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DOJ convinces federal judge that former President Trump used his attorney in furtherance of a crime or fraud in clatwitter.com/i/web/status/1…ut
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A 6.4-magnitude earthquake has struck Afghanistan, according to the United States Geological Survey cnn.it/400yKUS
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Median US home prices fell in February, ending a record streak of 131 consecutive months of year-over-year increases cnn.it/3FENiBt
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Saudi Arabia has released US-Saudi dual national Saad Ibrahim Almadi from prison, more than a year after he was arrtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…Ig
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A Florida jury has convicted three men in the 2018 murder of rapper XXXTentacion. cnn.it/40qikoN
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Six people affiliated with the far-right Oath Keepers militia group were convicted of various charges related to thtwitter.com/i/web/status/1…S4
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President Biden issues the first veto of his presidency, rejecting a resolution to overturn an investment rule thattwitter.com/i/web/status/1…Q8
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Overheard on CNN.com: Photo not a hack job, Weiner says
Exchange of the day:
"So let me get this straight - the Dems call for the previous Republican congressman to resign because he sent a pic to a woman on CraigsList, but they don't ask Weiner to resign after lying about sending pics?"– Bryan
"This really is not a Rep or Dem issue. This is a stupid man issue. Those you can find in all walks of life." -epona30
Weiner admits sending inappropriate photos, says he won't resign
A photo that U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner originally claimed was sent by a hacker was not, he said in a news conference Monday. "To be clear, the picture was of me, and I sent it," he said. He meant to direct-message it to a woman in Seattle, but he accidentally posted it publicly, he said.
Patty said, "I guess if you want to be a politician, you need to have idiot in your resume! Another example of incredibly poor judgment by another politician that feels he/she is above and exempt from the law!"
littlebit said, "At least he should have been smarter than to take a picture of himself, without the family pictures in the background. What is it with men in power with beautiful wives who cheat and then lie when they're caught even though there is always proof?"
USC stripped of 2004 BCS title
The group that crowns college football's national champion stripped the 2004-05 title from the University of Southern California on Monday, a decision stemming from an NCAA investigation of former USC running back Reggie Bush.
No 2004 champion will be named in USC's place, the Bowl Championship Series said.
The BCS's decision was a distinct possibility since last year, when the NCAA vacated USC's last two victories of the 2004 season and all of the Trojans' wins in 2005 after ruling that Bush violated rules by accepting gifts while at USC.
The group said it made its decision after the NCAA denied USC's appeal of sanctions last month.
"This action reflects the scope of the BCS arrangement and is consistent with the NCAA's approach when it subsequently discovers infractions by institutions whose teams have played in the NCAA championship events," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said in a news release.
Weiner admits sending inappropriate photos, says he won't resign
[Updated at 5:30 p.m. ET] U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner said Monday he has sent inappropriate photos to and had inappropriate communications with about six women over the past three years - some after he was married - and says he's "very sorry."
The photos include one - sent on his Twitter account more than a week ago - that he had previously claimed was a result of a hacker's prank, the New York Democrat told reporters Monday afternoon at a New York City hotel.
He said he's made "terrible mistakes and ... hurt the people that I care about the most," but he won't step down from Congress and has no intentions of separating from his wife.
"I'm deeply regretting what I’ve done, and I’m not resigning," he said.
The women are "generally women that I met on Facebook," Weiner said. He said he never met the women in person, and has never had sex outside his marriage.
Of the photo that got the media's attention late last month - a picture of a man in underwear that was sent on Weiner's Twitter account - he said that he mistakenly tweeted it publicly. "I intended to send (the photo) as a direct message to a woman as part of a joke to a woman in Seattle," he said.
When reporters asked him about it at the time, he said that he was the victim of a hacker and a prank.
"Once I realized I had posted to Twitter, I panicked, I took it down and said that I’d been hacked," Weiner said Monday. "I then continued with that story - to stick to that story - which was a hugely regrettable mistake. This woman was unwittingly dragged into this and bears no responsibility. I'm so sorry to have disrupted her life in this way."
"To be clear, the picture was of me, and I sent it."
SI.com: Despite loss, Mavericks have reason for optimism
It almost fell apart - again - for the Miami Heat on Sunday at Dallas' American Airlines Center. There were glimmers of that Game 2 Mavericks comeback, but as Chris Bosh sank a 16-foot jumper with 39.6 seconds left, Dallas' hopes of taking a 2-1 lead in the NBA Finals slowly faded.
With less than five seconds left on the clock in Sunday's Game 3, Dallas big man Dirk Nowitzki couldn't shake a tough Miami defense, and he missed what would have been a game-tying shot, sealing Miami's 88-86 win. SI.com's Ian Thomsen explains that the back and forth battle bodes well for both teams as the series moves to Game 4 on Tuesday.
