NFL in '$765m concussion settlement'

29 August 2013 Last updated at 15:10 ET

The National Football League and former players who say it hid the dangers of concussion have reached a $765m (£490m) settlement, a judge says.

The NFL would pay the sum to fund concussion-related compensation, medical exams and research.

Federal Judge Anita Brody in Philadelphia announced the deal after months of court-ordered mediation.

More than 4,500 former players had sued the league, alleging it concealed the risks of long-term brain damage.

Continue reading the main story

• Baseline medical exams costs capped at $75m
• A total of $675m for injury compensation, with individual awards caps at $4m for deaths from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, $3m for players suffering from dementia and $5m for players with Alzheimer's disease.
• $10m towards medical research
• 50% of payment for injuries in the next three years with the remaining payout over 17 years

The class action accused the NFL of hiding research that had shown the harmful effects of concussions, while glorifying and promoting violent play.

Many former players with neurological conditions believe their problems stem from knocks to the head.

Helmet-to-helmet impacts are common in American football as strong, heavy and fast-moving players collide on the field of play.

Studies have linked repeated concussions with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a disease with symptoms including memory loss and mood swings.

As part of the settlement, the NFL will neither admit liability nor that the players' injuries were caused by football and will likely not have to disclose internal files that could show what it knew about concussion-linked brain problems and when.

"This agreement lets us help those who need it most and continue our work to make the game safer for current and future players," NFL Executive Vice-President Jeffrey Pash said in statement.

"We thought it was critical to get more help to players and families who deserve it rather than spend many years and millions of dollars on litigation."

The deal is still subject to Judge Brody's approval, as well as that of the retired players who brought the lawsuit.

The plaintiffs in the case include at least 10 members of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the family of linebacker Junior Seau, who took his own life last year, and former Atlanta Falcons safety Ray Easterling, who filed the first lawsuit in 2011 but later killed himself.

The settlement comes immediately before the start of the new season for the league.

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US will not challenge cannabis laws

29 August 2013 Last updated at 16:00 ET

The US government has said it will not sue to stop the states of Colorado and Washington from legalising recreational use of marijuana.

The justice department said it would focus on preventing underage access to the drug and keeping drug cash from criminals, but declined legal action.

Voters in Colorado and Washington state legalised possession and use of small amounts of marijuana in November.

Federal law forbids marijuana use and possession.

'Surrender'

In addition to the two states that outright legalised the drug, 20 states and Washington DC allow medical marijuana use, a stricter standard.

"For states such as Colorado and Washington... the department expects these states to establish strict regulatory schemes," the justice department said in a statement.

The department said it was "deferring its right to challenge legalization laws at this time" but said it could challenge the eventual regulatory schemes in the states.

Dan Riffle of the Marijuana Policy Project, a pro-legalisation group, called the announcement "a clear signal that states are free to determine their own policies".

The executive director of a group called the Drug Free America Foundation said Attorney General Eric Holder, an appointee of President Barack Obama who oversees the justice department, had "surrendered".

"He is essentially setting up a tsunami that will no doubt result in far too many of America's young people being subjected to chemical slavery," said Calvina Fay.

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US fast-food workers on strike

29 August 2013 Last updated at 17:40 ET

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The BBC meets a low-paid fast-food worker in New York who says she is barely scraping by

Fast-food workers in dozens of US cities are on strike, union leaders say, in what could be one of the industry's biggest walkouts.

Workers want to be paid $15 (£10) an hour, double the rate for many employees at fast-food chains.

In New York City, about 300 protesters flooded into a McDonald's near the Empire State Building.

The strike comes amid calls by President Barack Obama and some lawmakers to raise the US minimum wage.

Those members of Congress suggest bringing the current rate up to $9 an hour from $7.25, previously set in 2009.

Labour Secretary Thomas Perez, who is taking a lead role in the Obama administration's minimum wage push, said: "For all too many people working minimum wage jobs, the rungs on the ladder of opportunity are feeling further and further apart."

In addition to a walkout at fast-food chains in 60 cities, including New York, Chicago and Detroit, employees at retail firms in some cities were expected to join, say union leaders.

Other cities included Boston, Atlanta, Hartford, Los Angeles, Milwaukee and St Louis.

But turnout varied significantly across the nation, with some targeted restaurants appearing to operate normally while others were unable to do business.

'Below poverty line'

At a Wendy's in New York City, about 150 workers and supporters stood outside chanting: "We can't survive on $7.25".

Many workers say they cannot live on the minimum wage, which would net $15,000 a year for full-time work.

But many note they are rarely scheduled for full working weeks.

In Raleigh, North Carolina, about 30 fast-food workers picketed outside a Little Caesars pizza restaurant.

Julio Wilson said he earns $9 an hour and had worked there for about six months. He said that pay was insufficient to support himself and his five-year-old daughter.

"I know I'm risking my job, but it's my right to fight for what I deserve," Mr Wilson said.

In addition to advocating for $15 an hour, workers are calling for the right to unionise without interference from employers.

In statements, McDonald's and Burger King Worldwide said they did not make pay decisions at the majority of US restaurants that operate as independent franchises.

The firms have argued that raising entry-level wages would lead to higher overall costs and higher prices.

A spokesman for the National Restaurant Association, a restaurant lobbying group, told the Associated Press news agency that low wages reflect the fact that most fast-food workers tend to be younger and have little work experience.

But Mary Kay Henry, of Service Employees International Union (SEIU), a labour group supporting the strike, says many fast-food workers are no longer only teenagers.

"The median wage [for service workers] of $9.08 an hour still falls far below the federal poverty line for a worker lucky enough to get 40 hours a week and never have to take a sick day," she said.

The US fast-food industry has come under increasing scrutiny because part-time jobs, including retail and food positions, have made up most of the job growth since the recession.

Earlier this summer there was a one-day walkout by about 2,200 fast-food workers.

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US girl, 6, dies in boy's joyride

30 August 2013 Last updated at 10:51 ET

An eight-year-old Arizona boy has crashed his mother's car after taking it for a joyride, fatally injuring his six-year-old sister, who was with him.

The mother put the two children to bed in Phoenix on Wednesday night before waking up to find them gone.

As police tried to pull the car over, suspecting the two had been kidnapped, the Hyundai Elantra hit a power pole.

Police Sgt Steve Martos said neither the boy nor the 24-year-old mother were expected to face criminal charges.

"There's really no criminal element to any of it," Sgt Martos said.

"From mom's standpoint, there's nothing to indicate any neglect or abuse. From the kid's point, he's eight years old so his mental state is not culpable."

'Horrible and tragic'

It is not clear what prompted the children to go on the drive or how they got the keys.

The vehicle travelled south for about three miles (4.8km) before coming back.

According to police, the children's mother ran over to the scene of the crash after seeing police activity and was visibly distraught after discovering her children in the car.

"It was a horrible and tragic moment for her," he said.

The girl died early on Thursday, while her brother suffered a minor ankle injury.

Police did not release the names of the boy or the mother.

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North Korea 'cancels' US envoy visit

30 August 2013 Last updated at 11:54 ET

North Korea has revoked an invitation for a US envoy to travel to Pyongyang to seek the release of an American man, the US state department says.

Robert King, the US special envoy for North Korean rights, was expected make his appeal to release Kenneth Bae, 45, on humanitarian grounds.

Mr Bae, a Korean-American, was given 15 years' hard labour in May.

North Korea said Mr Bae, a Christian missionary and tour operator, used his tourism business to plot sedition.

State department spokeswoman Marie Harf said on Friday the US was "surprised and disappointed" by the decision to rescind the envoy's invitation.

"We have sought clarification from the DPRK [North Korea] about its decision and have made every effort so that Ambassador King's trip could continue as planned or take place at a later date," Ms Harf said in a statement.

