Facebook photos lead to child abuse arrests in Arizona

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Two Arizona parents were arrested by sheriff's deputies after apparently posting pictures on Facebook that showed their children, an infant and a toddler, bound with duct tape, authorities said on Thursday.

Coconino County deputies arrested Frankie Almuina, 20, and Kayla Almuina, 19, on suspicion of two counts of child abuse on Wednesday at their northern Arizona home after being alerted to the photos by an anonymous tip.

The children, a 2-year-old toddler and a 10-month-old infant, were seen online bound with duct tape on their wrists and ankles with their mouths taped shut, Commander Rex Gilliland told Reuters. One of the children was shown hanging upside down on an exercise machine.

The parents told investigators that the photos, posted on the mother's Facebook account, were a joke and that the children were not harmed, Gilliland said.

"It's clear in our minds that these children were placed in a very extreme situation," Gilliland said. "By the look on their faces, they were in sheer terror. I don't know how this could have been a joke."

Authorities were called to the scene after a person who likely knew the couple saw the postings and called the Arizona Child Abuse Hotline, Gilliland said. The caller knew the names of the parents and where they lived.

He said investigators seized about a dozen similar photos, some that were not posted online, from the home north of Williams, Arizona, about 175 miles north of Phoenix.

Man caught trying to board flight with loaded handgun

KANSAS CITY, Mo (Reuters) - A man trying to board a Delta Airlines flight in Kansas City with a loaded handgun was charged on Thursday with carrying a concealed weapon, authorities said.

Anthony Winn, 26, of Kansas City was caught by a security screener Wednesday with what appeared to be a gun in his carry-on bag, according to U.S. Attorney Beth Phillips of the Western District of Missouri.

Officers at the airport found a loaded 9 millimeter Glock handgun with 23 live rounds of ammunition, including one in the chamber, said a criminal complaint filed Thursday. Police also found $4,906 in Winn's pants pockets and $26,515 in three pairs of jeans in his carry-on bag.

Winn said he was bringing the bag to a friend in Arizona and did not know it contained a gun.

He was charged with having a concealed handgun in his bag and with being a felon in possession of a firearm. Winn has two prior felony burglary convictions and a conviction for unlawful use of a weapon, authorities said.

Winn was bound for Minneapolis and then Tucson, according to the case documents.

U.S. Attorney spokesman Don Ledford said authorities believe Winn had "no terrorist motives or connections."

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Family of Marine jet crash victims awarded $17.8 million

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The surviving relatives of four family members killed when a Marine fighter jet crashed into their San Diego home in 2008 were awarded $17.8 million by a federal judge on Wednesday.

Don Yoon, who lost his wife, his mother-in-law and two of his children when an F/A-18D Hornet fighter jet crashed into and incinerated their home, was awarded $9.6 million by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey Miller, court documents show.

Yoon's father-in-law, Sanghyun Lee, 67, was awarded $3.7 million in the decision, according to the court papers. Yoon's three surviving children were awarded $1.5 million each.

Yoon was at work on December 8, 2008 when the fighter, which was approaching the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar after taking off from an aircraft carrier during a training exercise, smashed into his home.

The crash killed his wife 36-year-old wife, Youngmi Lee Yoon, his daughters Grace Yoon, 15 months, and Rachel Yoon, 7 weeks, and his mother-in-law Seokim Kim-Lee, 59, who was visiting from South Korea to help take care of the children.

The pilot ejected from the plane before the crash and survived.

The United States admitted sole liability for the crash, fire, and deaths of those who perished, according to the court decision.

Yoon's older brother testified during a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in San Diego that his brother used to be funny, cracking jokes and playing with children. Now, he said, Yoon visits the graves of his family every day, and no longer smiles or sees people.

Yoon told the court that reuniting with his wife and daughters in death is "all I have to look forward to," according to court documents.

An attorney for the plaintiffs, who sought $56 million in damages, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Washington's big dig aims to clean up "nation's river"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington is starting to dig deep in a $2.6 billion underground solution aimed at helping clean up the polluted Potomac River and the ailing Chesapeake Bay, the biggest U.S. estuary.

In the U.S. capital's biggest public works project in more than 40 years, work started this fall to cut about 16 miles of tunnels to keep overflow sewage and stormwater from running into the Potomac.

The project, designed to be finished in 2025, is seen by environmentalists as part of resolving the next great water pollution challenge facing the United States -- keeping fouled runoff out of lakes, streams and rivers.

The vast dig "is a dramatic piece of the puzzle to improve the water quality in the Potomac," said Carlton Ray, head of the District of Columbia's Clean Water Project.

For the 15 million tourists who visit Washington each year, the broad Potomac serves as a dramatic backdrop to the city's gleaming monuments and public buildings, like the Capitol and the Lincoln Memorial.

But the smoothly flowing waters of what admirers call "the nation's river" hide deep problems.

The Potomac carries so much sex-changing pollutants that male bass have been found carrying eggs. Swimming is banned after heavy rains because of polluted runoff.

Locals are warned about eating the Potomac's fish because of contamination from polychlorinated biphenyls, a likely carcinogen in humans.

