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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Florida highway smashes kill 10 people

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Ten people died and at least 18 were injured in a series of accidents before dawn Sunday near Gainesville after smoke and fog reduced visibility on the main interstate highway, police said.

The Florida Highway Patrol said the smashes involving 12 cars and six or seven trucks occurred shortly before 4 a.m. on Interstate 75 after smoke from a marsh fire combined with fog to reduce visibility on both the northbound and southbound lanes.

Eighteen people were transported to Shands Hospital emergency room, six of them to a trauma center for people in critical condition, according to hospital spokeswoman Alison Wilson.

Eight of the people treated in the emergency room had been released from the hospital by mid-afternoon.

"It's tragic. It's probably the worst one (accident) I've seen in 27 years," Florida Highway Patrol spokesman Patrick Riordan told Reuters.

Riordan said investigators are still trying to determine how many separate collisions occurred on the interstate, which is a main artery through Florida.

In one crash, two cars and a tractor trailer caught fire and melted asphalt on the road, Riordan said. The interstate remained closed hours later while the investigation continued, and an analysis of the road pavement was under way to determine whether it could be safely re-opened, he said.

Riordan said he had no information yet on the ages or gender of the victims. He said several people died in one car. Crumpled cars littered northbound and southbound lanes and in the grass shoulders of the interstate.

Gainesville is home to Florida's flagship university, the University of Florida. The marsh fire was in or near Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park south of town.

Florida Forest Service investigators are trying to determine whether the fire was set intentionally, Ludie Bond, a spokeswoman for the service, told Reuters. A lack of rain in recent months meant the fire spread quickly through the parched prairie.

(Reporting By Barbara Liston; Editing by Corrie MacLaggan adn Tim Gaynor)


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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

U.S. Marine spared from jail time in Iraq killings

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif (Reuters) - A U.S. Marine accused of leading a 2005 massacre of 24 civilians in the Iraqi city of Haditha was spared jail time when he was sentenced on Tuesday for his role in killings that brought international condemnation on U.S. troops.

The harshest penalty Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, 31, now faces for his guilty plea on Monday to a single count of dereliction of duty is a demotion to the rank of private, the lowest rank in the service, as recommended by a military judge.

More serious charges of involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault were dismissed as part of a plea deal that cut short Wuterich's court-martial.

The outcome appeared certain to stoke outrage among Iraqis, adding to anger over other abuses by U.S. soldiers or private security contractors, including the 2004 Abu Ghraib prison scandal, during the more than eight years troops spent in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Even before it became clear that Wuterich would be spared from serving time in jail, relatives of the victims decried the results of his court-martial as a disgrace.

The head of the Iraqi parliament's human rights committee, Saleem al-Jubouri, said terms of the plea deal were "a violation of Iraqis' dignity" and vowed to convene his panel on Wednesday to discuss the matter.

Wuterich, whose guilty plea had carried a maximum possible penalty of three months in jail, showed no emotion as a military judge pronounced his sentence.

But in a pre-sentencing statement he read in court earlier in the day, Wuterich expressed remorse for the slayings and said he realized his name would always be associated with "being a cold-blooded baby-killer, an out of control monster."

As part of his guilty plea, Wuterich accepted responsibility for giving negligent verbal instructions to the Marines under his command when he told them to "shoot first and ask questions later," orders that resulted in the deaths of civilians.

In his court statement on Tuesday, Wuterich added that when he gave that order, "the intent wasn't that they should shoot civilians. It was that they would not hesitate in the face of the enemy."

He said that he and his fellow Marines behaved honorably under extreme circumstances, and that he "never fired my weapon at any women or children that day."

A final decision on a demotion of rank for Wuterich is up to the commander of the Marine Corps Forces Central Command, Lieutenant General Thomas Waldhauser, who had ruled out any confinement as part of the punishment.

Any discharge process faced by Wuterich, a father of three girls, will be separate from his sentencing.

OUTRAGE IN IRAQ

Wuterich was accused of being the ringleader in a series of shootings and grenade attacks on November 19, 2005, that left two dozen civilians dead in Haditha, a city west of Baghdad that was then an insurgent hotspot.

The killings were portrayed by Iraqi witnesses and military prosecutors as a massacre of unarmed civilians -- men, women and children -- carried out by Marines in anger after a member of their unit was killed by a roadside bomb.

Defense lawyers argued the deaths resulted from a chaotic, fast-moving combat situation in which the Marines believed they were under enemy fire.

Jeffrey Dinsmore, an intelligence officer with Wuterich's battalion, testified on Tuesday that insurgent forces "had complete control over the city (of Haditha) at the time" and the unit had received word that an ambush was likely.

He said insurgents were known to commandeer homes as places to launch attacks and to use civilians as human shields.

Six of the seven other Marines originally accused in the case had previously had their charges dismissed by military judges, while another was cleared of criminal wrongdoing.