She added that the US was "gravely concerned" about 45-year-old Mr Bae's health.

Mr King had been expected to travel on Saturday from Tokyo to spend two days in Pyongyang. He will now return to Washington.

"We have not been told that anything is definite," the US envoy said in Japan on Wednesday. "We are going to make an appeal."

Continue reading the main story

• Eddie Jun Yong-su: Businessman detained for six months in 2011, freed after a visit led by US envoy Robert King
• Aijalon Mahli Gomes: Teacher and Christian jailed in 2010 for eight years over illegal entry via China - freed after ex-US President Jimmy Carter visited Pyongyang
• Robert Park: US activist crossed into North Korea via China in late 2009 - freed in 2010 by North Korea
• Laura Ling/Euna Lee: Jailed in 2009 for 12 years over illegal entry via the Chinese border - freed after ex-US President Bill Clinton met former NK leader Kim Jong-il

He said Mr Bae "has health problems and we are hopeful that we are going to be able to make progress on that".

Kenneth Bae's family say he is seriously ill and has been moved from a labour camp to a hospital. They say he has diabetes and an enlarged heart.

Mr Bae (known in North Korea as Pae Jun-ho) was arrested in November 2012 as he entered the north-eastern port city of Rason, a special economic zone near North Korea's border with China.

Mr Bae's trial and conviction came at a time of high tension between the US and North Korea, in the wake of the communist state's third nuclear test.

It also came as the US and South Korea conducted annual large-scale military exercises, which angered Pyongyang.

It had been hoped that Mr King's visit could kick-start new contacts between Washington and Pyongyang, says the BBC's Lucy Williamson in Seoul.

North Korea has arrested several US citizens in recent years, including journalists and Christians, accused of proselytising.

They were released after visits to Pyongyang by high-profile officials, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

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US spying 'black budget' detailed

30 August 2013 Last updated at 13:55 ET

A breakdown of US intelligence's multi-billion dollar "black budget" has been revealed in files disclosed by leaker Edward Snowden to the Washington Post.

The CIA's budget is the most expensive, $14.7bn (£9.5bn) out of $52.6bn in total for 16 intelligence agencies, according to the files.

Two of those agencies are also actively hacking into foreign computer networks, reports the Washington Post.

The US has not made public a breakdown of the total intelligence budget.

The newspaper published charts detailing the budget, but did not post all the documents, citing "sensitive details" after US officials expressed concerns about risks to methods and sources.

According to the Washington Post, the CIA's budget has grown more than 50% since 2004.

'Priority' intelligence targets

The files also reportedly show the budget of the National Security Agency (NSA), America's electronic spying organisation - it apparently requested $10.8bn for 2013, making it second only to the CIA.

Nearly $5bn of the CIA's budget is allocated to human intelligence operations, with almost $67m of that total reserved for funding the false identities of its overseas spies, according to the files.

The CIA and the NSA have also launched "offensive cyber operations" to hack into or sabotage enemy computer networks, according to the files.

The documents reportedly refer to China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel as "priority" counterintelligence targets. Israel is an American ally, though it has previously conducted espionage against the US.

The NSA is denying one part of Friday's report - that the agency planned to investigate up to 4,000 cases of possible internal security breaches before Mr Snowden made his disclosures to the media.

Vanee Vines, an agency spokesman, told the Associated Press the effort actually represented a broad reinvestigation of civil personnel to lessen the possibility of security risks.

"Periodic reinvestigations are conducted as one due-diligence component of our multifaceted insider threat programme," he said.

The documents are the latest in a series of leaks by ex-NSA contractor Mr Snowden, who has been charged with espionage in a federal court in the US.

He is currently in Russia, where the government of Vladimir Putin has granted him a year's asylum.

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US man convicted of murdering baby

30 August 2013 Last updated at 17:40 ET

An 18-year-old US man has been convicted of murder in the shooting of a 13-month-old boy in Georgia in March.

De'Marquis Elkins now faces life in prison. At the time of the shooting, he was 17 - too young to face the death penalty under the state law.

Another youth, 15-year-old Dominique Lang, is to be tried later.

During the trial, prosecutors said Elkins shot Antonio Santiago in an attempted robbery. The killing sent shockwaves across America.

Mother's account

The jury in the town of Marietta, Georgia, found Elkins guilty of 11 counts, including two counts of felony murder and one count of malice murder on 21 March.

The shooting happened in the town of Brunswick, as Antonio Santiago was riding in a stroller pushed by his mother, Sherry West.

She told the court that her son was shot in the face and she was shot in the leg by Elkins after she refused to hand over her purse.

She said she told the assailants that she did not have any money and tried to shield her son, before shots rang out near her home.

"He asked me for money and I said I didn't have it," Ms West said, as she wept in an interview with the Associated Press earlier this year.

In 2008, Ms West lost another son, 18-year-old Shaun Glassey, who was stabbed to death in an attack involving several other teenagers in the state of New Jersey.

On Friday, the jurors also found Elkins' mother, Karimah, guilty of tampering with evidence. But she was acquitted of lying to police.

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Venezuela strip club attacker jailed

30 August 2013 Last updated at 19:07 ET

A Venezuelan man has been sentenced to five and a half years in prison for opening fire on two US diplomats in a Caracas strip club.

The attorney general's office said Carlos Mejias admitted wounding the military attaches after a brawl in May.

"He pulled out a gun and repeatedly fired at the Americans," it said in a statement.

One of the diplomats was shot in the leg, the other in the stomach. But neither had life-threatening injuries.

The incident took place at the Antonella 2012 Club, a pole dancing bar in the Chacao neighbourhood of Caracas, the statement said.

Mr Mejias surrendered to the authorities five days later and was charged with attempted murder.

A second Venezuelan has been charged with being an accessory to attempted murder.

Caracas is considered one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America.

Diplomats have been targeted by criminals in recent years with officials from Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico and Belarus being briefly abducted.

Last year, the government introduced a new gun law banning the sale of firearms and ammunition.

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Top US judge to perform gay wedding

30 August 2013 Last updated at 20:40 ET

US Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is poised to become the first judge on the country's highest court to perform a same-sex marriage.

Justice Ginsburg, 80, officiates this weekend at the wedding of Michael Kaiser, 59, president of the Kennedy Center performing arts space, and economist John Roberts, 32.

Mr Kaiser is a personal friend of hers.

In June, the Supreme Court overturned a law that banned recognition of same-sex marriages by the US government.

The ruling granted legally married gay men and women access to the same federal entitlements available to opposite-sex married couples.

Justice Ginsburg, who was appointed to the nine-member high court in 1993 by President Bill Clinton, voted in the majority in that case.

Same-sex marriage is now legal in 13 states and Washington DC, and since the court's decision, the federal government under President Barack Obama has taken several steps to grant same-sex marriage couples the same legal status as opposite-sex couples.

The ceremony will take place at the Kennedy Center in Washington, the Associated Press reports.

Justice Ginsburg told the Washington Post newspaper she believed none of the Supreme Court justices had been asked previously to conduct a same-sex ceremony for fear it would compromise their ability to hear a case on the issue.

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Putin challenges US on Syria claims

31 August 2013 Last updated at 08:55 ET

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The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner examines what we know about the Syria attack on 21 August

Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the US to present to the UN evidence that Syria attacked rebels with chemical weapons near Damascus.

Mr Putin said it would be "utter nonsense" for Syria's government to provoke opponents with such attacks.

US President Barack Obama says he is considering military action against Syria after intelligence reports that 1,429 people were killed on 21 August.

UN weapons inspectors have left Syria after gathering evidence for four days.