The river and its almost 15,000-square-mile basin is the top source of sediments dumped into the Chesapeake Bay, a leading U.S. crab fishery and itself struggling to revive from decades of overfishing and pollution.

REPORT CARD: D

In its report card this year, the Potomac Conservancy, an environmental group, graded the Potomac at "D." It cited poor land use practices, new contaminants and continuing fights to control pollution.

"If we can't figure out how to clean up and be able to swim in a river and eat the fish you catch, if you can't do that in the nation's capital, what hope do we have?" asked Hedrick Belin, the Potomac Conservancy's president.

Washington's sewers project, which will use a tunneling machine the length of a football field, is aimed at eliminating 96 percent of one of the biggest sources of Potomac pollution -- stormwater from the District of Columbia.

About one-third of Washington, including the White House and the Capitol, is hooked up to a 19th century sewer system that carries both sewage and stormwater into the Potomac and its District of Columbia tributaries, the Anacostia River and Rock Creek.

About 2.5 billion gallons of raw sewage mixed with rainwater is swept into the river each year when Washington's sewers back up from heavy rain, fouling the river.

"Basically, anytime it rains we have overflow events," said Ray, the project's chief.

The new project, set up under a 2005 federal consent decree, is designed to hold millions of gallons of runoff until it can be pumped out and treated.

Part of the cost of the dig, Washington's biggest public works project since the building of its subway, will be defrayed by the District's impervious surfaces tax. The levy taxes surfaces that feed runoff and was doubled in October.

The passage of the 1972 Clean Water Act helped shut off much of U.S. pollution from single sources, like factories. The biggest culprit now is water sheeting off roads, farms, houses and urban areas that sweeps waste into lakes, rivers and streams, environmentalists said.

FOUL RUNOFF

"Most of the pollution is not coming out of a big pipe, a big plant. It is coming from water flowing off surfaces," said the Potomac Conservancy's Belin.

Tim Guilfoile, deputy director of the Sierra Club's Water Sentinels program, estimated about 60 percent of U.S. water pollution comes from runoff mixed with manure, pet waste, fertilizers, oil, chemicals and trash.

The problem is especially acute in areas like Washington and its sprawling suburbs, where development has stripped land cover and replaced it with surfaces like houses, parking lots and roads that feed runoff.

For example, Prince George's County, which borders the District of Columbia, lost half its forest cover from 1993 to 2007, the Potomac Conservancy said.

One inch of rain can produce from 1,000 to 1,500 gallons of runoff from a 1,500-square-foot roof, Guilfoile said.

"The only way we can have an impact (in controlling pollution) is to change how we handle stormwater," he said.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) required the District of Columbia in October to take a raft of steps to cut runoff further. They include roof gardens, planting trees, refitting drainage and that 1.2 inches of rain be retained on a development's site in a 24-hour storm.

Ray, the tunnel project's director, said the District of Columbia was in talks with the EPA about building swales, or marshy troughs filled with vegetation, and other green structures to hold runoff, and cut the dig's price tag.

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Man, 18, jailed in Facebooked Pa. store burglary

PITTSBURGH (AP) — An 18-year-old Pittsburgh man is accused of burglarizing a market with three teens, then posted pictures on his Facebook page showing the suspects mugging with some of the loot.

Isaiah Cutler who has been jailed since Friday in the Dec. 12 burglary. Online court records don't list an attorney for him.

Police say Cutler, a 17-year-old and two 14-year-olds stole more than $8,000 worth of cash, cigarettes, candy and checks from the business. About an hour later, police say, Cutler posted pictures of the teens posing with the loot on his page on the social networking site.

The younger suspects have been charged in juvenile court and been released to their parents.

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Nine shot at Tennessee teenagers' party

(Reuters) - Nine people were shot, though no deaths were reported, after gunfire broke out at a teenagers' party at a nightclub in Chattanooga and another location nearby, Tennessee, a police official said on Sunday.

Police were called to the "teen party" in downtown Chattanooga at around midnight on Saturday following reports of multiple gun shots, the Chattanooga Police Department said in a statement.

Several revelers were struck and wounded by gunfire, including a 17-year-old boy who was hit in the pelvis and underwent surgery at a local hospital, department spokesman Sgt. Jerri Weary said.

An off-duty Chattanooga police officer working at the nightclub where the party was being held, fired at a suspect who pointed a gun at him during the shootings, Weary said. The officer was not hit during the incident.

At the same time, police also responded to a second shooting nearby, although it was not immediately clear if the incidents were related.

"Due to the number of victims and potential number of suspects, details from both incidents are still inconclusive," Weary said.

"We have not had anybody come forward (saying) that they were shot, but people fled the scene ... We are still trying to piece this together," she added.

Weary said no arrests had been made, and that it was unclear if there were one or more suspects involved.

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Seven adults shot dead at Dallas-area apartment

GRAPEVINE, Texas (Reuters) - Police in Texas found the bodies of seven people in a Dallas-area apartment on Sunday, all shot to death and surrounded by newly unwrapped Christmas presents, authorities said.

Police in the town of Grapevine said the dead included four women and three men, one of them the apparent gunman, and that all were believed to be members of the same family.

Two handguns were recovered from the apartment, said Sergeant Robert Eberling of the Grapevine police department, who called it a "gruesome crime scene" and the worst massacre in that town's history.