Even before sentencing, word of a plea deal that carried a jail term of no more than 90 days for Wuterich sparked indignation in Iraq, where Ali Badr, a Haditha resident and relative of one of the victims, called it "solid proof that the Americans don't respect human rights."

"This is not a traffic felony," said Khalid Salman, a lawyer for the Haditha victims' relatives and a cousin of one of those killed, expressing his shock at the plea ahead of sentencing.

Wuterich, in his statement on Tuesday, directed an apology to family members of those killed in Iraq, but said civilians were not singled out for attack.

"Words cannot express my sorrow for the loss of your loved ones," he said. "The truth is, I don't believe anyone in my squad ... behaved in any way that was dishonorable or contrary to the highest ideals that we all live by as Marines."

"But even with the best intentions, sometimes combat actions can cause tragic results," he added, reading calmly and deliberately.

In his own remarks to the judge before sentencing, Wuterich's civilian defense lawyer, Neal Puckett, said his client had unfaltering integrity and was "not evil," but knew that his Marine career was at its end.

After the proceedings, his lawyers said Wuterich planned to pursue a post-military career in information technology.

Wuterich enlisted in the Marines after his 1998 graduation from high school, where he was an athletic honor-roll student and played with the marching band. He was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq when the Haditha incident occurred.

(Writing by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)


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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Strong storms hit Alabama, kill two

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - Search and rescue team combed through debris in Alabama after powerful thunderstorms pummeled the state early on Monday, killing at least two people and leaving heavy damage just hours after tornadoes struck portions of Arkansas.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency after the predawn storms hit the Birmingham area, with the towns of Center Point and Trussville just to the northeast of the city hit particularly hard.

Two people were confirmed dead, according to Pat Curry, Jefferson County's chief deputy coroner; one in Clay, a city of roughly 10,000 people, and another in the western part of the county.

Earlier, an emergency management official had reported three deaths.

"We have major, major damage," said Bob Ammons, a Jefferson County Emergency Management Agency (EMA) official, referring to Center Point, Trussville and some unincorporated areas of the county.

About 100 people were treated for injuries, said Jefferson County EMA spokesman Mark Kelly.

Last April, massive tornadoes tore through Alabama killing more than 240 people, including 64 in the Jefferson and Tuscaloosa areas.

On Monday, in St. Clair County, Alabama, spokeswoman Katie Reese said a local fire department estimated some 36 homes had been damaged, and some of them destroyed.

The possibility for sporadic thunderstorms in the region lingered, according to AccuWeather.com senior meteorologist Henry Margusity, but overall the severe weather was calming down.

THOUSANDS WITHOUT POWER

Clean-up and recovery efforts were under way across Alabama on Monday afternoon.

Food safety inspectors had been dispatched to assess damage and power outages at retail food establishments, state officials said, adding that any compromised products would be taken off shelves.

Search and rescue efforts were ongoing, according to Matt Angelo of the Center Point fire department. The injury count in that area northeast of Birmingham remained at about 12, he said.

At nearby Parkway Veterinary Clinic animals were being transported to a safe location after the structure sustained a direct hit during the storm, a spokeswoman said.

Earlier, rescue crews were dispatched to investigate reports of an overturned mobile home with people trapped inside, said Debbie Orange, city clerk for the city of Clanton, about midway between Birmingham and Montgomery. No injuries could be confirmed.

A preliminary report from the weather service's storm prediction center indicated a radio station in Clanton, Alabama was destroyed and a 302-foot (92-meter) transmission tower "toppled" due to the severe weather.

A tornado is suspected, but not yet confirmed, in the radio station destruction, according to the National Weather Service.

In Tennessee, the worst storm damage was in the middle of the state, with downed trees and power lines. In western Tennessee, structural damage resulted from winds whipping up to 65 mph, meteorologists said.

These were the latest in a series of powerful January storms to have torn through the Southeast.

On Sunday, twisters downed trees and powerlines in Arkansas leaving thousands without power.

A tornado ripped into an area outside of Fordyce, some 70 miles south of state capital Little Rock, damaging houses and felling trees and power lines as it moved, according to Accuweather.com.

The National Weather Service in Little Rock rated the Fordyce area tornado as an EF2, on a scale that ranges from EF0 to EF5, the most severe. The town of just under 5,000 people was one of the hardest hit areas in a series of storms that struck Arkansas on Sunday night.

Significant damage occurred to houses northwest of the small town, the city's country club and a set of transmission towers, it said in a statement.

The weather service has reported as many as eight possible tornadoes may have touched down on Sunday night in Arkansas, which was pelted by soft-ball sized hailstones and buffeted by winds gusting up to 70 miles per hour.

By Monday, almost 8,000 customers across Arkansas were still without power, according to utility provider Entergy Arkansas, Inc.

(Additional reporting by Tim Ghianni in Nashville, Suzi Parker in Little Rock and Kelli Dugan in Mobile, Alabama; Writing by Dan Burns and Lauren Keiper; Editing by Greg McCune and Sandra Maler)


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Gay marriage seen a step closer in Washington state

OLYMPIA, Washington (Reuters) - A bill to legalize gay marriage in Washington state now has enough votes to pass, a state senator who sponsored the legislation said on Monday, which would put it a major step closer to becoming the seventh state to fully recognize same-sex unions.

