U.S. National News

Officials may evacuate New Orleans as Gustav nears

Contractor Lawson 'Sonny' Brannan discusses his plans for the approaching storm Gustav in New Orleans, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. The third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina is on Aug. 29. Area residents are keeping a close eye on Gustav in the Caribbean, which forecasters are predicting could make landfall somewhere along the Gulf Coast as early as Monday, and officials are making plans early to evacuate people, pets and hospitals in an attempt to avoid a Katrina-style chaos. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
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AP - 27 minutes ago

NEW ORLEANS - National Guard troops stand ready, batteries and water bottles sold briskly, and one small-town mayor spent a sleepless night worrying. The New Orleans area watched as a storm marched across the Caribbean on the eve of Hurricane Katrina's third anniversary.

  • Former Marine Sgt. Jose Luis Nazario Jr., 28, from New York, speaks about his impending federal trial, at the office of one of his attorneys, Joseph M. Preis, in Irvine, Calif., on Aug. 16, 2008. Nazario faces charges of shooting detainees during the 2004 battle of Fallujah, in Iraq. The defense has rested without calling a single witness Wednesday Aug. 27, 2008, at the civilian trial of Nazario, a former Marine charged with killing unarmed detainees in Iraq, in Riverside, Calif. (AP Photo/Sean Dufrene)
    SoCal jury gets case of ex-Marine in Iraq deaths AP - Wed Aug 27, 7:21 PM ET

    RIVERSIDE, Calif. - A federal jury on Wednesday began deliberating whether a former Marine squad leader committed manslaughter in Iraq, marking the first time in which civilians will decide whether the actions of a military service member during combat were criminal.

  • In this undated image provided by Lydia Marano is shown Jonathan and Linda Sohus sometime prior to their 1985 disappearance. The still-unsolved mystery of the couple's disappearance, dormant for years, was reignited this month with the arrest of a German man who had lived in a guest house on the Sohuses' property, and more recently had a bizarre disappearance of his own. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Lydia Marano, File)
    Arrest reopens mystery of missing Calif. couple AP - Wed Aug 27, 5:28 PM ET

    SAN MARINO, Calif. - Linda Sohus was a towering blonde fantasy buff who liked to paint unicorns. Her husband, Jonathan, was a diminutive computer programmer working at a NASA lab who shared his wife's passion for science fiction.

  • Passengers are reflected in a video display showing flights with rescheduled or delayed departure times shown in yellow at the American Airlines terminal at Los Angeles International Airport Tuesday, Aug. 26, 2008. An FAA Web site that tracks airport status showed delays at some three dozen major airports across the country. The site advised passengers to 'check your departure airport to see if your flight may be affected.' (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)
    One small hitch for FAA, one giant mess for fliers AP - Wed Aug 27, 5:14 PM ET

    CHICAGO - When a computer system that distributes flight plans nationwide came rolling to a halt this week because of a software glitch, so did airplanes on tarmacs from Orlando to Chicago. The ensuing delays drove home just how easily an apparently isolated problem can trigger network-wide disarray in the country's aging air traffic control system.

  • U.S. Border Patrol field operations supervisor John Paisley does the daily briefing for border patrol agents during muster at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Station Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2008 in Imperial Beach, Calif. The sobering reality of life on the border has created an environment in which about 30 percent of agents leave the agency in less than 18 months. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)
    Border Patrol struggles to keep newly hired agents AP - Wed Aug 27, 4:29 PM ET

    IMPERIAL BEACH, Calif. - Law enforcement officers wanted: must work graveyard shifts alone in remote towns along the Mexican border, put in long hours and perform well in triple-digit temperatures.

  • Husband gets guardianship in Schiavo-like case AP - Wed Aug 27, 3:10 PM ET

    WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - A judge on Wednesday granted temporary guardianship to the husband of a woman on a feeding tube in a case similar to the lengthy legal dispute over whether Terri Schiavo should be kept alive.

  • Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., right, joins his running mate, Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., on stage after Biden's speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)
    Obama set to woo nation with historic speech AP - 58 minutes ago

    DENVER - Barack Obama stands before delegates and the nation Thursday — the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech — to accept the Democratic presidential nomination, the first black man to claim such a prize.

  • Aviation Maintenance Tech 2 John Ferrari looks out of the back of a Coast Guard C-130 as he surveys the ice off of the coast of Barrow, Alaska, during a surveillance flight to the Arctic on Thursday Aug. 7, 2008. (AP Photo/Al Grillo)
    Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record AP - Wed Aug 27, 7:23 PM ET

    WASHINGTON - More ominous signs Wednesday have scientists saying that a global warming "tipping point" in the Arctic seems to be happening before their eyes: Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is at its second lowest level in about 30 years.

  • LA park to stand as tribute to Robert F. Kennedy AP - Wed Aug 27, 6:53 PM ET

    LOS ANGELES - With a band of traditional Korean drummers, a Latin dance group and a martial arts exhibition, city officials broke ground Wednesday on a small urban pocket park at the site where Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated 40 years ago.