A community of about 46,000 people some 20 miles northwest of central Dallas, Grapevine is best known for its vineyards and quaint historic downtown.

"This is tragic. It's something our department hasn't seen before, especially in a city like Grapevine," Eberling said. "It's something we're used to reading about. We're shocked."

Police responding to a 911 emergency call at around 11:30 a.m. local time found the bodies in the living room of a first-floor unit of the Lincoln Vineyards apartments, Eberling told Reuters. No one reported hearing any gunshots, he said.

The 911 caller never spoke to police, and officers did not see the telephone when they went into the home. Eberling said he believed police had to kick in the door to enter.

The circumstances of the shooting remained unclear. However, the victims appeared to have been opening Christmas gifts when the shooting occurred, and there was no visible sign of forced entry or a struggle, police said.

"By all appearances, they're all part of the same family," Eberling said, adding that the victims were believed to have been "celebrating Christmas" when the shooting unfolded.

"It's a gruesome crime scene to say the least, with that many victims in that area suffering gunshot wounds," he said.

Two of the dead appeared to be in their 60s, while the others were young adults, around 18 to 20 years old, according to police.

Authorities did not immediately identify the victims and did not speculate on a possible motive for the shooting.

Police said there were no survivors at the apartment when they arrived. Eberling said none had been dead for very long.

As of 7:30 p.m., about eight hours after they were found, all seven bodies remained in the apartment, and investigators were expected to continue processing the crime scene late into the night, Eberling said.

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First statue of Steve Jobs unveiled

The first Steve Jobs statue was unveiled Wednesday in a tech park in Budapest, just two and a half months after the Apple visionary's death.

The bronze statue is 6 1/2 feet tall. It was commissioned in mid-October, just days after Jobs died, by Gabor Bojar, the founder of Graphisoft, a Hungarian software company that develops software for architects.

The news went out over the PR Newswire and is also displayed prominently on Graphisoft Park's website, but we're choosing to believe that the unveiling of the statue is not solely a publicity stunt for the software company.

It turns out that Graphisoft and Jobs had a long history that began in 1984 when Jobs came across some of Graphisoft's software and was impressed enough to help the company out.

"Apple's support included cash and computers at a time when Graphisoft was a small company with limited resources, working within the economic and political confines of what was, at the time, communist Hungary," Bajor said in a statement. "Apple also introduced Graphisoft to its worldwide distribution network, which we rely upon to this day."

The statue was crafted by Hungarian sculptor Erno Toth. He depicted Steve Jobs in his trademark attire: jeans, turtleneck and little round glasses.

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Body of alleged killer of ex-Afghan central banker found

(Reuters) - Remains of a San Diego man suspected of killing a former head of the Afghanistan central bank who fled to the United States as a political fugitive have been found, police said on Thursday.

Bones identified as belonging to Ismael Raul Lopez, 28, were discovered by recreational divers offshore in the Pacific Ocean and later recovered by public safety personnel, San Diego police said in a statement.

Lopez was suspected by police of killing self-employed cab driver Mir Najibullah Sadat Sahou, 68, in a robbery-homicide in late September. An arrest warrant had been issued in October.

The announcement sheds more light on a mysterious case that some believe was a politically motivated assassination instead of the robbery-homicide police have described.

On September 28, at about 11:35 p.m., Sahou stopped his green-and-white cab along a street in La Jolla, just north of San Diego, according to police. Witnesses saw two men emerge from the vehicle.

A woman who lives near the crime scene says she heard two men bickering loudly in a foreign language before three gunshots were fired. Police later found Sahou dead on a nearby walkway.

The woman said she doubted that robbery was the motive. Sahou's nephew also told local media that his uncle's wallet and ring had been found in the cab.

Lopez fled in the cab, which was later found abandoned and unoccupied by police on a coastal road a few miles away from the site of the shooting.

Lopez either jumped the curb of the coastal road by accident or intended to drive into the ocean, police said. Paint marks on the cab matched marks on the wooden fence above the ocean.

Along with the bones, divers also found part of Lopez's skull with a bullet hole in it, police said.

Homicide investigators said they will continue to work with the medical examiner's office to determine Lopez's cause of death.

POLITICAL ASYLUM

Forced by civil war from his post as governor of Afghanistan's central bank, Sahou was granted political asylum in the United States in 1992 after fighters in his native country seized his home.

Almost two decades later, the French-trained former economist turned full-time cabby and part-time TV commentator was shot to death while working a late-night shift driving his taxi in the upscale La Jolla community.

Some friends and associates of Sahou have raised questions about whether his views on the Afghan government and economy, as aired on a talk show he hosted on the Ariana-Afghanistan International TV network, may have cost him his life.

Nabil Miskinyar, who owns the Irvine, California-based TV channel, said Sahou's commentary for the bi-weekly show, "To Find the Truth," struck a very "neutral" tone, and he doubted the killing was political.

But he said homicide investigators asked Sahou's wife for a copy of her husband's final program, broadcast the week he died, focusing on the September 20 assassination of former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, leader of the High Peace Council seeking to open talks with the Taliban, at his home in Kabul.

Sahou ran the central bank under Rabbani and prior to his administration, Miskinyar said.

