National and International news: junho 2011

domingo, 19 de junho de 2011

Can golf success carry over for Obama, Boehner?

By JULIE PACEWASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama and House Speaker John Boehner put partisanship aside, at least on the golf course, and teamed up to triumph on the final hole Saturday in their long-awaited links outing.

The match pitted the political rivals against Vice President Joe Biden and Ohio's Republican Gov. John Kasich. The match was won on the 18th hole, with the winning partners each pocketing a $2 prize.

The question now is whether a partnership forged on the tees, fairways and greens of a military base course can yield success in the policy arena. Obama and John Boehner find themselves on opposite sides of everything from deficit reduction to the military campaign in Libya.

Aides to both men played down the chances of deals being struck on the par-72 East Course at Joint Base Andrews, but acknowledged the outing could improve a relationship that is respectful, but hardly close.

Tee time for the foursome was 9:30 a.m. at Obama's home course at the base outside Washington.

The White House made a rare exception and allowed the press to watch Obama and his playing partners finish the first hole, a par 5.

Biden was cool under pressure, sinking a 15- to 20-foot putt.

"Did you all catch that?" Obama shouted to reporters gathered near the green.

The president, dressed in dark pants, a white polo shirt and a baseball cap, sank a short putt after missing a 12-footer.

Kasich, a former congressman, missed a 30-footer, then tapped in for par. Boehner, one of the best golfers in Congress, gave a hearty "Oh yeah!" after draining a short putt.

Obama, who is not in Boehner's links league, patted the speaker on the back as they headed toward the second hole, the president driving their cart.

After wrapping up the match, the foursome headed to the clubhouse, where they had a cold drink and talked with service members. They also caught some action at the U.S. Open, the professional tournament going on in suburban Maryland.

While Obama is an avid golfer, he rarely plays with anyone outside of his small cadre of close aides. His rounds run long, usually well over five hours, and those close to the president say he revels in the chance to get out of the spotlight.

Obama's penchant for privacy extends to his social life. He surrounds himself with a tight inner circle of family and friends, and rarely socializes with other politicians in Washington. In fact, Saturday's golf outing was one of the first times Obama and Boehner have gotten together for anything other than a policy meeting.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said earlier in the week that the outing was "meant to be an opportunity for the speaker and the president, as well as the vice president and Ohio governor, to have a conversation, to socialize in a way that so rarely happens in Washington."

The Obama-Boehner golf outing coincided with White House and congressional negotiations on a long-term deficit reduction plan and raising the government's borrowing authority. Republicans have insisted on significant cuts of about $2 trillion over 10 years or 12 years before agreeing to increase the current $14.3 debt ceiling, which the government says it will surpass Aug. 2.

Aides for both men tried to lower expectations that a deal on the deficit - or anything else, for that matter - would be reached on the course. But it couldn't hurt.

"It may move you a little bit closer toward the kind of compromise that we need to get the things done that the American people expect us to get done," Carney said. "If it takes a few hours out on the golf course to help that process, I think it's a worthwhile thing to do."

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Private eye tells homeless man of inheritance

Eyewitness NewsSALT LAKE CITY -- A private investigator says he has tracked down a homeless Utah man and delivered some good news: He's inherited a lot of money.

David Lundberg says he found Max Melitzer pushing a shopping cart filled with personal possessions in a Salt Lake City park Saturday afternoon.

Lundberg declines to disclose how much money Melitzer will be receiving, but says the man's brother who died of cancer last year left him a "significant" amount in his will.

He says Melitzer was "in shock" after learning of the inheritance.

Lundberg says he was hired by the family's New York law firm to locate Melitzer, and some family members plan to meet Melitzer next week in Salt Lake City.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Defense expert: Autopsy on Caylee Anthony 'shoddy'

By KYLE HIGHTOWERORLANDO, Fla. -- A renowned forensic expert testified Saturday that the autopsy done on 2-year-old Caylee Anthony was "shoddy" and that the duct tape Florida prosecutors contend suffocated the child was not applied until after her body had decomposed.

Dr. Werner Spitz offered his opinion on the third day of the defense's case in the murder trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida mother charged with murder in Caylee's death. The state rested its case earlier in the week.

Spitz has been an expert witness in several high-profile cases, including that of O.J. Simpson and record executive Phil Spector.

Spitz also testified it was a failure that Caylee's skull was not opened during the official autopsy. Spitz conducted a second autopsy later.

"The head is part of the body and when you do an examination, you examine the whole body," Spitz said. "... That to me is a signal of a shoddy autopsy."

Casey Anthony, 25, faces a possible death sentence if convicted in her daughter's summer 2008 death and has pleaded not guilty. The defense says the girl drowned in her grandparents' swimming pool.

Spitz said he had intended to attend Caylee Anthony's original autopsy after her remains were found in a wooded area in December 2008. He was denied. He eventually came to Orlando to conduct his own exam and visited the crime scene, reviewed photos and read the official autopsy reports.

There were "specks" of decomposition sediment inside the left side of Caylee's skull, which Spitz said indicated the girl's death was not necessarily a homicide. Orange and Osceola County medical examiner Jan Garavaglia determined that Caylee was killed "by undetermined means."

If the tape had suffocated Caylee, evidence of skin would have been on the sticky side of the tape, he said. But there was no such evidence on the tape.

"I had problems with (the manner of death finding)," Spitz said. "When a body decomposes ... the tape comes loose on the skeletal structure. In this case, the only thing that held the tape there was hair and roots.

"My strong opinion is duct tape was placed there to hold the (decomposed) lower jaw in place."

Prosecutor Jeff Ashton attacked Spitz's assessments on cross-examination, arguing that Spitz didn't have nearly as much information as Garavaglia did when she made her evaluation. Ashton also challenged Spitz to cite a particular written protocol that said the skull must be opened in every autopsy.

"I'm not aware of where you can find a protocol, but I can assure you it is part of a complete autopsy," Spitz said.

Later, Spitz suggested that the position of hair found with the child's skull might have been staged when it was photographed in the medical examiner's office.

"It wouldn't be the first time, sir," he said. "It's my opinion that somebody did."

The testimony of the defense's first witness of the day, forensic anthropologist William Rodriguez, was interrupted after prosecutors said he testified about information not previously disclosed to the state.

The objection came after Rodriguez said it would be impossible to determine the exact position of duct tape on a corpse. Because tape loses its stickiness, it may be shifted, and animals could have come in contact with the body, he said.