Democratic Sen. Ed Murray said supporters had secured the 25 votes needed to pass the bipartisan measure, which is in committee and will likely come to a final vote next month.

Governor Chris Gregoire, a Democrat, announced earlier this month that she would support the legislation, while the state House version, HB 2516, already has enough votes to pass.

Opponents of same-sex marriage have said that if the bill passes they will put the issue before voters on a ballot initiative in November.

"It will be difficult there's no doubt about it but I'm confident that the state is now with us on this issue, that on the issue of marriage equality we are now the mainstream," Murray said.

More than 40 U.S. states have outlawed same-sex marriages, while six states explicitly allow it: New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire and Iowa.

Gay marriage is also legal in the District of Columbia

Polls show sharp national division on same-sex marriage, and the issue is still divisive in Washington state, which tends to be split between a liberal coast, including Seattle, and a more conservative inland

Six prominent Pacific Northwest companies, including Microsoft and Nike, have officially endorsed the legislation.

"We believe that passing this bill would be good for our business and good for the state's economy," Microsoft general counsel Brad Smith wrote in a blog post last week.

On the other side, religious conservatives are amassing thousands of Washingtonians against the legislation, including voters who supported the state's expansion of domestic partnership benefits in recent years but draw the line at marriage.

The Catholic bishops of Washington issued a statement calling on "the citizens of this state to maintain the legal definition of marriage" and urging them to contact their state representatives to "request that they defend the current legal definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman."

(Reporting by Nicole Neroulias, Writing by Dan Whitcomb, Editing by Daniel Trotta and Paul Thomasch)


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Saturday, January 21, 2012

Former Army soldier sentenced for killing wife, baby

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - A former Army soldier who was convicted of killing his wife and baby daughter shortly after returning from combat in Afghanistan was sentenced on Friday to 80 years in prison for the crimes.

Kip Lynch, 22, was found guilty last summer of first degree murder in the April 2010 shooting death of his 19-year-old wife Racquell and second-degree murder of their 8-month old baby, Kyirsta.

Lynch shot his wife numerous times in the back, head and neck while she was holding their infant daughter, according to police reports.

The bullets passed through her body, killing both mother and child, according to police reports. Lynch then turned the gun on himself in an apparent suicide attempt, but survived.

The bodies of his wife and baby remained in the family's Anchorage apartment for a weekend before they were discovered.

Lynch was found in critical condition but recovered.

At the two-day sentencing hearing at a state superior court, Lynch's public defender said the former soldier had served valiantly in combat but struggled with post traumatic stress upon returning home.

Lynch was stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage at the time of the incident, which occurred just two months after he returned from a year-long deployment to Afghanistan.

Judge Michael Spaan, who imposed the sentence, concluded that Lynch's combat experience affected the former military policeman's actions.

"I believe that Mr. Lynch's service in Afghanistan was a factor," Spaan said.

But Spaan said it was unclear whether the shooting was a direct result of war-related mental problems.

"I don't even know if you had post traumatic stress, if you're still suffering from it, and what impact this might have in 20 years. The science is not exact enough to answer these questions," the judge told Lynch at sentencing.

The mother of Racquell Lynch testified by telephone at the hearing, asking for a harsh sentence.

"I accept full responsibility for what happened to my wife and daughter," Lynch said in court, reading from a statement of apology. "They will forever be in my heart."

The maximum penalty that could have been imposed on Lynch was 198 years, 99 years for each murder, under Alaska law.

(Editing by Mary Slosson and Peter Bohan)


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Friday, January 20, 2012

Chicago Hull House closing for lack of funds

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Chicago's historic social services agency Hull House, founded well over a century ago by pioneering social reformer Jane Addams, will close by the end of March due to a lack of funds, the board chairman said on Thursday.

"We are no different than anybody else in the world right now," Hull House board chairman Stephen Saunders said. "We're suffering with this economy."

Saunders said the social service agency has millions of dollars of debt and has not been able to raise enough money to cover operating costs, having fallen short of fundraising goals by $1 million or more annually for the past three or four years.

"It's insurmountable," Saunders said of the situation.

Jane Addams, also a leader in women's suffrage, was the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize. She and her associates influenced policy on public health and education, fair labor practices and immigrants' rights.

She founded Hull House in 1889 to provide services mostly to the city's immigrant community. The current Hull House Association serves 14,000 people, with programs in early childhood development, child welfare and family services such as domestic violence counseling.

Saunders said Hull House was arranging for other social services providers, such as Metropolitan Family Services, to take on Hull House's clients and employees.

"The 14,000 people we serve aren't going to be thrown out on the streets," Saunders said.

Metropolitan Family Services Chief Executive Ric Estrada said the agency was willing to help but was waiting to find out from sources like the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois how funding will be distributed.

