Medic: Info from Jackson doctor didn't add up

The doctor charged in Michael Jackson's death never revealed that he had given the singer a powerful anesthetic, a paramedic told a jury hearing the physician's involuntary manslaughter case Friday. Paramedic Richard Senneff said Dr. Conrad Murray told him that he had only given Jackson the sedative lorazepam. He said Murray initially said Jackson wasn't suffering from any condition.Murray eventually told medics that he was treating the singer for exhaustion and dehydration, he said. The doctor did not mention that he had been giving Jackson the surgical anesthetic propofol to help the singer sleep.Murray appeared frantic when the paramedic...

Read more »

Fear in Colo. town at heart of Listeria outbreak

Eric Jensen surveys his dusty cantaloupe field and seems equally stunned and puzzled at the fate that has befallen his crop: row upon row of melons rotting on the vine. Jensen is the co-owner of the Colorado farm where health officials say a national listeria outbreak originated, making his withering fields the epicenter of a food scare that has sickened dozens of people from Wyoming to Maryland and caused as many as 17 deaths.The farm has recalled more than 300,000 cases of cantaloupes and on Thursday three states — Indiana, Louisiana and Wisconsin — were added to the recall list. Spokeswoman Amy Philpott said that trucking records show...

Read more »

Paramedic details frantic scene in Jackson's room

The first paramedic to reach Michael Jackson's bedroom has told a jury that the information he received from the physician charged in the singer's death didn't add up. Paramedic Richard Senneff says Dr. Conrad Murray told him that Jackson wasn't being treated for any specific condition. The veteran paramedic says that didn't seem right because Jackson appeared to be underweight, had a surgical cap on his head and there was an IV bag and stand nearby.Prosecutors contend Murray repeatedly concealed from emergency personnel that he had been giving Jackson doses of the anesthetic propofol in the singer's bedroom.Senneff was one of four paramedics...

Read more »

US strike kills American al-Qaida cleric in Yemen

The killing of U.S.-born cleric Anwar al-Awlaki and another American militant propagandist in a U.S. airstrike Friday wipes out the decisive factor that made al-Qaida's branch in Yemen the most dangerous threat to the United States: its reach into the West. Issuing English-language sermons on jihad on the Internet from his hideouts in Yemen's mountains, al-Awlaki drew Muslim recruits like the young Nigerian who tried to bring down a U.S. jet on Christmas and the Pakistani-American behind the botched car bombing in New York City's Times Square.The other American killed in the strike, Samir Khan, published a slick English-language Web...

Read more »

Study finds fewer gay characters on network TV

The number of gay and bisexual characters on scripted broadcast network TV has dipped slightly this season to 19 out of nearly 650 roles, according to the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation. The 16th annual "Where We Are on TV" report released Wednesday by GLAAD found that 2.9 percent of actors appearing regularly on prime-time network drama and comedy series in the 2011-12 season will portray gay, lesbian or bisexual characters.That's down from 3 percent in the 2009-10 season and 3.9 percent last season, when there were 23 out of a total of nearly 600 roles.The 2008-09 season saw an increased representation of 2.6 percent.Only five of the 19 gay and lesbian characters this season are nonwhite, GLAAD found.Using information provided by ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and CW, the group reviewed...

Read more »

Reports: Russian ballistic missile fails in test

Russia's military says an experimental intercontinental ballistic missile has failed during a test launch. Russian news agencies quoted the military's Space Forces spokesman Col. Alexei Zolotukhin as saying that Tuesday's launch from the northern Plesetsk launch pad was part of testing of a new series of missiles. They said Wednesday that there was no damage or casualties on the ground.The Defense Ministry didn't immediately comment. The news reports didn't name the missile's type, but said that it was a development of the Topol-M and the Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles designed by Moscow's Institute for Thermal Technologies. The...

Read more »

US tells court bin Laden photos must stay secret

Public disclosure of graphic photos and video taken of Osama bin Laden after he was killed in May by U.S. commandos would damage national security and lead to attacks on American property and personnel, the Obama administration contends in a court documents.In a response late Monday to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group seeking the imagery, Justice Department attorneys said the CIA has located 52 photographs and video recordings. But they argued the images of the deceased bin Laden are classified and are being withheld from the public to avoid inciting violence against Americans...

