Mass honors bomb victim on day he would turn 9

BOSTON (AP) — The youngest victim of the Boston Marathon bombings was honored Sunday at a Roman Catholic Mass on what would have been his ninth birthday.

The family of Martin Richard was joined by hundreds of people from Boston and the region in Sunday's tribute at St. Ann Parish in Boston's Dorchester neighborhood. The congregation cheered as Martin's 7-year-old sister, Jane, who lost a leg in the explosion, wheeled herself up the center aisle with the pastor.

Martin's father, Bill Richard, described his son as an outstanding and curious student who loved astronomy, math and solving complicated problems, The Dorchester Reporter reported (http://bit.ly/19dT8VM).

Bill Richard, wearing a peace symbol button, said Martin helped younger students and settled disputes and enjoyed playing and winning at Monopoly.

Martin was one of three people killed in the April 15 bombings. More than 260 others were hurt, including most of Martin's family.

His mother, Denise, suffered a head injury and lost vision in an eye. Father Bill received shrapnel wounds and burns to his legs and suffered hearing loss. The eldest child, Henry, was unharmed.

The Rev. Sean Connor spoke with Jane as they sat on the altar, surrounded by about 100 other youngsters, many of them friends and classmates. He recalled that Jane's first words to him when he visited her at the hospital were, "Where have you been? You have to pray."

The two prayed for the nurses, doctors and first responders and for Martin. Connor said Jane told him that Martin "lives in my heart."

He advised the children to read the rosary and pray at home with their parents to help ease the pain of Martin's loss.

"You teach your moms and dads to laugh and to love and that makes hope real for us," he said.

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5th victim of Santa Monica shooting dies

SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — A woman who was critically wounded in last week's Santa Monica shooting rampage died Sunday, bringing the total number of victims killed by the gunman to five.

Marcela Franco, 26, died of her injuries at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, according to Santa Monica College spokeswoman Tricia Ramos.

Franco had been a passenger in a Ford Explorer driven by her father, campus groundskeeper Carlos Navarro Franco, 68, who also was killed in Friday's attack. They were going to the school to buy textbooks for classes the young woman was enrolled in for the summer, president Chui L. Tsang said in a statement posted on the college's website.

"Her family was with her by her side" when she died, Tsang said.

Investigators trying to determine why the gunman planned the shooting spree were focusing on a deadly act of domestic violence that touched off the mayhem.

The heavily armed man's attack against his own family at their home led to the violence in Santa Monica streets, lasting just a matter of minutes until he was shot to death in a chaotic scene at the college library by police.

Investigators were looking at family connections to find a motive because the killer's father and brother were the first victims, an official briefed on the probe who requested anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press.

The killer, who died a day shy of his 24th birthday, was connected to a home that went up in flames after the first shootings, said police Chief Jacqueline Seabrooks.

Police were not naming the shooter or the two men found dead in the house because next of kin was out of the country and hadn't been notified. Neighbors and colleagues of the boys' mother said she was visiting family in Lebanon.

SWAT team officers searched the mother's Los Angeles apartment and officers interviewed neighbors about the son who lived with her, said Beverly Meadows who lives in the adjoining unit.

Public records show that Meadows' neighbor is Randa Abdou, 54, the ex-wife of Samir Zawahri and former co-owner of the house where the first shooting took place.

Abdou wasn't expected home for another week, Meadows said. It wasn't clear if the son who lived with Abdou was a victim or the suspected gunman.

Zawahri, 55, brought his family to the neighborhood of small homes and apartment buildings tucked up against Interstate 10 in the mid-1990s, according to property records.

Not long after arriving on Yorkshire Avenue, the couple went through a difficult divorce and split custody of their two boys, said Thomas O'Rourke, a neighbor.

When the sons got older, one went to live with his mother while the other stayed with the father.

Standing next to the weapons and ammo found at multiple crime scenes, Seabrooks said at a Saturday news conference that the "cowardly murderer" planned the attack and was capable of firing 1,300 rounds.

