Girl takes her life on kidnap

Rajshahi stabber held; writ petition filed for guideline against stalking
Just six days after Chanpa Rani Bhowmik had been fatally run over by two bike riding stalkers of her daughters in Faridpur, a thirteen-year-old girl committed suicide yesterday after her male stalker kidnapped and confined her in a room in Sirajganj..

Yemen orders US-born cleric found 'dead or alive'

SAN'A, Yemen – A Yemeni judge ordered police Saturday to find a radical U.S.-born cleric "dead or alive" after the al-Qaida-linked preacher failed to appear at his trial for his role in the killing of foreigners.
Yemen is under heavy U.S. pressure to crack down on the country's al-Qaida offshoot after a scheme to send bombs through the mail in packages addressed to the U.S. was thwarted a week ago. The group known as l-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the plot on Friday.
The cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki, was born in New Mexico to Yemeni parents and is one of the most prominent English-language radical clerics. His sermons advocating jihad, or holy war, against the United States have influenced militants involved in several attacks or attempted attacks on U.S. soil.
Yemeni officials say he may have blessed the mail bomb plot, while not necessarily taking an active part in it.
The United States has already authorized the CIA to capture or kill al-Awlaki, who has also been linked to the failed bombing of a U.S.-bound plane in December 2009.
Al-Awlaki is thought to be hiding in the mountains of southern Yemen, enjoying the protection of family and his large tribe, while facing what some analysts describe as only a halfhearted effort by the Yemeni authorities to capture or kill him.
With his sudden trial and the arrest order, Yemen appears to be trying to show its American allies that it considers the cleric a serious threat.
Judge Mohsen Allwan ordered al-Awlaki to be "arrested by force, dead or alive" after he failed to appear for the start of his trial in Yemen on Tuesday. He was charged last week as a co-defendant in a surprise announcement as part of the trial of another man, Hisham Assem, who has been accused of killing a Frenchman in an Oct. 6 attack at an oil firm compound.
Al-Awlaki's name and that of a cousin, Othman al-Awlaki, were added as defendants in absentia.
According to the prosecution, Othman al-Awlaki had put Assem indirectly in e-mail contact with Anwar al-Awlaki.
In Tuesday's court session, Assem denied all charges and claimed he had been tortured in detention to make false confessions. He repeated those claims on Saturday.
U.S. investigators say Anwar al-Awlaki's sermons have been a key inspiration for a string of militants, including possibly the Pakistani man who tried to detonate a car bomb in Times Square this year, and that he had e-mail contacts with the Army psychiatrist accused of last year's killings at Fort Hood, Texas.
They say that since he returned to Yemen in 2006, al-Awlaki has moved beyond inspiration to take a role as an active operative in al-Qaida's affiliate there.

BBC journalists strike for 2nd day over pensions

LONDON – A union leader says a two-day strike by BBC reporters over pension changes has caused widespread disruption to the BBC's programs.
National Union of Journalists chief Jeremy Dear said Saturday the 48-hour walkout, which began Friday, had forced some news programs off the air.
The dispute is over planned pension changes that have been rejected by the union, which has 4,100 members at the BBC.
BBC director-general Mark Thompson insists the new pension plans are fair and have already been modified after talks with staff. He said only one in six employees had joined the strike.
The BBC's flagship "Today" radio program was canceled Friday but broadcast as normal on Saturday.

Obama sees 'win-win' relationship with India

MUMBAI, India (AP) — President Obama announced a host of new trade deals with India supporting tens of thousands of U.S. jobs Saturday as he began a 10-day trip through Asia on a determinedly domestic note.

Intent on demonstrating his attention to the sluggish U.S. economy even while overseas, Obama also told a meeting of U.S. and Indian executives that the U.S. would relax some export regulations that have complicated trade between America and this fast-growing country of 1.2 billion people.

"As we look to India today, the United States sees the opportunity to sell our exports in one of the fastest growing markets in the world. In America this is a jobs strategy," the president said in a speech to the U.S.-India Business Council.

Obama said it should be a "win-win" relationship, but in a nod to U.S. sensibilities he also acknowledged concerns in the U.S. about outsourcing.

Obama: Gandhi is hero to the world

"There still exists a caricature of India as a land of call centers," the president said.

He said people in India also are concerned about the impact of U.S. goods coming into their country, but contended that growing trade could only benefit both sides in the long run. He said he sees huge untapped potential in the relationship.

The commercial deals include the purchase of 33 737s from Boeing by India's SpiceJet Airlines; the Indian military's plans to buy aircraft engines from General Electric; and preliminary agreement between Boeing and the Indian Air Force on the purchase of 10 C17s.

For the most part, the deals were already pending, but the White House contends Obama's visit to India helped finalize them. Officials said the deals would support 53,670 U.S. jobs, but it was not clear how many, if any, new jobs would be created as a result.

Oakland riot follows Mehserle sentencing in transit shooting

OAKLAND (AP) — Hundreds of protesters took to the streets Friday, some breaking windows and knocking down fences, after a white former transit officer was given the minimum possible prison sentence of two years for fatally shooting an unarmed black man on a California train platform.

The case against defendant Johannes Mehserle has provoked racial unrest at every turn, and police in Oakland, the scene of the killing, were on alert for more problems following a sentence that many thought was too light.

More than 100 people were arrested after a rally billed as a tribute to the victim, Oscar Grant, turned into a march through the downtown area, where people broke car and bus windows. Some carried a banner reading "Justice for Oscar Grant."

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason said officers in riot gear started making arrests around 8 p.m. after police declared the protest to be an illegal assembly.

Earlier, Oakland Police Chief Anthony Batts said one man was arrested after fighting with an officer and pulling the officer's gun out of his holster. Other officers subdued the man, and no one was hurt.