They crossed into neighbouring Lebanon. They are due to go to the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in the Netherlands.

The US says hundreds of children were among those killed in the suspected chemical weapons attacks, which the US says was carried out by the Syrian government.

Syria said the US claim was "full of lies", blaming rebels for the attacks.

US President Barack Obama Obama said on Friday the US was planning a "limited, narrow" military response that would not involve "boots on the ground".

Continue reading the main story 'Trump card'

The inspectors' departure from Syria removes both a practical and a political obstacle to the launch of US-led military action, correspondents say.

Continue reading the main story

There are those in Syria who will cheer on the US action and those who will be quite worried by it, but I think everyone is making some preparation.

People are trying to buy what they can, stockpile things, get water, bread, food that lasts, because they don't know what's going to happen.

They don't know what President Obama means by a limited attack and what consequences that may have for their lives and the degree to which it would stay limited.

The BBC's Jeremy Bowen in Damascus says people are worried and are making preparations.

They do not know what Mr Obama means by a limited attack and what consequences it will have for them, he adds.

Speaking to journalists in the Russian far-eastern city of Vladivostok, Mr Putin urged Mr Obama - as a Nobel Peace Prize laureate - to think about future victims in Syria before using force.

He said it was ridiculous to suggest the Syrian government was to blame for the attack.

"Syrian government troops are on the offensive and have surrounded the opposition in several regions," he said.

"In these conditions, to give a trump card to those who are calling for a military intervention is utter nonsense."

"So I'm convinced that is nothing more than a provocation by those who want to drag other countries into the Syrian conflict."

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Russia's Vladimir Putin challenges US on Syria claims

He said that the US failure to present evidence to the international community was "simply disrespectful".

"If there is evidence it should be shown. If it is not shown, then there isn't any," he said.

The main findings of the released unclassified summary of the US evidence state that:

• the attack killed 1,429 people, including 426 children
• Syrian military chemical weapons personnel were operating in the area in the three days before the attack
• Satellite evidence shows rockets launched from government-held areas 90 minutes before first report of chemical attack
• 100 videos attributed to the attack show symptoms consistent with exposure to nerve agent
• Communications were intercepted involving a senior Damascus official who "confirmed chemical weapons were used" and was concerned about UN inspectors obtaining evidence

'Completely unexpected'

Russia - a key ally of Syria - has previously warned that "any unilateral military action bypassing the UN Security Council" would be a "direct violation of international law".

Moscow, along with China, has vetoed two previous draft resolutions on Syria.

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Barack Obama: "We're not considering any boots on the ground approach"

Mr Putin also expressed surprise at a vote in the British parliament on Thursday ruling out participation in military action.

"I will be honest: this was completely unexpected for me," he said.

"This shows that in Great Britain, even if it is the USA's main geopolitical ally in the world... there are people who are guided by national interests and common sense, and value their sovereignty."

Meanwhile in France - seen as the main US ally since the UK vote - an opinion poll suggested that 64% opposed the use of force.

Neither France nor the US needs parliamentary approval for military action.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said his country will defend itself against any Western "aggression".

Forces which could be used against Syria:

• Four US destroyers - USS Gravely, USS Ramage, USS Barry and USS Mahan - are in the eastern Mediterranean, equipped with cruise missiles. The missiles can also be fired from submarines, but the US Navy does not reveal their locations

• Airbases at Incirlik and Izmir in Turkey, and in Jordan, could be used to carry out strikes

• Two aircraft carriers - USS Nimitz and USS Harry S Truman are in the wider region

• French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle is currently in Toulon in the western Mediterranean

• French Raffale and Mirage aircraft can also operate from Al-Dhahra airbase in the UAE

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Syrian hacking fallout continues

28 August 2013 Last updated at 07:05 ET By Dave Lee Technology reporter, BBC News

The websites of the New York Times and Twitter are still suffering problems related to a damaging hack carried out on Tuesday.

The newspaper and social network were hit after their domain name details were maliciously edited by hackers.

The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA), a group supporting Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, says it carried out the attack.

It is the most severe attack so far carried out by the group.

In recent months, the hackers have targeted major media companies including the Financial Times, Washington Post, CNN and BBC.

But in this latest attack, the SEA was able to cause more sustained damage with a technique which also saw news and comment site the Huffington Post hit.

The attacked domains were managed by hosting company Melbourne IT, which has said it is looking at "additional layers of security" for protecting domain details.

DNS changes

The attack focused on editing DNS - Domain Name System - information.

The DNS is used to direct web traffic to a specific server containing the website a user wants to visit.

In simple terms, it means we can browse the web using easy-to-remember addresses like bbc.com, rather than by IP addresses - a string of numbers separated by dots.

Continue reading the main story

Media attacks seem to be escalating and moving away from annoying, simple denial-of-service attacks and toward full domain compromise"

End Quote Ken Westin Security researcher

The SEA was able to gain access to Melbourne IT's system, where Twitter and the New York Times registered their respective domains.

It meant that the hackers could change DNS details so that instead of, for example, "nytimes.com" taking you to the Times' servers, the domain was instead pointed to a website hosted by the SEA.

In Twitter's case, the SEA targeted twimg.com - a separate domain that the social network used to store image data, as well as styling code.

While Twitter itself remained active, the disruption to twimg.com meant many pages displayed incorrectly.

In a statement, Twitter said that no user data had been affected.

The SEA used its Twitter account to publicise the attacks on both sites, posting images of its work.

"Hi @Twitter," the group said in one tweet, "look at your domain, its owned by #SEA :)"

'Through the front door'

Melbourne IT blamed the breach on a reseller - a third party that sells domains through the company's system.

Melbourne IT said the reseller's log-in credentials had been obtained, and that with them the SEA could enter through the "front door" and carry out the attack.

"If you've got a valid user name and password," chief executive Theo Hnarakis told ABC (Australia), "the assumption from our systems is that you are the authorised owner and user of that domain name."

In a further statement, the company said: "We are currently reviewing our logs to see if we can obtain information on the identity of the party that has used the reseller credentials, and we will share this information with the reseller and any relevant law enforcement bodies."

The company advised those wanting to make sure their domains were fully protected to use "additional registry lock features" that they offered.

Perseverance

During its downtime, the New York Times has been publishing new articles on its Facebook page as well as a mirror site.

Meanwhile, Mark Frons, the company's chief information officer, cautioned staff to "be careful when sending email communications until this situation is resolved".

Ken Westin, a security researcher for Tripwire, an online security company, told the BBC: "Media attacks seem to be escalating and moving away from annoying, simple denial-of-service attacks and toward full domain compromise which, if successful, puts millions of NYT website users at risk."

In January, the New York Times said hackers had accessed its website and stolen the passwords of 53 employees after it published a report on the wealth of then Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's family.

As it did after that NYT disruption, competitor Wall Street Journal took down its paywall on Tuesday and offered its content free to all visitors.

Michael Fey, chief technology officer at cybersecurity firm McAfee, said that as long as media organisations played a crucial role in reporting news and influencing debate, they would continue to be targets of cyber-attacks.

"Regardless of technology or tactics deployed, we should expect to see more of these attacks,'' he said.

Follow Dave Lee on Twitter @DaveLeeBBC

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Merrill Lynch settles US race suit

28 August 2013 Last updated at 17:14 ET

Brokerage giant Merrill Lynch has settled a racial discrimination lawsuit for $160m (£103.1m), which could affect as many as 1,200 employees in the US.

It is one of the largest sums ever paid in a discrimination suit.

"We are working toward a very positive resolution of a lawsuit filed in 2005," said Merrill Lynch spokesperson Bill Halldin.

The suit was first filed by George McReynolds, who worked at the bank for 30 years.

