pastor Terry Jones canceled a plan to burn copies of the Koran at his obscure Florida church

A Christian pastor on Thursday canceled a plan to burn copies of the Koran at his obscure Florida church, which had drawn international condemnation and a warning from President Barack Obama that it could provoke al Qaeda suicide bombings.Defense Secretary Robert Gates called Terry Jones, an obscure minister who heads the tiny Dove World Outreach Center church in the Florida town of Gainesville, to urge him not to go ahead, the Pentagon said.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said Gates had expressed “grave concern” in the brief telephone call with Jones that the Koran burning “would put the lives of our forces at risk, especially in Iraq and Afghanistan.”Jones later told journalists outside his church that he was calling off his plan, which had caused worldwide alarm and raised tensions over this year’s anniversary of the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks on New York and Washington.

He confirmed Gates’ call but linked his decision to what he said was an agreement by Muslim leaders — which they denied — to relocate an Islamic cultural center and mosque planned close to the site of the September 11 attacks in New York.The proposed location has drawn opposition from many Americans who say it is insensitive to families of the victims of the September 11 attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.”The imam has agreed to move the mosque, we have agreed to cancel our event on Saturday,” Jones said.

CONFUSION OVER MOSQUE “DEAL”

He said he would fly to New York on Saturday with Imam Muhammad Musri, head of the Islamic Society of Central Florida to meet the New York imam at the center of the controversy, Feisal Abdul Rauf.But Rauf said in a statement he was surprised by the announcement. “I am glad that Pastor Jones has decided not to burn any Korans. However, I have not spoken to Pastor Jones or Imam Musri. I am surprised by their announcement,” he said.

“We are not going to toy with our religion or any other. Nor are we going to barter. We are here to extend our hands to build peace and harmony,” he said.Sharif el-Gamal, the project developer for the New York mosque, said in a statement: “It is untrue that the community center known as park 51 in lower Manhattan is being moved. The project will proceed as planned. What is being reported in the media today is a falsehood.”Musri conceded to reporters: “This is not a done deal yet. This is a brokered deal,” he said. He said he had no fixed time for him and Jones to meet Rauf in New York.

INTERNATIONAL CONDEMNATION

Earlier, world leaders had joined Obama in denouncing Jones’ plan to burn copies of the Islamic holy book on Saturday, the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks.The international police agency Interpol warned governments worldwide of an increased risk of terrorist attacks if the burning went ahead, and the U.S. State Department issued a warning to Americans traveling overseas.

Jones has said Jesus would approve of his plan for “Burn a Koran Day,” which he called a reprisal for Islamist terrorism.The United States has powerful legal protections for the right to free speech and there was little law enforcement authorities could do to stop Jones from going ahead, other than citing him under local bylaws against public burning.Many people, both conservative and liberal, dismissed the threat as an attention-seeking stunt by the preacher.”This is a recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda,” Obama said in an ABC television interview.

“You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan. This could increase the recruitment of individuals who would be willing to blow themselves up in American cities or European cities.The president, who has sought to improve relations with Muslims worldwide, spoke out in an effort to stop Jones from going ahead and head off growing anger among many Muslims.Insults to Islam, no matter their size or scope, have often been met with huge protests and violence around the world. One such outburst was sparked when a Danish newspaper published a cartoon mocking the Prophet Mohammad in 2005.

Pentagon spokesman Morrell said earlier in the day that there was intense debate within the administration over whether to call Jones. Officials feared of setting a precedent that could inspire copy-cat “extremists.”Jones’ plan was condemned by foreign governments, international church groups, U.S. religious and political leaders and military commanders.It also threatened to undermine Obama’s efforts to reach out to the world’s more than one billion Muslims at a time when he is trying to advance the Middle East peace process and build solidarity against Iran over its disputed nuclear program.(Reuters)

BP say capturing more oil from blown is out well

Energy giant BP Plc said on Tuesday it had sharply increased the amount of oil it was capturing from its blown-out Gulf of Mexico well, but U.S. officials want to know exactly how much oil is still gushing out.The London-based company’s share price fell 6 percent in London trading after U.S. President Barack Obama said he wanted to know “whose ass to kick” over the massive spill.He told NBC News’ “Today” show that if BP Chief Executive Tony Hayward worked for him, he would have fired him by now over his response to the 50-day-old spill, the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

BP already faces a criminal investigation and lawsuits over the April 20 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that killed 11 workers and triggered the massive spill. Some 120 miles of U.S. coastline have been soiled in the disaster that threatens the Gulf Coast’s lucrative fishing industry.