The killer had a run-in with police seven years ago, but Seabrooks wouldn't offer more details because he was a juvenile at the time.

The gunman was enrolled at Santa Monica College in 2010, Seabrooks said.

After neighbors watched in shock as he shot at his father's house and it went up in flames, he opened fire on a woman driving by, wounding her, and then carjacked another woman.

He directed her to drive to the college, ordering her stop along the way to shoot at a city bus and people on the street. Two people on the bus were injured.

Police had received multiple 911 calls by the time the mayhem shifted to the college, a two-year school with about 34,000 students located more than a mile inland from the city's famous pier, promenade and expansive, sandy beaches.

On campus, he opened fired on a Ford Explorer driven by Navarro Franco, who plowed through a brick wall into a faculty parking lot.

Joe Orcutt heard gunshots and went to see what happened in the parking lot. He said he saw the Explorer in the brick wall and was looking for the shooter when, suddenly, there he was 30 feet away firing at people like it was target practice.

The gunman then moved on foot across campus, firing away. Students were seen leaping out windows of a classroom building and running for their lives. Others locked themselves behind doors or bolted out of emergency exits.

Trena Johnson, who works in the dean's office, heard gunshots and looked out the window and saw a man in black with a "very large gun" shoot a woman in the head outside the library. That victim was transported to a hospital, where she died.

At some point, police say the gunman dropped an Adidas duffel bag loaded with ammunition magazines, boxes of bullets and a .44 revolver. Police also found a small cache of ammunition in a room in the burned-out house.

Surveillance photos showed the gunman in black strolling past a cart of books into the library with an assault-style rifle by his side.

The shooter fired at least 70 rounds in the library. Miraculously, no one was injured until two Santa Monica police officers and a campus cop arrived and took out the shooter.

A woman injured in the shooting spent one night in a hospital. Debra Fine was released in good condition Saturday night, according to Amy Albin, a spokeswoman for UCLA Medical Center.

The Santa Monica College Foundation has started the Carlos Franco Family Memorial Fund.

___

Associated Press writer Christopher Weber contributed to this story. Tami Abdollah can be reached at: http://www.twitter.com/latams

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Face transplant for chimp attack victim

(CNN) -- More than two years after a chimpanzee mauled her, Charla Nash will once again be able to eat solid foods and regain her sense of smell thanks to a full face transplant, doctors at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital said Friday.

"I am happy to report that the team has achieved tremendous success," said Dr. Elof Eriksson, chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery.

Surgeons also transplanted two hands to Nash, but they didn't thrive and were removed.

In February 2009, Sandra Herold had called her friend Nash for help in getting her pet chimpanzee, Travis, back inside her house after he used a key to escape. When Nash arrived, the chimp, who had been featured in TV commercials for Coca-Cola and Old Navy, jumped on her and began biting and mauling her, causing serious injuries to her face, neck and hands.

Police shot Travis to halt the attack and he later died of gunshot wounds.

Doctors say they see Nash as more than an animal attack victim.

"To us, Charla is a courageous, strong person. (She) inspired the team to do everything possible, using our collective expertise, to restore her quality of life," Plastic Surgeon Director Dr. Bohdan Pomahac said.

Nash's face transplant was different than others done before because of the extent of damage to it, the doctors said.

She is the third person at Brigham and Women's Hospital to receive a full face transplant; Dallas Wiens was the first in the United States to have such a surgery in March, also at the hospital.

Nash is the second to receive a double-hand transplant at the same time as a face transplant; the first was performed in France in 2009. That patient died of a heart attack in a later operation.

Nash had lost her nose, upper jaw, most of the soft tissue on her face, and both upper and lower lips. She was also left blind.

The surgery, which was performed last month, involved removing some tissue and attaching skin and underlying muscle, based on vessels and nerves that provide motor and sensory functions, Pomahac said. The entire hard palate and teeth were also transplanted.

