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NATO official: Gadhafi a legitimate target
A U.N. resolution justifies the targeting of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a senior NATO military official with operational knowledge of the Libya mission told CNN Thursday.
NATO has been ramping up pressure on the regime, employing helicopters last weekend for the first time against Gadhafi's military vehicles, equipment and forces. Explosions are heard often in Tripoli, evidence of allied air strikes.
NATO began bombing Libya on March 31, under a U.N. mandate to protect civilians during the fighting between government forces and rebels who have seized most of eastern Libya.
FULL STORY
Glass staircase not dress friendly
For years, women across America have dealt with glass ceilings. But now, women in Ohio have a new problem - glass floors.
A $105 million courthouse opened in Franklin County, Ohio, on Monday, but the builders seemed to have forgotten one thing - the bottom of the stairs, reports affiliate 10TV. The staircase is made of glass.
Dress wearers need to avoid taking the stairs, according to Franklin County Judge Julie Lynch, who wears dresses under her robes almost every day.
"I wear dresses because that's my personal choice," Lynch told 10TV. "When you stand under the stairwell, you can see right up through them.”
She speculates that men, who didn’t take half the population into account, designed the stairs.
Attorney Lori Johnson was startled by the transparent stairs. She worries not only about stares, but also how many cell phones have cameras attached.
“The next thing you know, you’re on the internet,” Johnson said, according to 10TV. “It sounds like a lawsuit in the making.”
While security guards warn women about taking the stairs, it seems most are just hoping people will be mature about the situation.
"They hope people will be mature? That's not a solution," Lynch said to 10TV. "If we had mature people that didn't violate the law, we wouldn't have this building."
Overheard on CNN.com: Parents to blame for anti-'sissy' therapy?
Comment of the Day:
"A tragedy. Parents having a child that didn't meet their and society's expectations. Parents who used an experimental treatment. A father who brutalized his son and a mother who let it happen. Reker? I can't say what I think. Won't get past the censors. But there is a special ring in Dante's inferno waiting for him."–abbydelabbey
Therapy to change 'feminine' boy created a troubled man, family says
Kirk Murphy committed suicide in 2003 at the age of 38, more than three decades after treatment to make him more "masculine." George Rekers, the doctoral student who treated him, went on to found a faith-based organization that lobbies against gay-rights issues. As recently as 2009, a book Rekers co-authored cited Murphy's case as a success. Murphy's family has a different story.
While most commenters were appalled at his treatment, many they said the parents were to blame. thies said, "The mom blames the doctor?! lol."
QueenMean said, "The parents do not get a pass on this. Beating their kid til he screams because they want him to be more boylike? Forcing his brother to become complicit in this? I don't care if God almighty comes down from the heavens, the parent is the final judge on what occurs in their home. They don't get to point to someone else and say 'he started it.' "
Corruption case against Blagojevich goes to jury
Federal jurors at the retrial of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich will begin deliberations Friday in the corruption case against him.
Charges against Blagojevich include trying to peddle the U.S. Senate seat that belonged to Barack Obama before he resigned to become president.
Blagojevich has denied any intention of bribery.
The jury will weigh the ex-governor's guilt or innocence on 20 public-corruption-related counts.
FULL STORYChicago man convicted in Denmark plot, acquitted in Mumbai attack
Chicago businessman Tahawwur Hussain Rana was found not guilty Thursday on federal charges of conspiracy to provide material support to the Mumbai terrorist attacks of 2008.
But Rana was convicted on one count of conspiracy to provide material support in a plot to bomb the offices of a Danish newspaper that had published irreverent cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, and on one count of providing material support to the Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Tayyiba.
The Chicago businessman was accused of facilitating the November 2008 terrorist attacks that killed more than 160 people in Mumbai, India. But the defense argued that he was an unwitting victim betrayed by a business associate and longtime friend.
