Prosecutor opens with Zimmerman's obscenity

SANFORD, Fla. (AP) ? A prosecutor told jurors in opening statements Monday that George Zimmerman fatally shot Trayvon Martin "because he wanted to," not because he had to, while the neighborhood watch volunteer's attorney said the deadly shooting of the teen was carried out in self-defense.

The opposing attorneys squared off on the first day of testimony in a trial that has attracted international attention and prompted nationwide debates about racial profiling, vigilantism and the laws governing the use of deadly force.

Defense attorney Don West used a joke in his opening statements to illustrate the difficulty of picking a jury amid such widespread publicity.

"'Knock. Knock,'" West said.

"'Who is there?'"

"'George Zimmerman.'"

"'George Zimmerman who?'"

"'Ah, good. You're on the jury.'"

Included among the millions likely to be following the case are civil rights leaders the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who joined national protests in the weeks before prosecutors filed second-degree murder charges against Zimmerman. The charges came 44 days after the shooting.

Zimmerman, who identifies himself as Hispanic, has denied that his confrontation with Martin before the shooting had anything to do with race. His mother was born in Peru. His father is a white American. Martin was black.

But just before opening statements began, Martin's parents sent out an urgent plea to their supporters to pray with them for justice, while their family attorney, Benjamin Crump, described the case as clear cut.

"There are two important facts in this case: No. 1: George Zimmerman was a grown man with a gun, and No. 2: Trayvon Martin was a minor who had no blood on his hands. Literally no blood on his hands. ... We believe that the evidence is overwhelming to hold George Zimmerman accountable for killing Trayvon Martin."

Prosecutor John Guy's first words to jurors recounted what Zimmerman told a police dispatcher in a call shortly before the fatal confrontation with Martin: "F------ punks. These a-------. They always get away."

Zimmerman was profiling Martin as he followed him through the gated community where Zimmerman lived and Martin was visiting, Guy said. He said Zimmerman viewed the teen "as someone about to a commit a crime in his neighborhood."

"And he acted on it. That's why we're here," the prosecutor said.

Zimmerman didn't have to shoot Martin, Guy said.

"He shot him for the worst of all reasons: because he wanted to," he said.

West told jurors that Zimmerman was being viciously attacked when he shot Martin. Zimmerman was sucker-punched by Martin, who then pounded Zimmerman's head into the concrete sidewalk, West said. He played for jurors the call to a police dispatcher in which Zimmerman used the obscenities.

Martin had opportunities to go home after Zimmerman followed him and then lost track of him, West said, but instead the teen confronted the neighborhood watch volunteer.

"He had just taken tremendous blows to his face, tremendous blows to his head," said West after showing jurors photos taken by Zimmerman's neighbors of a bloodied and bruised neighborhood watch volunteer.

The prosecutor described Zimmerman as someone who wanted to be a police officer, and he dismantled the story Zimmerman has told investigators about what happened during the fight between the neighborhood watch volunteer and the Miami-area teen that left Martin dead from a bullet to his chest.

Zimmerman's claim that Martin had his hands over the neighborhood watch volunteer's mouth is false since none of Zimmerman's DNA was found on Martin's body, Guy said. The prosecutor also said Zimmerman's claim that he had to fire because Martin was reaching for his firearm is false since none of Martin's DNA was on the gun or holster.

Zimmerman is pleading not guilty to second-degree murder, claiming self-defense.

On Feb. 26, 2012, Zimmerman spotted Martin, whom he did not recognize, walking in the gated townhome community where Zimmerman and the fiancee of Martin's father lived. There had been a rash of recent break-ins and Zimmerman was wary of strangers walking through the complex.

The two eventually got into a struggle and Zimmerman shot Martin in the chest with his 9mm handgun. He was charged 44 days after the shooting, only after a special prosecutor was appointed to review the case and after protests. The delay in the arrest prompted protests nationwide.

Two police dispatch phone calls will be important evidence for both sides' cases.

The first is a call Zimmerman made to a nonemergency police dispatcher, who told him he didn't need to be following Martin.

The second 911 call captures screams from the confrontation between Zimmerman and Martin. Martin's parents said the screams are from their son while Zimmerman's father contends they belong to his son.

Nelson ruled last weekend that audio experts for the prosecution won't be able to testify that the screams belong to Martin, saying the methods the experts used were unreliable.

Both calls were played for jurors by the defense in opening statements. Martin's mother, Sybrina Fulton, left the courtroom before the second call was played.