The company said on Tuesday it had collected 14,800 barrels of oil on Monday, 33 percent higher than the amount collected on Sunday and the highest capture rate since it installed a new system to contain the oil spill last week.The latest attempt involves a containment cap placed on top of the gushing pipe on the ocean floor. The total amount of oil collected over four days was about 42,500 barrels, BP said.

“We continue to optimize production and make sure we can take much oil out of that stream as we can,” said Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen, the top U.S. official overseeing the cleanup effort, speaking at a briefing in Washington.Allen said on Monday neither BP nor the government knew just how much oil was gushing out of the well in the first place. “That’s the big unknown right now,” he told a White House briefing on Monday.

BP has given conservative estimates of the oil flow that have been ridiculed by scientists and U.S. lawmakers. Even the government’s much higher estimates of 12,000-19,000 barrels a day seemed on the low side after Allen said the company planned to double its collection of oil from the well to 20,000 bpd (840,000 gallons/3.18 million liters).BP and government officials have said a definitive solution will not come until August when a relief well is drilled.

OBAMA HITS BACK AT CRITICS

The spill has fouled wildlife refuges in Louisiana and barrier islands in Mississippi and Alabama and also sent tar balls ashore on northwest beaches of Florida, where the $60 billion-a-year tourism industry accounts for nearly 1 million jobs.One-third of the Gulf’s federal waters, or 78,000 square miles (200,000 square km), remains closed to fishing, and the toll of dead and injured birds and marine animals is climbing.U.S. weather forecasters gave their first confirmation that some of the oil leaking from BP’s well has lingered beneath the surface rather than rising to the surface. Undersea oil depletes the water’s oxygen content and threatens marine life like mussels, clams, crabs, eels, jellyfish and shrimp.

Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said at the Washington briefing: “NOAA is confirming the presence of very low concentrations of subsurface oil.”Obama, who faces growing criticism that he has appeared detached from the economic and ecological catastrophe hitting four U.S. Gulf states, sharpened his criticism of BP in the NBC interview and hit back at his critics.”I was down there a month ago, before most of these talking heads were even paying attention to the Gulf,” he said.

“And I don’t sit around just talking to experts because this is a college seminar; we talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick,” he added.Fadel Gheit, an analyst at Oppenheimer and Co, said it was “not a coincidence” that BP’s shares were down after Obama’s “kick ass” comment.

The European oils sector was down overall, however, on the back of lower oil prices due to economic worries. BP shares were trading down about 5 percent, against a drop of 2.13 percent in the STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index at 1600 GMT.In New York, the company’s American depositary shares were down nearly 5 percent. BP shares have lost about a third of their value since the crisis erupted.

Away from the action in the Gulf, the political heat remained intense in Washington with yet another congressional hearing to bring BP and its peers under renewed scrutiny.The Senate Judiciary Committee was holding a hearing titled: “The Risky Business of Big Oil: Have Recent Court Decisions and Liability Caps Encouraged Irresponsible Corporate Behavior?”Democrats in Congress have been looking at lifting such caps.

The Senate hearing follows one in Chalmette, Louisiana, where two women who lost their husbands in the explosion that unleashed the crisis urged members of Congress to hold BP accountable.”I am asking you to please consider harsh punishments on companies who choose to ignore safety standards before other families are destroyed,” said Courtney Kemp, whose husband, Wyatt, was killed in the explosion.(Reuters)

Virgin Galactic terminal building in the New Mexico desert

The first thing you notice about the Mojave Air & Space Port is the large number of commercial airliners just sitting around under the desert sun. The climate here means it’s the perfect place for aircraft manufacturers to store planes whose owners haven’t managed to finish paying for them. If the spectre of this aviation elephants’ graveyard wasn’t strange enough, five miles to the west is the Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm – the second-biggest in the world, with more than 5,000 wind turbines.