With the jury sent out of the courtroom, Judge Belvin Perry questioned Rodriguez about his planned testimony.

Rodriguez told him that he initially told lead defense attorney Jose Baez the information in February.

Baez told Perry the non-disclosure was not intentional. He said prosecutors had declined an opportunity to further question Rodriguez before trial and only asked for the pre-testimony report all witnesses were to submit. Perry said Baez's conduct seemed to have violated a pretrial order he issued.

"What you are basically saying is you can pick which orders you will comply and not comply with," Perry told Baez. "... It appears to me this was quite intentional. It was not an inadvertent slip."

Perry decided to have Rodriguez step down from the witness stand Saturday, allowing the state an opportunity to question him outside court. He said he would consider a special instruction to jurors about the non-disclosure and would reserve the right to hold Baez in contempt of court after the trial ends. Perry also warned Baez about further infractions that could end in witness exclusion.

"Lightning does not strike twice in one place," Perry said.

"... I'm not making any promises of warranties if this happens a second time with this witness."

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Yemeni clerics call for presidential elections

By AHMED AL-HAJSANAA, Yemen -- More than 100 influential religious clerics and tribal leaders called for the Yemeni president's ouster and elections to choose a new leader, adding their weight to the opposition movement seeking to end nearly 33 years of autocratic rule by Ali Abdullah Saleh.

The president, who has clung to power despite four months of protests, is undergoing treatment in neighboring Saudi Arabia for serious burns and other injuries from a June 3 attack on his palace in the capital, Sanaa. His allies insist he will return to the country within days and resume his duties.

The clerics' petition, obtained Saturday, demands elections within 60 days and says Saleh is unfit to return to his post.

"President Saleh is unable to carry out his responsibilities. He must step down," the statement said.

Among the petitioners is Sheik Abdul-Majid al-Zindani, the spiritual leader of the country's fundamentalist Islamic opposition party, Islah, and Yemen's most influential cleric. He has backed the anti-Saleh protesters since early on in the unrest.

Others who have abandoned the Yemeni leader include top military commanders, powerful tribal chiefs and members of Saleh's ruling party. Many defected to the opposition in outrage at the killing of protesters.

Yemen's crisis began when demonstrators inspired by successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia took to the streets in early February. The largely peaceful movement gave way to heavy street fighting when tribal militias took up arms in late May.

Emboldened Islamic militants have also seized on the expanding disorder to take control of towns in southern Yemen, adding to fears that the al-Qaida offshoot in the country could end up with even more room to operate freely.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Mississippi River National Parks

Pilot killed during accident at Poland air show

Eyewitness NewsWARSAW, Poland -- A small plane lost control and plunged into a river Saturday as it performed stunts at an air show in Poland. The pilot, the only person on board, was killed.

The accident occurred in Plock, in central Poland, as people gathered by the Vistula River for a picnic and the air show.

The news station TVN24 broadcast images of the small plane doing aerobatics when it began spewing out plumes of dark smoke and then plunged into the water.

Rescue workers pulled the pilot from the wreckage and tried to resuscitate him before sending him to a hospital. Several hours later, a hospital official said the pilot, Marek Szufa, died.

The pilot was alone in the plane, a Christen Eagle II, a popular single-engine aircraft used for aerobatic flying. TVN24 identified Szufa as a pilot for the Polish airline LOT and the runner-up in a Poland-wide aerobatics championship.

The director of the Air Club of Mazovia that organized the show, Slawomir Adamkowski, said the cause of the crash was under investigation.

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Karzai confirms peace talks; Kabul attacked

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, second from left, reviews the guard of honor with the Chairman of the Pakistani Senate Farooq Naik, right, at Chakala airbase in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, Wednesday, March 10, 2010. (AP Photo)

Eyewitness NewsKABUL, Afghanistan -- President Hamid Karzai acknowledged Saturday that the U.S. and Afghan governments have held talks with Taliban emissaries in a bid to end the nation's nearly 10-year war, even as suicide attackers launched a bold assault in the heart of the county's capital, killing nine people.

The attack, which occurred just blocks from Karzai's office, shows the parties have a long way to go to reach a political settlement as the Obama administration weighs a major withdrawal of its forces. The White House neither directly confirmed or denied Karzai's statement.

Three men wearing camouflage fatigues that are frequently worn by Afghan soldiers stormed a police station near the presidential palace, with one of them detonating an explosives vest just outside the gates as two others rushed inside and began firing, an Interior Ministry statement said.

The crackle of gunfire echoed through the usually bustling streets for about two hours before security forces killed the two remaining attackers. Insurgents killed three police officers, one intelligence agent and five civilians in the attack, according to the ministry statement.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the attack in a text message to The Associated Press.

Attacks in the Afghan capital have been relatively rare, although violence has increased since the May 2 killing of Osama bin Laden in a U.S. raid in Pakistan and the start of the Taliban's annual spring offensive.

The last major attack in Kabul took place last month when a suicide bomber wearing an Afghan police uniform infiltrated the main Afghan military hospital in late May, killing six medical students. A month before that, a suicide attacker in an army uniform sneaked past security at the Afghan Defense Ministry, killing three.

Kabul is one of seven areas scheduled to begin to be handed over to Afghan security control in July - part of NATO's efforts to begin transferring security responsibilities ahead of its planned 2014 withdrawal from the country.

The assault occurred shortly after Karzai announced during a speech to youth at the presidential palace that members of his peace council and the U.S. have begun preliminary peace negotiations with the Taliban, which ruled Afghanistan for five years and sheltered al-Qaida before being driven out of power in the U.S.-led invasion in late 2001.

Reports about such talks have surfaced in recent months, but Karzai's statement was the first public confirmation of U.S.

participation. Publicly, the Taliban say there will be no negotiations until foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

"In the course of this year, there have been peace talks with the Taliban and our own countrymen," Karzai said. "Peace talks have started with them already and it is going well. Foreign militaries, especially the United States of America, are going ahead with these negotiations."

President Barack Obama is weighing a range of options for starting the withdrawal of some American forces.

The U.S. has roughly 100,000 troops in Afghanistan. When the president sent an additional 30,000 U.S. forces to Afghanistan at the end of 2009, he did so with the caveat that some of those troops would start coming home in July.

U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said only that the U.S. has "consistently supported an Afghan-led" peace process.

"Over the past two years, we have laid out our red lines for the Taliban: They must renounce violence; they must abandon their alliance with al-Qaida; and they must abide by the constitution of Afghanistan," Toner said. "This is the price for reaching a political resolution and bringing an end to the military actions that are targeting their leadership and decimating their ranks."