Opening statements were made two weeks after jury selection began. Attorneys picked six jurors and four alternates after quizzing the jury pool questions about how much they knew about the case and their views on guns and self-defense.

___

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

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

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/prosecutor-opens-zimmermans-obscenity-135419217.html

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Aerialist to cross gorge near Grand Canyon

LITTLE COLORADO RIVER GORGE, Ariz. (AP) ? Daredevil Nik Wallenda is using the Navajo Nation as a backdrop to one of his most ambitious feats yet ? crossing a tightrope 1,500 feet above the Little Colorado River Gorge near the Grand Canyon.

The 34-year-old Sarasota, Fla., resident will set out Sunday on a quarter-mile cable stretched over the gorge that was eyed by another high-wire performer decades ago. The stunt comes a year after he traversed Niagara Falls earning a seventh Guinness world record. He'll be using the same 2-inch-thick cable he used to cross the falls, only this time he won't be wearing a safety harness.

After saying a prayer, "I give my wife and kids a hug and a kiss and tell them I'll see them in a bit," he told reporters Friday in Flagstaff.

Wallenda is a seventh-generation high-wire artist and is part of the famous "Flying Wallendas" circus family ? a clan that is no stranger to death-defying feats and great tragedy.

His great-grandfather, Karl Wallenda, fell during a performance in Puerto Rico and died at the age of 73. Several other family members, including a cousin and an uncle, have perished while performing wire walking stunts.

Nik Wallenda, who was born a year after his great-grandfather died, began wire walking at the age of 2, on a 2-foot high stretched rope. He grew up performing with his family and has dreamed of crossing the Grand Canyon since he was a teenager.

French high-wire walker Philippe Petit had that same desire and set up a cable above the Little Colorado River, but Navajo officials said he never went through with the stunt and left his equipment there only to be taken down recently by Wallenda's crew.

"I don't understand why he didn't," Wallenda said. "It's a site that works, makes sense. He clearly failed at it, so I want to do it successfully."

Petit didn't return messages left by The Associated Press.

The Discovery Channel will broadcast Wallenda's walk on live television after 8 p.m. EDT on Sunday with a 10-second delay. Wallenda will be wearing two cameras, one looking down on the dry Little Colorado River bed and one facing straight ahead. His leather shoes with an elk-skin sole will help him keep a grip on the steel cable as he moves across.

Should wind gusts that are expected to be around 30 mph threaten to throw him off, Wallenda said he'll grab hold of the wire and wait it out if possible. A paramedic will be looking up at him from the river, he said.

Wallenda is highly confident in his ability to reach the other side, having walked in 52 mph wind gusts during Tropical Storm Andrea with a torrential downpour and training with wind machines that simulated 45-55 mph gusts. The only thing that would stop him entirely is lightning within a 15-mile radius, he said.

The more than 2-hour broadcast also will showcase the Navajo landscape that includes Monument Valley, Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly and the tribal capital of Window Rock.

"When people watch this, our main thing is we want the world to know who Navajo people are, our culture, traditions and language are still very much alive," said Geri Hongeva, spokeswoman for the tribe's Division of Natural Resources.

The stunt is touted as a walk across the Grand Canyon, an area held sacred by many American Indian tribes, and the fulfillment of a dream. Some local residents believe Wallenda hasn't accurately pinpointed the location and also say that the Navajo Nation shouldn't be promoting the gambling of one man's life for the benefit of tourism.

"Mr. Wallenda needs to buy a GPS or somebody give this guy a map," said Milton Tso, president of the Cameron community on the Navajo Nation. "He's not walking across the Grand Canyon. He's walking across the Little Colorado River Gorge on the Navajo Nation. It's misleading and false advertising."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/aerialist-cross-gorge-near-grand-canyon-222733046.html

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Immigration bill clears Senate test

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Historic immigration legislation cleared a key Senate hurdle with votes to spare on Monday, pointing the way to near-certain passage within days for $38 billion worth of new security measures along the border with Mexico and an unprecedented chance at citizenship for millions living in the country illegally.

The vote was 67-27, seven more than the 60 needed, with 15 Republicans agreeing to advance legislation at the top of President Barack Obama's second-term domestic agenda.

The vote came as Obama campaigned from the White House for the bill, saying, "now is the time" to overhaul an immigration system that even critics of the legislation agree needs reform.

Last-minute frustration was evident among opponents. In an unusual slap at members of his own party as well as Democrats, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said it appeared that lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle "very much want a fig leaf" on border security to justify a vote for immigration.

Senate passage on Thursday or Friday would send the issue to the House, where conservative Republicans in the majority oppose citizenship for anyone living in the country illegally.