Despite master's degrees in finance and economics from the Sorbonne in Paris, he was unable to find work in his field in the United States.

He ultimately purchased a taxi cab and began working double shifts. But his daughter Savitar Sahou, 26, said he remained very much a scholar, reading during breaks on the job and writing poetry during rare moments of free time.

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Lamborghini driver crashes car hours after winning it

(Reuters) - A Utah truck driver who won a $380,000 Lamborghini in a contest said on Wednesday a patch of ice was to blame for his crashing the high-performance sports car six just hours after he took possession of it.

Dave Dopp, 34, who was awarded the vehicle last month in a "Joe Schmo-to-Lambo" giveaway benefit sponsored by a convenience store chain, wrecked the car on Saturday evening in the town of Santaquin, south of Provo, while giving a ride to a friend.

The bright, lime green Lamborghini LP 640 careened off the road through a fence and into a field, sustaining extensive body damage, but no one was hurt.

"We were coming up on a hill on the south end of Santaquin, came around a corner, and I wasn't even going that fast," he said in an interview. "A car was coming towards us. I'm sure I wasn't going fast or anything. We just hit a patch of black ice and ended up in a field."

Dennis Howard, director of public safety in Santaquin, said it appeared Dopp was merely "unfamiliar" with the vehicle, adding, "I don't think he was used to 700 horsepower."

Dopp estimates he gave rides to 30 to 40 people during the six hours that he had possession of the car.

"I wanted to make it a good experience for everybody that I knew," he said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ride in a Lamborghini, let alone own one."

Dopp's reaction to winning the car was videotaped at a Brigham Young University football game in November. The footage shows Dopp responding first with a glazed look, then jumping up and down when he realized he had really won the car.

The contest was organized to promote awareness and treatment of rare neurological diseases.

For the 9,100 residents of the agricultural community of Santaquin it was big news when Dopp won the car and bigger news when he wrecked it.

"It's the only Lamborghini I've towed. I've never had a Lamborghini before," said the manager of Alexander's Towing in Santaquin, who asked not to be identified.

Dopp said the Lamborghini has since been shipped to Las Vegas for repairs.

When he gets the car back, Dopp said he would likely put the vehicle up for sale.

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Twelve charged with hate crimes in Amish beard cutting

(Reuters) - A federal grand jury in Ohio returned a seven-count indictment on Tuesday charging 12 members of an Amish splinter group with hate crimes following a spate of beard cutting attacks on fellow Amish in the state.

The charges related to five separate assaults between September and November. They allege the defendants, 10 men and two women, used scissors and electric clippers to snip hair from the victims, with whom they had religious disputes.

The actions of the group were considered especially egregious because once married, Amish men typically do not trim their beards and Amish women do not cut their hair for religious and cultural reasons.

"For nearly 500 years, people have come to this land so that they could pray however and to whomever they wished," Steven M. Dettelbach, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, said in a statement.

"Violent attempts to attack this most basic freedom have no place in our country," he added.

Among defendants charged under the Hate Crimes Prevention Act were Bishop Samuel Mullet Sr., his two sons Johnny and Daniel Mullet and son-in-law Emanuel Shrock.

The indictment also charged defendants with each assault, and Bishop Mullet and three others with concealing evidence, including a camera, photographs, and medication that was allegedly placed in the drink of one of the assault victims.

Bishop Mullet was accused of orchestrating the beard-cuttings as revenge for being shunned by the Amish community.

He also was accused of forcing extreme punishments on sect members who defied him, including making them sleep for days at a time in a chicken coop, the FBI said.

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Med student Clarke wins 'Survivor: South Pacific'

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Sophie Clarke slayed the competition on "Survivor: South Pacific."

The brainy 22-year-old medical student from Willsboro, N.Y., overcame 39-year-old "Survivor" veteran Benjamin "Coach" Wade of Susanville, Calif., and 26-year-old high school baseball coach Albert Destrade of Plantation, Fla., to win the CBS reality competition's $1 million grand prize Sunday.

Clarke secured her place among the final three contestants on the 23rd edition of "Survivor" by forging a strong alliance from the outset and winning three immunity challenges, including the final physical competition, which ousted 30-year-old "Survivor" veteran Oscar "Ozzy" Lusth of Venice, Calif., from the 39-day survival contest. 

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New England Patriots put a halt to Tebow train

Quarterback Tom Brady's Patriots rallied to score 27 unanswered points as New England defeated the Denver Broncos 41-23 to clinch a post-season berth.

New England captured their ninth AFC East title in the past 11 years and snapped the Broncos' superb win streak at six straight.

Brady completed 23 of 34 passes for 320 yards with two touchdown passes for the Patriots who bounced back from a 17-6 deficit early in the game. Brady also ran for a touchdown.

"We knew it was going to a 60-minute game," Brady said. "I thought we played well for 60 minutes for the first time this season."

Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow got off to a fast start as Denver outgained the Patriots 167-4 in the first quarter. But this time there was no last-minute heroics from Tebow, who fizzled in the second half and at one point in the final quarter he was sacked for a whopping 28-yard loss.