Karzai said some Taliban emissaries who have met with members of the peace council he set up last year were only representing themselves, while others were speaking for the broader movement.

The exact nature of the contacts was not immediately clear, and Karzai said no government official outside of the council had contact with them.

Karzai's rambling speech was the latest tweak to the U.S.-led coalition trying to control a message about a war grinding toward the decade mark. It likely overstates the progress of the delicate negotiations both his government and others face in identifying and wooing potential Taliban leaders.

Many of the movement's leaders remain either unknown or underground since fleeing Kabul at the start of the U.S.-led invasion. Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban's one-eyed leader, has not been seen publicly since 2001.

Officials also have been duped before. Late last year, a Quetta, Pakistan, shopkeeper posed as the Taliban's former aviation minister, Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, and met twice with Western officials before they realized they had been tricked.

However, such talks may be gaining momentum after the U.N.

Security Council voted unanimously Friday to treat al-Qaida and the Taliban separately when it comes to U.N. sanctions, a move aimed at supporting the Afghan government's reconciliation efforts.

Meanwhile, violence persists. Insurgents attacks targeted three convoys ferrying fuel and supplies to NATO troops in western and eastern Afghanistan over the weekend, killing nine Afghan security guards and torching at least 15 fuel tankers, officials said.

In the eastern city of Jalalabad, insurgents kidnapped a provincial council member for Logar province and three of his family members.

Three NATO service members also were killed Saturday - two in southern Afghanistan and one in the east, according to the alliance. At least 33 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far this month, raising the death toll for 2011 to 239.

---
Associated Press writers Ahmad Seir and Amir Shah contributed to this report.

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Witness in Knox trial says he can clear her

By ALESSANDRA RIZZOPERUGIA, Italy -- A convicted child murderer testified Saturday at the appeals trial of Amanda Knox, saying that a fellow inmate had told him the American student had nothing to do with the killing of her roommate in Italy.

Mario Alessi, who is serving a life sentence for one of Italy's most shocking crimes, the kidnap-murder of an Italian toddler snatched from his home, was called by defense lawyers as a witness.

He was one of five witnesses heard Saturday, also including a police informant who testified from behind a cover and a Neapolitan mobster with a flamboyant attitude.

Knox was convicted of sexually assaulting and murdering British student Meredith Kercher in the house the two shared in Perugia, and sentenced to 26 years in prison. Her co-defendant and ex-boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito of Italy, was also convicted and sentenced to 25 years. Knox and Sollecito, who both attended Saturday's session, deny wrongdoing and are appealing their convictions.

Rudy Hermann Guede, an Ivorian, was convicted in a separate proceeding. His conviction has been confirmed by Italy's highest criminal court. Guede also denies wrongdoing, but admitted being in Knox's and Kercher's apartment the night of the murder on Nov. 1, 2007.

Alessi is being held in the same prison as Guede. He testified that the Ivorian told him that Knox and Sollecito are innocent, speaking in prison conversations in November 2009. That was about a month before Knox and Sollecito were convicted in the first trial and while Guede had already been convicted and was appealing.

Alessi said Guede approached him during recreation time at the Viterbo prison. "Rudy links arms with me, inviting me to take a walk with him, he has something important to tell me," Alessi testified. He quoted Guede as saying he was worried because "I don't know whether to tell the truth or not," and that the truth "is altogether different from what you hear on TV."

Alessi was called to testify by Sollecito's defense.

Guede has denied speaking to Alessi about the case, and he will be heard at the next hearing on June 27 as a witness for the prosecution to counter Alessi's claim. Guede is currently serving a 16-year prison sentence.

According to Alessi, Guede said he and a friend went over to the house with the intent of having three-way sex with Kercher, who was 21. When she refused, the scene turned violent. Alessi said Guede told him he had gone to the bathroom and upon coming back he had seen his friend holding Kercher to the ground.

Eventually, "a knife appeared, almost out of nowhere," Alessi said, quoting Guede as saying that it was pointed at Kercher's throat. As she was fighting, she got her throat slit, Alessi claimed. Guede tried to rescue her, Alessi said, but his friend stopped him, saying "We've got to finish her, otherwise we'll rot in jail."

Guede did not reveal the identity of his alleged accomplice, according to the witness. Alessi said he and Guede had developed a friendship in prison but eventually Alessi broke it off as he realized that Guede "said two innocent people were in jail" but did nothing about it. Alessi then contacted the lawyers representing Sollecito.

Alessi, a bricklayer, was convicted of the murder of the murder of 18-month-old Tommaso Onofri several years ago.

Francesco Maresca, a lawyer for the Kercher family, tried to cast doubt on Alessi's credibility, recounting his criminal record, then showing a picture of Onofri and asking Alessi if he knew him.

"We do," Maresca said, when Alessi muttered "No."

Three more witnesses were called to back up Alessi's testimony, including police informant Marco Castelluccio, who took the stand behind a blue cover, guards around him.

They mostly said they had heard the story in prison chatter from Alessi and for the most part confirmed his version.

The fifth witness, Luciano Aviello, told a completely different story, saying that his brother and an accomplice had killed Kercher.

Aviello, a mobster who has been convicted of several crimes including defamation, was called up by Knox's defense team to raise doubt on her involvement. He said he was at his home in Perugia the night of the murder when his brother showed up, his jacket ripped and his arm bleeding. "He was very emotional," Aviello said of his brother. "I took care of his wounds, and tried to calm him down."

Aviello said his brother, currently a fugitive from justice, was on a "job" robbing a house with an Albanian friend. They got the wrong address and found themselves in the house where Kercher and Knox lived, finding the Briton alone. They started sexually attacking her and then killed her, according to Aviello's version.

Speaking in a thick Neapolitan accent and gesticulating profusely, Aviello at one point was so agitated he had to be calmed down by police standing guard next to him.

"Aviello was funny," Knox's stepfather Chris Mellas said.

"Today was one of the most bizarre hearings."

Mellas said Alessi's testimony was straightforward, and that "the fact that multiple people are corroborating the story lends a certain degree of credence to it."

Maresca, the lawyer representing the Kerchers, disagreed, saying the hearing today was a "farce."

"We heard from people serving life sentences, convicts, proven liars," Maresca said. "Aviello has been convicted repeatedly for defamation."

"Alessi is totally unreliable. Just how he invented the story we heard today, he made it up for his fellow inmates."

Much of the appeals trial hinges on a review of DNA evidence.

