First week of testimony in Martin case wraps up

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — The first week of George Zimmerman's second-degree murder trial wrapped up with testimony from two neighbors and a police officer that seemed to bolster the defense's argument that he was pinned on his back by Trayvon Martin before shooting the teen.

Neighbor Jonathan Good testified Friday that it appeared the unarmed teen was straddling the neighborhood watch volunteer, while another neighbor, Jonathan Manalo, said Zimmerman seemed credible when he said just after the fight that he shot Martin in self-defense. Officer Tim Smith testified that Zimmerman's back side was covered in grass and wetter than his front side.

All three were called as witnesses for prosecutors who are trying to convict him of second-degree murder.

Good, who had perhaps the best view of any witness, said he did not see anyone's head being slammed into the concrete sidewalk, as Zimmerman claims Martin did to him. Good initially testified that it appeared "there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," but during detailed questioning he said he saw only "downward" arm movements being made.

Zimmerman has claimed that he fatally shot 17-year-old Martin in February 2012 in self-defense as the Miami-area teen was banging his head into the concrete sidewalk behind the townhomes in a gated community.

Under prosecution questioning, Good said he never saw anyone being attacked that way. Good said he heard a noise behind his townhome and he saw what looked like a tussle when he stepped out onto his patio. He said he yelled: "What's going on? Stop it."

Good testified he saw a person in black clothing on top of another person with "white or red" clothing. He said he couldn't see faces but it looked like the person on the bottom had lighter skin. Martin was black and was wearing a dark hoodie. Zimmerman identifies as Hispanic and was wearing a red jacket. Good was back inside calling 911 when he heard a gunshot.

"It looked like there were strikes being thrown, punches being thrown," Good said.

Later, under cross-examination, he said that it looked like the person on top was straddling the person on bottom in a mixed-martial arts move known as "ground and pound." When defense attorney Mark O'Mara asked him if the person on top was Martin, Good said, "Correct, that's what it looked like." Good also said the person on the bottom yelled for help.

Zimmerman, 29, could get life in prison if convicted of second-degree murder. Zimmerman followed Martin in his truck and called a police dispatch number before he and the teen got into a fight.

Zimmerman has denied the confrontation had anything to do with race, as Martin's family and their supporters have claimed.

Manalo, whose wife had testified earlier in the week, was the first neighbor to step outside and see what happened with his flashlight after he heard a gunshot. He took cellphone photos of a bloodied Zimmerman and Martin's body, and those photos were shown to jurors on Friday. Manalo also described Martin's hands as being under his body.

Manalo said Zimmerman didn't appear shocked and acted calmly. After police officers arrived and handcuffed Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer asked Manalo to call his wife and tell her what happened.

Manalo started to tell Zimmerman's wife that her husband had been involved in a shooting and was being questioned by police when "he cut me off and said, 'Just tell her I shot someone,'" Manalo said.

Under cross-examination, Manalo said when he asked Zimmerman what happened, the neighborhood watch volunteer told him, "I was defending myself and I shot him."

"From what you could tell at that moment, that seemed completely true?" asked defense attorney Don West.

"Yes," Manalo said.

Smith, the police officer, testified that when he saw Zimmerman after the shooting, the neighborhood watch volunteer's backside was covered in grass and wetter than his front side, bolstering defense attorneys' contention that Martin was on top of Zimmerman.

As he walked to the squad car after he had been handcuffed, Zimmerman told the officer that "he was yelling for help and nobody would come help him," Smith said.

"It was almost a defeated ... a confused look on his face," Smith said.

Smith said Zimmerman described himself as "lightheaded" during the drive to Sanford Police Station but declined an offer to take him to a hospital.

The physician's assistant who treated Zimmerman the next day said that Zimmerman complained of feeling nauseated upon reflecting what had happened. But Lindzee Folgate attributed that to psychological factors rather than any physical condition. She also said it appeared his nose was broken, but it was impossible to say for sure since no X-rays were taken. She recommended he see an ear-and-nose doctor and a psychologist.

When O'Mara asked if abrasions on his head were consistent with someone who had his had slammed into concrete, Folgate said, "it could be consistent, yes."

She also testified that Zimmerman had written on a form reciting his medical history that he was exercising three times a week by doing mixed martial arts, a statement that prosecutor Bernie de la Rionda asked her to repeat.

Paramedic Stacy Livingston, who responded to the shooting scene, testified Zimmerman had a swollen, bleeding nose and two cuts on the back of his head an inch long. When O'Mara asked if Zimmerman should have been concerned with his medical well-being because of his injuries, Livingston said, "Possibly."

When photos of Martin's body were shown on a courtroom projector during Livingston's testimony, Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, looked away and blinked back tears.

___

Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://twitter.com/KHightower

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP

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First Canada lynx in 15 years found in Idaho

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - A Canada lynx has been documented in Idaho for the first time in over 15 years when the imperiled cat was inadvertently caught in a foot-hold trap in the Salmon-Challis National Forest, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday.

"It's a very rare occurrence," Tom Keegan, regional manager with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said about the incidental capture last week of the high-elevation, forest-dwelling cat.

He said a man walking his dogs spotted the lynx on Thursday in the rugged mountains of east central Idaho in a legal trap set for bobcat and notified state wildlife officials. They released the animal unharmed.

The last lynx confirmed in the 4.3 million-acre forest surrounding Salmon was in 1991, when one was accidentally trapped. The cats were documented elsewhere in Idaho during the 1995-1996 trapping season, after which trapping lynx was outlawed.

Lynx were designated in 2000 as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species in the lower 48 states, where they roam the high country from Maine to Washington and south through the Rocky Mountains.

The animals have long legs and large, well-furred paws, making them highly adapted for hunting in deep snow for preferred prey like snowshoe hares, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Lynx are infrequently sighted. Biologists mostly rely on tracks and scat to document the reclusive animal's presence.

Fewer than 100 lynx are believed to roam the mid- and high-elevation forests of Idaho, where they are classified as a "species of greatest conservation need."

Just 40 lynx have been recorded in east central Idaho since the late 1800s, according to Fish and Game.

A DNA sample collected from the recently captured cat will be analyzed to verify it is a wild lynx and to gain knowledge about its possible origins, Keegan said.

Like wolverines and other elusive forest carnivores, lynx can travel long distances, even hundreds of miles, he said.

Keegan said it was too early to say whether the lynx found in the Salmon-Challis forest was a sign of the animal's return to its historic range or if it was a random event.

"There's all kinds of speculation. It may be a transient animal or a resident animal," he said.

(Editing by Dan Whitcomb and Cynthia Johnston)

View the original article here at Yahoo News!

France records first E. coli death (AP)

PARIS – Authorities have recorded France's first death from the European E. coli outbreak.

Health officials in Bordeaux said the 78-year-old woman died early Saturday morning.

She had been hospitalized in Bordeaux since June 24 with hemolytic uremic syndrome — the rare kidney condition that the most seriously ill victims of the outbreak are suffering from.

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AP IMPACT: First 24 hours shaped Japan nuke crisis (AP)

By ERIC TALMADGE and MARI YAMAGUCHI, Associated Press Eric Talmadge And Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press – 23 mins ago

FUKUSHIMA, Japan – When Unit 2 began to shake, Hiroyuki Kohno's first hunch was that something was wrong with the turbines. He paused for a moment, then went back to logging the day's radioactivity readings.

He expected it to pass. Until the shakes became jolts.

As sirens wailed, he ran to an open space, away from the walls, and raced down a long corridor with two colleagues. Parts of the ceiling fell around them. Outside, he found more pandemonium.