"Neither team can feel secure, and yet both have reason for optimism after Game 3," Thomsen writes. "The Mavs have two remaining home games that may yet send them back to Miami needing just one win to celebrate their first championship. James has shot a scant 10 free throws in three games, and yet he was increasingly aggressive while dunking off the dribble either in transition or the half court. Nowitzki had a splendid 34 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks, and if he could just realize more production from his teammates - who went 17-for-49 and for a second straight game watched him score all their points down the stretch (the last 12 this time) - a tight loss like this could turn into a steadying Dallas victory Tuesday in Game 4."
Thousands evacuate, ashes spread after Chilean volcano erupts
Parts of southern Chile remained on red alert and schools in some areas of neighboring Argentina were closed Monday after a volcanic eruption coated the countryside with ashes, authorities said.
Smoke and ash shot more than six miles into the the sky when the Puyehue-Cordon Caulle volcano complex in southern Chile first erupted Saturday afternoon. Authorities evacuated about 3,500 people from the area, the state emergency office said.
"I ask all the population (in designated areas) to evacuate as soon as possible, because ... human life could be at risk," said Juan Andres Varas, regional governor of Los Rios, Chile.
In a statement posted on the Los Rios government's website Monday, he said volcanic material and potentially toxic gases were slowly advancing toward the nearby Nilahue Valley.
"Fortunately, the valley doesn't drop abruptly, so we have time to evacuate," he said.
Schools in some cities and rural areas in neighboring Argentina were closed Monday, even as the volcanic activity appeared to have diminished, the state-run Telam news agency said.
iReport: Puyehue volcano eruption
Eastward wind gusts have left a layer of ashes up to 30 centimeters (12 inches) on an Argentinian highway, Telam reported. Ashes had reached the country's Atlantic coast by early Sunday.
By Monday, several centimeters of ashes were beginning to accumulate in areas further north, and authorities told Telam the volcano's impact was difficult to predict.
"We still don't know, because it depends on the wind how it will continue. ... The recommendation to the population is that they stay inside," said Eduardo Munos, municipal civil defense director in Junin de los Andes, Argentina.
Chile is located on the so-called "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines circling the Pacific Basin that is prone to frequent earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Syria: 'Armed gangs' kill 80 security forces
Dozens of people were killed Monday in the northern Syrian city of Jisr Al-Shugur in the third consecutive day of violence there, according to reports from the government and opposition groups.
State-run Syrian television reported that 40 members of Syria's security forces were killed in an ambush by "armed gangs" in the city and that some of the bodies were mutilated and thrown along the banks of the Assi River, three were killed when government buildings were set afire and another 37 were killed in clashes at a security center.
State television further reported that the "armed gangs" had stolen five tons of dynamite from a storage area near the Al Abyad Valley Dam. The state security forces were facing hundreds of armed men in Jisr Al-Shugur and were trying to lift the siege of a neighborhood that had been taken over by the "gangs," state TV reported.
It said the state was sending reinforcements.
A resident of Jisr al-Shugur, however, said the city was calm Monday, and that the clashes happened at nearby Khan Shaykhun, where 20 residents and an unknown number of security forces were killed.
He said residents were using hunting rifles.
The Syrian Revolution Facebook page said 10 helicopters were firing at civilians. The page predicted a major military incursion Monday night and appealed to residents to evacuate as soon as possible to Turkey.
An opposition member who lives outside Syria but has sources inside the country who have proved reliable in the past said the clashes over the past three days in Jisr Al-Shugur, Khan Shaykhun and surrounding villages were between members and supporters of the Islamist group the Muslim Brotherhood and the Syrian security forces. He said that 90 security members and 23 opposition members were killed Monday. In addition, nine tanks were destroyed and two helicopters were downed, he said.
FULL STORY
Alleged Libya rape victim arrives at refugee facility in Romania
Eman al-Obeidy, the woman who caught the world's attention when she accused members of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's forces of gang-raping her, arrived Monday at a refugee facility in Romania.
Al-Obeidy had fled Libya and was awaiting resettlement as a refugee in Qatar when she was deported Thursday and sent back to Benghazi in Libya.
On Sunday, a high-level U.S. State Department source told CNN that al-Obeidy was on her way to Malta with her father, and would head to a processing center in Europe before leaving for a final destination. It may take weeks before she gets to that destination.
Another U.S. State Department source said Sunday the United States was deeply concerned about her well-being, and worked closely with officials in Europe and Libya to get her safely out of the country. The same source said the U.S. is "prepared to provide whatever help and support Eman may need."