The court-ordered review is being carried out by two independent experts and will be concluded by the end of the month.

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9 bodies discovered in southern Mexico

Eyewitness NewsMORELIA, Mexico -- Mexican authorities said Saturday the bodies of nine victims of suspected drug violence have turned up in the western state of Michoacan.

The state prosecutor's office said in a statement that authorities found eight bodies in three different areas of the port city of Lazaro Cardenas. Three of the cadavers had been dumped in front of the state public security agency.

Another body was found in the state capital of Morelia.

Several of the still unidentified bodies were discovered with messages from a group calling itself the Knights Templar and claiming responsibility for the killings.

The violence is apparently due to a rupture in the La Familia crime organization after the gang's leader, Nazario Moreno, was killed in a shootout with police Dec. 9.

One of the messages, staked to a man's body with an ice pick, read: "This will happen to everyone who supports Chango Mendez."

Jesus Mendez, also known as "El Chango," or "The Monkey," is a suspected leader of the La Familia cartel.

Messages from the Knights Templar first began appearing in March, with the group claiming that it would replace La Familia.

Messages left on bodies or hung in public areas are commonly used by drug gangs to threaten rivals, to deny responsibility for crimes or to send messages to authorities.

The name alludes to a Christian order of knights founded in 1118 in Jerusalem to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land after the First Crusade.

Also Saturday, a machine gun-fueled shootout inside a mall in the popular beach resort of Mazatlan left one man dead and a woman injured, according to the Sinaloa state prosecutors office. The aggressors escaped.

On Friday, unidentified criminals set fire to automobiles and buses to block a highway in Michoacan following a shootout with Mexican troops.

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Palestinian reconciliation summit postponed

Eyewitness NewsRAMALLAH, West Bank -- A high-profile meeting between the leaders of the rival Fatah and Hamas movements has been called off, Palestinian officials said Sunday, dealing a new setback to efforts by the two sides to end a bitter rift and form a unity government.

The announcement signaled the reconciliation agreement, announced last month at a festive ceremony in /*Egypt*/, could face deep trouble in the coming months as the sides try to implement the deal.

Tuesday's meeting between Palestinian President /*Mahmoud Abbas/* and /*Hamas*/ leader /*Khaled Mashaal*/ had been meant to finalize an agreement on who would be the prime minister of the new government. But officials on both sides acknowledge the gaps remained wide.

"It's known that there are still differences," said Azzam al-Ahmed, the chief /*Fatah*/ negotiator. "We will be in contact over the coming days to agree on a new date."

Abbas has proposed keeping his current prime minister, Salam Fayyad, in the post. Fayyad, a U.S.-educated economist, is well respected internationally and seen as critical in persuading Western donor nations to continue funneling hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinians.

The West has branded Hamas a terrorist organization, and in Fayyad's absence, donors would want strict assurances that money is not reaching the group.

Although Fayyad is a political independent, Hamas says he is too closely allied with the West and must be replaced with a less identified figure. Some elements in Fatah also oppose Fayyad, believing his success in building up West Bank institutions has overshadowed /*Abbas*/.

Officials close to Fayyad said he is considering pulling himself out of the running. They said Fayyad feels that he is being used by both sides.

The officials spoke on condition anonymity because Fayyad has not made a final decision. It was not clear whether he was serious about withdrawing from consideration or trying to put pressure on the factions to approve his candidacy.

In Gaza, the prime minister of the Hamas government, Ismail Haniyeh, tried to put a positive spin on the dispute.

"This is an indication of the seriousness of the debate on the formation of the coming government and the divergence of views on the name of the next prime minister," he said. "Therefore, the issue needs further discussion."

The Egypt-brokered reconciliation agreement seeks to end the rift that has left the Palestinians divided between rival governments since Hamas overran the Gaza Strip in June 2007. Hamas rules /*Gaza*/ and Abbas' Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority governs the West Bank. The Palestinians hope to establish a state in both territories, located on opposite sides of Israel, with east Jerusalem as the capital.

Under the deal, the factions pledged to form a single government comprised of apolitical technocrats to lead the Palestinians until elections next year.

Selecting a prime minister is just one of several issues likely to plague the reconciliation process in the coming months.

Hamas maintains a powerful army in Gaza and has made clear it has no intention of disarming its militia. Abbas has repeatedly said the /*Palestinians*/ must have a unified security force to gain independence.

On Saturday Haniyeh said in a speech that a national security service could not cooperate with /*Israel*/. "A national strategy to defend the weapons of resistance must be established," he said.

Abbas favors a negotiated peace deal with Israel, while Hamas is sworn to Israel's destruction.

Israel has warned Abbas it will not negotiate with any Palestinian government that includes Hamas, and instead urged Abbas to resume peace talks.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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NATO says airstrike mistakenly hit Libyan rebels

By ADAM SCHRECK and DON MELVINTRIPOLI, Libya -- NATO said Saturday it mistakenly struck a column of Libyan rebel vehicles in an airstrike near an eastern oil town two days earlier and expressed regret for any casualties that might have resulted.

The alliance has accidentally hit rebel forces before in its air campaign to protect civilians in the civil war between Moammar Gadhafi's military and the fighters trying to end his more than four decades in power. The rebels have also complained that NATO's strikes have not helped them gain decisive momentum against the Libyan leader's better trained and equipped military, which still has firm control over most of western Libya. The rebels control much of the east.

The alliance statement gave no figures on casualties from Thursday's airstrike, but said it regretted "any possible loss of life or injuries caused by this unfortunate incident."

NATO said its forces spotted a column of military vehicles near the frequent flashpoint town of Brega where forces loyal to Gadhafi had recently been operating and hit them because they believed they posed a threat to civilians.

"NATO can now confirm that the vehicles hit were part of an opposition patrol," the statement said.

International military forces have had some trouble in hitting government troops because of their proximity to civilians.

Gadhafi's troops have also used civilian vehicles, making them difficult to distinguish from rebel forces.

A doctor in the nearby city of Ajdabiya said the bodies of four rebel fighters were brought to his hospital around the time of Thursday's strike, but it was not possible to confirm whether they were killed in the bombardment.

A rebel military spokesman, Abdel-Rahman Abu-Sin, said Saturday that they appreciated NATO's efforts and understood the difficulty in differentiating between the two sides along shifting front lines.

Thursday's airstrike was similar to one on April 7 in which NATO hit a convoy of rebel tanks, killing at least five fighters, as the rebels were closing in on Brega. NATO officials said at the time they did not know the rebels had any tanks, a statement that raised eyebrows as footage of the rebels with tanks had been on YouTube for weeks.

