Angeles police chief Bill Bratton. His consulting group on Thursday recommended that the department patrol the city in five districts, each led by a captain who would oversee a group of officers that can respond to crimes more effectively. Burglaries, in particular, were not being properly investigated, with one part-time investigator...

Georgia is pioneering a new strategy to eliminate parole offices, an effort officials say allows the officers to spend more time working with people in the community and also saves money. Over the last year or so, the state has closed most of its parole offices and equipped officers with laptops, smartphones and mobile printers, turning their state vehicles into mobile offices. The plan stresses visiting parolees in their communities rather than having them come into an office, said Michael Nail,...

In this upscale seaside village of about 2,500 permanent residents, the main challenges for Bal Harbour's 30-member police force are thefts from its high-end shopping mall, speeders along Florida's famed A1A highway and vehicle break-ins. But the department managed to rake in millions of dollars in forfeited drug proceeds by leading a task force that conducted investigations across the country, many with little or no link to the South Florida town. In fact, in 2011, Bal Harbour got more than $5...

Talk about a crab roll. About 75,000 pounds of frozen crab meat _ more than 37 tons _ spilled out of a truck leaving Salt Lake City. Utah Highway Patrol Cpl. Todd Johnson says the truck's driver miscalculated a turn and over-steered to the right. The tractor-trailer hit a metal guard rail and sign post, which ripped open its side. The trailer toppled over near dawn Friday, spilling most boxes of crab and some of the meat onto I-15 near Spanish Fork. The driver and a passenger went to the hospital...

Mark Major once led a team of soldiers in combat in Iraq. Now he leads a team of railroad employees. The difference, he says, is obvious: "I'm not getting shot at anymore." But it's the similarities between serving in the military and working for the railroad that draw Major and many other former military members to this type of work. "For a veteran _ a person who thrives off excitement, a mission and a chain of command _ you tend to seek out companies like that," said Major, who has worked for...

A central Pennsylvania man who fatally shot his estranged wife, her new boyfriend and the man's mother will spend the rest of his life in prison under a plea deal that spared him the death penalty and left the victims' families angry Friday. Kevin Matthew Cleeves apologized to the victims' relatives after admitting to the killings. "I completely understand why most of you hate me," he said, facing them. "I'm so very sorry for what I did. I wish I could express it more than I can." Several family...

Indictments have been filed against 14 inmates in connection with videos showing prisoners brazenly using drugs, drinking beer and flashing a loaded gun in the New Orleans jail. The videos, made in June and July 2009, came to light in April during a federal court hearing on conditions at the jail. That led to criticism in court of Sheriff Marlin Gusman, who runs the jail, for not doing more to prosecute those involved. Assistant District Attorney Christopher Bowman said Friday's indictments were...

The third woman kept in captivity for a decade in a Cleveland house has been released from the hospital and is asking for her privacy. MetroHealth Medical Center spokeswoman Phyllis Marino says Michelle Knight left the hospital Friday afternoon but declined to comment further on Knight's condition or where she was going. Earlier Friday, Knight said in a statement she is in good spirits and grateful for the fund created to aid the victims. A missing-person report on Knight filed one day after...

A Philadelphia jury is breaking for the weekend amid deliberations in the capital murder case of an abortion provider. Jurors return Monday to weigh charges that 72-year-old Dr. Kermit Gosnell killed a patient and four babies allegedly born alive. Gosnell ran a busy neighborhood medical clinic for 30 years, until an FBI raid shut it down in 2010. Gosnell is also charged with performing illegal, third-term abortions and failing to counsel women. The defense says Gosnell provided care to the...

The roommate of the Florida A&M drum major who died in a hazing ritual in 2011 has pleaded no contest to hazing charges. During a status hearing on Friday, prosecutors agreed to dismiss a manslaughter charge against Rikki Wills. He will be sentenced next month. Jury selection had been scheduled for Monday after Wills rejected a plea deal offered by the prosecution last week. He had filed a demand for a speedy trial in early April. He faced a manslaughter charge and two counts of misdemeanor...