"People were shouting about a tsunami," he said. "At that point, I really thought I might die."

___

EDITOR'S NOTE: It was an ordinary Friday afternoon, and then the shaking began — harbinger of a nuclear nightmare that rages on, three months later. A moment-by-moment account of the crucial first 24 hours after an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan's Fukushima Dai-ichi plant.

___

Breathless, Kohno climbed a small hill and turned to look back. Black plumes rose from the reactor units. The emergency generators, burning diesel, had kicked in.

He saw the wave. It crashed over the plant's seawall, stopping only when it reached the foot of the slope about 500 yards (460 meters) from where he stood.

Kohno watched, stunned.

Unit 2, one of six reactors at the Fukushima Dai-ichi power station, is ordinary by nuclear standards: a drab labyrinth of switches and valves, ladders and bulkheads, meters and gauges. That's how Kohno, a veteran radioactivity specialist, knew it.

Now, nothing about what he saw was normal.

Kohno kept moving.

The events of the next 24 hours brought the promise of nuclear power into question, both in Japan and around the world.

Through interviews with dozens of officials, workers and experts, and hundreds of pages of newly released documents, The Associated Press found the early response to the crisis was marked by confusion, inadequate preparation, a lack of forthrightness with the public and a reluctance to make quick decisions. These problems set the tone for the troubled recovery effort since.

___

On March 11, Prime Minister Naoto Kan was taking a beating in an Upper House committee meeting over whether he had taken campaign money from a foreign national, which is illegal in Japan.

The questioning stopped suddenly when the entire parliament building, a sprawling structure in the center of Tokyo, started to rock. It was 2:46 p.m. All eyes rose to the huge crystal chandeliers above, clinking and shaking violently.

"Everyone, please stay in a safe position," committee chairman Yosuke Tsuruho said, grasping the armrests of his upholstered velvet chair. "Please duck under your desk."

Within four minutes, a crisis headquarters was up and running across the street in the prime minister's office. Kan rushed there as soon as the shaking subsided. At 3:37 p.m. he convened a roundtable of his top advisers.

Soon after the tsunami hit, Kan's task force was deluged by reports of massive damage up and down the coast, aerial photos and video showing entire villages gone.

Kan, who majored in applied physics in college, was among the first whose attention went to the 40-year-old nuclear plant, according to Kenichi Shimomura, a senior aide who was with him. The prime minister demanded an assessment.

The plant's operator was in disarray. Phone calls to the utility, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, went unanswered, and what little information trickled out was conflicting. In those critical first hours, the government was flying blind.

TEPCO President Masataka Shimizu, who was traveling, boarded a military airlift from Nagoya after he heard the news. But the flight was turned around. The Defense Ministry bumped him to free up its planes for the emergency response.

Kan quietly repeated to himself what was by now in the back of everyone's mind: "This is going to be a disaster."

___

On that day, Team A, a crew of 13, including a trainee, was overseeing Units 1 and 2 in one control room. In another, a crew of nine was responsible for Units 3 and 4. The latter, along with Units 5 and 6, was offline for maintenance.

The first news was good.

All three working reactors automatically came to an emergency shutdown when the shaking began. Within one minute, all control rods were inserted properly into the cores, stopping the nuclear reactions.

What came next changed everything.

The first wave hit the plant at 3:27 p.m. At 13 feet, it was easily blocked by the plant's breakwater, which stands 33 feet above sea level.

But the one that struck eight minutes later was off the scale.

It flowed up and over the barrier, washed over a 33-foot (10-meter) water tank and tossed passenger cars this way and that. Watermarks suggest the wave may have been as high as 50 feet (15 meters).

Team A watched, horrified, as the plant deteriorated by the minute. A detailed operator's log, along with a handwritten timeline on the control room whiteboard, showed how quickly the units failed.

"15"37' D/G 1B trip," said a scribbled notation indicating the Unit 1 diesel generator went out. It was 3:37 p.m., just two minutes after the second wave had struck.

Then: "SBO." Station Blackout. The power was out.

Four minutes later, at 3:41 p.m., Unit 2 lost power. Minutes after that, key instrument readings stopped.

In the dark, workers found a main power switchboard had been submerged and a main power line brought down by a mudslide. The basement of the Unit 1 turbine building was filled with water. Two workers would later be found drowned in the basement of another turbine room.

Exactly what was happening inside the reactors remained a mystery. At 3:50 p.m., Team A wrote: "Water levels unknown." If not replenished, the water in the core would boil away and the rods would melt.

Two minutes later, Team A added an even more dire note on Unit 2: "ECCS injection not possible." The emergency core cooling system, the last-ditch backup to keep the core from going dry, was down.

It was an hour after the tsunami, and Team A desperately requested emergency power vehicles. By the time they arrived and were hooked up, it would be too late.

___

Outside the control room, about 755 workers, including TEPCO employees and subcontractors, were on the premises.

Yuji Sato was on break in a lounge in a small building about 60 feet (20 meters) from Unit 1, when the quake hit. He had worked all morning on the turbines.

The quake broke the air conditioner and knocked the TV in the lounge off its stand. When the shaking stopped, Sato went outside. Concrete buildings had been heavily damaged, some walls reduced to rubble.

He and about 100 colleagues streamed up the hill behind the reactors. They walked.

"None of us were all that afraid. Japan is a nation of earthquakes. We are used to them," Sato said.

His brother-in-law, pump technician Yuta Tadano, was already up the hill in a second-story office at the time of the quake. A thin young man with pierced ears and long bangs, he worked for subcontractor Tokyo Energy and Systems Inc.

Tadano wanted to go home to check on his wife, Akane, and 4-month-old son, Shoma. His boss said he expected them back at work on Monday. With the utter devastation outside the gate, the normally 20-minute drive home took four hours.

For most of the next two months, no one would be allowed inside the reactor buildings.

Still, dozens of TEPCO workers — later dubbed with some poetic license the "Fukushima 50" — stayed on. Keiichi Kakuta was one. He remained in the plant's radiation-proof Emergency Crisis Headquarters, a big, windowless conference room about 300 yards from the Unit 2 reactor.

Although it meant leaving his family in Tokyo, Kakuta had jumped at the chance for a public affairs job with TEPCO in Fukushima three years ago. He had always admired the company's teamwork and looked forward to a new challenge.

He got the biggest of his life.

___

By late afternoon, Unit 1 was spiraling out of control, with its power and cooling systems down.

The heat from decaying radioactive elements in the fuel rods was growing. As the core overheated, it burned off its coolant water, exposing the 13-foot (4-meter) rods. In turn, steam from the evaporated water was building up inside the containment chamber.

As the heat and pressure rose, the uranium pellets inside the rods melted through their zirconium casings. When the zirconium reached 2,200 degrees Fahrenheit (1,200 Celsius), it reacted with the water, producing hydrogen.

This was obviously going to get worse before it got better.

Yukio Edano, the chief Cabinet spokesman, is the face of Japan's government. At 7:45 p.m., his job was to make an unprecedented statement to the nation — but make it sound routine and reassuring.

"We have declared a nuclear emergency," he said from behind a podium in the press conference room at the prime minister's office. "Let me repeat that there is no radiation leak, nor will there be a leak."

He was wrong. Recently released TEPCO documents reveal that radiation was detected at the plant perimeter at 5:30 p.m., but the utility apparently didn't fax those readings to the government until shortly after 9 p.m.

In the meantime, a two-mile (three-kilometer) evacuation zone around the plant was established. That later would become 6 miles (10 kilometers), then 12 (20). In the end, more than 80,000 people would be forced to flee.