A week earlier, NATO also mistakenly targeted rebels as they tried to retake Brega. The rebels said 13 of their fighters were killed in that attack.

Earlier Saturday, NATO accused Gadhafi's forces of using mosques and children's parks as shields for his military operations and said the Libyan leader is "brutally attacking" his people.

At least two explosions shook the capital, Tripoli, Saturday as NATO jets soared above the city, hours after Gadhafi lashed out against airstrikes in a speech Friday night, insisting "NATO will be defeated." It was not immediately clear what had been hit or if any casualties were reported.

In Brussels on Saturday, NATO spokeswoman Oana Lungescu dismissed Gadhafi's speech as "outrageous."

The alliance, which has a mandate to protect civilians, has been ramping up the pressure on Gadhafi's regime as a four-month uprising devolved into a civil war. Though most airstrikes happen under cover of darkness, daytime raids have grown more frequent.

Libya's Health Ministry released new casualty figures that put the number of civilians purportedly killed in NATO airstrikes through June 7 at 856. The figure could not be independently verified, and previous government-announced tolls from individual strikes have proven to be exaggerated.

Lungescu rejected the casualty figures.

"We are saving countless lives every day across the country," she said. "We are conducting operations with utmost care and precision to avoid civilian casualties. Civilian casualties figures mentioned by the Libyan regime are pure propaganda."

She also accused Gadhafi and his regime of "systematically and brutally attacking the Libyan people," saying government forces "have been shelling cities, mining ports and using mosques and children's parks as shields."

Lungescu's comments also countered allegations from Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, who accused NATO on Friday of a "new level of aggression" and said the military alliance has intentionally targeted civilian buildings in recent days, including a hotel and a university.

Defense officials in London on Saturday gave details of British airstrikes over the previous two days, indicating an upswing in fighting along the Tunisian border in the far west.

Maj. Gen. Nick Pope, chief of the Defense Staff's Communications Office, said British fighter jets destroyed three armed Libyan trucks and badly damaged a fourth in the mountainous region around the rebel-held city of Nalut.

Abdel Salam Othman Abou el-Qassam, speaking by phone from the operations room of rebel Western Mountain military council, said Gadhafi forces tried to advance Friday on Nalut. They cut electricity and water supplies, after pounding the city with mortar fire for several days.

The rebels blocked the advance, he said, in heavy fighting with hundreds of pro-Gadhafi fighters. Eight rebel fighters died.

A day earlier, Pope said, jets used Paveway guided bombs to destroy a convoy of four armed trucks 60 miles (100 kilometers) south of Misrata. Rebels have been fighting for weeks to break out of the port city toward Tripoli, 125 miles (200 kilometers) to the west.

Officials took journalists Saturday to visit a university building that the government claims was hit by a NATO airstrike.

Students and faculty told reporters that an explosion that tore a hole in a three-story building housing classrooms and offices happened sometime midday Friday, though accounts differed on the timing.

One English-speaking student interviewed by The Associated Press was being told what to say in Arabic by a plainclothes government official standing nearby.

No one was reported injured or killed. The campus sits a few hundred yards (meters) from what appears to be a military installation. The building that was damaged was an aging concrete structure next to what students said were new university buildings under construction.

A coalition including France, Britain and the United States launched the first strikes against Gadhafi's forces under a United Nations resolution to protect civilians on March 19. NATO, which is joined by a number of Arab allies, assumed control of the air campaign over Libya on March 31.

Senior delegates from the Arab League, the European Union and the African Union along with envoys from the U.N. and the Organization of the Islamic Conference met in Cairo to review the developments in Libya.

Arab League chief Amr Moussa said the NATO mandate is not about bringing down Gadhafi's regime and a political solution is urgently needed.

"The situation has gone beyond what was expected. It is only natural that we speed up the search for a political solution and achieving a cease-fire," he said.

---
Melvin reported from Brussels. Associated Press writers Hadeel al-Shalchi in Dafniya, Libya, and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

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2 NY park police officers rescued on Niagara River

Eyewitness NewsBUFFALO, N.Y. -- Two New York State Park Police officers trapped in fog on Niagara River about a quarter mile from the famous falls are safe after a Canadian police helicopter hoisted them off the water.

The New York officers were trying to rescue another boat early Saturday morning when they became stymied by the fog about 4 a.m. not far from Niagara Falls.

About four hours later, the fog cleared and the officers were rescued by an Ontario Parks Police helicopter.

Officials tell The Buffalo News that the people on the first boat were brought safely to shore about 3 a.m. (Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Baggy pants lead to player's arrest at SF airport

Eyewitness NewsSAN FRANCISCO -- A University of New Mexico football player's saggy pants led to his arrest and removal from an airplane at San Francisco International Airport, authorities said Thursday.

DeShon Marman, 20, was boarding a flight Wednesday to Albuquerque, N.M., when a US Airways employee noticed his pants were below his buttocks, and his boxer shorts were showing, Sgt.

Michael Rodriguez of the San Francisco Police Department told the San Francisco Chronicle.

Marman refused the employee's request to pull up his pants and failed to immediately comply when she asked him to get off the plane, Rodriguez said, adding Marman injured a police officer when he was being arrested.

The player was arrested on suspicion of trespassing, battery of a police officer and obstruction of a police investigation, Rodriguez told The Associated Press.

Marman's mother, Donna Doyle, told the newspaper her son was emotionally fragile after the funeral of his close friend, who died 11 days after being shot.

Marman was being held in San Mateo County Jail while prosecutors determine whether to file charges, Rodriguez said.

US Airways spokeswoman Valerie Wunder said the airline's dress code forbids indecent exposure or inappropriate attire.

New Mexico coach Mike Locksley said the school is aware of the arrest and plans to support Marman, who transferred to New Mexico after playing the last two seasons at City College of San Francisco.

"It is never positive when you have a student-athlete arrested, no matter what the circumstances are," he said.

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Shanksville's 9/11 memorial under construction

Construction continues at the site of the visitors center at the Flight 93 Memorial on Thursday, June 16, 2011 in Shanksville, Pa. The first phase of the construction is set to be completed and dedicated on Sept. 10, 2011, one day before the tenth anniversary of the crash of United Flight 93 into a field during the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)

By KEVIN BEGOSSHANKSVILLE, Pa. -- The Flight 93 Memorial is beginning to emerge from the Pennsylvania woods and fields where the plane plunged to earth in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks almost 10 years ago.