Gotta Watch: The best of E3
It's arguably the biggest video gaming event of the year. The Electronic Entertainment Expo, E3, started in 1995 as an annual showcase for the gaming world. Hundreds of companies, from multi-billion dollar corporations like Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft, to little-known software developers use E3 hoping it will launch them towards digital success. This year's E3 just finished up in Los Angeles and CNN has your front-row seat. Here are some highlights you've just Gotta Watch.
From Wii to U – At the world's biggest showcase for video games, Nintendo made the biggest splash this week with the unveiling of Wii U, the next generation of its popular, motion-controlled gaming system.
Farting camels on carbon hit list
OK, so apparently Australia's interior desert is overrun with more than a million camels that nobody owns.
Furthermore, Australia is looking for ways to reduce its agricultural greenhouse gas emissions under something known as the Carbon Farming Initiative.
How are these facts related, you say? We're glad you asked.
It seems these feral camels are known to, well, emit a lot of greenhouse gases, if you get our meaning.
In response, an Australian entrepreneur has submitted a proposal to the initiative to improve the air down under by shooting the dromedaries where they stand.
Or, as a headline on the Australian blog The Register concisely put it: FARTING DEATH CAMELS MUST DIE.
Artists selling original prints to benefit Joplin
As tornado cleanup continues in Joplin, Missouri, graphic artists in St. Louis are lending their talents to the effort.
The marketing and design firm Moosylvania is selling original prints that its art directors designed that pay homage to Joplin. The prints are $25 each and can be viewed and purchased here through PayPal. All proceeds benefit the United Way Small Business Fund, said Brook Boyer, who came up with the idea for the campaign.
Her family is from Joplin.
"I wanted to do something, and I asked our art directors if they would help," she said. "They all jumped in. I was so touched by how hard they worked on this. I'm really proud that we could do our small part to help."
The artwork has been available online for a week, and 200 prints have been sold.
To contact the United Way and find out how to help Joplin tornado survivors, visit their website.
Puyehue's volcanic ash cloud grounds flights out of Argentine capital
Three airlines have canceled flights out of two airports in Argentina's capital city because of the ash cloud from the Puyehue volcano in Chile, according to media reports.
Aerolíneas Argentinas, LAN and Austral canceled flights from Buenos Aires' Jorge Newbery Metropolitan (aka Aeroparque) and Ezeiza International airports after the ash cloud arrived in the city, and Spain's Iberia airline canceled three flights from Madrid to the Argentine capital, the Buenos Aires Herald reported. The latter flights were rerouted to Santiago, Chile.
The airlines had already canceled a string of morning flights but later called off flights until 5 p.m. with a warning more could follow, depending how the situation unfolds, the newspaper reported.
Alabama governor signs 'tough' immigration law
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley signed a "tough illegal immigration law" Thursday morning, his press office said.
The bill is considered by both supporters and critics to be among the toughest in the nation, even stricter than controversial laws in Arizona and Georgia.
Under the new law, public schools will be required to determine the citizenship and immigration status of enrolling students through sworn affidavits or birth certificates.
Authorities will also be required to detain a person who they believe is in the country illegally if the person cannot produce proof of residency when stopped "for any reason."
Alabama businesses will be required to use a database called E-Verify to look up the immigration status of new employees. The use of the database was recently endorsed after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a separate Arizona immigration law.
It will be illegal for Alabama residents to knowingly give a ride or transport an illegal immigrant or for a landlord to knowingly rent a property to an illegal immigrant.
Cecillia Wang, managing attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union's immigrants rights project, called the bill "outrageous and blatantly unconstitutional" in an interview with The New York Times before Bentley signed it.
Huntsville Times editorial: A law, mostly for Hispanics
FULL STORY
Teen with cancer blogs her bucket list
The online bucket list of a British teenager reportedly dying of cancer has made headlines around the globe and dominated Twitter for the past 24 hours.