Fukushima Dai-ichi's operators, meanwhile, were faced with a twofold response: Vent and flood. Venting to release pressure and prevent an explosion, flooding to keep things cool.

But venting would release radioactivity into the air. And flooding with seawater would ruin the equipment because of the salt.

Around 9 p.m., less than six hours after the tsunami, officials at the prime minister's office started to press TEPCO to vent. TEPCO hesitated.

Fukushima Dai-ichi was the utility's golden goose. Designed primarily by General Electric, it went online in 1971 and had kept the lights shining in Tokyo ever since. Unlike newer facilities, it was paid for, and it was generating profits with each megawatt it produced.

TEPCO knew that venting radioactivity would cast doubt on the safety of the nuclear industry around the nation, and the world. But the options were dwindling.

The outage of primary and backup power — a scenario that exceeded planners' precautions — was severely hampering operations.

The first emergency power vehicle sent by TEPCO got stuck in the chaotic post-tsunami traffic. A backup truck from another power company arrived at 11 p.m., but the cable it brought was too short to hook up.

At 3:05 a.m., Trade and Industry Minister Banri Kaieda trotted out TEPCO executive Akio Komori for a public announcement of the plan to vent the Unit 1 containment vessel. Seven minutes later, Edano took to the podium, this time to warn the public that the action would entail the release of radioactive isotopes. Again, he urged calm.

For those who knew what was happening, the urgency was mounting. The containment chamber around the core was bulging with pressure twice as high as its maximum operational limit and nearly matching the company's required venting standard.

"We kept telling TEPCO to do it quickly, asking how come it wasn't happening," Edano recalled later.

Nearly four hours after the initial announcement, an exasperated Kaieda ordered TEPCO to vent. It was 6:50 a.m.

Surging radiation forced workers to abort their attempt to open the valves manually. Then they tried to open them remotely and repeatedly failed, probably because of the power outage but possibly also a design flaw. The equipment had never been used in a real-world crisis.

Unit 1 was a ticking time bomb.

___

As the night wore on, the prime minister decided he had to go to Fukushima himself, at first light. His helicopter landed at 7:11 a.m. on March 12. Like everyone else in the entourage, Kan wore a blue-gray work uniform and had a dosimeter hanging around his neck.

His aide, Shimomura, a former TV journalist, was assigned to chronicle the event. He started filming as the group boarded a minibus bound for the emergency crisis headquarters.

It looked normal enough from the outside. Inside, though, was a madhouse. Dozens of workers raced back and forth, trying not to step on about 20 others either slumped to the floor or sleeping in blankets in the hallway.

Shimomura turned off the camera. This scene would not reassure the nation, or the world.

Escorted by TEPCO officials, Kan strode past men so preoccupied or tired that they didn't even acknowledge the presence of their country's leader.

Kan, known for his short temper, fired questions at plant executives and pointed at diagrams of the reactors on a sheet of paper in front of them. He yelled at TEPCO Vice President Sakae Muto and plant chief Masao Yoshida, his onsite escorts, demanding to know why the venting and seawater injection were not happening.

The discussions lasted only half an hour. At 8 a.m., Kan was on his way back to Tokyo.

By then, TEPCO would later acknowledge, the core at Unit 1 had mostly melted, and units 2 and 3 were not far behind.

At 2:30 p.m., workers burst into applause. Vapor was rising from the Unit 1 stack and containment vessel pressures fell — confirmation that the venting was working. But within half an hour, they ran out of fresh water.

This was what TEPCO had dreaded.

Fukushima Dai-ichi was built right next to the biggest source of water on the planet — the Pacific Ocean. Pumping water out of the ocean is an absolute last resort, however. The reactors would never be usable again.

Yet again, TEPCO officials waffled. At 3:36 p.m., almost 24 hours to the minute after the second tsunami hit, the hydrogen inside Unit 1 combined with oxygen already there and exploded, in a fiery blast that blew off the roof and sent a plume of contaminated smoke and debris into the sky.

The decision to use seawater was unavoidable.

Blasts at units 2, 3 and 4 would follow in the coming days. TEPCO's primary task, and for months or even years, is still to repair the damage from the explosions.

Japan's nuclear nightmare had begun.

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First lady Michelle Obama arrives in South Africa (AP)

PRETORIA, South Africa – First lady Michelle Obama is beginning a goodwill visit to sub-Saharan Africa and Botswana, accompanied by her two daughters, a niece, a nephew and her mom.

Mrs. Obama received a warm welcome upon her arrival Monday night at the air force base in the capital of South Africa, Pretoria, after 18 hours and more than 1,800 miles of travel.

Throughout the week, the first lady will promote youth leadership, education and HIV/AIDS prevention programs.

She'll also pay tribute to the legacy of Nelson Mandela and others like him whose struggles and sacrifices ultimately led to the undoing of South Africa's system of segregation.

___

Michelle Obama is fond of saying there's no magic to her being first lady.

She didn't come from a wealthy or well-connected family. She came from the South Side of Chicago and is a descendant of slaves. But she says it's a passion for an education that she and President Barack Obama shared and a willingness to work hard that helped them become successful.

It's a message that young leaders in Africa soon will hear when Mrs. Obama makes her second solo trip abroad as first lady, visiting South Africa and Botswana this coming week.

"In so many ways, I see myself in you all. And I want you to see yourselves in me," she recently told Washington high school students, hoping to inspire them with her personal story.

The weeklong visit, beginning with the first lady's arrival Monday in Johannesburg, is intended to improve relations between the U.S. and Africa and promote youth engagement, education, health and wellness. In the centerpiece speech of the trip, she will appear Wednesday before a U.S.-sponsored forum of young women leaders from sub-Saharan Africa.

The president is not going, but Mrs. Obama is being joined by her daughters, Malia and Sasha, as well as her mother, Marian Robinson, and a niece and nephew, Leslie and Avery Robinson. Her family will join her on most outings, probably exposing her daughters to more of the media spotlight than they're used to.

It was during her first solo trip outside the U.S., to Mexico in April 2010, that the first lady started an effort to encourage young people to become involved in their communities and countries and not shy away from trying to solve persistent global problems.

The youth population outside the U.S. is growing fast, with young people ages 15 to 24 making up 20 percent of the world's population.

"The fact is is that responsibility for meeting the defining challenges of our time will soon fall to all of you," Mrs. Obama told thousands of university students in Mexico City. "Soon, the world will be looking to your generation to make the discoveries and to build the industries that will fuel our prosperity and ensure our well-being for decades to come."

That message is likely to resonate in a place such as South Africa, where two of three residents are younger than 30, said Jennifer Cooke, an Africa scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Botswana is a regular stop for U.S. officials. Well governed, it is considered one of Africa's best functioning democracies, Cooke said.

Many of the stops on Mrs. Obama's trip will highlight South Africa's past under apartheid, the system of white-minority rule. She'll also pay tribute to the legacy of Nelson Mandela, who spent 27 years in prison for his role in the anti-apartheid movement. He later became South Africa's first elected black president.

The size of Mrs. Obama's traveling party is sure to invite comparisons to her vacation last August in Spain with Sasha and friends. The five-day trip to Spain's Costa del Sol stoked a bit of a firestorm about the wisdom of taking a glamorous trip with such economic hurt at home and raised speculation about who was paying the bill.

Attempting to head off similar criticism this time, the White House said Mrs. Obama is allowed to bring guests with her on the plane because she's on official U.S. business, as the president is allowed on his official trips. All other costs regarding her family are to be paid for privately.