The National Park Service said Thursday the memorial will be ready for opening ceremonies on the 10th anniversary of that day when four planes were hijacked and nearly 3,000 people were killed.

Visitors will be able to follow a walkway just over 100 yards from where the plane crashed. A long white marble wall will be inscribed with the names of the 40 passengers and crew who died.

Park Service Superintendent Keith Newlin said the memorial design is intentionally simple. He said it's designed to give people "a healing experience."

(Copyright ©2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Cancer death rate gap widens based on education

By MIKE STOBBEATLANTA -- The gap in cancer death rates between college graduates and those who only went to high school is widening, the American Cancer Society reported Friday.

Among men, the least educated died of cancer at rates more than 2? times that of men with college degrees, the latest data show. In the early 1990s, they died at two times the rate of most-educated men.

For women, the numbers aren't as complete but suggest a widening gap also. The data, from 2007, compared people between the ages of 25 and 64.

People with college degrees are seeing a significant drop in cancer death rates, while people who have spent less time in school are seeing more modest improvements or sometimes none at all, explained Elizabeth Ward, who oversees research done by the cancer society.

The cancer society estimates there will be nearly 1.6 million new cancer cases in the United States this year, and 571,950 deaths. It also notes that overall cancer death rates have been dropping since the early 1990s, but the decline has been greater for some groups more than others.

Experts believe that the differences have to do with education, how much people earn and where they live, among other factors.

Researchers like to use education as a measuring stick because death certificates include that information.

"Just because we're measuring education doesn't mean we think education is the direct reason" for the differences among population groups, Ward said.

That said, the cancer death rate connection to education is striking.

For all types of cancer among men, there were about 56 deaths per 100,000 for those with at least 16 years of education compared to 148 deaths per 100,000 for those with no more than 12 years of school.

For women, the rate was 59 per 100,000 for the most educated, and 119 per 100,000 for the least educated.

The gap was most striking when it comes to lung cancer.

People with a high school education or less died at a rate four to five times higher than those with at least four years of college education, the new report said.

More than a third of premature cancer deaths could have been avoided if everyone had a college degree, cancer society officials estimated.

Studies have suggested that less educated people are more likely to do risky things with their health.

They are more likely to smoke, drink and overeat, leading to obesity. All those things raise the risk for various cancers.

As for survival after diagnosis, the least-educated are often poor people without good health insurance. Studies have found that people with no health insurance are more likely to be diagnosed when their cancer is advanced stage, and they are also less likely to receive standard treatment.

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Man found with suspicious materials near Pentagon

By ERIC TUCKERARLINGTON, Va. -- A man carrying a backpack containing what authorities said were suspicious materials briefly fled police Friday before he was detained in the middle of the night near the Pentagon.

The man was discovered inside Arlington National Cemetery after 1 a.m., several hours after the cemetery had closed, and was taken into custody after being uncooperative. He was in custody but has not been charged with anything. Authorities believe he acted alone and no one else was with him.

The man was identified as Yonathan Melaku, 22, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Ethiopia, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Investigators and bomb-sniffing dogs were sifting through his family's home in Fairfax County, Va.

The man had an unknown quantity of a substance that appeared to be ammonium nitrate in a bag, according to another law enforcement official speaking on the condition of anonymity. Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound that is widely used in fertilizers and can be used in explosives with the correct concentration.

Nothing else was found on the man that could have triggered an explosion, the official said.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information. Tests were being done to determine the substance and the exact concentration, the second official said.

During the course of the investigation, officers searched the man's nearby car, a red 2011 Nissan that was parked in the bushes near a Pentagon parking lot, but found nothing suspicious inside, said Brenda Heck, special agent in charge of the counterterrorism unit of the FBI's Washington field office.

She would not disclose the materials inside the backpack, but said it contained no explosives.

In another incident earlier this week, a motorist found with a gun and what appeared to be a suspicious package near the Pentagon was taken into custody.

Friday's investigation snarled rush hour traffic as police closed off roads around the Pentagon.

---
Sullivan reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lolita Baldor, Jessica Gresko and Karen Mahabir contributed to this report.

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Capital One to buy ING Direct USA for $9 billion

NEW YORK -- Capital One Financial says it's buying ING Direct USA in a deal valued at $9 billion.

Under the terms of the agreement, Netherlands-based ING Groep will receive $6.2 billion in cash and $2.8 billion in the form of about 56 million shares in Capital One, based on a share price of $50.07.

Capital One says the deal will make it the fifth-largest depository on the country.

ING Direct USA will hold onto the company's "orange ball" branding and use the ING Direct trademark for a transitional year.

The sale is part of ING's restructuring plan that was filed with the European Commission in 2009.

The deal will not impact ING's operations in other countries.

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Saudi women begin challenge to driving ban

By BRIAN MURPHYDUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A campaign to defy Saudi Arabia's ban on women driving opened Friday with female motorists getting behind the wheel - including one who took a 45-minute tour through the nation's capital - amid calls for sustained challenges to the restrictions in the ultraconservative kingdom.

Activists have not appealed for mass protests in any specific sites in Saudi Arabia, but are urging Saudi women to begin a growing mutiny against the male-only driving rules supported by clerics backing austere interpretations of Islam and enforced by powerful morality squads.

Calls for an ongoing road rebellion - inspired in part by the uprisings around the Arab world - could push Western-backed Saudi authorities into difficult choices: either launching a crackdown and facing international pressure or giving way to the demands and angering traditional-minded clerics and other groups opposing reforms.

It also could encourage other reform bids by Saudi women, who have not been allowed to vote and must obtain permission from a male guardian to travel or take a job.

"We want women from today to begin exercising their rights," said Wajeha al-Huwaidar, a Saudi women's rights activist who posted Internet clips of herself driving in 2008. "Today on the roads is just the opening in a long campaign. We will not go back."

The plan, she said, is for women who have obtained driving licenses abroad to begin doing their daily errands and commuting on their own.

"We'll keep it up until we get a royal decree removing the ban," she told The Associated Press.

A protest organizer, Benjamin Joffe-Walt, said there are confirmed reports of at least several woman in the driver's seat in the capital Riyadh.

Maha Al Qahtani, a computer specialist at Saudi's Ministry of Education, said she drove for 45 minutes around Riyadh with her husband in the passenger seat. "I wanted to make a point," she said in a telephone interview. "I took it directly to the streets of the capital."