It’s a weird landscape; and it seems to inspire off-the-wall businesses, and the one-of-a-kind thinkers who run them. One of these businesses is called, with the kind of obviousness that seems redolent of a gentler age, the Spaceship Company – and in its workshop at the airfield, spaceships are being built.If that conjures up images of stick-drawing lunar modules or sleek, Wernher von Braun rockets tower-block high, think again: this spaceship is made of carbon fibre, powered by recycled nylon and laughing gas, and turns into a shuttlecock so it can flutter straight down to Earth. And instead of sitting on a launch pad in Florida it’s dropped from an aircraft built around the biggest piece of carbon fibre composite in history.And both are designed by a company whose founder lives in a half-buried pyramid in the middle of the desert decorated with murals of aliens communing with ancient Egyptians. This is the astonishing backdrop to what promises to be the first venture to take paying passengers into space.

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic isn’t the only company taking the business of space tourism seriously. But it’s further along with its preparations than its competitors, with its Sir Norman Foster-designed Spaceport America due to be completed next year in New Mexico, and its spaceship three months into its flight-test programme.Virgin Galactic is very close to realising the dream of making travel to the edge of space available to ordinary people – and those customers with £140,000 to spare are going to double the number of the world’s astronaut corps almost overnight. ‘New Mexico passed the legislation in March to allow for informed consent of participants,’ stresses Will Whitehorn, Virgin Galactic’s MD. As of now, under U.S. law these people are participating in this space programme. They’re astronauts – it’s a legal reality. There’s been just over 500 people in space since 1961 – we hope to carry 500 in our first year.’

To get numbers like this, Virgin Galactic needs a small fleet of spacecraft and the aircraft that carry them to 50,000ft for launch. The plan is for the Spaceship Company – a joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Mojave-based aerospace firm Scaled Composites – to build three launch aircraft and five spaceships, as Virgin Galactic works towards taking fare-paying ‘participants’ into sub-orbit space from 2012, and progress towards its goal of three daily spaceflights.

As the comprehensive flight-test programme gets under way, the first job of the test pilots is to ensure that the spaceship and mothership can fly safely, efficiently and as intended when joined together, and its these flights – known as ‘captive carry’ flights, because the smaller SpaceShipTwo craft will remain attached to the WhiteKnightTwo aeroplane – that are currently taking place from the Mojave Air & Space Port. Yet even as they fly the aircraft, the pilots are learning all the time about how to operate the spaceship as well. WhiteKnightTwo’s twin pods are the same size and shape as the tubular fuselage of SpaceShipTwo, their six-passenger interiors are identical, and the mothership and spaceship work on exactly the same control systems. So every time a test pilot flies the mothership, he’s getting experience controlling the spacecraft as well.

Unusually for a modern aircraft, computers do not control any of the onboard flight systems: there are computers, but they’re used solely for monitoring and informational purposes.Instead, both mothership and spacecraft are operated using traditional stick-and-rudder mechanical aircraft systems. The experience for the pilot is ‘like flying a Cessna into space,’ Whitehorn says. Even the mechanism that changes the angle of SpaceShipTwo’s wings – enabling it to adopt a fanned-out shuttlecock shape when plummeting back into Earth’s atmosphere – is manual, with a lever that operates a hydraulic system. This is an attempt to ensure that all the systems used will be as simple, and therefore as safe, as possible.

This thinking extends to the rocket propulsion system as well. The fuel used to send Apollo astronauts to the Moon was a highly combustible mixture of liquid nitrogen and kerosene-based aviation fuel; the astronauts were effectively sitting on top of a skyscraper-sized bomb. Clearly a system designed to carry passengers cannot be that volatile, so new technologies have informed the search for an engine that can boost SpaceShipTwo to its maximum speed of about 3,500mph.

The spacecraft will be fitted with a plug-in rocket booster, which can be removed after touchdown and a new fuel plug inserted to power the next flight. The fuel chosen isn’t some high-explosive compound: in fact, it sounds about as explosive as a wet salad. SpaceShipTwo will be powered by one of two solid fuels – rubber or recycled nylon.

‘The oxidiser (which combines with the fuel to produce thrust) is nitrous oxide – laughing gas,’ says Whitehorn. ‘And unlike other solid fuel engines this one can be switched off, by cutting the flow of nitrous oxide.’So it’s very reliable, and very, very safe.’ And it’s this rocket propulsion system that means the whole Virgin Galactic enterprise is shrouded in mystery. Cockpit or interior photos are unavailable because, as the system relies on rocket technology, the whole project is treated under U.S. law as if it was a weapon.