"It doesn't look like I'm going to win this one. The cancer is spreading through my body," Alice Pyne's blog says. "It's hard because I gave it my all. And it's a pain because there's so much stuff I still want to do. Anyway, Mum always tells me that life is what we make of it."
The term "bucket list" refers to a list of things a person wants to do before he or she "kicks the bucket." According to British and Australian press reports, Pyne's list includes taking a tour of Cadbury World to eat "loads" of chocolate, having a movie nights with her best friends, going to Kenya and swimming with sharks.
She wants to enter her dog Mabel in a local Labrador show and meet the British pop group Take That.
Pyne's blog says she's been fighting Hodgkin's lymphoma for four years.
Official: Arizona fire 8 miles from power lines
As a fire in Arizona continued to rage Thursday, power companies planned for the possibility that the blaze would reach crucial electrical transmission lines that supplied power to thousands.
"We do have a couple of transmissions line that the fire approaching. The fire is currently about 8 miles from that line," Joe Salkowski, spokesman for Tucson Electric Power told CNN Thursday.
"If it gets closer the fire could cause the lines to short-circuit and if that happens we would lose power," Salkowski said. "It would not lead to rolling blackouts. We would be able to substitute that power without a problem," he said.
Another power company in the area, Navopache Electric, said on its website that some of its service territory remained in a blackout due to the fire. Areas without power included Greer, Sunrise, Big Lake and South Fork.
FULL STORY
Mountain of tornado debris removed; even more remains
Imagine a column of trash the size of a football field reaching more than a mile into the sky. That's how much debris the deadly tornadoes that struck Alabama in April left behind, according to estimates.
The 64 twisters left more than 10 million cubic yards of smashed homes, buildings, vehicles and trees in the state, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Cleanup crews have removed more than 4.3 million cubic yards of debris from the storms, which killed 238 people, FEMA says.
The Army Corps of Engineers is coordinating debris removal. The corps is encouraging people to sort debris into categories as much as possible so materials can be handled properly and some recycled.
Crews either burn or chip trees and shrubs; construction debris is hauled to licensed landfills; and hazardous materials are taken to facilities designed to handle them.
U.S. resumes airstrikes in Yemen; top insurgent believed dead
The United States has resumed airstrikes in Yemen and believes it killed a top al Qaeda insurgent there, a U.S. military official said on Thursday.
Abu Ali al-Harithi, "described as one of the most dangerous al Qaeda commanders in Shabwa province," has been killed in Yemeni security operations, state-run TV reported on Thursday, citing an official military source. The New York Times reported on Thursday that American jets killed him in an airstrike last Friday.
A U.S. military official with knowledge of the Yemen campaign told CNN that U.S. military-led air operations recently resumed after a pause of some months.
He also said the United States believes it likely killed al-Harithi in an airstrike in southern Yemen in recent days. But he cautioned its "very difficult" to confirm the killing.
FULL STORYU.S. slaps new sanctions on Iran
The U.S. government announced Thursday that it has imposed a new round of sanctions against Iran's regime, which has come under intense criticism for its recent crackdown against pro-reform protesters.
Sanctions have been imposed against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the Basij Resistance Force, and Iran's Law Enforcement Forces, according to a statement released by the State Department.
A specific individual - Law Enforcement Commander Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam - has also been targeted by the sanctions.
"While Iran's leaders hypocritically applaud protesters abroad calling for self-determination, many of Iran's own citizens - including founding members of the revolution - are being held as political prisoners merely for holding views contrary to Iran's leaders," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.
FULL STORY
Thursday's intriguing people
Braylon Edwards
The New York Jets wide receiver is picking up the college tuition tabs of 100 Cleveland high school students, according to The Washington Post. Edwards is keeping a promise he made to the students in the “Advance 100” program in 2008, when they were in the eighth grade. The former Cleveland Brown, in an apparent reference to LeBron James, tweeted over the weekend, "As the 2nd most hated man in Clev & a man of my word, today I will honor a promise made to 100 students in Cleveland years ago." Edwards’ arrangement with the students required each to complete 15 hours of community service and maintain a 3.5 GPA, in addition to demonstrating good conduct and avoiding unexcused absences. The students' tuitions are estimated to cost about $1 million.