Mr McReynolds was joined by 16 other former and current African-American Merrill Lynch employees as part of the suit, although the settlement payout could apply to thousands more workers at the firm.

In the lawsuit Mr McReynolds, who worked in the Nashville, Tennessee office, alleged that African-American workers at Merrill Lynch offices were encouraged to pursue clerical positions in a segregated workforce and if they did become brokers, were not offered much in terms of support.

At the time the suit was filed, only 2% of Merrill Lynch's employees were African-American, despite an agreement the brokerage had signed with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to increase that percentage to 6.5%.

A meeting on 3 September is scheduled to discuss the settlement terms in federal court.

"It has been a long journey and our clients have persevered through quite a bit of adversity," Suzanne Bish, one of the plaintiff's lawyers, told the BBC.

"We're hopeful now that the case has been resolved that there will be meaningful reform and a real difference in terms of opportunities for African-Americans."

Perseverance pays off

Columbia University law professor John Coffee said the case was more than twice the length of most class actions.

"The plaintiffs' attorneys showed extraordinary tenacity and creativity in sticking with this case after a long string of defeats," he said.

The amount of the settlement is much larger than sums offered in similar suits against Coca-Cola and Texaco, and it stands in stark contrast to failed efforts to convince US courts of sexual discrimination at Wal-Mart.

Ms Bish said the significance of the settlement coming on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr's March on Washington was not lost on her clients.

"They wouldn't be brokers on Wall Street without the efforts of people who struggled before them and they're excited to continue the struggle," she said.

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Fort Hood gunman sentenced to death

28 August 2013 Last updated at 19:38 ET

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It could be years, possibly decades, before Maj Hasan is executed because of the long appeals process in the military justice system.

A military jury has sentenced a former US Army psychiatrist to die by lethal injection for killing 13 soldiers and wounding 32 at a Texas Army base.

Maj Nidal Hasan, 42, was convicted last week of the November 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood.

The defendant had tried to admit his guilt but military law bans guilty pleas in death penalty cases.

The Virginia-born Muslim said he opened fire to protect Taliban insurgents from troops about to deploy to Afghanistan.

'Never a martyr'

Continue reading the main story

Maj Nidal Hasan sat in his wheelchair and gave no reaction to the death sentence.

The Army psychiatrist had listened to the prosecutor go through the personal stories of each of the 13 people he killed.

He had seen their photographs as the jury heard about the impact his actions had on the parents, widows and children left behind.

The prosecutor described the way each family member of each soldier killed was visited by "two soldiers in Class A uniforms" knocking on the front door with death notifications.

Hasan shut his eyes occasionally, rubbed his unkempt and greying beard, and held his head in the one hand he is still able to use after being paralysed by the shots which stopped his shooting rampage.

And he again declined his final opportunity to offer an explanation for what he did.

The jury handed down its sentence after two hours of deliberations on Wednesday.

But it could be years, possibly decades, before Maj Hasan is executed because of the long appeals process in the military justice system.

His execution must eventually be authorised by the president.

On Wednesday before the sentence was handed down, prosecutor Col Mike Mulligan urged jurors to opt for a rare military death penalty.

"He will not now and he will never be a martyr," Col Mulligan said of Maj Hasan. "He is a criminal. He is a cold-blooded murderer."

"This is not his gift to God. This is his debt to society. This is the cost of his murderous rampage."

"He will never be a martyr because he has nothing to give," Col Mulligan added. "He will not be giving his life, we will be taking it."

Maj Hasan, who represented himself, declined to speak on his own behalf, saying only: "I have no closing statement."

The 13-member jury had to reach unanimous agreement in order to sentence Maj Hasan to death, otherwise he would have faced life in prison.

The US military has not executed a service member since 1961. There are five inmates on the US military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, all at various stages of the appeals process.

Maj Hasan opened fire at a medical facility on the Fort Hood base where soldiers were being evaluated before deploying overseas.

The jury heard he had prepared carefully for the attack, during which he fired 146 bullets.

The shooting spree ended when he was shot by a civilian police officer.

He was paralysed from the waist down and now uses a wheelchair.

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Defecting Cuban hurdler aims for US

28 August 2013 Last updated at 04:50 ET

A top Cuban hurdler who defected earlier this month says he now wants to be reunited with his mother in Florida.

Orlando Ortega, 22, criticised the Cuban sports authorities in a phone call to the Associated Press news agency from Padua in Italy.

"It was an extremely difficult and tough decision, but I made it and I won't look back," said Ortega.

Ortega came sixth in the 110m hurdles final in the London 2012 Olympics. But this year his form has been much worse.

He failed to get beyond the qualifying round in his event at the world championships in Moscow recently.

The Cuban authorities suspended him for six months for insubordination after he refused to compete in a June trial event in Russia.

In early August he abandoned the Cuban team in Spain, after the World Championships in Moscow.

He was regarded as one of the island's top athletes and his defection is seen as a big blow, coming after the decision by fellow Cuban hurdler Dayron Robles to move his career to Monaco.

"Right now the only thing and what I want most is to reunite with my mother in the United States," Ortega said. His mother lives in Tampa, Florida.

"They committed a great injustice with me and my trainer," Ortega said. "It affected me a lot and I felt very bad, because I didn't compete during the two months ahead of the world championships," he told AP.

"I am living some hard moments. I know that in Cuba people are talking about betrayal," Ortega said.

He went on to criticise Cuba's sports authorities for "the lack of attention to the athletes".

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'Revenge porn' law debated in US

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Zimmerman wife guilty of perjury

28 August 2013 Last updated at 11:59 ET

The wife of the Florida neighbourhood watchman acquitted of killing an unarmed black teenager has been convicted of perjury.

Shellie Zimmerman, 26, admitted having lied about how much bail money the couple could afford during a hearing after her husband's arrest.

She was sentenced in Sanford, Florida, to one year's probation and 100 hours of community service.

George Zimmerman, 29, was acquitted in July of Trayvon Martin's murder.

He admitted shooting the 17-year-old in the Orlando suburb of Sanford last year, but said it was an act of self-defence.

Bank transfers

At a June 2012 bail hearing for her husband, Shellie Zimmerman said she did not have much money because she was a full-time student and her husband was not working.

Continue reading the main story

She stood by her man, like Tammy Wynette says"

End Quote Kelly Sims Dfenece lawyer

Prosecutors argued that an online fund set up to pay for Mr Zimmerman's legal defence had collected $135,000 in donations.

But she told the judge that she did not know how much money the website appeal had raised.

According to court records, in the days leading up to the hearing Shellie Zimmerman transferred $74,000 (£48,000) from her husband's bank account to her own, in smaller installments that would not alert the tax authorities.

More than $85,000 was moved back into Mr Zimmerman's account four days after he was released on bail.

Before the hearing, a further $47,000 was moved from Mr Zimmerman's account to his sister's bank.

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"The verdict will not define Trayvon's life," his parents last week told the BBC's Rajini Vaidyanathan

Jail records also show that on a phone call while still in custody, Mr Zimmerman told his wife to "pay off all the bills" on a bank card.

After Wednesday's hearing, Shellie Zimmerman's lawyer, Kelly Sims, said her client had accepted responsibility.

"She was scared," the attorney told the Associated Press news agency. "Her husband was locked up.

"She didn't know what was going on. So, she stood by her man, like Tammy Wynette says. She's accepting responsibility."

Mr Zimmerman's bail was initially posted at $150,000 and he was released after posting $15,000 in cash.

But after Shellie Zimmerman's false statements were discovered the judge revoked the bail and released him later on a $1m bond.

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Douglas and Zeta Jones 'take break'

28 August 2013 Last updated at 12:48 ET

Hollywood actors Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta Jones "are taking time apart" after 13 years of marriage, it has been confirmed.