Tebow was a disappointing 11 of 22 for 194 yards. Under pressure from the Patriots' pass rush, he ran 12 times for 93 yards. The loss dropped the Broncos to 8-6 on the season.

Quarterback Matthew Stafford tossed a six-yard touchdown strike to Calvin Johnson with 39 seconds remaining to cap a 98-yard scoring drive as the Detroit Lions rallied to beat the Oakland Raiders 28-27.

The victory was sealed when Ndamukong Suh, who was returning from a two-game suspension, blocked Sebastian Janikowski's 65-yard field goal attempt on the final play.

"For me it's just a great opportunity to be on the football field," Suh said. "That's just the things that I expect out of myself. I can't do it by myself. I continue to have great players around me."

Oakland appeared headed to victory with just under eight minutes left when Aaron Curry returned a fumble six yards for a touchdown to make it 27-14.

But Stafford seized the moment by leading a pair of late scoring drives to win it and give the Lions a two-game lead in the NFL wild-card race. Detroit now has nine wins and five losses on the season.

In another key game Sunday, Indianapolis Colts quarterback Dan Orlovsky says he wasn't about to go through another 0-16 season.

"I think in my career, I've learned not to take them (wins) for granted," Orlovsky said.

The Colts beat Tennessee 27-13 Sunday to earn their first win of the season Sunday after losing the first 13 games with star quarterback Peyton Manning on the injured list.

Orlovsky, a seven-year veteran, was with Detroit in 2008 when the Lions finished 0-16 on the season. He tossed one touchdown pass against Tennessee.

It was the Colts' first win in 14 years without Peyton Manning, who the team said Sunday would not play at all this season.

"I'm happy for a lot of people on this team, for a lot of people in this organization," Orlovsky said. "It's a lot better than the feeling we've had lately." 

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3 dead, 2 wounded in California office shooting

IRWINDALE, Calif. (AP) - Authorities say two people wounded in a Southern California office park shooting spree are listed in critical condition at local hospitals.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Lt. Holly Francisco says one woman and one man are currently being treated for life-threatening wounds.

Three men, including the shooter, died in Friday's shooting at Southern California Edison offices in Irwindale, which forced a lockdown of the large office complex and nearby schools.

The shooter and all the victims are employees of the utility company.

Officers from surrounding cities and the sheriff's SWAT team responded.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

A white collar utility company worker shot four colleagues Friday, fatally wounding two and then killed himself in an office park outside Los Angeles.

"As far as we know there was one shooting suspect, period," said Baldwin Park police Capt. Michael Taylor.

The shooting around 1:30 p.m. at Southern California Edison offices forced a lockdown of a large office complex and nearby schools as officers from surrounding cities and the Los Angeles Sheriff Department's SWAT team responded.

"This is one of the most horrible days in our company's history," said Edison International Chairman and CEO Ted Craver. "We are deeply saddened by today's tragic events."

One of the shooting victims was a woman and the other four were men. Four were company employees and the fifth was a contract worker.

Craver did not specify which were living or dead, and he was careful not to provide identifying details for the victims, saying the company was still working to contact family members.

There was no immediate word on what prompted the gunfire.

Police could not confirm media reports that at least two of the targeted victims were believed to be company managers.

One of the dead was discovered inside the building during a sweep, and police were continuing their search for more victims, said Taylor.

Another victim died en route to a hospital. The two wounded had unspecified injuries and their conditions were not known.

No gunfire was exchanged after officers arrived.

As police cars, ambulances and fire trucks surrounded the building, dozens of workers emerged with their hands over their heads.

The complex is surrounded by a fence and patrolled by a security guard. Employees need a security card to get into the building, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. About 200 employees work at the facility.

The utility's office is in a complex of buildings that also includes a business called California Lighting Sales.

Cindy Gutierrez, the controller for that company, said employees there didn't hear gunshots and didn't realize anything was amiss until building management announced over the intercom that everyone should stay indoors.

Two nearby schools were locked for about two hours after the shooting and no one on the campuses was hurt.

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Storm, floods in south Philippines kill nearly 60

MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Flash floods triggered by a tropical storm have killed nearly 60 people in the southern Philippines, with many more missing across vast regions, officials said Saturday.

Lemuel Gunda, head of a rescue team in Cagayan de Oro city, told The Associated Press that at least 40 bodies were recovered there.

Mayor Lawrence Cruz of nearby Iligan said that at least 15 people were killed in his city alone and that many more were missing.

Those missing included a radio broadcaster who was swept away while trying to save his neighbors, Cruz said.

The chief of the national disaster rescue agency, Benito Ramos, said that officials were still getting reports from the field and that casualties would likely rise.

The floods were triggered by Tropical Storm Washi, which dumped heavy rains over the southern Mindanao region overnight.

Ramos said the dead included at least nine people in a single village in Lanao del Norte province, with floodwaters surging in the middle of the night and quickly reaching rooftops, trapping many residents and causing them to drown. 

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Chinese Internet video firms tussle over copyright

(Reuters) - Chinese online video companies Tudou Holdings and Youku.com said they will sue each other for alleged copyright infringements of their videos.

Tudou said late on Monday that it would take legal action against Youku, China's top online video site, for allegedly reposting episodes of a popular variety program on Youku's platform.