Family: Surfing legend Andy Irons' death at 32 caused by hardening of arteries
Triple world champion surfer Andy Irons died of a heart attack caused by the hardening of his coronary arteries, his family said in a press release Thursday. Irons, 32, died unexpectedly in November.
Irons had withdrawn from an event in 2010 amid concerns that he and others on the tour contracted dengue fever. He was returning home to Hawaii when he was found dead in an airport hotel while on a layover in Dallas.
But long-awaited toxicology reports and an autopsy, which were held off while his widow, Lyndie, was pregnant with their son, showed that dengue fever did not lead to the surfing star's death.
"A plaque of this severity, located in the anterior descending coronary artery, is commonly associated with sudden death," Dr. Vincent Di Maio, a prominent forensic pathologist, explained to the family, according to the press release.
"The only unusual aspect of the case is Mr. Irons' age, 32 years old," Di Maio told them. "Deaths due to coronary atherosclerosis usually begin to appear in the late 40s. Individuals such as Mr. Irons have a genetic predisposition to early development of coronary artery disease. In about 25% of the population, the first symptom of severe coronary atherosclerosis is sudden death."
No other factors contributed to his death, Di Maio told the family.
But the official toxicology report and autopsy from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner notes a second cause of death as "acute mixed drug ingestion."
Gotta Watch: How wives handle political sex scandals
An alleged image of embattled Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner added another sordid twist to an already serious sex scandal. As Weiner struggles to overcome the controversy, the focus turns toward his wife, Huma Abedin, and her future plans. Will she pull a Tammy Wynette and stand by her man? Or, will the longtime Clinton aide follow the trail of more recent political wives scorned by sex scandals and leave her husband? In today’s Gotta Watch, we take a look back to political wives scorched by sex troubles and how they handled it.
FULL POST
U.S. ramps up secret campaign against militants in Yemen
U.S. military-led air operations in Yemen have recently resumed after a pause of some months, a U.S. military official with knowledge of the Yemen campaign told CNN Thursday.
He said the pause was because the United States didn't have faith in the information available "to conduct targeting against individuals in Yemen during that time frame." He could not say what led to the improved intelligence picture.
He also said the United States believes it likely killed Abu Ali Al-Harithi, a midlevel al Qaeda operative, in an airstrike in southern Yemen in recent days. But he cautioned it is "very difficult" to confirm the killing.
Nine Islamic militants and four Yemeni soldiers were killed in clashes overnight in the militant-held town of Zinjibar, a senior security official loyal to the Yemeni government said.
"The government is still trying to retake the governmental sites that were occupied by the militants," the official said.
The country has been wracked for weeks by anti-government demonstrations in big cities, fighting between the government and tribal forces and the activities of Islamic insurgents.
President Ali Abdullah Saleh and other senior Yemeni officials were wounded on Friday when the mosque at the presidential compound was attacked during Friday prayers.
Saleh is undergoing medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. Tareq Al-Shami, the ruling party spokesmen, said the president will be back in Yemen "within days and is now in very good health."
FULL STORY
Saudi king: Women, not just men, can sell lingerie
For years in Saudi Arabia, women were not legally allowed to work in lingerie shops. This caused uncomfortable, and even hostile, moments between female customers and clerks.
But shopping for bras and other underwear may soon not be as stressful an experience for Saudi women. King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud has ordered government officials to start allowing women-only sales assistants in lingerie shops by the end of June. The move is part of a larger effort to fight unemployment in the kingdom, estimated to be around 11%, Time reports. The gesture is also part of an overall attempt to give women more jobs in the kingdom.
Listen to PRI's "The World" speak with a Saudi investment analyst about how it felt to have to buy intimate apparel from men.
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