Mehserle's sentence, handed down in Los Angeles, also angered the victim's family and friends, who demanded a much harsher punishment.

Wanda Johnson, Grant's mother, shouted, "Oh my!" when Superior Court Judge Robert Perry issued the two-year sentence. She burst out of the courtroom saying, "He got nothing! He got nothing!"

Grant's uncle, Bobby Cephus Johnson, said outside court: "I do believe it's a racist criminal justice system."

Still, he said the family was reacting calmly but added he could not comment for others.

"I have no power over what people feel their matter of expression should be," he said.

Some of the dozens of people who gathered outside Oakland City Hall for a tribute to victim Oscar Grant broke into tears when they learned of the judge's decision. Outside the Los Angeles courthouse, a small crowd that had earlier shouted "No justice, no peace" reacted relatively calmly to the sentence.

Mehserle, 28, had faced a possible 14-year maximum term after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter. At the time of the shooting, Mehserle was a Bay Area Rapid Transit officer responding to a report of a fight.

In making his decision during the highly charged, 3-hour hearing, Perry threw out a gun enhancement that could have added as much as 10 years in prison and said there was overwhelming evidence that it was an accidental shooting.

Perry said race would not factor into his decision and although Mehserle had shown "tons of remorse" for killing Grant, he would have to account that a "young man needlessly died."

"I did the best I could with this case," Perry told the courtroom. "My decisions today will not be well-received by many people. I'm sorry for that."

Police said they were prepared in case there was a replay of the rioting in Oakland that followed the shooting on New Year's Day 2009.

Mayor Ron Dellums said he understood the pain and disappointment sparked by the sentence.

"It is still my hope that people will express their anger, will express their disappointment, their outrage, their pain in a manner that is nonviolent, in a manner that is not destructive to our community," he said at a news conference.

Johnson family attorney John Burris acknowledged a small step was taken by the justice system in sentencing Mehserle to two years, but he said that was insufficient. Both Burris and Bobby Johnson noted that NFL star Michael Vick got a harsher sentence for running a dog-fighting ring.

"What you take from that is that Oscar Grant's life was not worth very much," Burris said.

He also targeted Perry's comments before sentencing that he was saddened by the polarization of the community over the shooting.

"This case does nothing at all to heal, if that was ever any intent," Burris said.

Reaction to the case has drawn comparisons to the infamous 1991 Rodney King beating by Los Angeles police officers, which inflamed a racial divide and led to the disastrous 1992 riot when the officers were acquitted of brutality charges.

Mehserle was convicted in July in the videotaped killing of Grant, 22, in Oakland. The case was moved to Los Angeles for trial.

Perry had wide discretion when sentencing Mehserle. Prosecutors sought prison time while defense lawyers argued for probation. The judge gave Mehserle the minimum possible prison sentence.

Defense attorney Michael Rains immediately filed an appeal with the court after the sentencing. After time already served and good behavior credits, Mehserle will likely serve an additional six to seven months based on California's sentencing guidelines, the lawyer said.

Mehserle testified during the trial that he thought Grant had a weapon and decided to shock him with his stun gun but instead pulled his .40-caliber handgun. Grant was unarmed and face down when he was shot.

Sentencing came after four relatives of Grant and his fiancee pleaded with Perry to send Mehserle to prison for 14 years.

Wanda Johnson cried and struggled to give a victim impact statement. She said she regrets telling her son to take a BART train to San Francisco before the shooting.

"I live every day of my life in pain," she said. "My son is not here because of a careless action."

The family continues to maintain that it was murder when Mehserle shot Grant.

Mehserle, shackled and wearing a jail jumpsuit, also stood before the judge before sentencing and apologized for the shooting, which he contended was accidental and not racially motivated.

"I want to say how deeply sorry I am," Mehserle said. "Nothing I ever say or do will heal the wound. I will always be sorry for taking Mr. Grant from them."

He cried during portions of his 10-minute statement and said he and his family have received numerous death threats and he's been "green-lighted" — a term in which other jail inmates have the go-ahead to kill someone.

Earlier, the judge said he had received more than 1,000 letters urging a harsh sentence.

Prosecutors had sought a second-degree murder conviction, saying Mehserle became angry at Grant for resisting arrest.

However, jurors were given the choice of lesser charges, including voluntary and involuntary manslaughter. In reaching a decision on involuntary manslaughter, jurors found that Mehserle didn't mean to kill Grant, but his behavior was still so negligent that it was criminal.

Involuntary manslaughter has a sentencing range of two to four years, while the gun allegation carries a term of three, four or 10 years.

The judge rebuked prosecutors for arguing that Mehserle intentionally shot Grant, saying there wasn't any evidence to back up that allegation. Perry also said he believed the videos showed Grant resisted arrest and many people, including Mehserle's fellow officers and Grant's friends, contributed to the tragedy.

"All of these people share some responsibility," Perry said.

Early in the day, before the sentencing, there was a scuffle outside the Los Angeles courthouse that led to at least one arrest and an undercover officer being briefly handcuffed.

Police Lt. John Romero said the undercover police officer was coming out of the building when a member of the crowd recognized him and the two had a verbal exchange. When it escalated to pushing and shoving among the crowd, sheriff's deputies who guard the building moved in.