Read more »

Drugs worth $350 million destroyed in Afghanistan

Afghan and U.S.-led coalition troops have destroyed drugs worth more than $350 million and three drug laboratories in southern Afghanistan. NATO said Wednesday the narcotics seizure may be the largest ever made in Afghanistan.Acting on intelligence, the troops targeted an area of Baghran district in the southern Helmand province on Monday that was suspected of being a manufacturing site for drugs.The money from the drugs was believed to be bankrolling attacks on Afghan and coalition forces.Also destroyed in the sweep was more than 26,000 pounds (12,065 kilograms) of chemicals used to make drugs, 220 pounds (100 kilograms) of heroin and 176 pounds (80 kilograms) of opium. Afghanistan produces about 90 percent of the world's opium.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further...

Read more »

Debt panel eyes dual Medicare/Medicaid patients

Government health benefits for some 9 million of the sickest and poorest U.S. citizens will come under scrutiny from the congressional "super committee" seeking to cut the nation's debt. These are Americans who qualify for both the Medicare and Medicaid programs for the elderly and the poor, based on their disability, age and low income.In bureaucratic parlance they are called "dual-eligibles" and both Democrats and Republicans see their care as one major area for potential savings. The super committee panel, with six members from each party, is taking a look at proposals to reduce spending on this group, a congressional aide said.Medicare...

Read more »

Egypt convicts Mubarak's information minister

An Egyptian court has convicted Hosni Mubarak's powerful information minister on corruption charges and sentenced him to seven years in prison. Anas al-Fiqqi's conviction on Wednesday is the latest by an Egyptian court of former regime figures. Those already convicted and sentenced include the former interior and tourism ministers, as well as former ruling party stalwart and steel magnate Ahmed Ezz.Former state television chief, Osama el-Sheikh, was sentenced to five years in the same case as al-Fiqqi's.Mubarak himself is on trial on charges that he ordered the use of deadly force against protesters in the 18-day uprising that toppled him...

Read more »

China: Taiwan arms sale will disrupt US exchanges

China's military exchanges with the U.S. will suffer after Washington announced a $5.85 billion arms package for Taiwan, the Defense Ministry said Wednesday, confirming expectations that Beijing would retaliate over the sale. High-level exchanges, joint drills, and other large-scale activities will be affected "in light of the serious damage" resulting from the sale, ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng said at a news conference open to Chinese reporters only.That follows the months-long suspension of military contacts last year following the announcement of another arms deal for Taiwan. China views such exchanges as a political bargaining...

Read more »

Bahrain upholds life sentences for activists

Bahrain's special security court on Wednesday upheld sentences for 21 activists convicted for their roles in Shiite-led protests for greater rights, including eight prominent political figures given life terms on charges of trying to overthrow the Gulf kingdom's Sunni rulers. The decision suggests Bahrain's authorities are unwilling to roll back punishments for those considered central to the anti-government uprising, although officials have taken other steps seeking to ease tensions. They include releasing some detainees and reinstating state workers purged for suspected support of the seven-month-old protest movement.Bahrain's security forces — backed by a Gulf military force led by Saudi Arabia — have crushed large-scale demonstrations by the country's majority Shiites. But...

Read more »

Yemenis protest again, tribesmen shoot down plane

Tens of thousands of Yemenis protested in Sanaa on Wednesday against President Ali Abdullah Saleh's return from Saudi Arabia, while opposition tribesmen said they had downed a warplane outside the capital and captured its pilot. Waving flags and making peace signs, protesters fearing renewed stalemate after months of demonstrations seeking Saleh's removal marched out of "Change Square" shouting "Death, death.""The point is, if we can't live a decent and dignified life, we'd rather die," said Khaled al-Mandi.Yemeni protesters say they are fed up with grinding poverty, corruption and lawlessness in a country where two in three people have to survive on less than $2 per day.Saleh's return has infuriated many Yemenis who thought they had seen the last of him when an attempt on his life in...

Read more »

Libya's new rulers believe Gadhafi hiding in south

Libya's new rulers believe Moammar Gadhafi may be hiding in the southern desert, possibly in a vast area near the Algerian border, under the protection of ethnic Tuareg fighters, an official said Wednesday. Abdel-Rahman Busin, a military spokesman in Tripoli, also said revolutionary forces knew Gadhafi's son, Seif al-Islam, was in the regime stronghold of Bani Walid two weeks ago because they held negotiations about his possible surrender. But he said the talks had broken down and it was not known if he was still in the town.Revolutionary forces gained control of Tripoli and much of the rest of the North African nation late last month, but...