Cti TV, the legal copyright holder of "Kangxi is Coming," signed an exclusive agreement with Tudou in November to distribute the episodes of the program on its platform, Tudou said in an emailed statement.

Tudou and Cti TV allege that the episodes were then copied by Youku and uploaded onto Youku's platform.

Youku subsequently countered on Friday that it would take legal action against Tudou, accusing Tudou of allegedly pirating more than 60 television serials from Youku.

Youku said in a statement that legal mediation between the two sides had failed.

The battle for content in China's online video space has heated up this year with costs for programs rising significantly as online video players scramble for eyeballs to lure advertisers.

Advertising revenue in the domestic online video market, which was virtually non-existent five years ago, is now estimated to be worth 1 billion yuan ($156.90 million). This is expected to grow at a double-digit rate.

Many online video players have also signed deals with Hollywood studios to boost viewership.

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Prosecutor, 2 others shot at Minnesota courthouse

GRAND MARAIS, Minn. (AP) - A gunman opened fire at small northern Minnesota courthouse on Thursday, shooting and injuring the local prosecutor and two other people, authorities said.

A suspect was quickly taken into custody after the shootings were reported around 4 p.m. at the Cook County Courthouse in Grand Marais, a remote town near the Canadian border, State Public Safety spokesman Doug Neville said. Details about the suspect, and what may have led to the shootings, haven't been released.

Cook County prosecutor Timothy Scannell was undergoing surgery for multiple gunshot wounds Thursday night at Essentia Health-St. Mary's Medical Center in Duluth, spokeswoman Beth Johnson said. She said Scannell was in stable condition but released no other details.

The condition of another victim being treated at the hospital hasn't been released. The third victim was treated at a Grand Marais hospital and released, Neville said.

Scannell was handling the only case on Thursday's court calendar, a jury trial that began Monday for Daniel Sidney Schlienz, who had been charged with criminal sexual conduct and nonconsensual sex contact. His father, Gary Schlienz, told the Duluth News Tribune that he went to the courthouse and was told his son was the shooter. The elder Schlienz said his son had recently threatened suicide.

"He hated the prosecuting attorney that did this," Gary Schlienz told the newspaper. "I don't want to make excuses for him, but they prosecuted him pretty bad. He had no job, no money, nothing."

The elder Schlienz did not immediately respond to a message left at his home by The Associated Press.

Daniel Schlienz was being held Thursday night in the county jail, though jail officials wouldn't release any information. A phone message left at his home wasn't immediately returned.

Online state court records listed several cases involving Schlienz in the past two decades, but most were minor traffic cases. More serious charges included fleeing a peace officer and the criminal sexual conduct case, which was first filed in 2006.

The Duluth News Tribune reported that Schlienz had entered an Alford plea in that case in 2007 on charges that he sexually assaulted two 15-year-old girls and one 17-year-old girl. His father told the newspaper that his son later decided to withdraw the plea and fight the charges.

The county's two-story courthouse, which has just one courtroom, has no metal detectors and visitors aren't searched when they enter the building, Cook County Commissioner Fritz Sobanja said.

"As far as I know, there's no checking for knives or any of that stuff," Sobanja said. 

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Woman killed in New York elevator accident

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A woman was crushed to death on Wednesday by an elevator that began moving as she was stepping on board, authorities said.

The freak accident occurred mid-morning in a 25-story office building at 285 Madison Avenue, near Grand Central Terminal, according to the Fire Department of New York.

The woman was about halfway into the elevator when it shot upward, a fire department spokeswoman said. She was lifted up and crushed between the shaft and the elevator, she said.

The doors remained open as the elevator rose.

Two other people on board the elevator suffered minor injuries.

It was not immediately clear how far the elevator rose. The cause of the malfunction is under investigation.

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Man hunts down prized buck -- at Minnesota deer farm

(Reuters) - A 19-year-old man is in hot water after hunting down the deer of his dreams, a 21-point buck worth thousands of dollars, at a southeast Minnesota deer farm, authorities said on Wednesday.

The man trespassed onto the farm in the early morning hours of December 8 and took the buck down with a bow and arrow in the deer pen, sliced a hole in a fence and dragged it out to the road, the Houston County sheriff's office said.

"It's a little bit bigger than poaching a deer because this is a breeding stock deer," Houston Chief Deputy Sheriff Scott Yeiter said. "This was somebody's prized breeding buck."

Yeiter said other deer escaped through the hole in the fence as well, compounding the loss.

"The estimated loss is tens of thousands possibly," Yeiter said.

John Beem, president of the Minnesota Deer Breeders Association, said he had not personally seen the buck that was shot, but as stock bred for its antlers and for use in breeding it could be worth "$30,000 to $40,000" or more.

"The offspring from that buck would be worth a lot of money," Beem said.

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5 men arraigned in NYPD officer's shooting death

NEW YORK (AP) - A convict accused in the cold-blooded slaying of a New York Police Department officer during a botched robbery already was wanted in a non-fatal shooting in North Carolina but remained on the streets because arrest warrants didn't require his return there, NYPD officials said Tuesday.

The shooting suspect, Lamont Pride, was arraigned late Tuesday on a first-degree murder charge in the officer's killing. He appeared in court shackled and didn't speak. Later, four other men accused of being involved were arraigned on second-degree murder charges. All were jailed without bail.