"There's a lack of funds all around," Estrada said. "Every place is stretched."

Saunders, describing Addams as "essentially the mother of social services in the city," said another agency would probably apply the Jane Addams Hull House name to one of its programs.

Hull House is not affiliated with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, which is located in the original settlement house on the city's near south side.

(Reporting By Mary Wisniewski; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)


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Marine tape reaction sets Taliban fighters against commanders

KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban fighters in Afghanistan have been enraged by a video which shows U.S. marines urinating on three corpses, believed to be insurgents, and some say they do not understand their leadership's relatively measured response to the tape.

News of the clip spread fast across Afghanistan, even though only a minority of people have electricity and the internet is restricted to a tiny urban elite.

Radio can reach remote militants and villagers and mobile phones are used by many Afghans, on both sides of the war, for storing and sharing videos even in remote areas with little communications infrastructure.

"I heard from some friends about this shameful act of the U.S. forces but could not see it at first," said one militant who called himself Qari Babar, explaining that a Pashto-language radio broadcast first alerted him to the tape's existence.

The video, posted on YouTube and other websites, shows four Marines in camouflage combat uniforms urinating on three corpses. One of them jokes: "Have a nice day, buddy." Another makes a lewd joke.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai has condemned the video, describing the men's actions as "inhuman" and calling for an investigation. U.S. and NATO military commanders condemned the actions of the men, and Pentagon has acted quickly to respond to the video, in a bid to limit the fallout.

Although a Taliban spokesman criticized it last week, he said it would not harm nascent efforts to broker peace talks.

For some insurgents, their leadership's muted response to the Marines' actions was unwelcome, particularly after reports the Taliban had agreed to open a political office in Qatar to ease possible negotiation with the United States and allies.

"Our leaders overlooked this degrading and inhumane act of American soldiers because they are interested in peace talks," said Mullah Mohammad Gul, a local Taliban commander in southern Helmand province, where the video is believed to have been made.

"Our duty is to defend our sacred religion and our people and we will keep fighting, no matter what."

Insurgent fighters in other parts of the country said the video could undermine discipline and push foot soldiers to ignore orders from higher ranked fighters.

"Until now, we were following guidelines and principles laid down by our senior commanders for us to follow while fighting," said Babar, active in Afghanistan's eastern Nangarhar province.

Young insurgents might ignore orders in future, he added.

U.S. General John Allen, who commands international troops in Afghanistan, accused the Taliban's one-eyed leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, this week of having "lost all control" of his frontline fighters after several suicide bombings in the restive south killed almost 20 people, mostly civilians.

Babar said he watched the video with around 70 fighters, and said it shocked them even though previous cases of abuse by foreign soldiers in Afghanistan, including the murder of innocent civilians, had been well publicized.

"Every one is now desperately trying to find U.S. soldiers to take revenge for the desecration of the bodies," he added.

HATE WILL GROW

Several commanders also thought the Marines' actions would also help bolster the group's standing with the rural Afghans they fight among.

"It helps us to win the support and sympathy of the Afghan people," Abdul Basit, who fights in eastern Khost province where insurgents have a strong presence, told Reuters.

"You see now the entire nation, even so many people in the government and armed forces, have turned against them because of the atrocities," Basit said.

Basit added that they had been advised by their leaders not to kill their prisoners and spies but after seeing the video, many of them might not control themselves in future.

In the southern town of Marjah, a part of Helmand that has seen heavy fighting and was the centre of a U.S.-led campaign to displace the Taliban in early 2010, another commander agreed.

"It is good that such video has emerged which showed Americans' inhumane acts," Mullah Abdullah told Reuters by satellite phone. He disagreed it would sap discipline, and instead saw a groundswell of greater support.

"From now on, hate against the foreign troops will grow in the hearts of every Muslim, especially in Afghanistan."

(Additional reporting by Jibran Ahmad in PESHAWAR, writing by Emma Graham-Harrison)


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Monday, January 16, 2012

Pakistan Taliban leader believed dead: intelligence officials

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - The leader of the Pakistani Taliban, the militant movement that poses the gravest security threat to the country, is believed to have been killed by a U.S. drone strike, four Pakistan intelligence officials told Reuters on Sunday.

The officials said they intercepted wireless radio chatter between Taliban fighters detailing how Hakimullah Mehsud was killed while travelling in a convoy to a meeting in the North Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.

A senior military official told Reuters there was no official confirmation that the Pakistani state's deadliest enemy had been killed. The Pakistani Taliban issued a denial. U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, could not confirm his death.

If Hakimullah did die, it could ease pressure on security forces, who have struggled to weaken the group, which is close to al Qaeda and has been blamed for many of the suicide bombings across one of the world's most unstable countries.

But it may not ease violence in the long term in Pakistan, which is seen as critical for U.S. efforts to fight global militancy, most crucially in neighboring Afghanistan.