Al-Obeidy has told CNN on repeated occasions that she wants to go to the United States.
One of the State Department sources told CNN that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton "has been deeply interested in the case and has followed it throughout."
Gotta Watch: Remembering D-Day
On June 6th, 1944, more than 150,000 Allied troops poured onto the heavily fortified beaches of Normandy, France, in one of the most decisive battles of World War II. The D-Day invasion marked a beginning of the end of the war and the defeat of the Nazi regime in Europe. This particular operation was at a high cost to the Allied forces, with nearly 10,000 troops killed or wounded. Today marks the 67th anniversary of that pivotal operation.
'We didn't have time to fear' - World War II veterans recount what it was like to participate in the invasion of Normandy.
Monday's intriguing people
Albertina Sisulu
The mother of South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement has died. “Ma Sisulu,” as she was known throughout the movement, was 92 years old. As the wife of Walter Sisulu, an anti-apartheid activist and mentor to Nelson Mandela, she supported him during 26 years of imprisonment on Robben Island, often being imprisoned and harassed herself, The New York Times reported. In 1956, she organized the historic protest by 20,000 women that is now marked each August 9 as a national holiday called Women’s Day, The Times said. In 1994, she was elected to South Africa’s parliament, where her son, Max, is now speaker of the National Assembly. Daughter Lindiwe Sisulu serves as the nation’s defense minister, and another daughter, Beryl, is the country’s ambassador to Norway. Walter Sisulu died in 2003.
Troop deaths show reduced U.S. forces still facing danger in Iraq
Five U.S. service members were among 25 people killed in Iraq on Monday, U.S. and Iraqi officials said. Twenty Iraqis were killed in a series of explosions across the country, including a suicide bombing in Tikrit that killed 11.
The U.S. death toll is the highest in a single incident in two years, and it comes after the U.S. has drastically cut troop strength in Iraq. Only 46,000 U.S. troops remain in the country, down from 170,000 in 2007, during the peak of sectarian violence in Iraq.
U.S. troops have transitioned from a combat role to a support role in Iraq, training Iraqi soldiers and helping secure the country's borders and airspace.
That mission is scheduled to end, and those 46,000 troops to come home, by the end of the year under a plan set by a security agreement negotiated by the U.S. and Iraqi governments in 2008 that governs the presence of U.S. forces in Iraq.
Monday's deaths raise questions about that timeline. Iraq has been seeing an increase in violence that coincides with protesters calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, who is struggling to fill top security postings. The Iraqi government remains without ministers of defense, interior and national security.
Al-Maliki has given Cabinet ministers until Monday to reduce corruption and improve basic services, an ultimatum imposed after February demonstrations over corruption and lack of personal freedoms turned deadly.
While there may be a need for U.S. forces to remain in Iraq after January 1, the prospect of such a move is controversial - among U.S. and international politicians, military families and Iraqis.
In April, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr announced in a statement read by another cleric on his behalf that he would "escalate armed resistance and lift the freeze on (the) Mehdi Army" if U.S. forces were to remain. His reference to lifting the freeze referred to the August 2007 suspension of activities by the Mehdi Army, which is al-Sadr's militia.
Those threats essentially leave two options for the U.S. and Iraqi governments: Keep U.S. troops past the deadline to help make sure the Iraqis can secure and protect themselves, but risk radical protests over a longer U.S. presence; or have U.S. troops do as much as they can in Iraq ahead of the deadline and pull out as scheduled.
Alaska teens swim miles against 9-foot waves to survive lake nightmare
Three teenagers survived a brutal Alaska lake excursion that killed a father and one of their young friends.
Around 9:30 p.m. Friday, the man, Ashley Udelhoven, two of his daughters and two of their friends set out by boat to spend the weekend at a public cabin on the north shore of Tustumena Lake, a 25-mile-long, six-mile-wide body of water in south central Alaska. The lake is known to be perilous for small vessels because of unpredictable high winds that sometimes blow across it from nearby Tustumena Glacier.
The water was calm when the group began the journey. But Udelhoven decided to cut across the lake to save time, rescue officials told the Anchorage Daily News. About that time, winds picked up - blowing up to 45 mph - and the 18-foot boat filled with water. The surviving teenagers later told rescuers that they had seen swells as high as 9 feet.
The teens said the boat rocked violently, and everyone went overboard. As Udelhoven struggled in the freezing water, he began talking nonsense, a sign of hypothermia, the newspaper said.
One of the teenagers struggled to put on her life vest, which was too big and kept slipping, an official said.