The result was "miraculous," said Nash's brother, Steve.

The thing Nash is most looking forward to, her brother said, was visiting their favorite hot dog stand.

As for the double hand transplant, doctors successfully attached the new hands, but a few days later Nash became sick and her blood pressure fell, causing circulation problems to the new limbs. After a few days, doctors saw that the hands were not thriving and removed them.

In the next three months, Nash will regain sensation to her face, and in six to nine months will be able to smile, control her lips and otherwise make facial expressions, Pomahac said.

"All these things will gradually improve," he said.

Nash skipped her child's high school graduation because she was afraid of taking away from the occasion, but thanks to the transplant, can look forward to being present for college graduation, Pomahac said.

The surgery will give her a chance to have a more normal social life, he said.

CNN

Alleged Libyan rape victim 'bruised' after deportation

(CNN) -- A witness who met with Eman al-Obeidy after she was forced back to Libya from Qatar said the alleged rape victim appeared battered and bruised.

Nasha Dawaji, a U.S.-based Libyan pro-freedom activist, said she was with three key members of the National Transitional Council, the rebels' government, when they first learned that al-Obeidy was forced from Doha and arrived in Benghazi on Thursday.

Al-Obeidy had a black eye, like she had been punched, Dawaji said. She also had bruises on her legs and scratches on her arms.

The council members were upset upon seeing al-Obeidy's condition and vowed to open an investigation, Dawaji said.

Al-Obeidy grabbed the world's attention this spring when she accused Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's security forces of gang raping her.

She fled the country and was in Qatar awaiting resettlement as a refugee when she was deported early Thursday.

In the hours leading to her deportation, armed guards had been posted outside her hotel room, preventing a representative from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees from helping her, al-Obeidy said. The U.N. agency had prepared papers for her departure from Qatar to begin a new life.

Al-Obeidy said Qatari authorities then took her and her parents from the Kempinski Residences & Suites in the Qatari capital. She said she was beaten and handcuffed, then forced onto a military plane to Libya.

She also said the Qataris had taken everything from her and her parents -- including cell phones, her laptop, and money.

An official at the Qatari Embassy in Washington asked CNN to e-mail questions about the deportation, but did not respond to them. Hotel officials also could not be immediately reached.

Al-Obeidy told a journalist that officials in the National Transitional Council had pressured the Qataris to expel her. But, according to Dawaji, she did not blame the rebel group for the beating itself.

Her deportation came despite repeated requests from the U.N. refugee agency and unnamed parties, an official with the world body said.

"We tried all night to prevent her deportation," said Vincent Cochetel of the UNHCR office in Washington. He said the Qatari authorities had informed UNHCR that they had a court order that al-Obeidy's visa had expired; and they ignored UNHCR's arguments that she already had refugee status.

When rape is a tool of war

"Forcibly returning a refugee who survived gang rape not only violates international law, but is cruel and could trigger further trauma," said Bill Frelick, refugee program director at Human Rights Watch. "All eyes are now on the authorities in eastern Libya, who should allow al-Obeidy to leave the country."

Human Rights Watch called on the National Transitional Council to allow al-Obeidy to leave rebel-controlled Libya immediately. The New York-based activist group added that a rebel group spokesman had told the group that she was free to travel domestically and abroad.

Al-Obeidy received worldwide attention on March 26 when she burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli while international journalists staying there were having breakfast. She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli and held against her will for two days while being beaten and raped by 15 men.

Psychologist: Proof of hundreds of rape cases in Libya

She later fled Libya to Tunisia with the help of two defecting Gadhafi army officers and their families. French diplomats drove her from the border and handed her off to rebel officials -- members of the Transitional National Council -- who organized her flight to Qatar.

After arriving in Qatar, al-Obeidy made public statements saying the National Transitional Council was using her. The council denied that, but her presence in Qatar appears to have become an embarrassment to the organization. Qatar's government is allied with the rebels.