Obama flies to India, looking to boost US economy

MUMBAI, India – President Barack Obama hasn't been able to drive down unemployment in America, so he's coming to India in search of U.S. jobs.
Four days after his party suffered heavy, economy-influenced losses in Congress, the president will arrive Saturday in Mumbai, India's booming financial center, where he will meet with local business leaders and with American executives who have traveled to India in search of billions of dollars in trade deals.
The White House hopes to announce agreements on aircraft and other exports, and generally broadcast that America is open for business with burgeoning India and its 1.2 billion residents.
The administration says that jobs and the U.S. economy are the focus of Obama's 10-day Asia trip, a message aimed at inoculating him against any criticism that he is concentrating on foreign affairs while Americans are suffering with unemployment at 9.6 percent. He left Washington shortly after the government reported the economy added 151,000 jobs in October but still not enough to lower the jobless rate.
The president said the jobs report was encouraging but "not good enough." In a gesture toward Republicans who won control of the House and made strong gains in the Senate in elections Tuesday, Obama said he was open to "any idea, any proposal" to get the economy growing faster.
On his foreign trip, the longest of his presidency so far, Obama's business-first message is aimed particularly at India, where he is spending three full days. That's the longest amount of time in any one country on a trip that's also taking him to Indonesia, where he lived for four years as a youth, to South Korea for a meeting of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations and then to Japan for an American Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
In an op-ed published Saturday in The New York Times, Obama sought to underscore the importance of foreign trade to U.S. prosperity.
"It can be tempting, in times of economic difficulty, to turn inward, away from trade and commerce with other nations. But in our interconnected world, that is not a path to growth, and that is not a path to jobs," the president wrote. "We cannot be shut out of these markets."
The president also wrote that he would work while in South Korea to complete a free trade pact that has long been stalled in Congress over concerns, mostly from Democratic lawmakers, about terms for imports of U.S. autos into Korea, among other things.
White House officials aren't sounding too optimistic about a breakthrough on the trade pact while Obama's in South Korea, and the president — who as a candidate criticized the deal — emphasized that "any agreement must come with the right terms. That's why we'll be looking to resolve outstanding issues on behalf of American exporters — including American automakers and workers."
Obama will be speaking to a gathering of Indian and American chief executives on Saturday in Mumbai, and he's expected to announce the completion of job-producing commercial deals. The U.S. has been looking for India to finalize purchases of Boeing aircraft and marine engines produced by Caterpillar, among other exports.
Briefing reporters aboard Air Force One, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon said Obama intends the trip to be "a full embrace of India's rise." The White House is going to great lengths to bring attention to the economic potential and shared democratic values that define its relationship with India.
Said Donilon: "There's no more powerful way to do that than a presidential trip."
However, serious disagreements remain, and they appear unlikely to be resolved during Obama's visit.
India has raised concerns about the billions of dollars in military aid the U.S. is funneling to Pakistan, which is India's archrival but a linchpin for Washington and its allies in the war in Afghanistan. Leaders here also are wary of the increasing rhetoric by U.S. politicians against the outsourcing of jobs abroad, including to India.
Obama was spending more than 15 hours on his plane, interrupted by a refueling stop in Germany, to get to India.
He will spend about a day and a half in Mumbai before heading to New Delhi, the capital, for meetings with government leaders including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Obama also is taking time while in India to visit cultural sites, including a museum in a home where Mohandas Gandhi once lived, and to pay respect to the victims of the 2008 terror attacks that left 166 people dead across Mumbai. Obama and his entourage are staying at the Taj Mahal hotel, one of the main targets of the attacks.

Spanish authorities inspect 10-year-old mom's home

MADRID – Spanish social workers have inspected the home of a 10-year-old Romanian girl who gave birth last week to determine whether her baby is being properly cared for, officials said Thursday.
Authorities in the small southern city of Lebrija also arranged a doctor's appointment to make sure the young mother and infant are doing well.
In a statement, city officials said they are investigating when the pregnant child arrived in Spain and why she had not seen a doctor before showing up last week at a hospital to give birth.
Authorities did not give details about the modest apartment where the 10-year-old girl is now living with her mother, but the mayor of Lebrija called it "humble."
Officials have said they could step in to oversee care of the girl and her baby if needed, but, but the statement Thursday did not reveal whether any problems were found or the results of the medical appointment.
City officials "will guarantee the protection of the two minors," the statement said.
The birth has shocked Spaniards and created an international sensation.
The girl's mother told reporters earlier this week that she's delighted to have a new granddaughter and doesn't understand the fuss the birth has caused. She said the baby's father is a 13-year-old boy who is still in Romania.
She also said since they are Romanian Gypsies, or Roma, it is their custom to marry very young.
Arranged "marriages" for girls reaching puberty are relatively common among Roma, who make up about 1.5 million of Romania's 22 million people. Those marriages are not recognized by the state, which requires girls to be 16 and have parental consent before they can marry.

Nick Lachey and Vanessa Minnillo are engaged

LOS ANGELES – Wedding bells will ring again for one-time "Newlyweds" star Nick Lachey. A rep for Lachey says the singer and TV personality is engaged to his longtime girlfriend, Vanessa Minnillo.
The couple said in a statement released Thursday through publicist Jessica Berger that they're "excited and incredibly happy" about their engagement. They didn't announce a wedding date.
The 36-year-old Lachey was previously married to Jessica Simpson, and the two starred in an MTV reality show about their lives together, called "Newlyweds: Nick & Jessica." Lachey now serves as host of NBC's "The Sing-Off."
The 29-year-old Minnillo is the host of ABC's "True Beauty."
The engagement was first reported by Us magazine.