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For more stories on Pakistan see http://link.reuters.com/kac58m

Pakistan blog: http://blogs.reuters.com/pakistan/

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The death of Hakimullah's predecessor, Baitullah Mehsud, in a drone strike in 2009 raised false hopes that the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, could be broken.

"Six to seven TTP members were talking to each other through wireless radio in the conversations we heard, talking about Hakimullah Mehsud being hit by a drone when he was heading to a meeting at a spot near Miranshah," said one of the intelligence officials.

"They referred to him by his codename."

Officials refused to disclose Mehsud's codename.

"Based on our intercepts, Mehsud was heading to a meeting in Nawa Adda," said another intelligence official. Nawa Adda is a village in the Dattakhel area of North Waziristan.

PREVIOUS REPORTS OF HAKIMULLAH'S DEATH FALSE

The Pakistani Taliban said Hakimullah was still alive, but the denial was far less assertive than one issued in 2010 after media reports said he had been killed in a drone strike.

"There is no truth in reports about his death. However, he is a human being and can die any time. He is a holy warrior and we will wish him martyrdom," said TTP spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan.

"We will continue jihad if Hakimullah is alive or dead. There are so many lions in this jungle and one lion will replace another one to continue this noble mission."

The TTP launched an insurgency in 2007 after the military began a major crackdown on militants.

Fighters were particularly incensed when Pakistani security forces stormed the Red Mosque complex run by hard-line clerics in the capital, Islamabad. The government said 102 people were killed in fighting in the incident.

The TTP delivered on threats to carry out revenge attacks in Pakistan after U.S. special forces killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in a Pakistani town in May last year.

More recently, some senior Taliban commanders said the umbrella group had started exploratory peace talks with the government. But it is not clear if all factions were on board.

Hakimullah was not only in danger of being killed by the drone campaign that President Barack Obama has escalated, or by Pakistani military operations. He and his powerful deputy, Wali-ur-Rehman, were at each other's throats and hostilities were close to open warfare, Taliban sources say.

Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afganistan have been trying to sort out differences between Pakistani Taliban commanders so they can aid their fight against U.S.-led NATO forces across the border in Afghanistan.

Any division within the TTP could hinder the Afghan Taliban and al Qaeda's struggle in Afghanistan against the United States and its allies, making it tougher to recruit young fighters and disrupting safe havens in Pakistan that Washington says are used by the Afghan militants.

Hakimullah, who has a sharp face framed by shaggy hair and a disarming grin, is considered to be one of the most ruthless Taliban commanders. He is also ambitious. Under his leadership, the Taliban has vowed to expand its violent campaign overseas to hit Western targets.

A suicide bombing at a U.S. base in Afghanistan's Khost province in 2009 killed seven CIA employees. In video footage released after the attack, the bomber was shown sitting with Hakimullah Mehsud.

Shortly afterwards, the United States added the TTP to its list of foreign terrorist organizations and set rewards of up to $5 million for information leading to Hakimullah Mehsud or Wali-ur-Rehman.

A Pakistani-born American who tried to set off a car bomb in New York's Times Square in 2010 told a U.S. court he received bomb-making training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.

(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart in Washington; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Peter Graff and Peter Cooney)


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Missing Montana math teacher is dead, school officials

(Reuters) - A Montana high school math teacher who vanished last weekend while on her morning jog is dead, and a man has been taken into custody in connection with her disappearance, authorities said on Friday.

Sherry Arnold, 43, was last seen setting off for a run on Saturday in her hometown of Sidney, a fast-growing agricultural community in northeastern Montana. Her husband, Gary Arnold, later reported her missing, police said.

Sidney Public Schools Superintendant Dan Farr said law enforcement authorities had informed family members and district officials of Arnold's death, but declined to elaborate.

Sidney Police Chief Frank DiFonzo said in a prepared statement that authorities had taken one man into custody and were seeking information from another in connection with Arnold's disappearance.

A 47-year-old man has been jailed in neighboring Williston, North Dakota, and a 22-year-old man is being held for questioning in Rapid City, South Dakota.

"Because this investigation is rapidly moving forward, we are not able to provide any details of the case at this time," DiFonzo said in the statement.

He said a tip to a crime hotline led to the breakthrough in the investigation, which has blanketed the northern prairies of Montana and the Dakotas and drawn investigators from the three states and the FBI.

Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser said the crime had shattered the sense of security in the community of 5,000 people, where new homes were being built amid rapid growth brought on by a boom in oil and natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing.

"We never think it will happen in a small town. Now it has and we have to deal with it," he told Reuters.

Smelser said Arnold's disappearance and death has prompted a run on handguns and concealed weapons permits, especially among women, and caused some residents to view outsiders with mistrust.

Arnold, a math teacher at Sidney High School, vanished on Saturday after leaving her home wearing running clothes and mittens. One of her shoes was recovered during an initial search of the area.

A statement on the school district's website said counselors would be on hand following the news.