Some GOP lawmakers have appealed to Speaker John Boehner not to permit any immigration legislation to come to a vote for fear that whatever its contents, it would open the door to an unpalatable compromise with the Senate. At the same time, the House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of approving a handful of measures related to immigration, action that ordinarily is a prelude to votes in the full House.

"Now is the time to do it," Obama said at the White House before meeting with nine business executives who support a change in immigration laws. He added, "I hope that we can get the strongest possible vote out of the Senate so that we can then move to the House and get this done before the summer break" beginning in early August.

He said the measure would be good for the economy, for business and for workers who are "oftentimes exploited at low wages."

As for the overall economy, he said, "I think every business leader here feels confident that they'll be in a stronger position to continue to innovate, to continue to invest, to continue to create jobs and ensure that this continues to be the land of opportunity for generations to come."

Opponents saw it otherwise. "It will encourage more illegal immigration and must be stopped," Cruz exhorted supporters via email, urging them to contact their own senators with a plea to defeat the measure.

Leaving little to chance, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce announced it was launching a new seven-figure ad buy Monday in support of the bill. "Call Congress. End de facto amnesty. Create jobs and economic growth by supporting conservative immigration reforms," the ad said.

Senate officials said some changes were still possible to the bill before it leaves the Senate - alterations that would swell the vote total.

At the same time, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who voted to advance the measure during the day, said he may yet end up opposing it unless he wins a pair of changes he is seeking.

Senate Democrats were unified on the vote.

Republicans were anything but on a bill that some party leaders say offers the GOP a chance to show a more welcoming face to Hispanic voters, yet tea party-aligned lawmakers assail as amnesty for those who have violated the law.

The party's two top Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas, voted against advancing the measure. Both are seeking new terms next year.

Among potential 2016 GOP presidential contenders, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida was an enthusiastic supporter of the bill, while Cruz and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky were opposed.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated the legislation will reduce the deficit and increase economic growth in each of the next two decades. It is also predicting unemployment will rise slightly through 2020, and that average wages will move lower over a decade.

At its core, the legislation in the Senate would create a 13-year pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. It also calls for billions of dollars to be spent on manpower and technology to secure the 2,000-mile border with Mexico, including a doubling of the Border Patrol with 20,000 new agents.

The measure also would create a new program for temporary farm laborers to come into the country, and another for lower-skilled workers to emigrate permanently. At the same time, it calls for an expansion of an existing visa program for highly-skilled workers, a gesture to high tech companies that rely heavily on foreigners.

In addition to border security, the measure phases in a mandatory program for employers to verify the legal status of potential workers, and separate effort to track the comings and goings of foreigners at some of the nation's airports.

The legislation was originally drafted by a bipartisan Gang of 8, four senators from each party who negotiated a series of political trade-offs over several months.

The addition of the tougher border security provisions came after CBO informed lawmakers that they could potentially spend tens of billions of dollars to sweeten the bill without fearing higher deficits.

The result was a series of changes negotiated between the Gang of 8 and Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota and Bob Corker of Tennessee. Different, lesser-noticed provisions helped other lawmakers swing behind the measure.

In a speech on the Senate floor, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, likened some of them to "earmarks," the now-banned practice of directing federal funds to the pet projects of individual lawmakers.

He cited a provision creating a $1.5 billion jobs fund for low-income youth and pair of changes to benefit the seafood processing industry in Alaska. Sen. Bernard Sanders, I-Vt., issued a statement on Friday trumpeting the benefits of the first; Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican, and Mark Begich, a Democrat, took credit for the two others.

Grassley also raised questions about the origin of a detailed list of planes, sensors, cameras and other equipment to be placed along the southern border.

"Who provided the amendment sponsors with this list?" asked Grassley, who is a member of the Judiciary Committee that approved an earlier version of the bill. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano "did not provide the committee with any list. Did Sikorsky, Cessna and Northrup Grumann send up a wish list to certain members of the Senate?"

Randy Belote, a spokesman for Northrup Grumann, said in an email the firm has "not had the opportunity to review the comments nor... provided the committee a 'wish list' of its systems to consider."

Officials at the other two companies did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

___

Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-bill-clears-senate-test-225923799.html

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Judge says no to Trayvon Martin 'shriek' analysis in Zimmerman case (+video)

In a major win for George Zimmerman?s defense, Judge Debra Nelson found on Saturday that disputed audio analysis of Trayvon Martin?s last moments is too tentative to allow into court.