Hall of Fame manager Sparky Anderson dead at 76

Reds fans were taken aback when Sparky Anderson showed up in Cincinnati for his first day as a big league manager, an unknown taking over baseball's first professional team.
Sparky who?
Really?
By the time he was done, this man with the shock of white hair and schoolboy nickname would produce a considerable list of achievements that featured three World Series titles — including crowns in each league — and a Hall of Fame entry on his resume.
Anderson, who directed the Big Red Machine to back-to-back championships and won another in Detroit, died Thursday from complications of dementia in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 76. A day earlier, his family said he'd been placed in hospice care.
Anderson was the first manager to win World Series titles in both leagues and the only manager to lead two franchises in career wins.
"Sparky was, by far, the best manager I ever played for," said former Reds star Pete Rose, the game's career hits leader. "He understood people better than anyone I ever met. His players loved him, he loved his players, and he loved the game of baseball. There isn't another person in baseball like Sparky Anderson. He gave his whole life to the game."
Anderson's teams in Cincinnati — featuring Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan and Rose — won crowns in 1975 and 1976 and rank among the most powerful of all time. Led by Kirk Gibson and Alan Trammell, Anderson won with the Tigers in 1984.
"He was a good guy," former Tigers pitcher Jack Morris said, choking up over the news. "Baseball will have very few people like Sparky. He was a unique individual. He was a character with a great passion and love for the game."
Anderson never tried to overshadow his teams, giving his stars great leeway while trying to stay in the background. At Anderson's request, there will be no funeral or memorial service.
Always affable, ever talkative and known for a self-deprecating demeanor, Anderson was equally popular among players, fans and media.
"Revered and treasured by his players for his humility, humanity, eternal optimism and knowledge of the game," his Hall of Fame plaque reads.
Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig called Anderson a gentleman and dear friend.
"I recall with great fondness the many hours we would spend together when his Tigers came to Milwaukee," Selig said. "Sparky was a loyal friend, and whenever I would be dealing with difficult situations as commissioner, he would lift my spirits, telling me to keep my head up and that I was doing the right thing."
The Reds put a photo of Anderson on their outfield videoboard at Great American Ball Park on Thursday afternoon, honoring the man who led them to their greatest moments.
"In one way or another, Sparky touched the life of every Reds fan," owner Bob Castellini said.
Anderson's win total of 2,194 was the third highest when he retired after the 1995 season, trailing only Connie Mack and John McGraw. He's still sixth on the career list — he won 863 games in nine years with the Reds and 1,331 in 17 seasons with the Tigers.
He'll be remembered as much for the little things that made him beloved as for the big numbers that made him a Hall of Famer.
"Being a good baseball player and person went hand-in-hand with him," said Alan Trammell, the 1984 World Series MVP who is Arizona's bench coach. "He wanted us to put our dirty clothes in the bin so that the clubhouse guys didn't have to pick up after us."
In many ways away from the field, he was a teacher.
"He had a lot to do with molding me professionally and taught me a lot about perseverance," Morris said.
Anderson knew all about perseverance.
George "Sparky" Anderson got his nickname in the minor leagues because of his spirited play. He made it to the majors for only one season, batting .218 for the Phillies in 1959.
Anderson learned to control a temper that nearly scuttled his fledgling career as a manager in the minors, and went on to become one of baseball's best at running a team. And he won with a humility that couldn't obscure his unique ability to manage people.
"I got good players, stayed out of their way, let them win a lot and then just hung around for 26 years," he said during his Hall of Fame acceptance speech in 2000.
Of course, there was a lot more to him. He liked to twist the language, using double-negatives to make a roundabout point. He also reassessed things constantly.
"To be around me, you have to be a little bit cuckoo," Anderson said on the day he resigned from the Tigers after the 1995 season. "One day it's written in concrete, the next day it's written in sand. I always felt if I didn't change my mind every 24 hours, people would find me boring."
Anderson's win total trails only those of Mack, McGraw, Tony La Russa, Bobby Cox and Joe Torre. His overall record was 2,194-1834 and he was a two-time AL Manager of the Year.
"Sparky was one of the greatest people I've met in baseball," Detroit Hall of Famer Al Kaline said. "He was a leader to his players both on and off the field. He was an incredible person and I cherish the time I was able to spend with him."
He had the right touch with superstars, and it came in handy when he led the star-studded Reds to World Series wins in 1975-76.
"He was a people person," Morgan, a Hall of Fame second baseman, told The Associated Press. "I don't think anybody else could have managed that team nearly as well as he did. We had a lot of different personalities. Sparky was able to deal with all of us on an individual basis but also collectively as a team.
"Because he was close to you and cared about you as a person, you were always willing to do more for him than you were for somebody else. I never thought of him as my manager. I thought of him as part of my family."
Anderson won four National League pennants in Cincinnati from 1970-78, then was stung when the Reds fired him after consecutive second-place finishes. Anderson took his disappointment to the other league and won there, too, directing the Tigers to the 1984 championship and a division title in 1987. He was voted into Cooperstown by the Veterans Committee.
Even then, he showed his usual self-deprecation. Anderson had refused to step foot inside the Hall until 2000 because he felt unworthy.
"I didn't ever want to go into the most precious place in the world unless I belonged," Anderson said.
For a long time, he was a long shot to make the Hall.
The only notable thing about Anderson as a player was his prematurely graying hair and his nickname. He was playing for Fort Worth in the Texas League in 1955 when a radio announcer, taken by his feisty play, started calling him Sparky.
The name stuck. He didn't. Anderson made it to the majors in 1959 and singled home the go-ahead run on opening day in Cincinnati, which turned out to be the highlight of his playing career. A light-hitting second baseman, he had 12 extra-base hits — zero home runs — and 34 RBIs in 477 at-bats.
He was back in the minors the next year, and soon realized it was time to think about another career.
He decided to try managing.
That almost flamed out, too. His first job was managing a minor league team in Toronto in 1964. He was overly aggressive in his strategy and argued every close call with umpires, showing a short fuse that soon got him fired. Cardinals general manager Bob Howsam gave him a second chance to manage in the minors, then moved to Cincinnati to build the Reds.
When he needed a big league manager there, he decided to call Anderson, who was shocked to get the chance. The youngest manager in the majors at age 35, he signed the $28,500 contract — by far the most money he'd ever made — and set out to make himself known in a city asking: Sparky who?
"Bob Howsam either had to be nuts or have a lot of savvy," Anderson said. "As it turns out, he had a lot of savvy."
Howsam assembled one of the most talented teams of all time — Bench, Morgan, Rose, Tony Perez, Ken Griffey Sr., George Foster, Davey Concepcion. Anderson was charged with making it work.
Anderson's plaque in Cooperstown calls him "the crank that turned the Big Red Machine," and his players agree that it fit. Bench noted that Anderson treated his players respectfully and was always on top of game strategy.
"It's a lot like a chess game, and Sparky was a chess master," Bench said.
In Cincinnati, Anderson also got himself another nickname: Captain Hook, a reference to his habit of pulling a starting pitcher when he got into a jam late in a game. He also showed creativity in making lineup changes.
One of the most important moves: switching Rose from left field to third base on May 3, 1975, allowing Foster to play full-time in left. It was the final piece of the Machine, which beat Boston in a dramatic seven-game Series that year, then swept to another title while winning 108 games the following season.
Two second-place seasons led to a surprising firing. Anderson moved on to Detroit, where he had more longevity and added one more title.
He refused to manage replacement players during baseball's labor dispute in spring training of 1995, angering owner Mike Ilitch. He resigned after a 60-win season, saying the franchise needed a new direction. He hoped to manage somewhere else, but when an offer never came along, he retired.
Survivors include his wife, Carol; sons Lee and Albert; daughter Shirley Englebrecht; and nine grandchildren.