Mrs. Obama's visit opens Tuesday in Pretoria, the South African capital, at a meeting with Nompumelelo Ntuli-Zuma, one of President Jacob Zuma's three wives, at his official residence. Zuma was scheduled to be out of the country. Back in Johannesburg, Mrs. Obama meets with Mandela's wife, Graca Machel, and tours the Nelson Mandela Foundation and the Apartheid Museum.

A meeting between America's first black first lady and the 92-year-old former president is hoped for but remained in doubt, given his fragile health. Mandela had an acute respiratory infection in late January that led to a two-day hospital stay. He retired from public life after leaving office in 1999 after one term, but remains a larger-than-life figure in his country and around the world.

Mrs. Obama delivers her speech Wednesday at the Regina Mundi Church in the black township of Soweto, one of many churches that became hubs of activity for political gatherings after such meetings were banned during the anti-apartheid movement. She'll also view a memorial honoring a 13-year-old boy shot and killed by government police during a June 1976 student uprising in Soweto.

In Cape Town on Thursday, Mrs. Obama and her family will ride a ferry to Robben Island for a moving visit to the closet-sized cell where Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison.

She'll highlight education by inviting disadvantaged students to spend the day immersed at the University of Cape Town, before meeting with groups that work to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS in South Africa, including by using soccer to teach children about the deadly disease. Between 5 million and 6 million South Africans live with HIV/AIDS.

Mrs. Obama also was scheduled to meet with Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and key figure in the struggle against apartheid and in later helping South Africa overcome its past.

She heads to Botswana on Friday to call on President Ian Khama in Gaborone, the capital, and drop in at a combination clinic and center for teenagers that teaches about leadership and HIV/AIDS.

With the official business concluded by Saturday, the first lady and her family will head off for private time, including a safari and an overnight stay in the animal park.

___

Online:

Michelle Obama's video message about the trip: http://tinyurl.com/6fpjc7a

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CIA chief on first trip to Pakistan post-bin Laden (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – CIA Director Leon Panetta arrived in Pakistan on Friday on an unannounced visit, a U.S. official said, in his first trip to Islamabad since last month's secret raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Panetta, nominated to take over as defense secretary next month, planned to "reiterate the message of the U.S. intention to continue to cooperate with Pakistan," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The outgoing CIA chief was blunt with Congress in testimony on Thursday about the difficulties between two uneasy allies, whose relationship was further strained by the May 2 raid that killed the al Qaeda leader at his compound in Abbottabad, 30 miles northwest of Islamabad.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the raid by Navy SEALs until after it was over, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting U.S. military and intelligence ties under serious strain.

"There are some areas where, frankly, we have good discussions. ... But there are a number of areas where, frankly, we don't have that level of trust or communication capability," Panetta told lawmakers.

In another sign of the deep tensions, Pakistan's army said on Thursday it had drastically cut down on the number of U.S. troops allowed in the country and set clear limits on intelligence sharing with the United States.

Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Kayani also called for the billions of dollars in U.S. military aid to be diverted into helping the economy.

DOUBLE GAME?

The United States believes the nearly decade-old war effort in neighboring Afghanistan cannot succeed unless Pakistan tackles insurgent safe havens near the border. On Friday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Islamabad seeking Pakistan's help to end the Taliban insurgency.

Pakistan, which backed the Taliban government that ruled Afghanistan from 1996 until its ouster in 2001 by U.S.-backed forces, will be crucial to any attempts to stabilize its western neighbor.

But Pakistan has often been accused of playing a "double game," promising the United States it will go after militants, while supporting some of them, an allegation it denies.

U.S. commanders say the U.S. military effort in Afghanistan is being undermined partly by Pakistan-based militants like the Haqqani network.

The Haqqanis use safe havens in Pakistan's North Waziristan region to stage cross-border attacks against American troops in Afghanistan, and U.S. officials have accused Pakistani intelligence of ties to the group.

Panetta said he saw a "simple test" over Pakistan's commitment to tackling the Haqqanis, "which is whether or not the Haqqanis are continuing to go into Afghanistan and attacking our forces," he said.

"It seems to me that if they have an influence over the Haqqanis, that they could urge them to cease fire and to stop those kinds of attacks," he told lawmakers on Thursday.

(Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Lightning, gas leaks, hail don't stop first responders in Joplin

(CNN) -- Struck by lightning, caught up in the smell of gas, braving two-inch hail and relentless rain: None of it could stop hundreds of firefighters, police officers, medical personnel, National Guardsmen and more from heading into the devastation around Joplin, Missouri, in a desperate search for survivors.

Nor could the fact that many of the first responders searched through the rubble of buildings at the same time many of their own homes had been eviscerated. Amidst the struggles, there were victories: 17 people were rescued Monday, city manager Mark Rohr told CNN's Eliot Spitzer.

"They've lost their homes, but they have been out there for 40 hours saving lives," Richard Serino, deputy administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said from Joplin. "The work they have done ... to say it is to be commended is an understatement."

Not much more than 12 hours after the tornado touched down, Rohr said that between 400 to 500 firefighters, public works personnel and other municipal employees showed up Monday morning, unasked, hoping to help.

The city manager said that the turnout, and the fact many others who have pitched in in other ways, is no surprise in Joplin, a city of 50,050 residents in southwest Missouri.

"Joplin is a city of neighbors helping neighbors," he said. "And with this spirit, we will overcome the hardship."

Yet the continually confounding weather Monday proved a major challenge. Rohr said that two first responders were struck by lightning while looking through debris -- he did not detail the victims' conditions afterward -- with persistent thunderstorms prompting a temporary halt to the searches.

And even by Monday evening, a full day after the twister struck, Rohr said there were "gas leaks all over the city."

"When we drive around, we can smell the gas," the city manager said. "And there are wires down everywhere. You have just got to be careful, as you navigate through the city."

The challenge doesn't appear likely to get any easier Tuesday. The National Weather Service has said there is a 45 percent chance of another tornado outbreak between 4 p.m. and midnight Tuesday over a wide swath that includes cities like Dallas, Oklahoma City and -- yet again -- Joplin.

Those assisting in the rescue effort weren't just from Joplin. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon noted that some of the more than 1,000 first responders came from Kansas City and other locales. That doesn't include the 110 highway patrolmen and 250 National Guardsmen -- with another 450 on standby -- also on the scene.

Dr. Jim Roscoe told CNN that doctors, nurses and others rushed to help, after the tornado ripped through St. John's Regional Medical Center. Even with often impassible roads and treacherous weather, he said that, "within a matter of hours, we had almost more help than we could put to use."

"I just can't begin to tell you," said Roscoe, who is heading the hospital's triage unit as it treats and redirects patients coming in for help. "We've had people coming from several hundreds of miles away, grabbing their stethoscope and anything they could get, and threw it in their car and came."

Whether treating patients and searching for bodies, those on the frontlines in Joplin also face a significant psychological toll of dealing with devastation that most of them have never seen before. Nixon said they would likely have "very difficult shifts, (because) there are going to see things out there that are hard to see and hard to stomach."

Still, voicing a sentiment echoed by officials and residents in Joplin, the governor said it wouldn't prevent the first responders from heading out again, looking for survivors.

"We are going to cover every foot of this town, and we're going to make sure that every person is accounted for," Nixon said.