Arguing for no bail, prosecutor Kenneth Taub said the five men had plotted to "commit a home invasion of a small-time marijuana dealer." He referred to Pride as the "muscle of the organization" and said the defendant "made a choice to end the officer's life rather than be arrested."

Another of the defendants, Nelson Morales, was described as the mastermind behind the plot.

None of the defendants or their attorneys spoke in the courtroom, which was packed with colleagues of the slain police officer, or said anything to reporters after the arraignment.

Pride had been arrested twice in recent months in New York for weapons and drug possession. Each time, he was released after police found they had no grounds to hold him under the North Carolina warrants, police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said at a news conference announcing that Pride and the other men were facing murder charges.

Following the second arrest on Nov. 3, an NYPD supervisor called North Carolina authorities out of "concern that there's an individual who's wanted for a violent act who could be let go," Kelly said. On Nov. 7, North Carolina officials amended the warrants to require Pride be held until state authorities could retrieve him, but by then he had been released pending a January court date in New York, Kelly said.

"Of course, he should not have been out on the street," Kelly said. "He should, ideally, have been extradited to North Carolina, but that didn't happen."

There was no immediate response to messages left with police in Greensboro, N.C., where Pride has three outstanding warrants—for possession of a firearm by a felon, assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill inflicting serious injury and felony conspiracy—in an August shooting. The shooting stemmed from a dispute with another man over a woman, Kelly said.

Pride also served a short prison term in North Carolina for robbery. He was released in October 2010.

Officer Peter Figoski, a 22-year NYPD veteran, was killed early Monday during a botched armed robbery by Pride and the other men of a marijuana dealer living in a basement apartment in Brooklyn, police said. The men are accused of meeting to plan the robbery at about 1 a.m. and arriving at the door of their target at about 2:15 a.m.

When the robbery crew smashed in the door and began beating the dealer, the upstairs owner of the home called 911 to report a break-in. Figoski and his partner, Glenn Estrada, were providing backup to two officers questioning the victim and two suspects inside the apartment when Pride and another man, Kevin Santos, tried to flee, police said.

As Estrada struggled with Santos, Figoski came face-to-face with Pride, police said. The suspect shot Figoski once in the face with a semiautomatic handgun before the officer could draw his own weapon, police said.

Estrada heard the shot and pursued Pride in a foot chase before capturing him several blocks away, police said. Santos escaped but was found at 2 a.m. Tuesday at his girlfriend's home amid an intense round-the-clock investigation. 

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Man arrested for beating student with a shoe

(Reuters) - A man was arrested for brutally beating a fellow college student mistakenly suspected of stealing his pair of $200 Nike Foamposite sneakers, police said on Tuesday.

The suspect, identified by police on Tuesday as Kirk Dudley, 18, of Staten Island, New York, surrendered in Wrentham District Court, in Massachusetts, accompanied by his attorney, after an arrest warrant was issued, Franklin Police Chief Stephan Semerjian said in a statement.

Authorities have said the altercation took place in broad daylight at Dean College, outside of Boston, when a group of male students surrounded the victim and the suspect Dudley punched him in the face, knocking him to the ground.

Video footage, shot by one in the group and later posted on many Internet sites, shows the beating.

After punching him, the assailant can be seen pulling off the victim's shoes and hitting him in the face with them before walking off with the shoes. During and after the altercation, the group of students taunts and laughs at the bloodied, staggering victim, the video shows.

Nine students were quickly expelled after the December 2 incident at the school.

Police charged Dudley with robbery, assault and battery and assault and battery using a dangerous weapon -- a shoe.

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Protesters halt operations at some western ports

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - More than 1,000 Occupy Wall Street protesters blocked cargo trucks at busy West Coast ports Monday, forcing some shipping terminals in Oakland, Calif., Portland, Ore., and Longview, Wash., to halt operations.

While the protests attracted far fewer people than the 10,000 who turned out Nov. 2 to shut down Oakland's port, organizers declared victory and promised more demonstrations to come.

"The truckers are still here, but there's nobody here to unload their stuff," protest organizer Boots Riley said. "We shut down the Port of Oakland for the daytime shift and we're coming back in the evening. Mission accomplished."

Organizers hoped the "Shutdown Wall Street on the Waterfront" protests would cut into the profits of the corporations that run the docks and send a message that their Occupy movement isn't finished.

The closures' economic impact, however, wasn't immediately clear.

The longshoremen's union did not officially support the protests, but its membership cited a provision in its contract that allowed workers to ask to stay off the job if they felt the conditions were unsafe.

Some went home with several hours' pay, while others left with nothing.

Oakland Longshoreman DeAndre Whitten was OK with it. "I hope they keep it up," said Whitten, who lost about $500. "I have no problem with it. But my wife wasn't happy about it."

Others, such as the truck drivers who had to wait in long lines as protesters blocked gates, were angry, saying the demonstrators were harming the very people they were trying to help.

"This is joke. What are they protesting?" said Christian Vega, who sat in his truck carrying a load of recycled paper. He said the delay was costing him $600. "It only hurts me and the other drivers.

"We have jobs and families to support and feed," he said. "Most of them don't."