Rutgers suicide case poses test for NJ privacy law

HADDONFIELD, N.J. – The case of a Rutgers University student who committed suicide after a roommate allegedly used a webcam to spy on his tryst with another man could pose the first legal test of a state privacy law passed in 2003.
Lawyers for the roommate and another student, accused of watching 18-year-old Tyler Clementi "making out with a dude" in his dorm room on the Piscataway campus, insist their clients were the only two people who saw a tame encounter and did not record it.
Prosecutors said, though, that they tried to transmit a "sexual encounter" on the Internet but haven't said how widely available they believe the video was.
Therein lie the questions: What was the potential audience? What constitutes privacy? What did Clementi know, and why did he believe death was the best option? For the young suspects, the answers could mean the difference between years in prison, 18 months or no time at all.
"To prove this case, you'd probably have to have the recording; you'd have to see what's on it," Justin Loughry, a Camden lawyer familiar with the privacy law and unconnected to the Rutgers case, said about the difficulty prosecutors could face in arguing for the harshest penalties. "Would it be enough to peek in on someone French kissing? Probably not."
The case became a national symbol soon after the news broke that Clementi, a freshman just a few weeks into classes at Rutgers, committed suicide by jumping into the Hudson River from the George Washington Bridge.
In the days before his death, authorities said, Dharun Ravi and another student, Molly Wei, watched his encounter with an unidentified man in the room Clementi shared with Ravi.
The story came on the heels of a spate of gay teenagers nationwide killing themselves after being bullied — and it quickly took on that mantle.
Clementi's death galvanized efforts to fight suicide and bullying of gay teens. It helped inspire "Wear Purple Day" last month, in which advocates encouraged people to wear the color to protest bullying. Talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and President Barack Obama joined luminaries in recording videos decrying bullying and suicide.
Facebook groups popped up calling for expulsion or long prison sentences for Ravi and Wei. Some groups have suggested hate-crime charges, and Middlesex County prosecutors say they're evaluating whether the state's hate-crime law might apply.
To convict someone of a hate crime, a jury must find that someone committed a crime out of a belief that the victim was a member of a protected group, such as a racial or sexual minority. Friends of the suspects have said they held no animosity toward gays.
Their lawyers announced last week that they were withdrawing from Rutgers out of fear for their safety, and followed a few days later with comments that appear to be aimed at getting their clients the lightest penalty possible — but not denying their involvement.
"When the forensic evidence from all the seized computers is revealed, the truth will come out," Steve Altman, Ravi's attorney, told the Newark Star-Ledger for Sunday's editions. "Nothing was transmitted beyond one computer, and what was seen was only viewed for a matter of seconds."
Rubin Sinins, a lawyer for Wei, said he was "unaware of sexual contact" in the webcam video his client saw.
"The statute defining sexual contact refers to nudity and private parts, and, to my knowledge, nothing like that was seen," he said. "I'm also unaware of any evidence that any video was recorded, reproduced or disseminated in any way."
Altman has not agreed to an interview with The Associated Press, and Sinins would say only that his client is innocent of any charges. But experts said the defense they have outlined might not be enough to clear the 18-year-olds.
On Sept. 19, Ravi tweeted: "Roommate asked for room until midnight. I went into molly's room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Two days later, he said this: "Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes, it's happening again."
Authorities say Ravi failed in an attempt that time to spy on his roommate.
In a gay-themed chatroom, a poster who appears to have been Clementi said he unplugged Ravi's computer and searched for hidden cameras before a liaison that night.
The applicable state invasion-of-privacy law, adopted in 2003 as a sex offense, appears to be seldom used. There have been no legal cases in which judges have further interpreted it.
The law differentiates between a third-degree crime, which could carry a five-year prison term, and a fourth-degree crime, punishable by no more than 18 months in prison for first-time offenders. Prosecutors have not specified which degree Ravi and Wei are charged with.
The less serious fourth-degree crime could be committed if someone who is unauthorized to do so merely observes a sexual act — or in a situation where "reasonable person would know that another may expose intimate parts or may engage in sexual penetration or sexual contact," Loughry said.
To prove the third-degree crime, though, would be harder. To be convicted someone would have to see nudity or sexual contact — and would have to record it. If the defense lawyers are correct, Loughry said, that could be hard for prosecutors to prove.
No lawsuits have been filed, though Clementi's parents do have a lawyer. John Bazzurro, a lawyer in West Long Branch, said he believes that Clementi's family could file a claim for privacy invasion whether or not Wei and Ravi witnessed any sexual contact or disseminated the video.
Sean Morrissey, managing director of Katana Forensics, a computer forensics software firm based in Easton, Md., said that a video session on Apple's iChat can be between only two parties, and that the video would not be saved.
And while prosecutors have not said how far the video went, it's possible — but very uncommon — to use "third-party software" from another company to disseminate a live video more widely, Morrissey said.
Bill Dobbs, a longtime New York City gay rights activist, said he worries about "armchair prosecution" as people call for more serious charges against Ravi and Wei without knowing all the facts. But there's value in the social discussion that has come out of the case, he said.
"The bigger conversation's very important because that's part of efforts to get at the truth," he said. "What actually led to him committing suicide?"