  • Soros behind Mass. effort to decriminalize pot AP - Wed Aug 27, 3:33 PM ET

    BOSTON - A measure that would decriminalize minor marijuana-possession cases is on the ballot in Massachusetts largely because of one man: billionaire financier and liberal activist George Soros.

  • Cells change identity in promising breakthrough AP - Wed Aug 27, 1:09 PM ET

    NEW YORK - Talk about an extreme makeover: Scientists have transformed one type of cell into another in living mice, a big step toward the goal of growing replacement tissues to treat a variety of diseases.

  • Army privates Austin Swarner, left, of Baton Rouge, La., Tony Brown, center, of Los Angeles, and Haelee Holden (cq), of Medford, Ore., are seen in a classroom Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008 at Fort Jackson, S.C. The three are studying for their General Educatonal Development certificates under a new Army program, so they can become full time soldiers. (AP Photo/Mary Ann Chastain)
    Army opens prep school for dropouts to fill ranks AP - Wed Aug 27, 6:58 AM ET

    FORT JACKSON, S.C. - Austin Swarner left high school to care for his mother while she fought a losing battle with cancer. Tony Brown wanted to begin supporting himself and left two classes shy of a diploma. Haelee Holden got tired of trying to make it through school while flipping burgers until 1 a.m.

  • Arctic sea ice melts to second worst on record AP - Wed Aug 27, 11:35 AM ET

    WASHINGTON - New satellite measurements show that crucial sea ice in the Arctic Ocean has plummeted to its second lowest level on record.

  • Work continues on the Hurricane Katrina memorial in New Orleans, Thursday, Aug. 21, 2008. The land was vacant just five weeks ago and workers are rushing to complete the memorial by the third anniversary of the hurricane, which is Friday. (AP Photo/Bill Haber)
    Memorial to Hurricane Katrina victims taking shape AP - Wed Aug 27, 4:17 AM ET

    NEW ORLEANS - Six mausoleums for the unclaimed dead of Hurricane Katrina stand on what was vacant land just five weeks ago, as New Orleans — in what could be a testament to its determination — scrambles to complete a memorial by Friday's third anniversary of the storm.

  • An auction sign is displayed on a house in Rochester Hills, Mich., in this Oct. 4, 2007 file photo. Michigan was the only state where poverty rose and incomes fell last year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesda, Aug. 26, 2008. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio, file)
    Incomes fall in Michigan, number in poverty rises AP - Wed Aug 27, 4:43 AM ET

    TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. - Government data painted a bleak economic picture for Michigan, where the auto industry's downward plunge has rippled across the state.

  • In this July 21, 2003 file photo, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, left, listens as Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm addresses a news conference in Detroit. Michigan's governor and Detroit's embattled mayor have had a strained relationship for years and the tension is bound to escalate when she holds a hearing next week to decide whether to remove him from office for misconduct. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
    Mich. governor, Detroit mayor have strained past AP - Wed Aug 27, 3:53 AM ET

    DETROIT - Gov. Jennifer Granholm and Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick come from the same powerful Democratic political machine, yet they have had a strained relationship for years.

Crimes and Trials News

  • Joseph Duncan III is photographed on July 2, 2005 in this booking photo after being arrested in connection with the disappearance and kidnapping of eight-year-old Shasta Kay Groene, who has been missing with her brother Dylan James Groene since her family was murdered six weeks ago. A federal jury in Idaho sentenced Duncan on Wednesday to death for shooting to death a 9-year-old boy in front of his younger sister after kidnapping and sexually abusing the boy. (Kootenai County Sheriff's Department/Reuters)
    Idaho jury sentences serial child killer to death Reuters - Wed Aug 27, 11:29 PM ET

    SPOKANE, Washington (Reuters) - A federal jury in Idaho sentenced Joseph Duncan on Wednesday to death for shooting to death a 9-year-old boy in front of his younger sister after kidnapping and sexually abusing the boy.

  • File photo shows Los Angeles as seen from the Griffith Observatory. Los Angeles prosecutors have dropped 30 of 59 sexual abuse charges against Indian-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, as jury selection got under way for his trial in California.(AFP/File/Gabriel Bouys)
    30 of 59 rape charges dropped against Indian-born designer AFP - Wed Aug 27, 10:31 PM ET

    LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Los Angeles prosecutors have dropped 30 of 59 sexual abuse charges against Indian-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, as jury selection got under way for his trial in California.

  • File photo shows US Marines on patrol in the restive city of Fallujah. A California jury retired to consider its verdict in the landmark trial of a US Marine accused of shooting unarmed prisoners in Iraq four years ago.(AFP/File/Roslan Rahman)
    Jury retires in case against Marine accused of prisoner killing AFP - Wed Aug 27, 9:14 PM ET

    RIVERSIDE, California (AFP) - A California jury retired to consider its verdict here Wednesday in the landmark trial of a US Marine accused of shooting unarmed prisoners in Iraq four years ago.