Once feared in Boston, Bulger about to face jurors

BOSTON (AP) — People who believe their family members were killed by reputed gangster James "Whitey" Bulger will be allowed to testify at his murder trial but won't be allowed to describe the emotional impact of losing their loved ones.

Bulger's defense lawyers had sought to limit testimony from relatives of the 19 people he and his cohorts are accused of killing.

Attorney J.W. Carney Jr. argued during a pretrial hearing Monday that the families shouldn't be allowed to give victim impact statements like those given during sentencing hearings.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Kelly said they would focus only on factual information, including asking the relatives to identify their loved ones in photos taken after they were killed.

"We do not intend to turn it into a sentencing hearing," Kelly said.

The issue was among more than a dozen pretrial motions heard by U.S. District Court Judge Denise Casper on the eve of Bulger's trial. Jury selection is to begin Tuesday.

Bulger, 83, is charged with a long list of crimes, including participating in 19 killings, in a broad racketeering indictment. Authorities say he committed the crimes while he was an FBI informant.

Bulger fled Boston in 1994 and remained one of the nation's most wanted fugitives until he was captured with his girlfriend in Santa Monica, Calif., in 2011.

The judge ruled that Bulger's FBI informant file can be admitted as evidence during the trial. Prosecutors have said the file contains more than 700 pages of documents chronicling Bulger's role as an informant who provided information on the New England Mafia, his group's main rival.

Bulger's lawyers deny that he was an informant but had planned to use his claim that he received immunity from a federal prosecutor as a defense at trial.

The judge rejected that request in an earlier ruling, finding that any purported immunity agreement was "not a defense to the crimes charged."

Kelly, the prosecutor, argued Monday that Bulger's lawyers appeared to be trying to use the immunity defense despite the judge's ruling. He cited the defense witness list, which includes FBI Director Robert Mueller, former Gov. William Weld and U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns, all of whom worked in the U.S. attorney's office in Boston when Bulger claims he received immunity from another federal prosecutor in the office.

"It seems clear to us that they are trying to put that evidence before the jury in some fashion," Kelly said.

Carney, Bulger's attorney, said the defense has "other reasons" for calling the men as witnesses, but he did not elaborate.

The government's witness list includes a collection of notorious gangsters, including Bulger's former partner, Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, who's serving a life sentence after pleading guilty in 10 murders. Former hitman John Martorano, who admitted killing 20 people, also is expected to testify.

Beginning Tuesday, a pool of 675 people will be called for jury duty. Potential jurors will spend Tuesday and Wednesday filling out questionnaires to be used to screen out people with conflicts. Once the pool is winnowed down, potential jurors will be questioned individually.

The judge has said she hopes to complete the selection process Friday, with opening statements from prosecutors and defense attorneys expected June 10.

Twelve jurors and six alternates will be chosen to sit for the trial, expected to last three months. The judge said the jurors' names won't be made public until after they deliver their verdict.

Via Yahoo News!

41 feared dead in China bus fire

Beijing (CNN) -- Forty-one passengers are feared dead in a bus fire in central China, state media reported Friday.

Six people including the driver were rescued and hospitalized, Sun Jun, deputy director of the local government information office, told CNN.

The number of fatalities is an initial report, according to state-run CCTV.

"The fire was so big that some bodies were burned beyond recognition -- and the death toll is being tallied," Sun said.

It was unclear what caused the fire and an investigation is under way.

The bus was on a highway in Xinyang city in Henan province.

CNN's Eve Bower and Haolan Hong contributed to this report.

CNN

Ten feared dead in India train crash

13 cars derail in Uttar Pradesh state, a spokesman saysIndia's large rail network has a poor safety record

New Delhi, India (CNN) -- At least 10 people were feared dead and 50 others injured as a train jumped tracks in northern India Sunday, authorities said.

"It's a rough figure. We are awaiting more details," Indian railway spokesman Anil Kumar Saxena told CNN.

He said 13 cars of the Kalka Mail train derailed in Uttar Pradesh state at 12:20 p.m.

India's massive rail network, used by hundreds of thousands of passengers daily, has a poor safety record.

On Thursday, more than 30 people were killed when a train collided with a bus trying to cross an unguarded railroad, also in Uttar Pradesh. The victims were all bus passengers.

Official figures show 100 train accidents occurred in India in the 2009-10 fiscal year and 115 in 2008-09.

CNN

Holes feared in Japan nuclear reactors

An aerial view of the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.The holes may be as big as 7 to 10 centimetersA hole in the reactor's containment vessel means there is a high probability of leakageThe nuclear plant has suffered cooling problems and radiation leaks since March

Tokyo, Japan (CNN) -- Two of the damaged reactors at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan may be riddled with holes, according to the facility's owner.