Click through to see the damage from the deadliest U.S. twister since modern record-keeping began.A security camera records damage from a Kansas tornado. CNN affiliate KTKA-TV in Topeka has more.The warnings seem almost ubiquitous today, but the word "tornado" used to be banned in weather forecasts.Joplin High seniors were wrapping up their graduation ceremony as the devastating storm started to roll in to town.Click through to see the number of tornadoes by year since 1950 and how many deaths resulted from these twisters.Survivors of the Joplin, Missouri, tornado describe their experiences riding out the deadly twister.Hundreds of firefighters, police officers, medics and more head into Joplin, Missouri, to search for survivors.After surviving the deadly storm, residents in Joplin, Missouri, brace for the possibility of more tornadoes.Today's five most popular stories

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In reminder of '90s, LinkedIn has big first day (AP)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke, Ap Technology Writer – Thu May 19, 6:38 pm ET

SAN FRANCISCO – There was an unmistakable echo of the dot-com boom Thursday on Wall Street.

LinkedIn, a trailblazer in the online networking craze, went public with a roaring stock offering. Within minutes, shares were trading at twice the value set by the company.

Buyers crowded the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and financial news networks flashed LinkedIn's stock price urgently all day. By the closing bell, the company had a market value of $9 billion, the highest for any Internet company since Google had its initial public offering seven years ago. Millionaires and even one billionaire were made, at least on paper.

The stock, issued at $45, went as high as $122.70 just before noon and closed at $94.25 on a trading volume of 30 million shares. All this for a company that skeptics say amounts to an online Rolodex, a place on the Internet for professionals to post resumes and connect with one another and potential employers.

It was enough to remind some people on Wall Street of the heady late 1990s and the debuts of companies like Netscape Communications — and, more infamously, long-forgotten names like Pets.com and Webvan. Investors wondered whether LinkedIn will be a precursor to another financial frenzy in Silicon Valley.

"I definitely think this will be a catalyst," said longtime technology investor and analyst Michael Moe, CEO of Global Silicon Valley Asset Management. "Investors who like growth stocks have been stuck in a desert for a long time, and now it's like they have found this great pitcher of water."

LinkedIn is already worth $9 billion, or 18 times its projected revenue this year. Major Internet companies, including Google, trade at an average of about five times projected revenue, according to an analysis by Capital IQ.

Using another measure, price-to-earnings ratio, which compares a company's market value with its profit, LinkedIn finished the day at a staggering 554 — a number reminiscent of the late 1990s tech bubble. By comparison, the average P/E ratio of technology companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index like Google and Apple is 15.

Two-thirds of LinkedIn's revenue comes from the fees it charges to help companies find and hire workers. Francis Gaskins, president of IPOdesktop.com, said that makes the company more like Monster, an employment firm where business depends a lot on the health of the job market.

"Can we stop asking if we are in a bubble now?" venture capitalist Mitchell Kertzman said after hearing that LinkedIn stock was trading above $100. "We are clearly in a valuation bubble."

If the stock market is thirsty for more businesses that connect people on the Internet, there's a backlog of privately held companies that might one day satisfy it.

The short list includes Twitter, the 140-characters-or-fewer messaging service; Zynga, which makes online games like FarmVille; Groupon, the coupon site; and, of course, Facebook, the social network with more than 500 million users.

None of those companies has revealed specific plans for going public. Facebook has at least dangled the possibility of filing for an IPO before May 2012. A private investment led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. valued Facebook at $50 billion in January.

"If people are this excited about a professional networking service like LinkedIn, you can imagine what kind of frenzy there is going to be when Facebook goes public," said eMarketer analyst Debra Aho Williamson.

The 109 percent first-day gain for LinkedIn, based in Mountain View, Calif., nearly mirrored Netscape's first day when it went public on Aug. 9, 1995. Netscape rose that day from $28 to a close of $58.25, or 108 percent.

Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen's venture capital firm, Andreessen Horowitz, has invested in Twitter, Groupon, Zynga and Facebook.

As an individual, Andreessen was also an early investor in LinkedIn and is among the more than 102 million people who have posted their resumes and profiles on its website, a buttoned-down version of Facebook's online playground.

It may be as much fun as playing games, chatting and posting pictures on Facebook, but LinkedIn has steadily grown since it started in 2003 and it's now adding about a million accounts a week.

In a key distinction from the dot-com days, it also makes money — $3.4 million last year on revenue of $243 million. Its revenue more than doubled during the first three months of this year, putting it on pace to bring in about $500 million in 2011 from advertising and fees.

Kertzman, managing director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, was CEO of Liberate Technologies, a maker of software for TV set-top boxes, during the height of the dot-com boom. In 2000, its market value soared to $12 billion.

"I knew something was wrong because I knew we weren't worth that much and it scared the hell out of me," Kertzman said.

Aaron Levie, CEO of an Internet storage service called Box.net, sees things differently. Levie, who is 26 and was in high school during the dot-com boom, thinks it's a good sign that LinkedIn, Facebook and other companies are taking their time to build companies that make money before going public.

"You can tell this is a very different period than the late `90s," Levie said. "Silicon Valley is definitely back, and much healthier."

LinkedIn's CEO, Jeff Weiner, said he doesn't plan to dwell on high investor expectations.

"It's exciting, but it's a point in time," Weiner said a few hours after he rang the opening bell at the stock exchange, where LinkedIn's shares traded under the symbol LNKD. "One day's trading is not going to be too meaningful, and the same holds true for the next few days and the next few months. I know it sounds a little like a cliche, but we are in this for the long haul."

Weiner, a 41-year-old former Yahoo executive who became head of LinkedIn two years ago, still took some time to celebrate the IPO in a meeting that was beamed to all of LinkedIn's roughly 1,300 employees from the company's offices in the Empire State Building.

Many of LinkedIn's employees are now millionaires, at least on paper. The richest is co-founder and executive chairman Reid Hoffman. Already considered one of the smartest and best-connected people in Silicon Valley, Hoffman joined the ranks of the world's billionaires Thursday. Hoffman, 43, owns a 20 percent stake in LinkedIn, good for about $1.8 billion.

That value could wildly fluctuate, based on how other hot technology IPOs have performed through the years.

Until LinkedIn came along, software maker VMware Inc. had boasted Silicon Valley's biggest one-day gain among IPOs completed during the decade after the dot-com bubble burst. VMware stock rose 76 percent on the first day of trading in August 2007. Thirteen months later, it had fallen below its IPO price of $29.

VMware's experience also serves as a reminder that what goes up and comes down can go up again. The company's stock closed Thursday at $93.89.

___

AP Business Writer Tali Arbel and AP Technology Writer Barbara Ortutay in New York contributed to this report.

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Amazon sells more ebooks than print books for the first time (Yahoo! News)

It's official: ebooks have eclipsed their print counterparts — at least on Amazon. According to a new press release from the online retailer, as of today, customers are buying up more virtual books than hardback and paperback books combined. The milestone is impressive, and highlights both the popularity of the company's e-reader, the Kindle, and the rise of the ebook as a legitimate publishing medium.

Amazon's Kindle bookstore continues to grow by leaps and bounds. According to the company, in 2011, it had sold 3 times as many ebooks as it did during the same period of time in 2010. With rumors swirling about an Amazon tablet (or 2) on the horizon, the future looks quite bright for the company that used to be better known for its online marketplace than its e-reading ventures.

At least part of the success can likely be attributed to Amazon's open model for selling its virtual books. While other platforms like Apple's iBooks are only readable on Apple's own hardware, Kindle ebooks can be read across almost any platform imaginable — from Android phones and the iPad to the web itself.

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Egypt's former first lady set for surgery

Suzanne Mubarak. wife of former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, in a file photo from June 7, 2010.A manager of the hospital in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh said she suffered a heart attackThe incident occurred shortly after she was ordered detained for 15 days in a corruption caseHosni Mubarak was also questioned about his finances

Cairo, Egypt (CNN) -- Suzanne Mubarak, wife of toppled Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, is expected to undergo open-heart surgery Sunday night, the manager of the Sharm el-Sheikh Hospital said.