The remaining three teens swam more than two miles back to shore, reaching land about 3 a.m. Saturday. They walked to a cabin, where they ate food and huddled for warmth, the newspaper reported.
Meanwhile, another boater spotted debris and a cooler floating on the lake that had Udelhoven's name and phone number written on it. The man called his wife, and she called troopers.
Rescuers found the bodies of Udelhoven and one of the teenagers - the one who struggled to put on her life vest - early Saturday evening, and the three surviving teens were found on land shortly after, the Daily News reported.
3 Japan nuclear reactors had full meltdown, agency says
Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant experienced full meltdowns at three reactors in the wake of an earthquake and tsunami in March, the country's Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters said Monday.
The nuclear group's new evaluation, released Monday, goes further than previous statements in describing the extent of the damage caused by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.
The announcement will not change plans for how to stabilize the Fukushima Daiichi plant, the agency said.
Reactors 1, 2 and 3 experienced a full meltdown, it said.
The plant's owner, Tokyo Electric Power Co., admitted last month that nuclear fuel rods in reactors 2 and 3 probably melted during the first week of the nuclear crisis.
It had already said fuel rods at the heart of reactor No. 1 melted almost completely in the first 16 hours after the disaster struck. The remnants of that core are now sitting in the bottom of the reactor pressure vessel at the heart of the unit and that vessel is now believed to be leaking.
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn pleads not guilty
Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has pleaded not guilty to charges related to the alleged sexual assault of a housekeeper in a New York City hotel room.
Strauss-Kahn, who was considered a front-runner in France's next presidential race before his arrest, faces seven charges, including criminal sexual acts and sexual abuse.
Authorities say he sexually assaulted a housekeeping employee at New York's Sofitel hotel on May 14.
FULL STORY
Big bid for Madoff's boxers
Someone dropped $400 on Bernie Madoff's underwear during a weekend auction of the convicted Ponzi schemer's stuff in Miami.
That's 14 pairs for that price, but still.
The boxers certainly weren't the highest-priced items up for bid at the Miami Beach Convention Center, according to The Miami Herald. About 150 buyers showed up in person, and 6,000 got into the action online, the paper said. The bids brought in more than $400,000, most of which will go to Madoff’s fraud victims.
Here's a quick receipt from the event staged by the U.S. Marshals Service:
Golf clubs: $15,000
Sculpture of a bull: $5,000 (though appraised at $210)
Rolex watch: $31,000
Monday's live video events
Watch CNN.com Live for continuing coverage on the race to the 2012 presidential election.
Today's programming highlights...
9:00 am ET - Casey Anthony trial - Testimony resumes in the trial of Casey Anthony, the Florida woman accused of killing her young daughter.
On the Radar: L.A. gridlock, tropical weather, Burress to leave prison
Three stories you need to know today:
L.A. gridlock: The mayor of Los Angeles will hold a press conference on Monday to explain measures the city will take when the 405 Freeway, Southern California's busiest traffic artery, is closed for a weekend in July.
On the weekend of July 15-18, a 10-mile section of Interstate 405, also known as the San Diego Freeway, will be closed to take down the Mulholland Drive overpass in a plan to add a carpool lane and other improvements.
Transportation officials warn of multi-hour traffic delays in Los Angeles County and beyond during the weekend closure and warn residents to plan ahead.
Some just plan on hunkering down.
"We'll be landlocked and isolated. We're going to Ralph's early, stocking up and not leaving the house for two days," Gerald Silver of Encino told the Los Angeles Daily News.
Tropical weather: A large area of disturbed weather in the western Caribbean Sea stands a 40 percent chance of becoming the season's first tropical cyclone in the next two days, the National Hurricane Center reports.
An Air Force Reserve "hurricane hunter" aircraft will fly into the system Monday to take measurements, according to the NHC.
Forecasters warn that even if the system does not reach tropical cyclone status, it's still likely to bring drenching rains, flash flooding and mudslides to parts of Jamaica and Haiti, where hundreds of thousands of people remain displaced after the January 2010 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince.
The British Red Cross warned last week that the coming of the rainy and hurricane seasons to Haiti bring new fears of an increase in cholera. One treatment center reported a 50% increase in the past week.
5 U.S. servicemembers killed in Iraq
Five U.S. servicemembers were killed Monday in central Iraq, the U.S. military said in a written statement.
The names of the servicemembers were being withheld pending notification of next of kin, the military said. The statement did not say how they were killed.
12 killed in Iraq attacks
At least 12 people were killed and dozens other wounded in a series of explosions across Iraq on Monday, police said.
Monday marks Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's 100-day deadline for Cabinet ministers to make reforms or be fired.
The deadline has raised concerns of mass protests if it passes without some sign of improvement.
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