The actress's publicist told the BBC the couple had taken the decision in order to "evaluate and work on their marriage".

Douglas, 68, and Swansea-born Zeta Jones, 43, married in 2000 after meeting in France two years earlier.

They have two children - Dylan, 13, and Carys, 10.

The pair have both struggled with health problems in recent years.

Douglas was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2010, while Zeta Jones sought treatment for bipolar disorder in 2011 and again earlier this year.

At this year's Cannes Film Festival, Douglas claimed his condition - which is now in remission - had been caused by oral sex.

'Second chance'

The couple share the same birthday, 25 September, and met at the Deauville Film Festival in France in 1998.

They had their first child in August 2000, and married three months later in a lavish ceremony at New York's Plaza hotel, where guests included Goldie Hawn, Christopher Reeve, Jack Nicholson and Brad Pitt.

OK! magazine paid £1m for exclusive access to photographs of the day, but rival magazine Hello! spoiled the scoop by publishing pictures taken by somebody pretending to be a guest or a waiter.

A long legal battle followed in the UK, with the couple arguing that Hello! had invaded their privacy.

The case was eventually resolved in 2007, when the House Of Lords ruled Hello! had breached OK!'s confidentiality.

Prior to the wedding, the couple reportedly signed a pre-nuptial agreement, which entitles Zeta Jones to £1m for every year of their marriage in the event of the relationship coming to an end.

Douglas insisted on the contract after his first wife, Diandra, was awarded £44m in their divorce.

Speaking to the Mirror earlier this month, the actor said his biggest regret was not ending his first marriage sooner. He had married Diandra in 1977 and they separated in 1995, but did not file for divorce until 2000.

"I have nothing against her and in fact I'm very fond of my first wife," he said, "but we should have ended that marriage eight or 10 years earlier".

"It took me too long to realise that if you go to a marriage counsellor to resolve problems, it's in his interest to keep the marriage going."

In the same interview, Douglas paid tribute to Zeta Jones, who had given him "this second chance to have a family".

"The thing I've learned about getting older is you can't take love for granted," he said. "You protect it, nurture it and it grows and after one's initial, physical emotional aspects, it becomes deeper."

The star, whose films include Wall Street and Basic Instinct, recently made his post-cancer return to the big screen playing Liberace in the biopic Behind The Candelabra.

Zeta Jones, an Oscar-winner for her role in Chicago, is currently starring alongside Dame Helen Mirren and Bruce Willis in popcorn action film Red 2.

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Obama marks King's 'Dream' speech

28 August 2013 Last updated at 17:27 ET

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US President Barack Obama: "Because they marched, America became more free and fair"

US President Barack Obama has linked the ongoing struggle for economic equality in America with the goals of the 1963 March on Washington, in a speech marking its 50th anniversary.

Mr Obama, the first black US president, said ensuring economic opportunity was "our great unfinished business".

He also linked his own rise to the White House with the efforts of the civil rights protesters decades ago.

Members of Martin Luther King's family and veterans of the march also spoke.

Mr Obama gave his address at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington DC almost 50 years to the minute after Martin Luther King Jr culminated the march with his celebrated I Have a Dream speech

The time - 15:00 local time (19:00 GMT) - was marked by ringing bells.

Mr Obama began by honouring King, as well as the many African-American and white marchers who descended on Washington to protest for equal rights for black citizens 50 years ago.

"They assembled here, in our nation's capital, under the shadow of the great emancipator, to offer testimony of injustice, to petition their government for redress and to awaken America's long-slumbering conscience," Mr Obama said.

Continue reading the main story

"Because they marched, city councils changed and state legislators changed and Congress changed, and yes, eventually the White House changed," Mr Obama said to great cheers. "Because they marched, America became more free and fair."

He praised "those maids, those labourers, those porters, those secretaries" who had transformed the US into the nation "our children now take for granted", in which individuals of different races mix freely in public and private life.

"To dismiss the magnitude of this progress," he said, "to suggest, as some sometimes do, that little has changed - that dishonours the courage and the sacrifice of those who paid the price to march in those years."

But Mr Obama argued "the very significance of these victories may have obscured a second goal of the march" - jobs and the promise of equal economic opportunity.

"They were there seeking jobs as well as justice," he said.

"We must remind ourselves that the measure of progress for those who marched 50 years ago was not merely how many blacks had joined the ranks of millionaires," Mr Obama said.

"It was whether this country would admit all people who were willing to work hard, regardless of race, into the ranks of a middle-class life.

"To win that battle, to answer that call - this remains our great unfinished business."

The US president, who has clashed with Republicans in Congress over his economic policies, criticised "entrenched interests" and "elected officials who found it useful to practice the old politics of division".

But he said the 1963 march "teaches us that we are not trapped by the mistakes of history, that we are masters of our fate".

Mr Obama was joined on the stage by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who also spoke.

Former President George W Bush, who is recovering from a heart procedure, sent a message of support.

Continue reading the main story

King's struggle is far from over, his dream not a reality for many"

End Quote

In his statement Mr Bush said Mr Obama's presidency reflected "the promise of America" and "will help us honour the man who inspired millions to redeem that promise".

Chat show host Oprah Winfrey and actors Forest Whitaker and Jamie Foxx also attended the event.

Wednesday's rainy commemoration began with marchers walking the streets of Washington DC behind a replica of the bus once ridden by seamstress Rosa Parks when she refused to give up her bus seat for a white passenger in 1955.

Half a century ago, Martin Luther King led some 250,000 protesters down the same strip and delivered his famous speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character," he said, in one of the most celebrated pieces of American oratory.

His address marked the peak of a series of protests against racial discrimination that began when Rosa Parks launched the bus protests.

Her action sparked a bus boycott campaign across Montgomery, Alabama.

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Many African Americans say King's dream is still not a reality

King became a dominant force in the movement and so was called on to make the final speech at the march.

He advocated the use of non-violent protest such as sit-ins and protest marches, and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Four years later, his assassination led to rioting in more than 100 US cities.

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Rob Ford: I used 'a lot' of cannabis

28 August 2013 Last updated at 18:50 ET

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has said he has smoked "a lot" of marijuana, as a national debate on legalisation of the drug builds.

Mr Ford, who leads Canada's largest city, became the fourth Canadian politician in a week to acknowledge using the drug.

Separately, he has denied rumours he was caught on video smoking crack cocaine and that he was addicted to it.

In June, Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau called for legalisation.

Reporters confronted Mr Ford on Wednesday after Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne acknowledged she had smoked marijuana 35 years ago, before entering politics.

"Oh yeah, I won't deny that," Mr Ford said with a laugh when asked if he had smoked marijuana. "I've smoked a lot of it."

Last week, New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair also acknowledged using marijuana but would not say when, and Mr Trudeau said he had smoked marijuana since becoming a member of parliament.

Rumours of hard drug use by Mr Ford first circulated in March after two media outlets said they had seen a video that purportedly showed him smoking crack cocaine.

The video has not been released publicly and has not been verified. Mr Ford has said he does not smoke crack cocaine and is not an addict.

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Clooney film opens Venice festival

29 August 2013 Last updated at 05:59 ET

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George Clooney and Sandra Bullock sign autographs on the red carpet

Oscar-winning actors George Clooney and Sandra Bullock have helped launch the 70th Venice Film Festival with their 3D sci-fi thriller Gravity.

The Hollywood duo were joined by the film's Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron at Wednesday's world premiere.

Shot in 3D, Gravity tells of two astronauts who are cast into deep space when debris destroys their shuttle.

Nicolas Cage, Matt Damon, Zac Efron and Scarlett Johansson are among the other stars expected over the next 10 days.

Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci heads this year's competition jury.

Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher and British film-maker Andrea Arnold are among those helping him decide which of the 20 titles in contention should win this year's Golden Lion award.

They include Terry Gilliam's dark fantasy The Zero Theorem, in which Damon appears alongside double Oscar-winner Christoph Waltz, and Johansson's Scotland-set sci-fi tale Under the Skin.

Joe, starring Cage as a violent ex-convict, is also in the competition line-up, as is Parkland, a historical drama set on the day President John F Kennedy was assassinated in 1963.

High School Musical star Efron forms part of its large ensemble cast, playing the doctor who examined JFK's body at the Dallas hospital that gives Peter Landesman's film its name.

For the first time, two documentaries are up for the Golden Lion: Errol Morris's The Unknown Known: The Life and Times of Donald Rumsfeld, and Sacro GRA, a film about Rome's ring road.

British hopes rest on Gilliam's film, Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin and Philomena - Stephen Frears' fact-based film about an Irish woman, played by Dame Judi Dench, trying to locate the son she gave up for adoption in the 1950s.

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George Clooney, Sandra Bullock and Alfonso Cuaron discuss Gravity

Bookmaker Paddy Power has ranked Philomena as second favourite to win the Golden Lion, behind Stray Dogs - the only Chinese language film in the competition.

"This year's festival favourites pack a powerful punch," said a spokesman. "We predict Stray Dogs however to have just a bit more bite than the rest of the pack."

Special awards will be presented this year to US director William Friedkin, Polish filmmaker Andrzej Wajda and the Italian writer-director Ettore Scola.

Clooney, Bullock and Cuaron attended a press conference for their film on Wednesday before attending its gala screening at the festival's Palazzo del Cinema.

Early reviews were fulsome in their praise, with the Hollywood Reporter describing it as a "jaw-dropping space thriller" boasting "breath-catching tension and startling surprise".

Variety's reviewer echoed those sentiments, saluting "a nervy experiment in blockbuster minimalism" that "offers in abundance the sort of eye-popping, screen-filling spectacle that demands to be viewed in a [movie] theatre".

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Fort Hood gunman Hasan convicted

23 August 2013 Last updated at 14:52 ET

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Alastair Leithead reports on the trial in which Hasan provided "no defence at all"

The US Army psychiatrist who shot dead 13 comrades at a Texas Army base in 2009 has been convicted of all charges.

Maj Nidal Hasan faces the death penalty after being found guilty of 13 counts of pre-meditated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.

Maj Hasan, 42, said he opened fire on the unarmed US soldiers to protect Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan.

The jury, which reached a unanimous verdict in seven hours, begins the penalty phase of the trial on Monday.

The 13-member panel must come to a unanimous agreement in order to recommend that the judge sentence Maj Hasan to death. If they do not agree, he will face a life prison sentence.

Blocked argument

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Fort Hood victim Sgt Alonzo Lunsford says "let the sword of justice swing"

The US military has not executed a service member since 1961. There are five inmates on the US military's death row at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, all at various stages of the appeals process.

Among the last barriers to military execution is authorisation from the president.

Maj Hasan, a Virginia-born Muslim, had no visible reaction as the verdict was read.

After the hearing, relatives of the dead and wounded fought back tears.

He admitted to being the gunman at the start of his court martial this month. Acting as his own lawyer, he questioned only three of 90 prosecution witnesses and declined to call witnesses of his own or make closing arguments.

His court-appointed legal advisers, who were little involved in his defence, have told the judge they believed he sought execution in a bid for martyrdom.

Maj Hasan has said he carried out the attack on unarmed soldiers at a medical building in Fort Hood in order to protect Taliban fighters in Afghanistan.

146 bullets

When the military judge, Col Tara Osborn, suggested shortly before jurors began deliberating on Thursday that the shootings happened because Maj Hasan had lost his temper, he challenged her.

"It wasn't done under the heat of sudden passion," he said.

"There was adequate provocation that these were deploying soldiers that were going to engage in an illegal war."

The Army psychiatrist opened fire on 5 November 2009 at a medical facility on the base where soldiers were being evaluated before deploying overseas.

Prosecutors said he had prepared carefully for the attack for weeks, visiting a target practice range, buying a gun, and stuffing paper towels into his trouser pockets to muffle noise from the extra ammunition before he opened fire.

Soldiers and civilians testified that they heard a man wearing Army camouflage scream an Islamic benediction before opening fire with two handguns.

Witnesses also said Maj Hasan's rapid reloading prevented the unarmed soldiers from halting the attack. Three separate people who attempted to charge him were stopped by gunfire.

Maj Hasan fired 146 bullets, prosecutors said. The attack ended when he was shot by a civilian police officer. He was paralysed from the waist down from the wound.

He uses a wheelchair after being left paralysed from the waist down when he was shot by one of the police officers who responded to the attack.

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US mayor quits, denying harassment

23 August 2013 Last updated at 19:03 ET

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Mr Filner: "I apologise to all of you. I think I let you down"

The mayor of San Diego, who has been battling sexual harassment allegations by 18 women and a related lawsuit, has finally bowed to calls for him to quit.

Democrat Bob Filner stood aside with an apology to the women concerned, but denied sexually harassing anyone.

His departure follows a deal with the Californian city's council over legal fees for the lawsuit he faces.

City Council President Todd Gloria will now become acting mayor and a special election will be held in 90 days.

"The city should not have to go through this, and my own personal failures were responsible and I apologise to the city," the 70-year-old Mr Filner told a special meeting of the San Diego city council on Friday.

"To all the women that I've offended, I had no intention to be offensive, to violate any physical or emotional space," he added.

"I was trying to establish personal relationships, but the combination of awkwardness and hubris led to behaviour that I think many found offensive."

'Lynch mob hysteria'

But he struck a defiant tone as he added: "Not one of the allegations has ever been independently verified or proven in court.

"I've never sexually harassed anyone."

He said he had been the victim of "the hysteria of a lynch mob".

Under Mr Filner's resignation deal, the city will pay his legal fees in a joint defence of a lawsuit filed by the mayor's former communications director, said City Attorney Jan Goldsmith.

It will also pay for any settlement costs against the mayor except for punitive damages. The city would also pay up to $98,000 (£63,000) if Mr Filner wants to appoint his own lawyer.

He also faces a criminal investigation, the California attorney general's office said on Friday.

Mr Filner's former spokesman, Irene McCormack Jackson, was the first to accuse him publicly of inappropriate behaviour. She launched a lawsuit last month against him and the city.

She alleged that the mayor had asked her to work without underwear, demanded kisses and told her he wanted to see her naked.

Her lawyer, Gloria Allred, told reporters: "It is not appropriate for the city of San Diego to provide a gift of public funds to a sexual harasser to help him fight the victim of the lawsuit we filed."

She also said she strongly supported the mayor's resignation.

Since the lawsuit, a series of women, including high-profile city residents and a great-grandmother, have come forward with accusations against Mr Filner.

Veronica Froman, a retired rear admiral, said Mr Filner once blocked her from leaving a room, ran his finger up her cheek and asked if she had a man in her life.

The president of the city port tenants' association, Sharon Bernie-Cloward, said Mr Filner had groped her on her bottom at an event last year.

"I was left there startled and fearful," she was quoted as saying by US media. "I actually had someone walk me to my car that night."

Other alleged victims included several businesswomen, a college dean and two military veterans who said he harassed them as they attended a meeting for women who had been raped while serving in the armed forces.

Mr Filner initially resisted pressure to quit, submitting himself instead to undergo two weeks of behavioural therapy.

But as allegations continued to stack up, pressure for him to go mounted, including from both US senators for California and the national head of the Democratic National Committee.