Egypt's former first lady suffered a heart attack Friday after being questioned in a corruption investigation, Mohamed Fatah Allah said. She has been treated in the intensive care unit.

The incident came shortly after Suzanne Mubarak was ordered detained for 15 days in a corruption case, the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.

Assem al-Gohary, the assistant justice minister for the Illicit Gains Authority, ordered her detained for "obtaining illegal wealth using her husband's position and political authority."

A team of investigators from the authority, a separate investigative unit under the Ministry of Justice, had questioned the former president in the same hospital for three hours Thursday regarding "using his political position as president to acquire illegal wealth."

"Hosni Mubarak was also questioned about his luxury mansion in Sharm el-Sheikh," al-Gohary said.

Last month, the former president suffered a heart attack during questioning over possible corruption charges, Egyptian state television reported.

But the head doctor from a Ministry of Justice team assisting with the questioning disputed the diagnosis, saying later that the former leader had heart palpitations and was able to walk with assistance.

He was deemed stable enough to allow prosecutors to resume questioning at the hospital, according to the state-owned Al Ahram newspaper.

Mubarak has said the inquiry is aimed at tarnishing his reputation and that of his family.

The former first lady had been scheduled for questioning Thursday, but investigators postponed the interrogation until Friday morning. She was asked about the origin of 20 million Egyptian pounds ($3.4 million) deposited in her name in a local bank account, al-Gohary said.

Both Mubaraks were questioned about accounts in Al Ahly Bank, containing $147 million under their authority, he said.

The Mubaraks signed affidavits allowing investigators to further inquire into their bank accounts and wealth inside and outside Egypt.

Suzanne Mubarak, 70, was treated successfully for leukemia 10 years ago, said Hanaa Gohar, the former first lady's former press contact.

"She was very healthy and very active" before the revolution, Gohar said.

Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally and former military commander, resigned in February after nearly three decades in power amid massive demonstrations calling for him to step down.

Journalist Mohamed Fadel Fahmy contributed to this story.

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Trove of data found at bin Laden hideout provides first specific alert

Washington (CNN) -- With the architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks dead, U.S. commandos in Osama bin Laden's Pakistan compound quickly came upon another prize: A trove of hard drives, DVDs and thumb drives that might provide evidence of other al Qaeda operations.

Those materials, seized after bin Laden and four others were killed, have provided the first specific alert to come out of Monday's raid.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a notice tied to rail security Thursday.

The unclassified notice to "federal, state, local and tribal partners" says that, in February 2010, al Qaeda members discussed a plan to derail trains in the United States by placing obstructions on tracks, according to a law enforcement source who received the notice.

Pakistan reacts angrily to tone of U.S. questions

The plan was to be executed this fall to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. But no specific city or rail system was identified in the notice, the source told CNN.

Although a U.S. official cautioned that the information doesn't appear to suggest an imminent plot against U.S rail systems, the discovery may be the tip of the iceberg of potential plots.

The haul included "lots" of paper documents, 10 hard drives, five computers and more than 100 storage devices, such as disks, DVDs and thumb drives, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.

Since Monday, intelligence experts and others have pored over the find.

A task force was set up at the CIA to comb through the evidence seized in the raid, according to a senior intelligence official who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.

More details emerge about the raid

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said of evidence taken from the residence, "As we glean information from that material, we will make appropriate decisions with regard to who might we add to the terrorist watch list, the no-fly list, all those things."

The U.S. official who spoke Thursday of the data said, "We take every possible threat seriously, so we are running all of this to ground."

When asked if there were any indications that bin Laden had signed off on the rail operation, the official said, "There is no information to suggest that there was some kind of 'blessed operation' attached to U.S transportation systems."

The same U.S. official says the al Qaeda scheme, which included derailing trains over bridges and valleys, "doesn't appear to be anything more than an idea on paper at this point."

Material also indicated that al Qaeda was particularly interested in targeting cities -- Washington, New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, the official said. Authorities sifting through the material learned al Qaeda has considered striking on significant dates such as July 4, Christmas and the opening day of the United Nations, according to the official.

Osama's wife: We lived there 5 years

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Matt Chandler echoed the belief that there was no imminent threat to the rail system. But officials "wanted to make our partners aware of the alleged plotting," he said. "We want to stress that this alleged al Qaeda plotting is based on initial reporting, which is often misleading or inaccurate and subject to change."

Since Sunday, Chandler said, the department and other agencies have reviewed potential terror targets and deployed additional officers to nonsecured areas at U.S. airports.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told federal lawmakers Wednesday a "number of actions" have been taken in response to the killing of bin Laden, among them "surging some resources" to U.S. ports, airports and borders.

"These include issuing advisories to fusion center directors, Homeland Security advisers, major city chief intelligence commanders, private sector critical infrastructure owners and operators and other law enforcement entities," she said at a Senate hearing.

"We are and have been reviewing all open cases of potential al Qaeda core, AQAP (al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula) and AQIM (al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb) operatives possibly in the U.S. in conjunction with the FBI," she added.

Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent who is chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, asked Napolitano about the data removed by the Navy SEALs from the bin Laden compound. "I assume that as this material is gone over, anything related to Homeland Security will be shared immediately with your department?" he asked.

Napolitano responded, "It is being shared (already)."

Earlier this week, former CIA Director Michael Hayden told CNN's "The Situation Room" that the "diffuse" nature of al Qaeda is among its strengths.

"Keep in mind this is a network, not a hierarchy," Hayden said. "So you've got still very active, very talented cells around the world."

CNN Homeland Security Correspondent Jeanne Meserve and Jim Barnett contributed to this report.

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'Victory day' for first U.S. victim in war

Winfield, Alabama (CNN) -- Johnny Spann was driving down the road listening to music Sunday when he got the call: Turn on the news.

The father of the first U.S. victim in the Afghan war flipped to a news station.

Osama bin Laden was dead.

Spann swelled with emotion. He immediately grabbed his BlackBerry and logged on to Facebook, where he posted this status update: "The S.O.B. is finally dead."

"If you ask me if I am proud that he's dead, yes," Spann says a few days later, sitting in his real estate office in Winfield, a town of about 4,500 in northwestern Alabama. "Am I glad he's dead? Yes. The guy was a monster. He was a killer."

Spann's son, Johnny Michael Spann, known as Mike by his family, was a paramilitary officer for the CIA when he was killed November 25, 2001. Spann was at a fortress in Mazar-e Sharif where Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners were being held when the captives began rioting.

Johnny Michael "Mike" Spann served in the Marines for eight years before he joined the CIA in 1999.

Spann, 32, was the first American killed in combat during the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Before he left for the region, he told his 8-year-old daughter: "You know people want to kill us and they're trying to kill us. ... People like me have to go do the things that I have to do."

"This would've been his victory day," his father says. "It sure would've.

"I really feel like Mike always thought Osama bin Laden was the cause (of 9/11), and he was the cause. He was the leader of al Qaeda. He's the one who recruited people to kill Americans. And, yes, there is not a doubt in my mind that this would've been a day of victory for Mike -- to know that Osama bin Laden was caught and was killed and some form of justice was served."

Mike Spann had always been driven to get bin Laden. He served in the Marines for eight years before he joined the CIA in 1999. He was always talking about the need to get bin Laden.

"In the average household, I suppose Osama bin Laden's name didn't come up at the dinner table," the father says.