Now, she and her family are in the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, the hub of the rebel movement that is battling to oust Gadhafi, Libya's longtime leader.

In Washington, State Department deputy spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that the department is "very concerned" about al-Obeidy's safety and had communicated with her. He said officials were working with international organizations to make sure she is safe and finds asylum in "a third country."

CNN's Khalil Abdallah and Tim Lister and Journalist Sherif Elhelwa contributed to this report.

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Alleged rape victim Eman al-Obeidy flees Libya

(CNN) -- Eman al-Obeidy, who garnered worldwide attention for her vocal rape allegations against the regime of Moammar Gadhafi, says she has fled Libya, fearing for her safety.

Al-Obeidy told CNN that she crossed into Tunisia on Thursday with the help of a defecting military officer and his family.

She said she left Tripoli in a military car, wearing a head cover that hid everything except one eye.

Al-Obeidy said she entered at the Dahibah border crossing disguised "in the local manner" and was not challenged. She described the trip from Tripoli as "very tiring."

Along the road to Tunisia, the car she was in was stopped several times at check points, al-Obeidy said. The military officer would show his permit and they would be allowed to continue, she said.

Al-Obeidy said she crossed into Tunisia using a refugee document.

European diplomats drove her from the border region to Tunis, and are giving her sanctuary there while she considers her future, according to Western diplomatic sources.

She said she was afraid she was being followed and might still be in danger, adding that she hoped she could obtain protection from a western government.

"I still do not know what I am going to do. Of course I'd like to see my family," she said.

Al-Obeidy burst into the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli on March 26 while international journalists staying there were having breakfast. She told reporters she had been taken from a checkpoint east of Tripoli and held against her will for two days while being beaten and raped by 15 men.

In an interview with CNN last month, she said she felt defeated and lived in fear that she would be punished gravely for her words.

"I usually get harassed when I have to show my Identification card to government officials somewhere and they find out who I am and that I have put complaints forward against Gadhafi's people," she said. "They humiliate me to the point where other people gather around and start saying that it is shameful to treat a Libyan woman that way."

The legal proceedings in her rape case have not gone far, she said last month. She also had not been able to go home.

CNN's Khalil Abdallah 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.

CNN

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Oil spill victim feels forgotten

By Lee Celano, for USA TODAY

Michelle Jones, widow of Gordon Jones who died in the Deepwater Horizon accident, says the victims of the oil rig explosion have been forgotten in the wake of the oil spill.

EnlargeCloseBy Lee Celano, for USA TODAY

Michelle Jones, widow of Gordon Jones who died in the Deepwater Horizon accident, says the victims of the oil rig explosion have been forgotten in the wake of the oil spill.

But the hurt lingers for Michelle Jones, who lost her husband, Gordon Jones, to the explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig a year ago next Wednesday. It

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California tsunami victim found washed ashore 380 miles away

Tsunami victim's body washes ashoreSTORY HIGHLIGHTSDustin Douglas Weber of California was swept out to sea by the tsunami from JapanHe was photographing the surge last monthWeber's body was found on a beach in Oregon near the Columbia River (CNN) -- The body of a 25-year-old northern California man swept out to sea while trying to photograph the tsunami's arrival from Japan last month has washed ashore about 380 miles away, in Oregon, officials there said Tuesday.

Dustin Douglas Weber of Klamath, California, was standing on a sand bar near the mouth of the Klamath River in Del Norte County, California, when he was swept away March 11, authorities said.

Tsunami's first moments

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Tucson shooting victim honored by angel statue

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Tucson shooting victim honored by angel statue

"Gary Goldberg, right, with Hulk Rigging and Hauling, secures a 5 1/2-foot-long fragment of an I-beam, salvaged from the World Trade Center, to the bed of a truck at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday. The steel is being molded into an angel in the memory of Christina-Taylor Green, who died in a barrage of gunfire in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage."

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