Plane crashes in southern Pakistan, 22 killed

KARACHI, Pakistan – A small plane carrying 22 people crashed near the airport in Pakistan's largest city on Friday after the pilot warned of engine troubles, officials said. There were no survivors.
The crash was the second in less than four months in Pakistan, which has struggled with numerous crises this year, including massive floods that have left millions homeless and ongoing Islamist militant attacks. The previous crash, in July, killed 152 people and was the worst-ever on Pakistani soil.
The plane that crashed Friday morning had just taken off from the southern city of Karachi. The pilot told the control tower minutes before the crash that there appeared to be some fault with the engine, said Pervez George, a spokesman for the country's Civil Aviation Authority.
The pilot was ordered to return to the airport, but as he was turning the aircraft, it went down in an open field, the spokesman said. The plane belonged to a private company and caught on fire after the crash.
The make and model of the plane were not immediately clear, but officials said it was chartered to an oil company.
No one survived, said Army Lt. Col. Noor Alam, a lead rescue official at the scene.
"The bodies onboard are beyond recognition," he said. "The plane has turned into a complete wreckage."
Karachi is a mega-city of more than 16 million people and its airport hosts flights from all over the world.
The July 28 flight by Pakistani carrier Airblue crashed into hills overlooking the capital, Islamabad, during stormy weather. Initial reports said a few people had survived that crash, but later it was confirmed all 152 onboard the Airbus A321 had died, including at least two U.S. citizens.

US Sen. Murray of Washington state wins 4th term

OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington U.S. Sen. Patty Murray seized a fourth term Thursday, surviving voters' backlash against Democrats nationally and weeks of relentless GOP campaign attacks on her voting and federal spending record.
Murray's victory over Republican Dino Rossi, after three days of tallying, preserves breathing room for the Senate's shrunken Democratic majority. Republicans made inroads there Tuesday and took control of the House for the rest of President Barack Obama's first term.
Her win was secured Thursday as tallies pushed her lead to about 46,000 votes out of more than 1.8 million counted, or about 51 percent to 49 percent. About three-quarters of the expected ballots had been counted in unofficial returns.
Hundreds of thousands of ballots still await processing, but an Associated Press analysis determined Murray's lead would be insurmountable.
At a Thursday night news conference, Murray thanked Rossi and his family, saying he had been gracious in defeat. Murray said her priorities in a fourth term will include securing tax cuts for the middle class and helping the Boeing Co. win a lucrative Air Force refueling tanker contract.
"Now we have to get to work," Murray said. "I want to make sure Washington state has what it needs to get its economy back on its feet."
Rossi conceded defeat in a statement issued Thursday evening. He also called on the new-look Congress to focus on the economy and strive for cooperation.
"The lesson I leave you with is one we learned as kids: We're all in this together. If Washington, D.C., doesn't act to help the economy grow and solve this massive spending and debt, it's going to hurt us all," Rossi said.
Murray's campaign offered a strong defense of her ability to win federal spending, even in a year when economic jitters threatened to derail that traditional strength for sitting senators. The list of projects she touted was seemingly endless: Bridges, highways, veterans' hospitals, dams, port construction and more.
Murray also sought to paint Rossi as a friend of big business, pointing to his call to repeal the Democrats' new Wall Street regulations.
Rossi's campaign was relentlessly focused on Murray's spending record, including the sometimes intertwining paths of Murray's campaign contributors and her "earmarks" for pet projects. He argued that the one-time underdog candidate had changed over 18 years in Washington, D.C., and had to be replaced to secure the nation's economic future.
The campaign was expensive and smothered Washington airwaves with advertising — much of it sharply negative in tone. Murray spent nearly $15 million through September to Rossi's roughly $2.5 million, but a flood of outside money helped Rossi keep up.
It was Rossi's third statewide loss in six years. He nearly won the 2004 governor's race, losing by just 133 votes after a long court fight. Rossi lost a second gubernatorial race in 2008.
Associated Press exit polling showed Murray won strong support from women, suburban voters and those who considered themselves moderates.
Rossi chipped away at Murray's base of independents, urbanites, people aged 30-49 and white male voters, but the Democrat gained some ground with rural voters and people whose family income is between $30,000 and less than $50,000, compared to 2004 when she ran for re-election.
The poll results showed Murray did well among voters who had a more positive view of the federal government, who felt better about their financial situation compared to two years ago and who wanted Congress to work on spending to create jobs over reducing the budget deficit or cutting taxes.
The survey of Washington voters was conducted for AP by Edison Research. It included preliminary results from a survey of 1,129 voters who voted early or absentee and were interviewed by landline or cell phone from Oct. 22 through Oct. 31. Results for the full sample were subject to sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