By Patrik Jonsson,?Staff writer / June 22, 2013

A Florida jury won?t hear expert suggestions that Trayvon Martin gave a desperate shriek for help in the background of a 911 call before being killed by neighborhood watch captain George Zimmerman, a judge ruled Saturday.

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The ruling by Circuit Court Judge Debra Nelson is a clear win for Mr. Zimmerman, whose guilt or non-guilt will be decided by a six-woman jury, with opening arguments scheduled for Monday. Zimmerman is the lone survivor of a Feb. 26, 2012 conflict inside a gated Florida neighborhood that pitted him against an unarmed 17-year-old returning to where he was staying with a bag of Skittles in his pocket.

The lack of an immediate arrest and the appearance of racial underpinnings to the tragedy brought Martin?s death to the nation, where President Obama commented at one point that, ?If I had a son, he would?ve looked like Trayvon.? The case has since become a mirror in which America?s views on guns and race are reflected, and sometimes distorted.

The evidence, however, in the case is scant, which is one reason why both sides hyper-analyzed a rash of 911 calls to the Sanford Police Department. Using techniques dating back to World War II, two expert analysts ? Alan Reich and Tom Owen ? had ruled out Zimmerman as owning the voice that screams out ?help? (or ?stop,? as Reich interpreted it) before a gunshot rings.

?Was it George or not George, Trayvon or not Trayvon ? we had very simple elimination decisions ?,? Reich told the court last Friday. ?The scream levels were almost entirely those of Trayvon Martin

If admissible in court, the conclusion that Martin emitted the panicked shriek would have heavily contradicted Zimmerman?s contention that he was in a defensive, not offensive, position when he fired. Self-defense protections only apply if jurors decide that a reasonable person would have acted similarly to the defendant.

"The evidence should be heard by the jury, and let them decide," Assistant State Attorney Richard Mantei pleaded with Judge Nelson.

But ultimately Nelson ruled the testimony too subjective, likely taking into consideration how heavily a potentially flawed analysis could weight a verdict.

?Defense experts argued that the methods used by Messrs. Reich and Owen deviated from standard procedures. One of those experts, FBI analyst Hirotaka Nakasone, said using screams to peg a screamer is not possible, adding that he was ?disturbed? by the state?s reports suggesting Martin was the one who cried out.

To make his point, defense attorney Donald West singled out Mr. Reich?s analysis that Zimmerman sounded like a ?carnival barker? before Martin screamed ?stop,? notions and words he said nobody else has concluded.

?His report should begin, ?It was a dark and stormy night,?? West said.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/hFhNr1CmcfU/Judge-says-no-to-Trayvon-Martin-shriek-analysis-in-Zimmerman-case-video

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Social media spreads and splinters Brazil protests

Social media

Caroline Stauffer Reuters

June 22, 2013 at 2:17 PM ET

UESLEI MARCELINO / REUTERS

A demonstrator holds a sign next to street structures set on fire during a protest against the Confederations Cup and President Dilma Rousseff's government, in front of the National Congress in Brasilia June 20, 2013.

SAO PAULO (Reuters) - Brazil's biggest protests in decades are a confusing, conflicting mix of people and messages. Blame Facebook.

Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter enabled mass protests of the sort that have not happened in Latin America's biggest country in more than two decades.

As a result of the speed, efficiency and anonymity of online activism, though, an amorphous, unwieldy movement has emerged that is beyond the control of any of those who first began pushing for change.

"Social media has helped us organize without having leaders," said Victor Damaso, 22, demonstrating on Sao Paulo's main Paulista Avenue on Thursday night. "Our ideas, our demands are discussed on Facebook. There are no meetings, no rules."

The demonstrations have been mostly peaceful, but as more than a million Brazilians took to the streets on Thursday, vandals and looters cast a violent pall over some of the protests. Police and security forces have responded with teargas, rubber bullets and pepper spray.

Facebook pages set up for logistical coordination and Twitter hash tags have cropped up for protests in hundreds of cities across Brazil. Rival groups appear to be vying for control of one of the most-viewed organizing pages on Facebook and an associated Twitter feed.

"Any movement risks attracting unaffiliated groups and individuals," said Angela Alonso, a sociologist at the University of Sao Paulo. "It's a price of growth. In this case there is no centralized leadership, administration is more difficult and it is even becoming uncontrollable."

The Free Fare movement, a group of 40 activists who marched for - and got - lower transportation rates, said on Friday it was suspending any further marches for now because of mounting tension and violence.

Sparked by Free Fare's protests, the nationwide call for reform quickly evolved into what is now known online as Anonymous Brazil.