Web message boards set up on Twitter and other social media carried unconfirmed reports that some women also got behind the wheel in the eastern city of Dammam and elsewhere. Joffe-Walt said some Saudi men claimed they drove around dressed in the black coverings for women in an attempt to confuse security forces.

There were no immediate reports of arrests or violence.

Encouragement also poured in. "Take the wheel. Foot on the gas," said one Twitter message on the main site women2Drive.

Another urged: "Saudi women, start your engines!"

A YouTube page urges supporters around the world to honk their car horns for the Saudi women.

The campaign's official start follows the 10-day detention last month of a 32-year-old woman, Manal al-Sherif, after she posted video of herself driving. She was released after reportedly signing a pledge that she would not drive again or speak publicly.

Her case, however, sparked an outcry from international rights groups and brought direct appeals to Saudi's rulers to lift the driving ban on women - the only such countrywide rule in the world.

There is no written Saudi law barring women from driving - only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics following a strict brand of Islam known as Wahhabism.

They claim the driving ban protects against the spread of vice and temptation because women drivers would be free to leave home alone and interact with male strangers. The prohibition forces families to hire live-in drivers or rely on male relatives to drive.

Saudi King Abdullah has promised some social reforms, but he depends on the clerics to support his ruling family and is unlikely to take steps that would bring backlash from the religious establishment.

In London, the rights groups Amnesty International called Thursday on Saudi officials to "stop treating women as second-class citizens and open the kingdom's roads to women drivers."

"Not allowing women behind the wheel in Saudi Arabia is an immense barrier to their freedom of movement, and severely limits their ability to carry out everyday activities as they see fit, such as going to work or the supermarket, or picking up their children from school," said Philip Luther, Amnesty's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

Earlier this week, a group of women drove around the Saudi Embassy in Washington to protest the kingdom's ban on female drivers. Similar convoys converged on Saudi diplomatic missions in other cities around the world.

In November 1990, when U.S. troops were deployed to Saudi Arabia before the invasion to oust Iraqi troops from Kuwait, about 50 women got behind the wheel and drove family cars in one of the first acts of defiance against the ban. They were jailed for one day, their were passports confiscated and they lost their jobs.

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US gives rental firms more time to buy safer cribs

Eyewitness NewsWASHINGTON -- The Consumer Product Safety Commission have voted to give rental companies more time to buy cribs that meet new safety standards.

The commission voted Friday to extend the deadline for short-term rental companies to buy the new cribs from June 28 of this year to Dec. 28, 2012. That's the same deadline for child-care facilities, hotels and motels to buy the safer cribs.

The commission says in a statement that manufacturers and retailers will still be required to shift to the new designs by June 28.

The new standards halt the manufacture and sale of traditional drop-side cribs, which the commission says are dangerous. They will also require stronger mattress supports, more durable crib hardware and more rigorous safety testing.

More information on crib safety is available at www.cpsc.gov/cribs.

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Illegal immigrant hired by airline under stolen ID

Tiffany Jackson, Eyewitness NewsNEW YORK (WABC) -- A scary case of identity theft allowed an illegal immigrant to be hired as a flight attendant by American Airlines.

Miami Police say Jophan Porter stole the identity of a disabled man from New York City.

Porter apparently applied for and was given the job with the airline under the stolen ID.

The unemployed victim discovered his identity had been stolen after he was denied medical benefits because they claimed he made too much money. (Copyright ©2011 WABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.) Get more U.S. & World News »

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UN body votes for protection of gay rights

By FRANK JORDANSGENEVA -- The United Nations issued its first condemnation of discrimination against gays, lesbians and transgender people on Friday in a cautiously worded declaration hailed by supporters including the United States as a historic moment.

Members of the U.N. Human Rights Council narrowly voted in favor of the resolution put forward by South Africa, against strong opposition from African and Islamic countries.

"You just witnessed a historic moment at the Human Rights Council and within the U.N. system with a landmark resolution protecting human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people," U.S. ambassador Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe told reporters after the vote.

Couched in delicate diplomatic language, the resolution commissions a study of discrimination against gays and lesbians around the world, the findings of which will be discussed by the Geneva-based council at a later meeting.

The proposal went too far for many of the council's 47-member states, including Russia, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria and Pakistan.

Speaking on behalf of the powerful Organization of the Islamic Conference, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva said the resolution had "nothing to do with fundamental human rights."

"We are seriously concerned at the attempt to introduce to the United Nations some notions that have no legal foundation," Ambassador Zamir Akram said.

Nigeria claimed the proposal went against the wishes of most Africans. A diplomat from the northwest African state of Mauritania said it was "an attempt to replace the natural rights of a human being with an unnatural right."

The resolution passed with 23 votes in favor and 19 against, with 3 abstentions, including that of China. Backers included the United States, the European Union, Brazil and other Latin American countries.

"If you look at the history of human rights and the ever expanding circle of who counts as human, every time that circle has expanded there have been those that have dissented and in every case they have been proven wrong over time," Daniel Baer, a U.S.

deputy assistant secretary, said after the vote.

Baer told reporters the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama had chosen what he described as a "course of progress" on gay rights, both domestically and internationally.

In March, the U.S. issued a nonbinding declaration in favor of gay rights that gained the support of more than 80 countries at the U.N. This has coincided with domestic efforts to end the ban on gays openly serving in the U.S. military and discrimination against gays in federal housing.

Asked what good the resolution would do to gays and lesbians in countries that opposed the resolution, Baer said it was a signal "that there are many people in the international community who stand with them, and who support then, and that change will come."

"It's a historic method of tyranny to make you feel that you are alone," he said. "One of the things that this resolution does for people everywhere, particularly LGBT people everywhere, is remind them that they are not alone."

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CDC: 1 in 4 high schoolers drink soda every day

By MIKE STOBBEATLANTA -- A new study shows one in four high school students drink soda every day - a sign fewer teens are downing the sugary drinks.

The study also found teens drink water, milk and fruit juices most often - a pleasant surprise, because researchers weren't certain that was the case.

"We were very pleased to see that," said the study's lead author, Nancy Bener of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Still, a quarter have at least one soda each day. And when other sugary drinks like Gatorade are also counted, the figure is closer to two-thirds of high school students drinking a sweetened beverage every day.

That's less than in the past. In the 1990s and early 2000s, more than three-quarters of teens were having a sugary drink each day, according to earlier research.