Japan central bank keeps key rate at near zero

TOKYO – Japan's central bank kept its key interest rate unchanged at near zero Friday and said it will start buying government bonds next week under a previously announced plan to help foster an economic recovery.
The unanimous decision to keep the overnight call rate target at zero to 0.1 percent came at the Bank of Japan's nine-member policy board meeting.
The central bank tweaked the interest rate last month for the first time since December 2008.
The bank said the slow U.S. economy is a threat to Japanese growth despite momentum in developing nations.
Japan has also been battling the surging yen, which erodes the value of overseas earnings from exporters.
Lower interest rates and other forms of monetary easing are seen as critical to keeping a nation's currency lower or in Japan's case stemming its strength.
The dollar has dropped from near 90 yen earlier this year to about 80 yen.
The Bank of Japan said it will start buying Japanese government bonds next week, and other assets later, to pump money into the financial system and help stabilize the economy.
The U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it will be buying $600 billion in U.S. Treasury bonds to try to rejuvenate the American economy. That set off a global stock rally as the Fed's move is expected to lower long-term interest rates, making stocks a more attractive investment.
The BOJ is expecting Japan's economy, the world's third largest, to grow 2.1 percent in the year through March 2011, and 1.8 percent the following year.
Its July assessment had projected growth of 2.6 percent and 1.9 percent respectively, and the main reason for the downgrade was the weaker U.S. economy.

Weak employment report expected Friday

WASHINGTON – Newly elected members of Congress will get a reminder Friday of the economic challenges they face in January: The jobs report for October is expected to show hiring weak and unemployment still high.
The outlook for 2011 isn't much better.
Economists expect the Labor Department to report that employers added just 60,000 jobs in October, fewer than the 100,000 needed to keep pace with population growth — and far fewer than the 200,000 needed to start returning the 15 million unemployed Americans to work.
As a result, the unemployment rate is expected to remain 9.6 percent for a third straight month.
The jobs report will also likely illustrate why the Federal Reserve felt it needed to announce Wednesday a plan to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds. Those purchases are intended to lower interest rates on mortgages and other loans and help boost the economy.
Since new members of the House and Senate won't take office until January, the burden of trying to energize the economy will fall initially on current members. They will meet in a so-called lame-duck session Nov. 15.
Many economists think lawmakers will extend the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire at the end of this year. Obama had favored letting the tax cuts lapse for the highest-earning 2 percent of taxpayers. But Republicans have pushed to make them permanent for everyone.
On Thursday, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama would be open to extending the cuts for upper-income earners for one or two years.
The economy is likely to remain sluggish either way, and many economists see unemployment remaining above 9 percent through next year.
"Nobody is expecting rapid economic growth in the near future," said Zach Pandl, an economist at Nomura Securities. "The economy still has a lot of challenges in front of it."
That's why the Federal Reserve wants to spur more borrowing and spending, boost the economy and encourage more hiring.
"The job market remains quite weak," Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke wrote in a commentary published Thursday in the Washington Post. "A large number of people can find only part-time work, and a substantial fraction of the unemployed have been out of work six months or longer."
But the Fed's efforts likely won't do much to reduce unemployment anytime soon, economists said. That's partly because many Americans are reducing their debts — and will use the new lower interest rates toward that effort — and don't want to take out more loans. Or they don't qualify.
"Consumers are still in balance-sheet repair mode, which is exactly where they should be," said Tom Porcelli, an economist at RBC Capital Markets.
Other critics fear the Fed's bond purchases could drive inflation too high over the long term and unleash speculative buying in assets like stocks.
On Thursday, the Labor Department said the number of people seeking jobless benefits jumped sharply last week after two weeks of declines. The increase undermined hope that unemployment claims, after falling four times in the previous five weeks, were on a sustained downward trend that would signal layoffs were slowing and hiring was picking up.
Initial claims for unemployment aid rose by 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000 for the week ending Oct. 30. Claims have fluctuated around the 450,000 level all year. They would need to drop below 425,000 to signal sustained job gains.
The weekly applications for unemployment benefits are volatile but are considered a real-time snapshot of the job market. They reflect the pace of layoffs and signal whether companies are hiring.
Separately, labor productivity rebounded in the July-September quarter, rising 1.9 percent after falling in the previous quarter.
But even with the decline, productivity, or output per hour worked, is still growing at a much weaker pace than it did last year. That could be a positive sign that companies will have to step up hiring to meet growing demand.

Study: CT scans can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20%

For the first time, a large study shows that using CT scans to screen smokers and ex-smokers for lung cancer can reduce lung cancer deaths by 20% — potentially saving thousands of lives — by catching lethal tumors at an earlier, more treatable stage, according to a study released Thursday.

Nearly 160,000 Americans a year die from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer deaths in the world, according to the American Cancer Society.

In addition to reducing lung cancer deaths, the screenings also reduced deaths from any cause by 7%, according to the National Cancer Institute, which funded the eight-year, $250 million study of 53,000 people older than 55.

"This is good news," says Bruce Johnson of Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, who wasn't involved in the study. "The reduction in deaths is comparable to mammograms, which reduce deaths by 14% to 15%."

Q&A: Should smokers get scans now?

Until now, there has never been a reliable way to catch lung cancers early, when doctors can save about 70% of patients. Today, about 75% of patients are diagnosed with incurable disease.

Chest X-rays, an earlier form of screening tested repeatedly in the 1970s, has never been shown to save lives, says Ned Patz, a professor of radiology at Duke University Medical Center who helped design the trial. CT scans use a higher dose of radiation and are far more sensitive, able to pick up much smaller tumors.

In this study, doctors randomly assigned half of patients to get three annual screenings with either a chest X-ray or a low-dose CT scan, the study says. Everyone in the study was a smoker or ex-smoker with 30 "pack-years" of smoking. That's equivalent of smoking a pack a day for 30 years or two packs a day for 15 years, for example.

About 1.3% of those given CT scans died over five years, compared to 1.7% of those screened with chest X-rays, according to the National Cancer Institute.