The holes may be as big as 7 to 10 centimeters ( 2.8- 3.9 inches), Tokyo Electric Power Co. said in a 225-page document submitted to Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency.

In the report, Tokyo Electric says the containment vessel of reactor No. 1 may have developed a hole as big as 3 centimeters in diameter 18 hours after the quake.

Fifty hours after the quake, the hole may have widened to 7 centimeters, the report said.

In reactor No. 2, the containment vessel may have developed a hole as wide as 10 centimeters 21 hours after the quake.

The nuclear plant has suffered cooling problems and radiation leaks since a March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The hydrogen explosion four days after the crisis began may have led to the formation of a second hole in reactor No. 2, as wide as 10 centimeters in diameter.

"This report is not conclusive. No one has entered these areas and we cannot confirm this as fact," TEPCO said, adding that the report is making preliminary assumptions about what happened inside the reactors.

A hole in the reactor's containment vessel means there is a high probability of the leakage of radioactive material into the reactor building.

The amount of radioactive material in all three of the reactor buildings has hampered TEPCO's ability to build an effective cooling system. TEPCO says a cooling system is a critical step to leading to a cold shutdown, still estimated to be five to eight months away.

Nuclear experts and scientists have long suspected this sort of damage to the containers of the reactors at the crippled plant, as well as a full meltdown of the fuel rods in reactors 1, 2 and 3.

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CBS correspondent says she feared a 'torturous death' in Egypt

CBS News correspondent Lara Logan was covering the revolution in Egypt when she was attacked in Cairo.Lara Logan suffered a brutal sexual assault in Egypt's Tahrir Square"The only thing to fight for, left to fight for, was my life," she saysLogan was rescued by a group of women and Egyptian soldiersShe says she is proud of breaking the silence around journalists and sexual violence

(CNN) -- CBS News correspondent Lara Logan, who suffered an especially brutal sexual assault in Egypt's Tahrir Square while covering the country's revolution, said Sunday she feared a torturous death at the hands of the mob.

"I thought not only am I going to die here, but it's going to be just a torturous death that's going to go on forever and ever and ever," she said in a "60 Minutes" interview, her first on camera since the assault.

Logan was covering the celebration that erupted in Tahrir Square following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on February 11. She reported for about an hour without any trouble.

The atmosphere in the square was festive, like a party, she said, until all of a sudden, it wasn't. An Arabic-speaking member of Logan's crew abruptly said she needed to leave.

"I was told later that they were saying, 'Let's take her pants off,'" said Logan, 40, about men in the crowd around her.

Connie Chung shows her support for Logan

"Before I even know what's happening, I feel hands grabbing my breasts, grabbing my crotch, grabbing me from behind," she said. "It's not just one person ... it's one person and another person and another person."

At first, Logan said she tried to yell, but that her screams "turned them into a frenzy."

"I didn't even know that they were beating me with flagpoles and sticks and things because I couldn't even feel that ... the sexual assault was all I could feel -- was their hands raping me over and over and over again."

Logan felt men pull her hair, trying to rip away her scalp and tear at her limbs, her muscles. Her clothes were shredded.

When she lost contact with the last remaining member of her crew, Logan -- speaking through tears -- said she had no doubt at that moment she was going to die.

But Logan, who has two young children, said she never stopped struggling.

"It's about staying alive now. I have to just surrender to the sexual assault. What more can they do now?" she asked. "The only thing to fight for, left to fight for, was my life."

Egyptian film shines light on sexual harassment

The brutal attack went on for some 25 minutes, CBS reported.

At some point, she was dragged by the mob until it was stopped by a fence, near to where a group of Egyptian women was sitting.

She fell onto the lap of one woman, who put her arms around her, protecting her, Logan recalled. Other women closed rank.

Finally, some Egyptian soldiers fought their way through the crowd with batons, Logan said. One threw her over his back and took her to a tank. She was reunited with her crew and soldiers drove them back to their hotel, CBS said.

Logan later flew to the United States, where she went straight to a hospital. She is healing and said she feels strong.

Logan, who told The New York Times last week that she did not plan to give any other interviews after the "60 Minutes" segment was broadcast, said she is proud of having spoken out about her experience and breaking the silence around journalists and sexual violence.

A survey in 2008 by the Egyptian Center for Women's Rights claimed that 98% of foreign women and 83% of Egyptian women in the country had been sexually harassed.

"Women never complain about incidents of sexual violence because you don't want someone to say 'Well, women shouldn't be out there.' But I think there are a lot of women who experience these kind of things as journalists and they don't want it to stop them from doing their job because they do it for the same reasons as me," said Logan.

"They do it because they believe in being journalists."

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