A Durango area couple is giving up their fight to keep a 13-foot escape route for their cats outside their Colorado apartment. Martha Spence and her husband built the catwalk from a window to a nearby tree to allow their two cats to go outside from their second-floor unit whenever they wanted. The Durango Herald ( http://bit.ly/YKl7Jb ) reported that they agreed to take it down Thursday at the request of the development's homeowners association. The couple had planned to appeal the board's...

The 12-year-old boy and his rabbi father were driving from the boy's therapist appointment to their Lakewood, N.J., home when the child decided to confide in his father. The boy said he was sexually abused by his former camp counselor, a man he told people was his best friend, the father said. "He said that his counselor, Yosef Kolko, sexually abused him," the father testified Thursday. Kolko, a former yeshiva teacher, is on trial on charges that he sexually abused the socially awkward boy whose...

This Week in The Civil War, for week of Sunday, May 12: Fighting in Mississippi. On May 16, 1863, Union and Confederate forces clashed at the Battle of Champion Hill in Mississippi, dueling with artillery and rifle fire. Amid fierce combat, Union fighters swept across the top of Champion Hill, forcing Rebel forces into chaotic retreat before a Confederate counterattack was mustered. But stubborn Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered his forces to push back again and a Union assault was launched...

Thailand's celebrity baby panda Lin Ping is almost 4 years old now. It's time to move to China, find a mate and have cubs. The move won't be permanent, however, thanks to a deal hammered out between the two countries that will cost Thailand $1 million a year, the Thai foreign minister said Friday. Once the star of a Thai reality show, the panda's future has been a topic of high-level negotiation for months. Last year, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra asked then-Chinese premier Wen Jiabao...

The NYPD has arrested a 21-year-old man for allegedly raping a woman after threatening her with a gun at a bus stop. Police say Damien Hollis of Brooklyn displayed a police shield after approaching the 26-year-old woman in Brooklyn. The incident occurred on May 29, 2012. Hollis was charged Friday with rape, criminal sexual act and criminal impersonation. Police say the suspect brandished a firearm and forced the victim to walk to Lincoln Terrace Park where he allegedly raped her. Police say...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about today: 1 WHO MAY HAVE SURVIVED 17 DAYS IN BANGLADESH RUBBLE Rescue workers stop clearing the site of a collapsed factory building after a soldier says a woman waved her hand at them. 2. WITHDRAWING FROM THE WORLD A global gang of criminals drains $45 million in a matter of hours from reserves held by banks to fund pre-paid credit cards. 3. POLICE DESCRIBE CLEVELAND CAPTIVES' ORDEAL Horrific details...

"Once you see a large attack like this, that they made off with $45 million, that's going to wake up the cybercrime community." _ Ken Pickering, who works in security intelligence at CORE Security, after U.S. prosecutors say a worldwide gang of criminals stole millions by hacking their way into a database of prepaid debit cards and then draining ATMs around the globe. ___ "Capital punishment must be reserved for those crimes that are truly the worst examples of human conduct. The reality is we...

Criminals working in cells around the world stole $45 million in December and February by hacking into a database of prepaid debit cards and making withdrawals from ATMs, federal prosecutors said Thursday, becoming one of the biggest bank thefts in history. Some other notable heists in recent years: _ 2006, London: Thieves take the equivalent of $92 million from a cash depot. _ 2005, Fortaleza, Brazil _ Thieves take $70 million from Central Bank over an August weekend. _ 2004, Belfast, Northern...

A jury in Washington state convicted an inmate of first-degree aggravated murder Thursday in the strangulation of a female prison guard. The Snohomish County jury must now decide whether to sentence 54-year-old Byron Scherf to the death penalty. Scherf is a convicted rapist who was serving a life sentence when he killed 34-year-old Jayme Biendl in January 2011. The defense didn't dispute that he strangled the corrections officer with an amplifier cord in the prison chapel of the Washington...

Authorities in rural Los Angeles County were warning people to be on the lookout for four pit bulls suspected of killing a 63-year-old jogger Thursday, and they have seized several dogs in a search for those who may have taken part in the attack. Sheriff's Lt. John Corina told reporters that a woman in a car saw the dogs attacking the female jogger Thursday morning. The witness called 911 and honked her horn to try to get the dogs to stop. "When the first deputy on scene saw one dog still attacking...