"She's a well-respected, well-liked teacher," Farr said. "She was the kind of teacher that every parent would want in front of their children. She would go the extra mile to help one of her students."

The school district dismissed students early from class on Friday afternoon and cancelled planned sports events.

Farr said counselors have been available to students and staff since Arnold vanished and that additional support would be offered in coming weeks.

Late Friday afternoon, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer released a statement about Arnold, saying she would be remembered as "a wonderful daughter, mother, wife, teacher and a beloved member of the Sidney community."

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)

(This story corrects the headline and first paragraph to reflect officials saying the missing woman is dead rather than she has been found dead.)


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Campaign officials: Huntsman to quit GOP race

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Jon Huntsman staked his presidential campaign on New Hampshire and his bid to become a legitimate competitor on distinguishing himself from front-runner Mitt Romney. But less than a week after a disappointing third-place finish in the GOP primary there, Huntsman decided to quit the race and back Romney.

Huntsman will endorse Romney, officials said Sunday, because he thinks Romney is the best candidate to beat President Barack Obama in November. Campaign manager Matt David said Huntsman will announce his withdrawal at an event in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Huntsman's resume had suggested he could be a major contender for the Republican presidential nomination: businessman, diplomat, governor, veteran of four presidential administrations, an expert on China and foreign trade. But the former ambassador to China in the Obama administration found a poor reception for his brand of moderate civility that he had hoped would draw support from independents, as well as party moderates.

Huntsman was almost invisible in a race often dominated by Romney, a fellow Mormon. One reason was timing. For months, Romney and other declared or expected-to-declare candidates drew media attention and wooed voters in early primary states.

Huntsman, however, was half a world away, serving as ambassador to China until he resigned in late April. Nearly two more months would pass before his kickoff speech on June 22 in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty. The former Utah governor had already acknowledged that expectations for him in South Carolina's primary this week will be "very low." Word of the Huntsman withdrawal came on the same day that The State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, endorsed him for president.

Although Huntsman was viewed as having little chance of finishing strong in South Carolina, his endorsement of Romney could give the former Massachusetts governor, who leads in state polls, even more of the look of inevitability.

The move comes as pressure has been increasing on Texas Gov. Rick Perry to leave the race to allow South Carolina's influential social conservatives to unify behind either former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum or former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Santorum worked over the weekend at consolidating conservatives, trying to parlay into support in South Carolina the decision Saturday by an influential group of national Christian conservatives to back him.

"I think it's important that we eventually consolidate this race," Santorum told reporters Monday at a news conference in Columbia. He stopped short of urging Perry, who has shown little traction in South Carolina, to quit the race.

"That's up to the candidates themselves to decide," Santorum said.

To stand out in a crowded field, Huntsman positioned himself as a tax-cutting, budget-balancing chief executive and former business executive who could rise above partisan politics. That would prove to be a hard sell to the conservatives dominating the early voting contests, especially in an election cycle marked by bitter divisions between Republicans and Democrats and a boiling antipathy for Obama.

Huntsman also tried to offer a different tenor, promising a campaign marked by civility.

"I don't think you need to run down somebody's reputation in order to run for the office of president," he said.

While Huntsman was often critical of his former boss — he joined those saying Obama had failed as a leader — and occasionally jabbed at Romney, he spent more of his time in debates pushing his own views for improving the economy rather than thumping the president or his opponents.

In light of his work in the Obama administration, Republicans seemed wary of Huntsman. While he cast his appointment in August 2009 as U.S. ambassador to China as answering the call to serve his country, his critics grumbled that he had in fact been working on behalf of the opposition.

Huntsman was conservative in matters of taxes and the reach of the federal government, but he was out of step with most conservatives in his support of civil unions for gay couples. On matters of science, he poked fun at his skeptical rivals in a pre-debate tweet: "To be clear. I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy."

In the end, Huntsman didn't seem to register, crazy or otherwise, with Republicans looking for an alternative to Romney or a winner against Obama. He was routinely at the bottom of national polls, barely registering at 1 or 2 percent, a reflection of the faint impression he made in the GOP debates.

His campaign put all its emphasis on the New Hampshire primary, hoping that face-to-face politicking in the first-in-the-nation primary would pay off with a strong second-place finish or a surprise victory in Romney's backyard. While other GOP candidates spent December in Iowa, the Huntsman campaign ignored its leadoff caucuses, where social conservatives were all but certain to give him short shrift.

Central to Huntsman's New Hampshire strategy was its open Republican primary, which allowed independents to vote along with declared party members. He gambled that he could attract moderate voters, Republicans and independents alike, by presenting himself as a successful conservative leader who wasn't interested in engaging in a culture war.

He called his third-place showing a "ticket to ride" to South Carolina, but his distant finish behind Romney and runner-up Ron Paul was widely regarded as lackluster.

Huntsman, 51, was born in Redwood City, Calif., and raised in Utah. His father, an industrialist and at one time a Nixon administration official, founded Huntsman Chemical Corp. in 1982. Now the Huntsman Corp., it reported revenues of more than $9 billion in 2010.