Read more »

Chris Christie Delivers an Electrifying Speech, but He's No Conservative Savior

Despite the entreaties of wealthy Republican donors and reporters yearning for a hot new storyline, Chris Christie looks like he's not going to run for President. Speaking at the Reagan library in California on Tuesday night, Christie delivered a crowd-pleasing address complaining that President Obama had failed to meet his promise and that America needs new leadership to restore its greatness. "This is not a leadership style, this is a re-election strategy," he said of the current administration's stewardship. "What happened to State Senator Obama? When did he decide to become one of the 'dividers' he spoke of so eloquently in 2004?"...

Read more »

Obama popularity in Israel surges after U.N. speech: poll

President Barack Obama's popularity has risen sharply in Israel after he spoke out forcibly against a Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations last week, according to a poll published by the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday. The poll found 54 percent of Jewish Israelis thought Obama's policy was favorable to Israel, while 19 percent said it was pro-Palestinian. A survey in May showed 12 percent thought U.S. policy was pro-Israel and 40 percent saw it as pro-Palestinian.The surge in popularity followed a September 21 speech by Obama at the United Nations in which he rejected a Palestinian quest for statehood recognition and detailed the...

Read more »

Judge to mull an extension of Loughner's treatment

The man accused of wounding Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a deadly shooting rampage is scheduled Wednesday to make his first court appearance since an angry outburst got him kicked out of a May competency hearing. Jared Lee Loughner's mental status is again the order of business, as a judge decides whether it's likely the 23-year-old can be made competent to stand trial.But this time around, Loughner will be under the effects of psychotropic drugs, which he has been forced to take the past 60 days.U.S. District Judge Larry Burns will decide whether to grant prosecutors' request to extend Loughner's stay at a Missouri prison facility by ...

Read more »

Perry immigration strategy may help woo Hispanics

Rick Perry is calling his Republican rivals "heartless" and using ethnically charged language to defend moderate parts of his immigration record. That strategy may endear the Texas governor to Hispanics and their allies even as it angers others the presidential candidate must woo to win the nomination for president. His in-your-face approach to addressing what many non-Hispanic conservatives consider a black mark on his record underscores the difficult politics at play for Perry. He's a border-state governor who for a decade has taken great care to avoid alienating the nation's fastest-growing minority group. Now he finds himself running...

Read more »

Destroyed school raises questions for Libyans

Textbooks are strewn across the floor of the computer and math lab. Pages of science homework are stamped with footprints. A cupboard has been smashed. Bullet holes puncture computer screens and frame door locks. The Tareq Abu Zeyad middle school lies in ruins. Villagers in this isolated, dusty hamlet in Libya's western mountains say revolutionary forces carried out the attack last week to avenge their past support for Moammar Gadhafi.The assault, part of a series of reported attacks throughout the region, is an example of what can go wrong as Libyans struggle with how to go forward after months of brutal civil war that often pitted tribes...

Read more »

Christie again says he isn't running for president

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has reaffirmed to supporters that he isn't running for president, even as a speech he delivered at the Ronald Regan Presidential Library was likely to stoke fresh speculation about his White House ambitions. The Republican governor warned that the nation's credibility abroad was being damaged by troubles at home. He charged that an indecisive White House has deepened the nation's economic pain, and he accused President Barack Obama of preparing to divide the country to win re-election next year.Christie later said in a question-and-answer session that he was flattered by suggestions he run in 2012, but he...

Read more »

4 Americans get pot from US government

Sometime after midnight on a moonlit rural Oregon highway, a state trooper checking a car he had just pulled over found less than an ounce of pot on one passenger: A chatty 72-year-old woman blind in one eye. She insisted the weed was legal and was approved by the U.S. government.The trooper and his supervisor were doubtful. But after a series of calls to the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Drug Enforcement Agency and her physician, the troopers handed her back the card — and her pot.For the past three decades, Uncle Sam has been providing a handful of patients with some of the highest grade marijuana around. The program grew out of a 1976...

Read more »