U.S. builders and the subcontractors they depend on are struggling to hire fast enough to meet rising demand for new homes. Builders would be starting work on more homes _ and contributing more to the economy _ if they could fill more job openings. In the meantime, workers in the right locations with the right skills are commanding higher pay. Consider Richard Vap, who owns a drywall installation company. The resurgent housing market has sent builders calling again. Vap would love to help _...

Whole Foods Market Inc. said Thursday that labels on a chicken salad and those on a vegan version of the salad were reversed at some of its cold food bars in the Northeast. The mislabeled salads _ a curried chicken salad and a vegan curried "chick'n" salad _ were sold in 15 stores in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York, Whole Foods said. In some locations, the company said the salads were sold in the cold food bars where customers can scoop food into containers, which are...

Prosecutors said Thursday they may seek the death penalty against Ariel Castro, the man accused of imprisoning three women at his home for a decade, as police charged that he impregnated one of his captives at least five times and made her miscarry by starving her and punching her in the belly. The allegations were contained in a police report that also said another one of the women, Amanda Berry, was forced to give birth in a plastic kiddie pool. Cuyahoga County prosecutor Timothy McGinty...

Years before when authorities say Ariel Castro kidnapped two teenage girls and a young woman and held them captive in his basement, he terrorized the mother of his children, viciously beating her and locking her inside the house, her relatives said Thursday. In interviews with The Associated Press, relatives of Grimilda Figueroa, who died after a long illness last year, described Castro as a "monster" who abused her in demented ways. He once shoved her into a cardboard box and closed the flaps...

A military judge has refused to delay this month's trial of an Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Central Texas. Maj. Nidal Hasan's attorneys on Thursday had sought to delay the court-martial to Sept. 1. They said military jurors might be influenced by recent national media coverage of the Boston Marathon bombings that compared the suspects, two Muslim brothers, to Hasan. Prosecutors said the delay was unnecessary because Hasan was mentioned only briefly...

Authorities in northwest Ohio say one of three teenage boys named in an Amber Alert has been located several counties away and has pointed them to the bodies of the other two. Ottawa police say the Thursday morning alert about two missing 17-year-olds and a missing 14-year-old was issued after a mother returned to a Putnam County trailer home and found a crime scene. Police and the sheriff have released no details about that scene, the bodies or where they were found. Autopsies are planned. Investigators...

A Nobel Peace Prize-winning medical group says Syria's health system has been shattered during the more than two-year conflict and that their organization plans to nearly double their presence in the country. Members of Medecins Sans Frontieres told a briefing Thursday that they were forced to work inside private homes and even in a cave, as the group has yet to receive government permission to work inside the country. The official death toll has been estimated at more than 70,000, but the group...

Leading oil industry groups said Thursday federal land managers are blocking new energy development and job creation by postponing all oil and gas lease auctions on prime public lands in California until October. Officials with the American Petroleum Institute, the largest lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, said the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's recent announcement that it will temporarily put off energy leasing in the state will prevent economic growth. "We now know that California...

Authorities in eastern Kansas said Thursday they have arrested a 27-year-old convicted felon in the deaths of three people whose bodies were found on a farm, and that a fourth victim _ an 18-month-old girl _ is presumed dead. Franklin County Sheriff Jeffrey Richards said during an afternoon news conference that the prosecutor has 48 hours from the time the suspect is arrested to file formal charges. He was arrested early Thursday and is being held at the Franklin County jail on a first-degree...

Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Friday: 1. WITHDRAWING FROM THE WORLD A global gang of criminals drains $45 million in a matter of hours from reserves held by banks to fund pre-paid credit cards. 2. POLICE DESCRIBE CLEVELAND CAPTIVES' ORDEAL Horrific details emerge about the captivity of three women, while prosecutors weigh seeking the death penalty for suspect Ariel Castro. 3. BOSTON BOMBING SUSPECT FINALLY LAID TO REST The...

Jodi Arias will spend the weekend on suicide watch and return to court next week when jurors are expected to consider whether the death penalty should be an option for the former waitress' sentence. Minutes after her conviction for killing a former boyfriend, Arias told a TV station she would "prefer to die sooner than later," complicating matters for defense lawyers who had hoped to spare her life during the penalty phase of the trial. The case was scheduled to resume Thursday,...