‘Every single picture that exists has to be vetted before it’s released,’ Whitehorn explains. ‘We won’t be allowed to release any detailed pictures of the interior until this thing goes commercial.’ Even for the experts at Scaled, the Virgin Galactic project has required them to go beyond what they’ve worked on before. Aside from the particular demands of a spaceship, the construction of WhiteKnightTwo has taken composite aircraft design up a level.

Essentially the airborne equivalent of a catamaran, the twin-hulled aircraft has to be immensely strong. To ensure there are no joints – creating potential weaknesses – Scaled had to create what Whitehorn says is ‘the largest single piece of composite ever built’, which runs along and inside the 140ft wingspan. This onepiece backbone means WhiteKnightTwo is, according to Whitehorn, ‘the strongest aircraft in human history.

‘There’s immense strength in the middle of the wing, which allows this vehicle to lift 17 tons to an altitude of 50,000ft. Then, when it drops the spaceship, WhiteKnightTwo becomes a zero-G flying machine – an astronaut training vehicle – and the people in the left hull, who are flying into space the next day, can do their final training in it. WhiteKnightTwo will turn on its side (with one wing pointing straight up and the other down to Earth), and fly in circles, so it becomes a flying centrifuge, generating seven times the force of gravity.’

if   you want to find out where such revolutionary thinking comes from, you only have to drive for ten minutes from the Mojave airfield. On a dirt road beside a mailbox fashioned from the tail section of an old aircraft, there’s a half-buried house shaped like a six-sided pyramid sticking out of the desert sand. On one of its subterranean walls – so it’s said – there’s a mural showing aliens helping ancient Egyptians to build the monuments of Giza. And it’s in this house that the story of the Virgin Galactic enterprise really begins.

The home belongs to Burt Rutan, the pioneering aviation designer behind the Voyager aircraft, which flew around the world on a single tank of fuel in 1986. Rutan runs Scaled Composites, and he has produced some of the most ingenious designs in aviation. Although he’s told at least one interviewer he is convinced aliens helped build the pyramids, his single-minded way of looking at design problems has helped his company progress in areas the big aerospace corporations have had trouble getting their heads around – such as space tourism. In 2004, Rutan and Scaled, with funding from Microsoft’s Paul Allen, won the Ansari X Prize – a $10 million fund awarded to the first team that managed to put a man in low Earth orbit twice within a fortnight. Scaled’s design was called SpaceShipOne: a rocket launched at above-airliner altitude from a mothership.

Meanwhile, the other prime mover in the Virgin Galactic story was making his way to Mojave via Morocco. Richard Branson was an early convert to the idea of space tourism: Whitehorn, a long-time Virgin Group staffer, says discussions took place between the British mogul and the Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in the Eighties that would have seen Branson journey into space on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Then one night in 1996, in a bar in Marrakesh, ahead of the launch of one of his round-the-world balloon trips, Branson and balloon pilot Steve Fossett fell into conversation with Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.’Richard asked why they never launched rockets into space from balloons – wouldn’t it be a lot cheaper?’ recalls Whitehorn, who was present.

‘Buzz then explained that the U.S. Navy had experimented with balloon-launched rocket capsules in the Fifties, but that it had been abandoned in the Sixties; and there was a programme called the X-15, which was a rocket launched from a B-52 bomber. End of story, until the next day, when Richard said to me, “We should keep an eye on these ideas.”‘ Three years later, Whitehorn was in Mojave, looking at a bizarre rocket/helicopter hybrid. ‘There was no way that was going to work,’ Whitehorn says. ‘But in the process, Richard went to Mojave to look at it, and while he was there he met Burt.’

Rutan’s first collaboration with Branson was the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer – effectively a development of Rutan’s Voyager aircraft.’We’d just invested in the railway business, where you could go out and tell the companies what you wanted and they’d build a train for you on spec; but in the airline industry you had to take what you were given,’ says Whitehorn. ‘So Richard got very interested in composites, and then Steve Fossett suggested building a very fuel-efficient high-altitude jet that could go around the world in three days.’

Arizona immigration law protested at Florida

The growing national protests against the controversial new Arizona immigration control law came to Miami Gardens on Monday night.South Florida immigrant rights activists rallied at Sun Life Stadium, holding up protest signs prior to the game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Florida Marlins.More than 50 protesters gathered at the stadium at 5 p.m., waving signs and chanting slogans as spectators drove into the parking lot.