From Long Beach, Calif., to as far away as Anchorage, Alaska, and Vancouver, British Columbia, protesters beat drums and carried signs as they marched outside port gates.

Rain dampened some protests. Several hundred showed up at the Port of Long Beach and left after several hours.

The movement, which sprang up this fall against what it sees as corporate greed and economic inequality, is focusing on the ports as the "economic engines for the elite." It comes weeks after police raids cleared out most of their tent camps.

The port protests are a "response to show them that it's going to hurt their pocketbooks if they attack us brutally like that," Riley said.

Protesters are most upset by two West Coast companies: port operator SSA Marine and grain exporter EGT. Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs Group Inc. owns a major stake in SSA Marine and has been a frequent target of protesters.

They say they are standing up for workers against the port companies, which have had high-profile clashes with union workers lately. Longshoremen in Longview, for example, have had a longstanding dispute with EGT, which employs workers from a different union to staff its terminal. The longshoremen's union says the jobs rightfully belong to them.

"Disrupting port activities makes it harder for U.S. manufacturing, the farm community and countless others to sell to customers and contribute to our nation's economic recovery," EGT chief executive Larry Clarke said.

While the demonstrations were largely peaceful and isolated to a few gates at each port, local officials in the longshoremen's union and port officials or shipping companies determined that the conditions were unsafe for workers.

In Oakland, several hundred people picketed before dawn and blocked some trucks from going through at least two entrances.

A long line of big rigs sat outside one of the entrances, unable to drive into the port. Police in riot gear stood by as protesters marched in an oval and carried signs.

Shipping companies and the union agreed to send home about 150 of the 200 morning shift workers. Protesters cheered when they learned about the partial shutdown and then dispersed.

"It's disappointing that those union folks were not able to go to work today and earn their wages," said Bob Watters, spokesman for SSA Marine. "We think that everything is pretty well in hand and operations are moving along pretty well now."

Scott Olsen, the Marine Corps veteran who was struck in the head during a clash between police and Occupy Oakland protests in October, led nearly 1,000 people marching back to the Port of Oakland on Monday evening.

A spokesman for the longshoremen's union said shippers at the port would typically request 100 to 200 workers for the overnight shift but weren't asking for any Monday due to the ongoing protests. Port spokeswoman Marilyn Sandifur said the move would bring nighttime operations to a virtual halt.

"Operations have continued throughout the day after sporadic interruptions due to the morning protest activities," she said. "As for the rest of the day and overnight, the port anticipates very limited terminal activity."

In Seattle, police used "flash-bang" percussion grenades to disperse protesters who blocked an entrance to a Port of Seattle facility Monday evening.

Officers moved in after protesters tried to set up a makeshift barrier using scraps of wood, aluminum debris and any other material they could scrape together. After the grenades went off, the protesters scattered.

Earlier, police reported "multiple" arrests at a nearby terminal after about 100 occupy protesters stopped traffic for about 20 minutes.

In Portland, a couple hundred protesters blocked semitrailers from making deliveries at two major terminals.

Security concerns were raised when police found two people in camouflage clothing with a gun, sword and walkie-talkies who said they were doing reconnaissance.

Port officials erected fences and told workers to stay home, port spokesman Josh Thomas said. He said port officials didn't know early Monday afternoon the full economic impact of the blockade.

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2 students shot, wounded at Texas middle school

EDINBURG, Texas (AP) - Authorities suspect hunters may have shot two South Texas middle school students who were wounded by gunfire Monday afternoon while trying out for a basketball team.

Two boys—ages 13 and 14—were shot, said Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Trevino. Classes were not in session at Harwell Middle School when the shooting happened around 4:45 p.m., but the school complex was immediately placed on lockdown. Edinburg school district spokesman Gilbert Tagle said a number of after-school activities were going on besides the basketball tryouts, including a concert and a faculty meeting. He estimated as many as 200 children could have been on campus.

One of the wounded boys was in critical condition Monday night with a bullet embedded in an organ. The other was stable and awaiting X-rays, Trevino said.

At the time of the shooting, one of the boys was going for a layup. The other was waiting his turn to try out, Trevino said.

The sheriff said it was too early to say whether the students were targeted or if the shooting was accidental.

Investigators believe the shots may have come from hunters on adjacent farm property, Trevino said. The shots did not come from the campus and were not a result of a drive-by, he said.

Harwell Middle School opened just this year on the rural property northeast of Edinburg, which is about 50 miles northwest of Brownsville. Homes line the road approaching the school, but open fields stretch out behind it and to the north.

Investigators have spoken with owners of surrounding farms and the land was being leased to deer hunters, Trevino said. Authorities interviewed some hunters who were found on adjoining properties.

The outdoor court where the shooting took place was north of the school complex at an athletic facility that includes a football field, track and tennis courts, said Oziel Garzia, a 14-year-old eighth-grader.

Annette Vargas Ugalde, a 15-year-old eighth grader, said she was about to board her bus near the gym after school when school officials started rushing students indoors.

"They told us to, `Get inside, get inside,'" she said.

She said she heard no shots but saw a group of people on the outdoor court standing near one boy on the ground. A school nurse tended to him while another boy was sitting up. 

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