MLB commissioner Bud Selig retiring in January 2015
September 26th, 2013
07:08 PM ET
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MLB commissioner Bud Selig retiring in January 2015

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig will retire when his current term ends January 24, 2015, Major League Baseball said Thursday.

Selig said that "it remains my great privilege to serve the game I have loved throughout my life."

"Baseball is the greatest game ever invented, and I look forward to continuing its extraordinary growth and addressing several significant issues during the remainder of my term," he said in a statement.

Selig, 79, has been full-time commissioner since 1998 after six years as the interim boss. Before that, he owned the Milwaukee Brewers after moving the Seattle Pilots in 1970.

The game changed significantly during Selig's tenure as commissioner.

Interleague play was instituted, teams that exceeded a salary threshold were penalized and the money shared with other teams, and the postseason was revamped several times to include division series and the Wild Card playoff contest. Umpires can now also use instant replay to review certain plays.

MLB also grew. Two teams - the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Tampa Bay Rays - joined. The Montreal Expos moved to Washington and became the Nationals. Other teams switched divisions and the Brewers changed leagues.

There were low points, too, including MLB canceling the World Series in 1994 after a players' strike, and a long investigation into the use of performing-enhancing drugs in baseball that culminated in a 2007 report that led to congressional hearings.

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Filed under: Baseball • Sports
September 26th, 2013
12:11 PM ET
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New trial ordered for woman in controversial warning-shot case

An appellate court has ordered a new trial for Marissa Alexander, a 31-year-old mother of three, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison last year for firing a warning shot in an effort to scare off her abusive husband.

Alexander unsuccessfully tried to use Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law to derail the prosecution, but a jury convicted her of aggravated assault after just 12 minutes of deliberation.

The case gained the attention of civil rights leaders who say the African-American woman was persecuted because of her race.

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Filed under: Courts • Florida • Justice
September 26th, 2013
12:09 PM ET
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At Kenya's request, Interpol issues alert for 'White Widow'

Interpol said Thursday it issued a red notice for Samantha Lewthwaite, the so-called "White Widow," at the request of Kenyan authorities.

Reports that a white woman was among the terrorists who stormed a mall in Nairobi last weekend have prompted a slew of media speculation about Lewthwaite, a British woman whose husband was one of the suicide bombers in the 2005 London terror attacks.

Known as the "White Widow," Lewthwaite, 29, has been wanted by international counterterrorism officials since authorities found bomb-making materials in her Mombasa, Kenya, apartment in 2011. She vanished shortly before a raid.

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Filed under: Kenya
September 26th, 2013
05:59 AM ET
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Chicago boy shot in the face faces fears

Kids are scared of the dark. That's normal. But Deonta Howard is now even more leery of nightfall.

The 3-year-old boy was shot in the face last week and now says that whenever the sun goes down in Chicago, people might get shot again.

His mom was taking him home from the hospital late Wednesday when reporters caught up with them. He told them he wants to go home to see grandma, but he says he's not going back to the park in their Back of the Yards neighborhood on the South Side. That's where two men allegedly opened fire on him last Thursday.

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Filed under: Crime • U.S.
September 26th, 2013
05:57 AM ET
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Kenya: families unsure if loved ones are dead

Propped up by strangers, a woman wails outside Nairobi's main city morgue, unable to control her grief.

She enters the brown makeshift counseling tent - but her screams still echo outside.

At the same time, dozens of families linger outside the mortuary, not sure whether their loved ones are dead or alive.

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Filed under: World