“No to racism!” the protesters screamed. “No to discrimination.”Their signs read “Strike Out SB1070” on one side and “Go Marlins” on the other.SB1070 refers to the legislative number of the Arizona law.One demonstrator in favor of the Arizona law, Mark Kleiman, of Hollywood, also held a sign reading “Go Marlins” and “Protect the Border.”

OTHER ACTIONS

The stadium protest capped a day of actions and events by immigrant rights activists opposing the Arizona law that empowers police officers to question a person on his or her immigration status and file criminal charges if the person is not legally in the country.Perhaps the most significant action Monday was a federal lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and a coalition of civil rights groups challenging the constitutionality of Arizona’s law.

The groups branded the new law “extreme” because it “invites the racial profiling of people of color, violates the First Amendment and interferes with federal law.”Lucas Guttentag, director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, said the law has tarnished Arizona’s image.

`SHAMEFUL’

“It’s a shameful and un-American law,” Guttentag said in a telephone news conference.“It turns `show me your papers’ into the Arizona state motto.”

Meanwhile, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People which joined in the lawsuit, said in a statement that it will not host any events in Arizona and urged Major League Baseball to move the 2011 All-Star Game elsewhere.And on Tuesday, the Washington-based group Fair Immigration Reform Movement or FAIR plans to announce an a campaign of civil disobedience to pressure the Obama administration into championing immigration reform.

NATIONAL DEBATE

The Arizona law, signed by Gov. Jan. Brewer on April 23, has reignited the immigration reform debate, which previously focused on whether to legalize an estimated 10.8 million undocumented immigrants.Monday’s protest was part of a broader movement aimed at persuading Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig to move the 2011 All-Star Game from its currently scheduled location in Phoenix — if the Arizona immigration law is not withdrawn or modified.

new immigration law has prompted calls from civil rights groups for a boycott of the state’s industries and sports teams

Arizona’s draconian new immigration law has prompted calls from civil rights groups for a boycott of the state’s industries and sports teams . But don’t get too excited. It turns out that the new law is quite popular – and not just in Arizona. Two recent national polls – one by Gallup , the other by CBS – have found that a majority of Americans strongly approve of the state’s immigration crackdown.

In fact, some even some think it doesn’t go far enough. Have Americans become rightwing nuts? Hardly. But Washington’s endless dithering on immigration policy has the whole country at a boiling point. And if Arizonans want to vent their anger, well, bully for them, say voters – including a majority of independents, and even a solid third of Democrats . With the midterm elections just six months away, and Democratic fortunes fading fast, immigration is fast becoming an albatross for Obama.

Egged on by his disaffected Latino base, Obama decided to denounce the Arizona law. But voters obviously don’t agree with him. And Obama has also decided to urge Congress to begin work on comprehensive immigration reform, even though his key GOP ally, Senator Lindsey Graham, a moderate, isn’t playing ball. Graham warned Obama months ago that if he rammed healthcare reform through Congress, he could kiss immigration reform goodbye. Apparently, the president wasn’t listening. And neither was Senate majority leader Harry Reid, who is trailing both of his GOP opponents in the polls, and could well lose his seat this November.

Reid tried to rally Latino voters in Nevada last month by promising that Democrats would try to pass immigration reform this year, even if the GOP won’t help. Apparently, though, Reid forgot to consult with other Democrats. Because it turns out, post-Arizona, that there aren’t enough Democratic votes to pass immigration reform. In fact, Reid may not even be able to get the 50 votes necessary to bring a Democrat-only bill to the Senate floor – let alone secure its passage. What’s Obama to do? Right now, he’s caught between his angry and mobilised Latino base, which is demanding that he push forward with a plan to legalise undocumented immigrants, and mainstream voters, who seem to be leaning toward the GOP’s view that border and workplace enforcement should come first. It’s a recipe for disaster. Many Democrats – and not just Reid – need Latinos and other base groups to turn out in large numbers if they hope to prevail against Republicans this November – and preserve their party’s control of Congress. According to political experts, in some 35 congressional election contests in the West, a high Latino voter turn out could well provide the margin of difference. Also up for grabs, depending on Latino voting, are critical races in high-density Latino states like Florida.