The CDC reported the figures Thursday, based on a national survey last year of more than 11,000 high school students. They appear in one of the federal agency's publications, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Consumption of sugary drinks is considered a big public health problem, and has been linked to the U.S. explosion in childhood obesity. One study of Massachusetts schoolchildren found that for each additional sweet drink per day, the odds of obesity increased 60 percent.

As a result, many schools have stopped selling soda or artificial juice to students.

Indeed, CDC data suggests that the proportion of teens who drink soda each day dropped from 29 percent in 2009 to 24 percent in 2010, at least partly as a result.

"It looks like total consumption is going down," said Kelly Brownell, director of Yale University's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity.

But the results of the new CDC study are still a bit depressing, said Brownell, who has advocated for higher taxes on sodas.

"These beverages are the kinds of things that should be consumed once in a while as treat - not every day," he said. "That's a lot of calories."

A 20-ounce Coke, for example, has 240 calories.

Brownell also said it's possible more than a quarter of teens are drinking soda, because many people underreport things they know they shouldn't be eating or drinking.

Bener agreed it's difficult to know if consumption of sugary drinks has been falling much, adding that schools are only half the battle.

"Getting them out of the schools doesn't solve the problem completely because a lot of these drinks are consumed in the home," said Bener, a CDC health scientist.

More detail: About 16 percent have a sweetened sports drink every day, and 17 percent drink some other sugary beverages like lemonade, sweetened tea and flavored milk. Black students were more likely than whites or Hispanics to drink sugary beverages.

The study also found that 7 percent of high school students drink diet soda each day, 5 percent have energy drinks and 15 percent have at least one coffee or tea.

Also, 72 percent drink a serving of water daily, 42 percent drink at least one glass of milk and 30 percent have 100 percent fruit juice.

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Vancouver Riot Kissing Couple

Just who were those two young lovers? And how did they get caught up in a kiss, right there in the middle of the riots in Vancouver, British Columbia? There was anger and violence all around them -- the Vancouver Canucks had just lost to the Boston Bruins in Game 7 of hockey's Stanley Cup finals.

The picture of them, by Vancouver freelance photographer Richard Lam, has gone viral on the Web. One headline called it "love among the ruins." Even the young man's father put up a Facebook post: "Hows that for making love not war!"

But they now say the story is not what people thought.

The lovers were identified as Scott Jones of Perth, Australia, and Alexandra Thomas, a recent graduate of the University of Guelph in Ontario.

"The riot police ran on top of us," said Jones in a telephone interview with ABC News. "They ran us over.

"We were knocked over, and I was just trying to calm her down, because as I'm sure you can imagine, she was somewhat distraught."

Jones said he remembered kissing Thomas, and was completely surprised by the photograph.

Brett Jones, Scott's father in Australia, said the couple was not hurt. "Alex is a little sore on the leg, but otherwise okay," he said.

Scott's mother, Megan Jones, was interviewed by Australia's Channel 9. "I knew it was him because he doesn't have a lot of clothes with him and he always puts on the same thing."

At the time of the interview, she had not reached Scott yet, and said she thought her son had been photographed in an amorous moment. "It is something he would do, that's our boy," she said. "He has always lived in his own world, he's special like that. He doesn't always connect with what going on around him."

Lam, the photographer, said he didn't think about the picture because there was such violence around him. Almost 150 people required hospital treatment and close to 100 were arrested in the riots that followed Wednesday night's game.

Almost 150 Injured in Vancouver Hockey Riot

Police struggled to contain the crowd with tear gas as fires erupted in busy downtown intersections. Storefronts were smashed by looters grabbing everything in sight.

The city's mayor, Gregor Robertson, described the rioting hockey fans as "hooligans."

"It's terrible," Canucks captain Henrik Sedin said. "This city and province has a lot to be proud of, the team we have and the guys we have in here. It's too bad."

"This is wrong for the city, this isn't the reputation we want," one Vancouver resident told ABC News. "This is not what the people want. Are you embarrassed? Yes, I'm embarrassed."

Meanwhile, the photograph of the young couple has spread worldwide -- even though the family now says Scott Jones was just trying to comfort Alex Thomas.

"He was certainly trying to look after her," said Brett Jones.

ABC News' Ryan Creed and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Giffords visting hometown of Tucson this weekend

This, most recent photo of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords since she was shot, was posted to her public Facebook page by her aides Sunday morning June 12, 2011. The photo was taken May 17, 2011 at TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital, the day after the launch of Endeavour and the day before she had her cranioplasty.Giffords could be released from a rehabilitation hospital in Houston sometime this month, a top aide says, offering the latest indication that the Arizona congresswoman is making progress in recovering from a gunshot wound to the head. Woman in background is unidentified. ((AP Photo/Giffords Campaign - P.K. Weis))

By AMANDA LEE MYERSPHOENIX -- Arizona congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was back in her hometown Friday, visiting Tucson for Father's Day weekend in her first time back to her hometown since she was shot in January.

"We've been dreaming of this trip for some time," Giffords' astronaut husband, Mark Kelly, said in a news release. "Gabby misses Tucson very much and her doctors have said that returning to her hometown could play an important role in her recovery."

Kelly said the trip "is sure to be very emotional" and hopes the news media respects their privacy. Giffords spokesman C.J. Karamargin said the Democratic congresswoman traveled by private plane from Houston to Tucson with Kelly and one of his daughters and she'll spend Father's Day weekend with her family.

According to a Twitter posting from her staff, Giffords' plane landed in Tucson on Friday evening.

"Wheels down Tucson. Gabrielle & Mark looking forward to a beautiful weekend," the tweet said.

Giffords was released from a Houston hospital Wednesday, five months after being shot in the head during a Tucson political event. She had been in the rehab facility since late January, a few weeks after the shooting that killed six and wounded 13.

Giffords will make no public appearances and will grant no interviews during her visit to Tucson, according to Karamargin.

He said Giffords often speaks of Tucson and has said repeatedly, "I want to go home."

"Going home has been something that's been right at the top of her list," Karamargin said. "She is a child of the desert. This is where her heart is. There is no doubt that this will provide a boost in her recovery."

She has left Houston twice since she arrived there in January, first in late April for Kelly's space shuttle launch. When the launch was scrubbed for mechanical reasons, she returned to Florida again for the successful May 16 launch.

Giffords is now living in Kelly's home in League City, a town 26 miles south of Houston. She will continue outpatient therapy at the same hospital where she underwent rehabilitation.

Giffords, who was shot in the left side of her head and has been struggling to relearn how to speak and walk, will be assisted by a 24-hour home health provider, according to a statement from the hospital.

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