The group appears to use encrypted Web browsers that make it difficult to identify page administrators and has adopted the Guy Fawkes mask, the symbol for the global cyber group of hackers known as Anonymous, as its mascot, although it is not clear if the two have a formal link.

While that opens the door to all sorts of fringe groups, the people at the core of the protests generally share a commitment to better public services. Their rallying cries, found on Twitter and Facebook and on traditional signs at the protests, range from ending political corruption to lambasting more than $12 billion being poured into soccer stadiums and other preparations for the 2014 World Cup.

The demonstrators, mostly educated, middle class and under age 30, want nothing to do with established groups that were behind the causes of their parents' generation.

Online organizing
Unlike Brazil's movement for redemocratization in the 1970s and 1980s and protests for the impeachment of President Fernando Collor de Mello in the early 1990s, today's demonstrations have no clear leadership or political affinity.

"The recent protests are not partisan, and they do not have centralized leadership," said Alonso, the sociologist. "This has to do with new technologies that allow for organization without centralization, and also with the fact that the activists are from a new generation that is no longer guided by ideals like socialism, and doesn't want state power."

Indeed, Brazil's protests do not target any specific leader or political party. That makes them different from the Arab Spring, a series of uprisings against autocratic leaders in the past few years, or even this year's demonstrations in Turkey against the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan.

While some of the Arab governments blocked access to the Internet to disrupt the planning of protests, Brazil's intelligence agency, Abin, has beefed up efforts to monitor calls for demonstrations online and on popular smart phone chat tool WhatsApp.

President Dilma Rousseff, a leftist guerrilla in the 1970s, has praised the protests as democratic.

Anonymous Brazil's Facebook page, which has nearly 1 million followers, briefly disappeared from the Web on Friday. The group later said via Facebook that its Twitter account had been "robbed" by one of its own members, generating conflicts on its linked Facebook platform.

The group says competing Twitter accounts like @AnonymousBr4sil and #AnonymousFuel are run by "usurpers."

Of the 53.5 million Brazilians online, almost a third of the population, 86 percent use some kind of micro blog or social media tool, according to polling firm Ibope.

(Additional reporting by Silvio Cascione; Editing by Paulo Prada and Mohammad Zargham)

Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters.

Source: http://feeds.nbcnews.com/c/35002/f/653377/s/2da7054c/l/0L0Snbcnews0N0Ctechnology0Csocial0Emedia0Espreads0Esplinters0Ebrazil0Eprotests0E6C10A4180A84/story01.htm

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New death from SARS-like coronavirus MERS as health experts meet

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said another person had died of the SARS-like coronavirus MERS, and six new cases were registered, in statements on Thursday and Friday as international experts gather in Cairo to discuss the epidemic.

Experts, including from the World Health Organisation, are nearing the end of a four-day meeting on the disease which has now infected 55 people, killing 33 of them, in Saudi Arabia.

Added to previous WHO numbers, the new Saudi announcement brings the total number of confirmed cases to 70 worldwide, of which 39 have died.

In July large numbers of pilgrims are expected to travel to the Saudi city of Mecca, the birthplace of Islam, during the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. In October millions are expected there for the annual haj pilgrimage.

Late on Friday the Saudi Health Ministry said a 41-year-old woman in Riyadh was in a stable condition with the disease, and that a 32-year-old with cancer was also being treated. It said another person, whose infection was previously announced, had died.

On Thursday, it confirmed four new cases, including three health workers, who have all recovered.

Researchers said Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS, is even more deadly than SARS and is easily transmitted in healthcare environments.

The disease can cause coughing, fever and pneumonia and has spread from the Gulf to France, Germany, Italy and Britain.

(Reporting by Angus McDowall; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/death-sars-coronavirus-mers-health-experts-meet-095317642.html

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NJ flags to fly at half-staff for Gandolfini

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) ? New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff Monday in memory of "Sopranos" star and New Jersey native James Gandolfini.

Gandolfini died Wednesday in Rome at age 51. A family spokesman says he suffered a heart attack.

The governor's order says Gandolfini was an iconic actor who "left a timeless impact upon television and film in the state of New Jersey and across our nation."

Gandolfini was born in Westwood, N.J., grew up in Park Ridge and attended Rutgers, the state's flagship public university.

The governor says the actor acclaimed for his role as mobster Tony Soprano was also an advocate, in two documentaries, for U.S. servicemen and women and veterans.

Christie has called Gandolfini a "New Jersey treasure."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/nj-flags-fly-half-staff-gandolfini-200302135.html

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