There, a rising GOP star, Marco Rubio, who is Latino, is seeking to win a three-way Senate race in which former GOP Gov. Charlie Crist is running as an independent. On the other hand, there are just as many competitive districts in the South and Midwest where key swing voters overwhelmingly support the new Arizona crackdown, according to polls. Any move by Obama and the Democrats in the direction of legalization – even stepped criticism of Arizona’s new law, perhaps – could well doom Democratic fortunes there. For the GOP, meanwhile, it’s a question of how to balance the short-term political gain of holding out on immigration reform with the potential long-term damage to the party of appearing hostile to Latino aspirations. Everyone knows, Latinos especially, that the Arizona GOP was responsible for the Arizona law. And since many Republicans at the national level have refused to criticize the law, they are not winning any new friends among a key swing constituency they lost in 2008. But most Republicans are calculating that Latinos are just as concerned as mainstream voters about the deficit and the state of the economy – and won’t penalise the GOP for not focusing on immigration before November. And, in fact, like many Democrats, the GOP is also finding itself boxed in by its nativist wing. Just ask Senator John McCain, who has enthusiastically backed the state’s new immigration crackdown because of nativist pressure from GOP challenger, and Tea Party favorite, JD Hayworth. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t stand a chance of getting re-elected, observers say. With only a narrow legislative window remaining – Congress takes a break on May 28, and when it returns, candidates start ginning up their election campaigns – serious action on immigration is unlikely. Reid, already under fire from the GOP for his grand-standing on immigration, has promised to focus on an energy, bill first and foremost.

Obama, meanwhile, recently took advantage of the annual White House “Cinco de Mayo” celebration to say that he still hoped that Congress would “start work” on immigration this year. In the game of verbal inches that often passes for Washington politics, that statement was taken as a positive sign. Of what, though, no one’s exactly sure.

2 WARSAW, Ind, boys accused of killing stepdad to run away

WARSAW, Ind.  Two young friends from a quiet, middle-class neighborhood in northern Indiana wanted to run away to Arizona so badly, prosecutors say, that they gunned down a stepfather who stood in the way of their plans.The two alleged triggerman ages 15 and 12 hadn’t shown any signs of violence before the older boy’s 49-year-old stepfather, Phillip Danner, was shot to death in his home last week, according to neighbors and family members who testified at a hearing Thursday in which a judge ruled the boys would be tried for murder as adults.

But sheriff’s Detective Jonathan Tyler testified that the boys and two of their friends, who didn’t take part in the actual slaying, plotted for at least a month to kill Danner, so they could run off to Arizona.On the day of the slaying, the boys met at a park before going to the older boy’s home near Lake Wawasee, between Fort Wayne and South Bend, where he had gathered two of Danner’s handguns, Tyler said. The two defendants waited in the living room until Danner appeared in a kitchen doorway, Tyler said, then shot him four times — once in the eye, once in the wrist, and twice in the chest.

Neighbors and family members who testified Thursday said the 15-year-old and 12-year-old were good students who stayed out of serious trouble at school. The worst trouble either had been in came last year when the 15-year-old was put under juvenile court supervision for four months after he shot a BB gun at a neighbor riding a lawn mower.

“Obviously, something’s gone very wrong,” the 15-year-old boy’s mother said. “I don’t know what that is. I would like to know what that is.”One of the two other boys who authorities say took part in the planning is a 12-year-old who is being detained on juvenile charges of aiding a murder. The other boy hasn’t been charged.According to police, the two 12-year-olds and the 15-year-old met up hours after the shooting and took off in a car belonging to the 15-year-old’s mother’s, who was in Florida on vacation.

Investigators still aren’t certain why the boys wanted to go to Arizona. One theory is that the boys — who allegedly killed Danner and headed west on April 20, an unofficial holiday for marijuana users — intended to sell pot. Police said alcohol, marijuana and a gun were found in the car when the boys were caught in Peru, Ill., about 5 a.m. the next day.

Attorneys for the 12-year-old and 15-year-old murder suspects stressed Thursday that both boys were presumed innocent and urged Judge Duane Huffer to treat them as juveniles, saying their chances of rehabilitation would be greater in the juvenile system than in adult prison. But Huffer said the juvenile system wasn’t equipped to deal with crimes of such magnitude.