But in theirs, it always did.

On 9/11, the father asked his son who was behind the attacks. "We all know who is responsible for this," the son said. "It's Osama bin Laden."

Johnny Spann says he's proud of his son, and proud that U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden.

"Dad, if my government doesn't do something about this, I think I'm going to quit. ... We have got to go stop this. We've got to do something about it."

How would his son feel about the killing of bin Laden?

"I think he'd have felt the same way as my family at this time. We're happy. We're glad that Osama's been found and been killed.

"If you ask me, am I vindictive? Yeah, I am. (Bin Laden) didn't shoot my son. He didn't kill my son physically himself. But his people did. It was his organization, al Qaeda, that not only killed Mike but killed all the people on 9/11."

The elder Spann, an avid supporter of former President George W. Bush, says he was proud that President Obama stepped up to the plate to greenlight the killing. He wishes America's leaders had been like that in the 1990s when al Qaeda was building its base.

"We just needed somebody with enough balls to get up and say, 'You're not going to do this to American people,' " Spann says. "If we'd had somebody else in office that would've felt the same way ... during the time when Osama bin Laden was carrying out his attacks in the '90s, we wouldn't have had 9/11."

He says he's been glued to the television ever since the news. He's watched Americans who were just young children on 9/11 celebrating in the streets. He says his family hasn't "been out having parties, we haven't been out on the streets and we haven't been to any rallies.

A photo, headline, resolutions and the flag that draped Mike Spann's coffin line the walls of his father's office.

"There's still an empty seat at the table," he says. "(But) I don't blame those people for doing that.

"Quite frankly, it's a good feeling to me. ... One of the fears that I had was that over a period of time that we would forget -- that we'd forget about 9/11, we would forget what happened, we'd forget about who did it to us."

Spann strolls down the hallway in his office. On the walls hang the American flag that draped his son's coffin, a black and white photograph of Mike Spann about six months before he was killed and Alabama Senate resolutions in his honor.

"America's first combat casualty brought home," reads the framed headline from the military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

The last conversation Spann had with his son was on Thanksgiving Day, just days before he was killed. His son told him he was heading to a prison where hundreds of al Qaeda members had been captured and that he was optimistic of finding clues on bin Laden's whereabouts.

"I love you, son," the dad said before they hung up.

The last 10 years have brought a lot of pain to the family. The father avoids disclosing too much information about his son's family or even where they live now. He's already lost one to al Qaeda; he doesn't want to lose another.

Johnny Spann wears two lapel pins: an American flag and a "fight terror" badge.

He misses his son more than words can describe. He chuckles when telling a story of his son getting his pilot's license by his senior year in high school. His son, who played on the football team, buzzed a practice; all the players looked up and waved.

"I'm proud of the fact he loved America and he was a patriot. I'm proud of the fact that he was willing to lay his life on the line and do the things that it took to lead up to the capture of Osama bin Laden."

The father wears two lapel pins on his jacket. One is an American flag. The other is a "fight terror" badge with a guy holding an AK-47 over his head with a circle and slash through it.

"I'll never take it off," he says.

Bin Laden might be dead, but for Johnny Spann the fight is far from over.

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LaHood says aborted landing of first lady's plane under investigation

STORY HIGHLIGHTSNEW: The National Transportation Safety Board also will investigateOfficials: A plane carrying the first lady got too close to a military C-17The FAA says the aircraft were never in any dangerThe incident happened Monday at Andrews AFB Washington (CNN) -- An aborted landing by a plane carrying Michelle Obama because it was too close to a military plane ahead of it was a "serious incident," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Wednesday.

LaHood confirmed that the Federal Aviation Administration was investigating the incident Monday at Andrews Air Force Base.

The National Transportation Safety Board, an independent federal agency, also said it is launching a probe into Monday's incident, according to NTSB spokesman Peter Knudson.

"We consider any incident like this a serious incident," LaHood said. "It's under investigation, we will get to the bottom of what happened and how it happened, and obviously make sure it doesn't happen again."

He emphasized that the first lady was never in any danger and said he had yet to hear from either Michelle Obama or the president about it.

The planes -- which were both trying to land -- were three miles apart, when they are supposed to be five miles apart, a senior administration official told CNN, adding that it was believed to be an air traffic controller mistake.

Asked why the separation rules governing plane landings were not followed, LaHood said: "That's what we'll figure out in the investigation."

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LaHood says aborted landing of first lady's plane under investigation

First lady plane incident 'ridiculous'STORY HIGHLIGHTSFAA increases supervision of flights carrying the vice president, first ladyThe National Transportation Safety Board also will investigateA plane carrying the first lady got too close to a military C-17The FAA says the aircraft were never in any danger Washington (CNN) -- Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the independent National Transportation Safety Board are investigating an aborted landing by a plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama because it was too close to a military plane ahead, officials announced Wednesday.

Neither plane was in danger in the incident Monday at Andrews Air Force Base, according to both agencies.

"We consider any incident like this a serious incident," Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in confirming the FAA review. "It's under investigation, we will get to the bottom of what happened and how it happened, and obviously make sure it doesn't happen again."

Later Wednesday, the FAA said in a statement it will now require supervisory oversight in monitoring flights transporting the vice president or first lady. Such supervision is currently required in monitoring flights carrying the president, the FAA said.

LaHood emphasized that the first lady was never in any danger and said he had yet to hear from either Michelle Obama or the president about it. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney confirmed Wednesday that Jill Biden, the vice president's wife, also was on the plane as she and the first lady returned from a series of media events supporting military families.

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FAA Announces New Rules Following Aborted Landing of First Lady's Plane

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The Federal Aviation Administration has announced new procedures following the aborted landing of a presidential plane carrying first lady Michelle Obama that flew too close to a military cargo jet on Monday. 

FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said that the agency will start requiring a supervisor to monitor movements of flights involving the vice president and first lady, just as the FAA requires for flights carrying President Obama. 

"As of today, we are making the same supervisor oversight requirement for VPOTUS and FLOTUS flights in the DC area and at their destinations where possible," she said. 

The announcement comes as both the FAA and National Transportation Safety Board launch investigations into the incident. It marked the latest embarrassment for the agency, which is trying to tamp down growing anxiety over flying after suspending nine air traffic controllers and supervisors across the country in recent weeks, including five for sleeping on the job.

Monday's mishap didn't involve a sleeping air traffic controller. Instead, the civilian controller at the regional radar facility in Warrenton, Va., allowed the Obama plane to get too close to an Air Force C-17 plane in front of it.

The FAA requires a minimum separation of 5 miles between planes when the plane in the lead is as large as the 200-ton cargo jet because the turbulence created by the wings can be dangerous to trailing aircraft. 

Obama and Jill Biden, wife of the vice president, were aboard a Boeing 737, one of the fleet of presidential passenger jets, returning from an appearance on ABC's "The View" in New York, when the near-collision occurred on final approach to Andrews. 

The civilian controller in Warrenton told the military's controller at Andrews that the distance between the planes was 4 miles -- an estimate that turned out to be inaccurate. The distance was just more than 3 miles. 

The controllers at Andrews ordered the Obama plane to execute a series of "S-turns" in an effort to increase the distance, but that was ineffective. The military controllers weren't sure there was enough time for the C-17 to get off the runway once it landed before the first lady's plane could land on the same runway. So they instructed the Obama plane to abort its landing.

The FAA said it was investigating the incident as a possible error by controllers at Warrenton and added that the aircraft were never in any danger.

Michelle Obama's office said it would not be commenting on the incident.