The younger Huntsman drifted a bit as a young man. He attended high school in Salt Lake City but dropped out to play keyboards in a band. He later attended the University of Utah, then dropped out to serve two years as a Mormon missionary in Taiwan, where he learned to speak Mandarin.

He returned to the University of Utah in 1981 and later worked as an intern for Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and as a staff assistant to President Ronald Reagan. He left college to join the Huntsman Corp. in 1983, the same year he married Mary Kaye Cooper. He studied international politics at the University of Pennsylvania, earning a bachelor's degree in 1987.

While he served in the administrations of both George H.W. Bush — he was ambassador to Singapore in 1992 — and George W. Bush, Huntsman first won elective office in 2004 as Utah's governor. He was re-elected by a 3-1 margin in 2008, then resigned the following year to be America's top diplomat in China.

Huntsman and his wife have seven children, including one adopted from India and one adopted from China.

___

Elliott reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Thomas Beaumont in Myrtle Beach, S.C., contributed to this report.


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New San Francisco sheriff faces domestic violence charges

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - New San Francisco Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi faces domestic abuse charges less than a week after taking office, officials said.

Mirkarimi is charged with misdemeanor counts of domestic violence battery, child endangerment and dissuading a witness, according to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office.

The charges stem from an alleged incident on New Year's Eve with his wife, Eliana Lopez, a former Venezuelan TV actress. She

told reporters last week that she was not pressing charges and objected to the cases against her husband. The couple have a 2-year-old son.

"Regardless of whether the victim supports a prosecution, it is the state's and my office's obligation to ensure the safety of the victim," District Attorney George Gascon said in a written statement.

Mirkarimi, 50, was sworn in on January 8 as the first new sheriff San Francisco has seen in three decades. He narrowly won an open race in November after incumbent Sheriff Michael Hennessey announced his retirement.

The investigation had already begun when he took office. Charges were filed on Friday.

In remarks to reporters outside City Hall on Friday, Mirkarimi said the charges were "very unfounded." Lopez called the case "unbelievable."

Mirkarimi is a Chicago native who has lived in San Francisco for 27 years, according to his campaign website. He was elected to the county's board of supervisors in 2004 and was a district attorney investigator in San Francisco for nine years.

(With reporting by Emmett Berg in San Francisco and Karen Brooks in Austin. Writing by Karen Brooks.)

(Reporting By Ian Simpson)


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Saturday, January 14, 2012

Missing Montana math teacher found dead

(Reuters) - A Montana high school math teacher who vanished last weekend while on her morning jog has been found dead, and a man has been taken into custody in connection with her disappearance, authorities said on Friday.

Sherry Arnold, 43, was last seen setting off for a run on Saturday in her hometown of Sidney, a fast-growing agricultural community in northeastern Montana. Her husband, Gary Arnold, later reported her missing, police said.

Sidney Public Schools Superintendant Dan Farr said law enforcement authorities had informed family members and district officials of Arnold's death, but declined to elaborate.

Sidney Police Chief Frank DiFonzo said in a prepared statement that authorities had taken one man into custody and were seeking information from another in connection with Arnold's disappearance.

A 47-year-old man has been jailed in neighboring Williston, North Dakota, and a 22-year-old man is being held for questioning in Rapid City, South Dakota.

"Because this investigation is rapidly moving forward, we are not able to provide any details of the case at this time," DiFonzo said in the statement.

He said a tip to a crime hotline led to the breakthrough in the investigation, which has blanketed the northern prairies of Montana and the Dakotas and drawn investigators from the three states and the FBI.

Sidney Mayor Bret Smelser said the crime had shattered the sense of security in the community of 5,000 people, where new homes were being built amid rapid growth brought on by a boom in oil and natural gas extraction through hydraulic fracturing.

"We never think it will happen in a small town. Now it has and we have to deal with it," he told Reuters.

Smelser said Arnold's disappearance and death has prompted a run on handguns and concealed weapons permits, especially among women, and caused some residents to view outsiders with mistrust.

Arnold, a math teacher at Sidney High School, vanished on Saturday after leaving her home wearing running clothes and mittens. One of her shoes was recovered during an initial search of the area.

A statement on the school district's website said counselors would be on hand following the news.

"She's a well-respected, well-liked teacher," Farr said. "She was the kind of teacher that every parent would want in front of their children. She would go the extra mile to help one of her students."

The school district dismissed students early from class on Friday afternoon and cancelled planned sports events.

Farr said counselors have been available to students and staff since Arnold vanished and that additional support would be offered in coming weeks.

Late Friday afternoon, Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer released a statement about Arnold, saying she would be remembered as "a wonderful daughter, mother, wife, teacher and a beloved member of the Sidney community."

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Greg McCune)


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Friday, January 13, 2012

FDA releases Canada OJ results, more due next week

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health regulators on Friday cleared the way for the first shipments of imported orange juice to enter the country since January 4, when authorities began testing for an illegal fungicide discovered in juice products from Brazil.