“The act alleged was violent and unprovoked,” Huffer said.Both boys are being held in the county jail and could face an initial hearing in adult court as early as Friday, according to Chief Deputy Prosecutor Daniel Hampton.Calvin Carr, 35, Danner’s neighbor, said he thought the 15-year-old was “a good kid” but recently became suspicious that the boy might be smoking cigarettes and pot. After that, Carr said, the boy had stopped coming over to Carr’s house to hang out with his children.Mike Koher, a longtime friend of Danner’s who often went motorcycling with the family on weekends, saw no sign of any trouble in his friend’s relationship with his stepson. Sheriff’s officials said they had found no sign of any abuse.

“I never seen anything out of the ordinary,” said Koher, 53. “They seemed to get along.”He said the teen rode behind on his stepfather’s Harley-Davidson on family trips while his mother rode her own motorcycle. He also said Danner bought dirt bikes for himself and his stepson so they could ride together and they went fishing together in Danner’s bass boat.”It seemed real normal to me. Being a step’s always tough, but I would never have saw this coming if that’s what actually happened,” Koher said.

President Barack Obama's major priorities dropped from the agenda of an election-year Congress facing voter disillusionment

WASHINGTON Immigration reform has become the first of President Barack Obama’s major priorities dropped from the agenda of an election-year Congress facing voter disillusionment. Sounding the death knell was Obama himself.The president noted that lawmakers may lack the “appetite” to take on immigration while many of them are up for re-election and while another big legislative issue – climate change – is already on their plate.

“I don’t want us to do something just for the sake of politics that doesn’t solve the problem,” Obama told reporters Wednesday night aboard Air Force One.Immigration reform was an issue Obama promised Latino groups that he would take up in his first year in office. But several hard realities – a tanked economy, a crowded agenda, election-year politics and lack of political will – led to so much foot-dragging in Congress that, ultimately, Obama decided to set the issue aside.

With that move, the president calculated that an immigration bill would not prove as costly to his party two years from now, when he seeks re-election, than it would today, even though some immigration reformers warned that a delay could so discourage Democratic-leaning Latino voters that they would stay home from the polls in November.Some Democrats thought pushing a bill through now might help their party. If it failed, they could blame Republican resistance, though in reality many Democrats didn’t want to deal with an immigration bill this year either.

Perhaps seeing the handwriting on the wall, top Senate Democrats released a legislative framework for immigration reforms anyway. The draft proposal, obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday, called for, among other things, meeting border security benchmarks before anyone in the country illegally can become a legal permanent U.S. resident.By Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered little hope that the issue was still alive on Capitol Hill.”If there is going to be any movement in this regard, it will require presidential leadership, as well as an appetite, is that the word? … as well as a willingness to move forward in the Congress,” she said.House Republican leader John Boehner was more blunt. “There is not a chance that immigration is going to move through the Congress,” he said Tuesday.

Rep. Luis Gutierrez, the Democrats’ leading advocate for immigration reform, has said he voted for health care reform on the understanding that Obama and congressional Democrats would move a major immigration bill.Even though he would like to see Latinos turn out to vote for Democrats in 2010, Gutierrez said “many will probably decide to stay home.” However, he added, a strict, new immigration law in Arizona may change that dynamic. The law requires law enforcement officers to question anyone they suspect is in the country illegally.”On one hand you are not going to vote because you don’t believe people you voted for are doing a good enough job,” Gutierrez said. “Then you say, ‘I got to vote, because the enemy is so mean and vindictive, I got to get out there.'”The Hispanic vote is growing, largely because of Latinos’ increasing population. The 9.7 million Latinos who cast ballots in 2008 made up about 7.4 percent of the electorate, according to a 2009 Pew Research Center study.

Hispanic voters helped flip the battleground states of Colorado, Florida, Nevada and New Mexico from Republican to Democratic in the 2008 presidential election.But even though Latinos’ numbers have been increasing, in some parts of the country their portions of voting populations are not large enough to affect election outcomes.

Democrats hold a 254-177 majority in the House, with four vacancies. But 48 are in districts where Republican Arizona Sen. John McCain did better than Obama in the 2008 elections.Matt Angle, a Democratic political strategist focused on Texas, said it would be worse for Democrats to propose a bill that has no hope of passing or getting Republican support. Doing so would allow Republicans to cherry-pick parts of the bill to use against Democratic candidates, he said.