With 100 million smokers and ex-smokers in the USA, doctors acknowledge that the results may spur many people to ask for the scans.

Any hospital can perform the scan, Johnson says.

But Patz notes that doctors and healthcare leaders will have to look at the results carefully before recommending mass screenings. Avoiding smoking — which causes 87% of lung cancers — is still the best way to avoid smoking-related illness, which kills more than 400,000 Americans a year, Johnson says.

But Johnson notes that most lung cancers today are diagnosed in people who don't smoke, either because they've already quit or have never used tobacco. Many worried ex-smokers will be relieved to hear there is something they can do to reduce their risk of death, he says.

Researchers say they don't know if CT screenings help non-smokers or people younger than 55. NCI director Harold Varmus says his agency isn't making any recommendations.

The American Cancer Society will consider the results, but also hasn?t yet changed its recommendations, says chief medical officer Otis Brawley.? Right now, no medical groups endorse screening for lung cancer. ?The best advice we can give is to encourage people to have conversations with their doctors about whether lung cancer screening is right for them,? Brawley says. Brawley cautioned that screening?s benefits in the real world may not be the same as in the study. Participants in the study were all ?highly motivated? and informed patients living in large cities, treated through a careful program at major cancer centers, Brawley says. People who are screened at community hospitals without established systems for following up on suspicious screening results may not fare as well.

Right now, neither Medicare nor private insurance companies pay for lung cancer screenings with CT scans, says Varmus. He noted that the Medicare program is going to look at the results to decide on coverage. In general, CT screenings cost about $300, Varmus says. About 25% of patients in the study screened with a CT needed follow-up tests, which add to the expense.

Patz says patients should think carefully before requesting a screening.

While CT scans are painless, they expose patients to radiation that can potentially cause new cancers, Patz says. It's possible that a person scanned frequently for lung cancer could develop breast cancer as a result.

The CT scans used in the study provide about 3 millisieverts of radiation, according to Denise Aberle, a leader of the new study. That's about the same amount of radiation in a mammogram. The chest X-rays in this study were about 0.05 millisieverts.

The screenings also don't diagnose cancer, says Michael Unger, a professor at Philadelphia's Fox Chase Cancer Center, who wasn't involved in the study. While screenings can detect potential problems, doctors need to retrieve actual cells to confirm cancer.

Making an incision through the ribs to perform a lung biopsy is a serious operation and poses significant risks of its own, Unger says.

And a lung screening can't prevent all deaths.

Significantly, 75% of deaths in the study were from causes other than lung cancer, Patz says. So, a screening may catch lung cancer early, but a patient could still die young from heart disease, emphysema, a stroke or other smoking-related condition.

Also, CT screenings can surprise both doctors and patients, Brawley says. The screenings may detect suspicious lumps and bumps outside the lungs, Brawley says. That can be good — if the scan detects an actual problem. But those surprise findings can cause needless worry, pain and expense if they turn out to be benign.

Unger notes that the study leaves many important questions unanswered, such as: At what age should people begin screening? How often should they get screened? Who is high-risk enough to need a screening?

Doctors will look into all those questions while figuring out a way to get affordable screenings to those who are most likely to benefit, Johnson says. Health officials can now provide mammograms for $100 or less, which has made it possible to get them to large numbers of women, including poor people without regular access to healthcare. "We as a medical community now need to figure out how to do this in a way that the cost is acceptable to the public," Johnson says.

Insurance companies don't pay for lung screenings, according to the National Cancer Institute.

The Medicare program plans to review the study results to decide whether to cover screenings for high-risk people, says Harold Varmus, National Cancer Institute director.

NASA probe beams in close encounter with comet

A NASA probe returned close-up views of a comet Thursday, in a flawless 435-mile-high flyby.

Jets of melting ice streamed from both ends of the comet Hartley 2 as the $333 million Deep Impact probe passed overhead at 27,000 mph. The flyby was humanity's fifth close look at a comet.

"It's just amazing," said mission scientist Jessica Sunshine of the University of Maryland, at a NASA briefing. "For the first time, we are seeing the jets going off all over the surface of a comet."

Comets are essentially frozen leftovers from the dawn of the solar system about 4.6 billion years ago. They may have delivered water and life's early ingredients — organic chemicals — to Earth's oceans in a period of frequent impacts more than 3.9 billion years ago. Planetary scientists hope to learn more about the chemistry of those eras from these long-tailed snowballs.

Hartley 2's jets sprouted as the comet approached within 98 million miles of the sun late last month, the warmest leg of its orbit. The famous tails of comets such as Halley's arise from them melting as they reach the warmer inner solar system, shedding a cloud of ice in their wake.

The real surprise of the flyby was the discovery that melting dry ice, carbon dioxide, powered the jets emerging from the comet rather than water ice, said project chief investigator Michael A'Hearn, also of the University of Maryland. About 1.25-miles long, the peanut-shaped Hartley 2 circles the sun once every 6½ years. Earlier this week, it delivered a small meteor shower to Earth as its icy wake splashed across the nighttime sky.

"The atmospheres of Venus, the early Earth and Mars all contain a lot of carbon dioxide. We may very well be looking at where the atmosphere of early planets came from," said mission scientist Jay Melosh of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind.

As comets go, Hartley 2 is quite small, and its jets are quite active. Nearly 5 feet of its surface depth melts away each time its orbit takes it into the warmer inner solar system, A'Hearn says. "It won't be around for long."

"We could not have asked for a better performance from our spacecraft," said mission manager Tim Larson of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. The encounter about 11 million miles away from Earth passed within 2 miles of its target altitude and was the second such comet visit for Deep Impact. The same spacecraft released a crater-blasting probe into the comet Tempel-1 in 2005, flying overhead to film the impact.