The Food and Drug Administration said final tests confirmed that three samples of Canadian orange juice were negative for the fungicide carbendazim. The sample findings allowed corresponding shipments from Canada into the U.S. market.

But there was no word about Brazilian orange juice, which has riveted industry attention and sent the commodities market for orange juice on its wildest rollercoaster ride in more than 20 years.

Test results have yet to be announced for 28 import samples from Brazil, Mexico and Canada. "Other samples are still pending and won't be released until next week," said FDA spokeswoman Siobhan DeLancey.

In a move that suggested testing could continue for some time, the regulatory agency said it planned to set up an online fact sheet that would be updated on Fridays.

The fungicide scare began after Atlanta soft-drink giant Coca-Cola Co. discovered carbendazim in shipments from Brazil and alerted U.S. authorities about a potential industry-wide problem. Coke is the maker of Minute Maid orange juice.

Carbendazim is used in Brazil to combat blossom blight and black spot, a type of mold that grows on orange trees.

But in the United States, it can be used only in non-food items such as paints, textiles and ornamental trees. U.S. authorities still allow trace amounts of carbendazim in 31 food types including grains, nuts and some non-citrus fruits -- but not in citrus juice.

The FDA said low levels of carbendazim are not dangerous and the agency had no plans for a recall.

But U.S. action to halt any imports with detectable levels of the chemical fanned market worries about orange juice supplies. Uncertainty over the import clampdown has already caused exporters to postpone shipments to the United States.

Brands such as Tropicana, from PepsiCo Inc., and Coke's Minute Maid may contain a mix of juices sourced from Brazil and the United States.

The FDA said testing typically takes four to five business days when no carbendazim is found during initial screening, and an additional seven days if further tests are necessary.

U.S. officials will allow any imported products containing less than 10 parts per billion to enter the United States, but will refuse entry to anything with higher levels.

The European Union allows imports with up to 200 ppb. The Environmental Protection Agency, which regulates fungicides in the United States, considers several thousand parts per billion to be a health risk.

The chemical is banned in Australia.

The FDA said importers will have 90 days to export or destroy any product that has been refused.

(Additional reporting by Josephine Mason in New York)


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U.S. judge backs ATF multiple rifle sales reporting


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. judge on Friday, in a victory for the Obama administration, upheld new federal rules requiring gun dealers in four states bordering Mexico to report the sales of multiple semi-automatic rifles, despite a challenge by the gun industry.

The administration issued the reporting requirements last year despite opposition from the gun industry as part of a stepped-up effort to clamp down on the weapons flowing across the border to violent drug cartels in Mexico.

The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered more than 8,000 gun dealers in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and California to report the sale within five business days of two or more semiautomatic rifles to the same person.

That includes rifles with a caliber greater than .22 and with the ability to accept a detachable magazine.
Mexican officials have complained bitterly about guns coming illegally from the United States. Tens of thousands of Mexicans have been killed in the drug wars since 2006 when Mexico's government decided to take on the cartels.

Judge Rosemary Collyer, appointed to the bench by Republican President George W. Bush, found that the ATF's requirement was sufficiently narrowly tailored and that it was rational by focusing on the states that border Mexico.

"Congress has effected a delicate balance between ATF's regulation of firearms and the right to privacy held by lawful firearms owners," Collyer wrote in a 21-page ruling. The ATF's reporting requirement "did not disturb that balance."

Gun dealers backed by the National Rifle Association, a powerful lobbying organization, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, challenged the requirements, arguing they would effectively require national registration of firearms sales, which they said the ATF was not authorized to do.

The gun industry has also said the rules will have no impact on the cartels but rather burden law-abiding retailers and that the reporting requirement was overly burdensome.

"If President (Barack) Obama gets a second term, I think law-abiding gun owners are going to see a lot more of it," Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA, told Reuters."These drug cartels ... rape, they rob, they murder they throw people into lions' pits, they're not going to be deterred by a form. That must be some form," he said. The groups plan to appeal the ruling.

One gun shop manager in Douglas, Arizona, a city a mile from the Mexico border, said it would not make much difference to him because he had already become very selective about such sales.

"I'm very selective of who I will sell even one paramilitary-type rifle to anymore, because of the hassle," said Lynn Kartchner. "If it ends up in Mexico, I have to go and testify."Some 36,000 reports of multiple handgun sales were made from the four border states in fiscal 2010, according to the ATF.

The decision came as the ATF has been under scrutiny in recent months after a sting operation to track guns being smuggled to Mexican cartels went awry. The weapons were not tracked beyond the initial purchase.
The ATF welcomed the court decision, saying in a statement that it was "an effort to increase ATF's ability to detect and disrupt the illegal firearms trafficking networks responsible for diverting firearms from lawful commerce into the hands of criminal gangs that threaten law abiding citizens."
(Additional reporting by Tim Gaynor in Phoenix; Editing by Will Dunham)

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