After a series of incidents this year involving sleeping air traffic controllers, the FAA official in charge of the U.S. air traffic system resigned last week.

The first disclosed case of a controller falling asleep on duty occurred March 23 at Washington's Reagan National Airport. The most recent was this week, when a controller at a regional radar facility near Cleveland was suspended for watching a movie on a DVD player when he was supposed to be monitoring air traffic.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Jet carrying first lady aborts landing

the FAA said in a news release.

The incident came after a month of bad publicity for the nation’s air-traffic system prompted by several reports of controllers nodding off at work. Seven controllers in six separate cases have either admitted falling asleep or were unresponsive.

The first lady’s jet was nearing Andrews, the military air base just outside Washington, D.C., used by the president and his family, and a controller at a regional air-traffic facility in Virginia directed it to get too close to the military jet.

A second controller at Andrews’ tower saw that the planes were too close and ordered the 737 to climb instead of land, the FAA said.

Although the incident was clearly an error by a controller and reduced the margin of safety, it did not appear to have put either aircraft in imminent danger, according to a retired senior controller.

Gary Brittain, who handled aircraft in the busy skies around Atlanta’s Hartsfield International Airport before retiring, called the incident an

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Obama to Be First Head of State to Tour Facebook Headquarters

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SAN FRANCISCO -- When President Barack Obama arrives at Facebook headquarters this week, he will be the first sitting head of state to visit the brick-and-mortar home of the social media powerhouse.

He will also be partaking in a unique pilgrimage to this area in Northern California that has become a cradle for social media, a trip that is all but obligatory for politicians like presidential hopefuls, celebrities like Lady Gaga and dignitaries from around the world like Russian president Dmitry Medvedev.

Such visits to the hottest tech companies in Northern California's Silicon Valley offer a traditional chance to connect face-to-face with new-media users, voters, fans and potential donors. But the A-listers of entertainment and government also gain important cachet that comes from fusing their personal images with the technology brands the world sees as the future.

For politicians especially, this moment in the history of technology must feel like it did for their counterparts a half-century ago, when leaders knew they had to get wise to this new thing called television.

And as the 1960 televised presidential debate between Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy showed, some politicians turn out to be better than others at commanding a new mass medium.

Obama was the first president to take office after social media became commonplace. His campaign earned praise for its skill at using the Web to organize grass-roots fundraising and voting efforts.

Today, the president's official Facebook page has more than 19 million fans and his Twitter account nearly 7.5 million followers (still fewer than Lady Gaga, who has nearly 9.5 million followers). During his visit to Facebook, Obama's appearance will be broadcast live online as he takes questions from among the site's 500 million users worldwide.

Andrew Noyes, a public policy communications manager for Facebook, confirmed Tuesday that Obama's stop there would be the first time a sitting head of state takes questions at its headquarters.

These new versions of the traditional town hall give politicians the opportunity to appear as if they are interacting with the public in a more unfiltered way. But staffers are often behind the online profiles, composing Twitter and Facebook posts for their busy bosses.

As a result, the value of genuine face time still holds sway.

Obama's embrace of technology has coincided with his embrace of the tech industry, which in the liberal San Francisco Bay area tends to lean Democratic.

In February, the president came to Silicon Valley for dinner with the tech industry's biggest stars, raising a glass at venture capitalist John Doerr's Woodside home with Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's Steve Jobs, Google's then-chief executive Eric Schmidt and Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

The event was closed to the press, but publicity photos handed out afterward showed the president mingling with the industry leaders whose faces have become nearly as famous as those of the celebrities whose attention they command.

Obama praised the tech industry at the time as an economic bright spot and a jobs engine for the country. Employment will also be the topic of the Facebook town hall, even as the president's own job and those of his Democratic colleagues will be on his mind when he lands in San Francisco.

Obama will host four fundraising events while in the Bay Area, including a private dinner for 60 at the home of Salesforce.com chief executive Marc Benioff, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The event has sold out at $35,800 a seat, the newspaper reported.

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Officials: Plane carrying first lady got too close to military C-17

Mrs. Obama's flight aborted at EdwardsSTORY HIGHLIGHTSThe FAA says the aircraft were never in any dangerThe incident happened Monday at Andrews AFBObama's plane had to circle again before landing Washington (CNN) -- A plane carrying Michelle Obama had to abort its landing on Monday after it came too close to a military C-17 cargo plane, according to a senior administration official and the Federal Aviation Administration.

The planes were three miles apart, when they are supposed to be five miles apart, the official told CNN. The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating what went wrong, as it is believed to be an air traffic controller mistake, the official said.

The White House does not believe the first lady's life was ever in danger, the senior official said.

The FAA said in a statement controllers at Andrews Air Force Base instructed an incoming Boeing 737 to perform a "go around" "because the plane did not have the required amount of separation" behind the military plane. The FAA is investigating. "The aircraft were never in any danger," the agency said.

Air traffic controller caught watching movie on duty

The landing was briefly aborted and Obama's plane had to circle, the official said.

Obama was actually on a C-40, a military version of the 737 that was part of the Air National Guard -- not the regular air force fleet used by VIPs at Andrews, said Maj. Michelle Lai of the 89th Airlift Wing at Andrews Air Force Base.

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U.S. brings first case against alleged Somali pirate leader

An alleged Somali pirate leader has been indicted in the kidnapping and deaths of four Americans. STORY HIGHLIGHTSFour Americans died during the hijacking of a yacht in FebruaryThe purported leader of alleged pirates was arrested in Somalia on April 4A prosecutor says the indictment marks the first U.S. prosecution of a pirate leader Washington (CNN) -- An alleged Somali pirate leader has been indicted for the takeover of the yacht Quest and the kidnapping of four Americans who subsequently were killed during the incident.

Mohammad Saaili Shibin, 50, appeared at a detention hearing in federal court in Norfolk, Virginia, on Wednesday afternoon after the indictment against him was unsealed. He will remain in federal custody.

"Today marks the first time that the U.S. government has captured and charged an alleged pirate in a leadership role -- a hostage negotiator who operated in Somalia," said U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride in a written statement. MacBride went on to say the arrest and charges against Shibin should "send a strong message to all pirates that they are not beyond the reach of the FBI, whether they board the ships or remain on-shore in Somalia."

According to the indictment, one of the alleged pirates aboard the Quest identified Shibin as the person who would negotiate the terms for the release of the four Americans. The document says Shibin did Internet research about the hostages on the Quest "to determine the amount of ransom to demand and the identity of family members of the hostages whom he could contact about the ransom."

An FBI official said Shibin was arrested in Somalia on April 4 by "host nation security." FBI agents were at the scene of the arrest, though law enforcement officials would not provide details beyond that the FBI worked with Somali forces on the ground.

Shibin and 14 co-conspirators are charged with piracy, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and possession and use of a firearm during a crime of violence. The men are scheduled to go on trial November 29 and they face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

The U.S. military and an FBI negotiator had been trying to win the safe release of the hostages aboard the Quest. The February hijacking off the coast of Oman ended when some of the pirates on the yacht allegedly shot and killed Americans Scott and Jean Adam, Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle.

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First Female Air Force Team Completes Mission in Afghanistan

"Maj. Tracy Schmidt, Capt. Leigh Larkin, Maj. Christine Mau and Capt. Jennifer Morton pose for the camera before their mission March 29, 2011, at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Schmidt is a 389gh Expeditionary Fighter Squadron F-15E Strike Eagle pilot, Larkin is a 389th ESF weapons system officer, Mau is a 455th Expeditionary Wing executive officer and F-15 pilot and Morton is a 389th EFS weapon system officer." /

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