The Senate also has a number of competitive races, some in states with significant numbers of Hispanic voters, such as in Nevada, the home state of Majority Leader Harry Reid. Latinos are about 12-15 percent of likely voters there.”For Democrats it is critical they can deliver if they want to continue nurturing the support they want from this community,” said Clarissa Martinez De Castro, National Council of La Raza immigration and national campaigns director.(AP)

citizen of the United States Threatens to blow up Delta Air Aircraft with the Bomb

Boston A citizen of the United States (U.S.) on a flight from Paris to Atlanta threatened to blow up a plane he was traveling. He also claimed to have false passports and carrying explosives in his luggage. Effect of act of such passengers, the aircraft diverted to the nearest airport.As reported by NBC, Wednesday (28/04/2010), U.S. federal officials to identify passengers who was named acting Derek Stansberry (26). He is a Florida home contractor who was traveling alone. However, upon investigation, which is owned by Stanberry passport is genuine.

Shortly after the claims will bomb the aircraft, he was immediately drawn to the rear of the plane by a flight attendant for further questioning on the statement.Delta Air Lines plane carrying Stanberry is the Airbus A330 with 235 passengers and eight crew. “The plane eventually landed safely at Bangor International Airport,” said Delta spokeswoman Susan Elliott.Arriving at the Bangor Airport, a suitcase belonging Stansberry eventually admitted there were explosives searched. After review, there were no suspicious or dangerous items found.

Nadia Bloom. After missing four days, he was eventually found alive in a swamp in Winter Springs

WINTER SPRINGS  The Miracle of life really overshadow Nadia Bloom. After missing four days, he was eventually found alive in a swamp in Winter Springs, Florida, United States, Wednesday (14 / 4) then.Autistic woman was found in the mud bog that became very vicious crocodile habitat. Nadia the besieged dozens of vicious crocodile is reportedly for five days did not suffer serious injuries although severely dehydrated and mosquito bites.

The girl was found by a friend of Nadia’s father, when they wanted to keep track of these swamps. “God seemed to direct me to find Nadia,” explained King. Nadia missing Friday (9 / 4) while out cycling, making a video about nature.

Nadia’s father, Jeff Bloom, said she and the authorities have to find her son to use radar, helicopters, dive teams, volunteers until golden retriever. Since crowded as the swamp, the officers took 1.5 hours to lift the body of Nadia.11-year-old girl appeared calm. He admitted that he only slept for two hours during the sunset in the swamp. Nadia had seen some fierce snake, but his body was not touched by the crocodile.

Federal officials will not pursue civil rights violations or other charges against the boot camp guards implicated in the death of a 14-year-old

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Federal officials will not pursue civil rights violations or other charges against the boot camp guards implicated in the death of a 14-year-old who was hit and kicked by the guards while a nurse looked on, the boy’s relatives and their attorney said Friday.Ben Crump, an attorney for the parents of the teen, Martin Lee Anderson, said they were told of the decision during a meeting with representatives of the U.S. Justice Department. The family’s supporters gathered outside the federal courthouse in Tallahassee during that meeting.

Anderson died Jan. 6, 2006, a day after being hit and kicked by the guards. A videotape of the 30-minute incident attracted national attention and led to the closure of Florida’s boot camps for juvenile offenders. Anderson had just been assigned to the camp after he was caught trespassing at a school, which violated his probation on another charge.
A state court jury acquitted the guards and the nurse of manslaughter on Oct. 12, 2007. Federal authorities then began investigating whether the boy’s civil rights were violated.

The Justice Department said in a news release Friday that investigators did not have enough evidence to pursue criminal charges.

The video showed the seven men punching Anderson and using knee strikes against him. It also showed them pushing ammonia capsules into his nose and dragging his limp body around the camp’s yard. The nurse did not appear to intervene in any way during the incident.A coroner initially ruled that Anderson died because of a fatal hemorrhage related to a previously undiagnosed case of sickle cell anemia trait. Protests of that ruling inspired then-Gov. Jeb Bush to order an independent prosecutor to look into the case.

A subsequent autopsy determined that guards killed Anderson by depriving him of oxygen when they pushed the ammonia tablets into his nose and covered his mouth.

The acquittal in the state’s manslaughter case came after a two-week trial in Panama City. Jurors said they agreed with the contention of the guards’ attorneys that the men were employing widely accepted boot camp tactics and that the death was caused by the sickle cell trait.The family also filed civil lawsuits against the state and Bay County that ultimately resulted in a $7.4 million settlement. (AP)