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'Uranium shoe' man arrested in US

24 August 2013 Last updated at 10:33 ET

A man from Sierra Leone has been arrested at New York's John F Kennedy airport with uranium samples allegedly concealed in his shoes.

Patrick Campbell was charged with attempting to broker a sale of 1,000 tonnes of yellowcake uranium to Iran.

He allegedly made the offer to US undercover agents, thinking they were representing the Iranians.

Samples of raw uranium ore were found beneath the inner soles of his shoes, an agent said in a US court complaint.

When enriched, yellowcake can be used in the manufacture of nuclear fuel and weapons.

Iran is suspected by the US and others of secretly seeking to acquire nuclear weapons despite protestations that its programme is for civilian energy use only.

Mr Campbell is accused of seeking to arrange the export of the yellowcake from Sierra Leone to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, packed in drums and disguised as the mineral chromite.

He presented himself as someone affiliated with a company engaged in mining and selling uranium in Sierra Leone, according to the US complaint, a copy of which was published by the New York Times.

He had allegedly responded to an advert in May of last year on the website Alibaba.com seeking to purchase uranium that was placed by an undercover US agent posing as an American broker representing persons in Iran.

When confronted, he admitted to having brought a sample of the raw uranium ore with him, the complaint says.

It adds: "Campbell assisted the agents in removing the uranium from beneath the inside soles of his shoes and plastic bags containing uranium were recovered from two of Campbell's shoes."

If convicted, Mr Campbell faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1m (£642,000) fine.

The complaint against him was filed in Florida, his ultimate destination at the time of his arrest.

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US marks 'I have a dream' speech

24 August 2013 Last updated at 17:07 ET Continue reading the main story

Thousands of people have attended a rally in Washington DC to mark 50 years since Martin Luther King's famous "I have a dream" speech on civil rights.

Jobs, voting rights and gun violence topped the concerns of many of those who marched to the Lincoln Memorial.

Eric Holder, the first black US attorney general, said he and President Barack Obama would not be in office had it not been for the original marchers.

Mr Obama will mark the event on the actual anniversary next week.

Among those who addressed Saturday's rally was the mother of Trayvon Martin, a black teenager shot dead in Florida last year, whose killer was recently acquitted.

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Trayvon Martin's parents told the BBC that they don't want their son's life to be defined by the trial of George Zimmerman

"He's not just my son, he's all of our son and we have to fight for our children," Sabrina Fulton said.

Earlier she told the BBC many young African Americans had been left afraid by the acquittal of neighbourhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman.

She called for a change to laws in many American states which allow the use of deadly force if a person feels seriously threatened.

Obama tribute

Saturday's event comes a few days before the actual anniversary of the original march on 28 August 1963.

King, who was assassinated in 1968, led about 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall and delivered his famous speech from its steps.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character." he said, in one of the most celebrated pieces of American oratory.

Martin Luther King III, King's eldest son, told the marchers from the same steps on Saturday: "This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration nor is this the time for self-congratulatory celebration.

"The task is not done. The journey is not complete. We can and we must do more."

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Thousands of people marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I have a dream' speech

In his speech, Mr Holder said of the 1963 demonstrators: "They marched in spite of animosity, oppression and brutality because they believed in the greatness of what this nation could become and despaired of the founding promises not kept."

The spirit of 1963, he said, now demanded equality for gay people, Latinos, women, the disabled and others.

Organisers had hoped to gather some 100,000 people in Washington. The crowd was predominantly African American but included white Americans and others.

Mr Obama, the first black US president, is due to commemorate the event on Wednesday with a speech from the same spot where King spoke.

He will be joined by former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, while churches and groups have been asked to ring bells at 15:00 (19:00 GMT) to mark the exact time King delivered his speech.

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Battle to contain Yosemite blaze

24 August 2013 Last updated at 17:38 ET

Firefighters in California are struggling to gain control of a huge wildfire which has reached the edge of Yosemite National Park.

Known as the Rim Fire, it covers an area of nearly 200 sq miles (500 sq km) and threatens a major reservoir serving San Francisco.

More than 5,000 homes are endangered by the blaze, which began on 17 August in the Stanislaus National Forest.

The fire is now 5% contained, officials say, up from 2% on Friday.

More than 2,700 firefighters are tackling the flames in difficult terrain.

A spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, Daniel Berlant, said the fire was the 16th-largest on record in California.

"We are making progress but unfortunately the steep terrain definitely has posed a major challenge," he said.

Evacuations, some voluntary and some mandatory, are taking place. Despite the threat to thousands of homes, only a few have been destroyed.

Tourist area

California Governor Jerry Brown has declared a state of emergency for San Francisco 150 miles away as the blaze is threatening power lines that bring electricity to the city.

The city's water supplies could be affected if the blaze reaches Hetch Hetchy reservoir, which supplies San Francisco with 85% of its water. The fire is burning some four miles (6.4km) away from the reservoir which serves some 2.6 million customers.

Two of three hydroelectric power stations serving the city were shut down.

The blaze, which continued for a week on the edges of Yosemite, reached the park's backcountry at Lake Eleanor on Friday. But it remains some 20 miles away from Yosemite's main tourist area.

Continue reading the main story

The park authorities say they have no plans to close as most of Yosemite, which hosts up to 15,000 visitors a day in the summer, is unaffected by the fire.

Areas on the north-western edge of the park, including that round the Hetch Hetchy reservoir and Lake Eleanor, have been closed throughout the week.

A stretch of motorway, Highway 120, which is one of three entrances to the west side of the park, remains closed. Visitors are being urged to use alternative routes from the west.

The "Rim" fire is one of 50 major wildfires burning in the western US. Lack of rain and snow have made it a bad year, with 5,700 fires being tackled so far.

The 'Beaver Creek' fire in Idaho has destroyed some 45,000 hectares near the ski resort of Sun Valley.

Meanwhile, five wildfires in Yellowstone National Park have scorched about 18 square miles of mostly remote areas.

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I'm close to death, says Tyson

Former undisputed heavyweight world champion Mike Tyson claims he is "on the verge of dying" from ongoing drug and alcohol problems.

Tyson, 47, admitted he is a continual substance abuser but added he is hopeful of finally getting clean.

"I want to live my sober life. I don't want to die. I'm on the verge of dying, because I'm a vicious alcoholic," Tyson said on ESPN's "Friday Night Fights".

"I'm a bad guy sometimes. I did a lot of bad things, I want to be forgiven."

At the age of 20, in 1987, the American fighter held the record as the youngest boxer to win the WBC, WBA and IBF heavyweight titles.

But five years later Brooklyn-born Tyson was convicted of raping Desiree Washington and sentenced to six years in prison.

He returned to the ring but retired from the sport in 2006 and in 2007 was sentenced to 24 hours in jail and 360 hours of community service for drug possession and driving under the influence.

Tyson, who now works as a boxing promoter, added: "I hope they can forgive me. I want to change my life, I want to live a different life now.

"I haven't drank or took drugs in six days, and for me that's a miracle.

"I've been lying to everybody that thinks I was sober, but I'm not. This is my sixth day. I'm never going to use again."

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Broadway star Julie Harris dies

25 August 2013 Last updated at 04:48 ET Continue reading the main story

US actress Julie Harris, a star of stage and screen who won five Tony Awards, has died at the age of 87.

Harris was best known for her roles on Broadway, where she jointly holds the record for the most Tony Award wins.

Her breakthrough came in the hit 1950 play The Member of the Wedding, which led to an Oscar nomination for a big screen adaptation three years later.

Other films included 1955's East of Eden with James Dean, while on TV she was known for the soap Knot's Landing.

Harris died at her home in Massachusetts of congestive heart failure, actress and family friend Francesca James told the Associated Press (AP) news agency.

Born in Michigan, Harris made her Broadway debut in 1945 and made her name five years later in The Member of the Wedding.

Aged 24, she played the lonely 12-year-old Frankie in Carson McCullers' stage version of her novel.

Harris won her first Tony Award in 1952 for playing Sally Bowles in I Am a Camera, adapted from Christopher Isherwood's book Berlin Stories, which was later the basis of the stage and screen musical Cabaret.

Other Tony wins came for playing Joan of Arc in The Lark in 1956, for Forty Carats, a hit comedy about an older woman and a younger man in 1969, and for her role as Abraham Lincoln's wife Mary Todd Lincoln in 1973's The Last of Mrs Lincoln.

Her final competitive Tony win came for portraying poet Emily Dickinson in her one-woman show The Belle of Amherst in 1977. That performance also won a Grammy Award for best spoken word recording.

Angela Lansbury and Audra McDonald are the only other performers to have won five competitive Tonys.

Harris had five other nominations, making her the most nominated performer in the awards' history, and she received a special lifetime achievement Tony in 2002.

On the big screen, Harris appeared in more than 30 films including playing James Dean's love interest in East of Eden.

On television, she won three Emmy Awards between 1959 and 2000 as well as playing county music singer Lilimae Clements in Knot's Landing in the 1980s.

Harris had a stroke in 2001 followed by another in 2010, Francesca James told the AP.

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Argentina loses $1.3bn debt appeal

25 August 2013 Last updated at 06:50 ET

Argentina has been told again it must pay back more than $1.3bn (£830m) to a group of investors - 12 years after its record debt default.

A New York appeals court unanimously rejected every Argentine argument against the payout.

The decision is the latest twist in the long-running legal saga.

Argentina refuses to pay anything to investors who declined to participate in a previous debt reduction deal involving most of the nation's lenders.

"What the consequences predicted by Argentina have in common is that they are speculative, hyperbolic and almost entirely of the Republic's own making," the judges said in their decision.

But the appeals court held off forcing Argentina to pay pending an appeal to the Supreme Court - which is considered unlikely to hear the case, but puts off any decision to 2014, well after Argentina's congressional elections in October.

The appeal came after a Manhattan court ruled last February that Argentina had violated its contractual obligation to treat all creditors equally. That meant the country would have to pay the bondholders, led by NML Capital and Aurelius Capital Management.

Argentina defaulted on some $100bn of debts in 2002, and has since restructured its debt twice, cancelling around 75% of the nominal value of the bonds.

Almost 92% of the country's bondholders agreed to write off most of the amount owed to them.

NML Capital and Aurelius are demanding 100% repayment of the $1.3bn, plus interest.

The investors were so determined to get their money that they went to court to have an Argentinean ship, the Libertad, impounded in Ghana last year. After several weeks, the ship returned home.

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US and UK vow 'serious' Syria move

25 August 2013 Last updated at 06:58 ET

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Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke by phone on Saturday

The UK and the US have threatened a "serious response" if it emerges Syria used chemical weapons last week.

Prime Minister David Cameron and President Barack Obama spoke on the telephone for 40 minutes on Saturday.

Both were "gravely concerned" by the "increasing signs that this was a[n]... attack carried out by the Syrian regime", Mr Cameron's office said.

But intervention would have serious consequences and the US case was weak, the Syrian information minister warned.

In an interview with Lebanese TV, Omran Zoabi said: "If the US leads a military intervention, this will have dangerous consequences. It will bring chaos and the region will burn."

The Syrian government has denied any use of chemical weapons, blaming rebel fighters instead.

State television reported on Saturday that soldiers had found chemical agents in tunnels used by the rebels to the east of Damascus.

It broadcast images of gas masks and plastic containers, but nothing to support official statements that soldiers had "suffered from cases of suffocation" when rebels used poison gas "as a last resort" after government forces made "big gains" in the suburb of Jobar.

Opposition activists accuse forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad of killing between 500 and more than 1,000 civilians in several suburbs east and west of capital in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

They want the areas inspected by UN chemical weapons experts who are already in Damascus to investigate other suspected attacks.

Continue reading the main story

Out of the chaos and confusion of the past few days, several things have emerged clearly.

Even the regime itself and its closest allies, Russia and Iran, do not dispute that chemical weapons were used in the suburbs of Damascus on Wednesday. The evidence from a huge flow of distressing amateur video is too massive to dismiss.

Both Moscow and Tehran have said they are urging the Syrian authorities to co-operate with the UN chemical weapons inspectors already in Damascus, and the Iranian foreign minister has quoted his Syrian counterpart as saying the government is preparing the conditions for a site visit.

With combat continuing in the affected areas, there is clearly scope for prevarication and delay, although Western patience is short.

But at least an appearance of regime willingness to co-operate may for the moment let the US and its allies off the hook.

For one of the other elements that has become clearer than ever in the past few days is the great reluctance of US President Barack Obama and others to plunge into an embroilment that would be hard to get out of, and which would carry a very high risk of aggravating the situation even further.

The UN's disarmament chief, Angela Kane, arrived in Damascus on Saturday to press the authorities for access.

Iran's Irna state news agency reported that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had told his Iranian counterpart that Damascus was "co-operating" with the UN experts and "preparing the opportunity for them to visit areas which have been attacked chemically by terrorist groups".

'Gathering facts and evidence'

"The UN Security Council has called for immediate access for UN investigators on the ground in Damascus," Downing Street said in a statement.

"The fact that President Assad has failed to co-operate with the UN suggests that the regime has something to hide."

It said Mr Cameron and Mr Obama had "reiterated that significant use of chemical weapons would merit a serious response from the international community and both have tasked officials to examine all the options".

The statement said the two men had agreed it was "vital that the world upholds the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons and deters further outrages".

They would keep in "close contact", it added.

The US president earlier convened his National Security Council to discuss options on Syria.

US Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel said the American military, which is repositioning naval forces in the Mediterranean, was ready to act.

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Chuck Hagel: "President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies"

"President Obama has asked the defence department to prepare options for all contingencies. We have done that and we are prepared to exercise whatever option - if he decides to employ one of those options," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

BBC political correspondent Iain Watson said he understood that the "serious response" mentioned in the UK statement would not include "boots on the ground".

But a range of other options was not ruled out, he said, potentially including air strikes.

On Sunday, Iran's deputy armed forces chief, Massoud Jazayeri, warned the US against crossing the "red line" on Syria, saying it would have "severe consequences", according to the Fars news agency.

'Neurotoxic symptoms'

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) has said three hospitals it supports in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms" early on Wednesday morning, of whom 355 have died.

While MSF said it could not "scientifically confirm" the use of chemical weapons, staff at the hospitals described a large number of patients arriving in the space of less than three hours with symptoms including convulsions, pinpoint pupils and breathing problems.

MSF director of operations Bart Janssens said the symptoms - as well as the "massive influx of patients in a short period of time" - strongly suggested mass exposure to a neurotoxic agent.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based activist group, meanwhile said it had documented the deaths of 322 people, including 82 women and 54 children.

On Sunday morning, several suburbs of Damascus reportedly came under heavy shell and mortar fire, as government forces continued their offensive on rebel strongholds.

At least 114 people were killed across the country on Saturday, including 33 people in the capital, according to the Local Co-ordination Committees, an opposition activist network.

The UN says more than 100,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Assad began more than two years ago.

'Chemical attack': What we know

• 01:15: 21 August (10:15 GMT 20 Aug): Facebook pages of Syrian opposition report heavy fighting in rebel-held eastern districts of the Ghouta, the agricultural belt around Damascus
• 02:45: Opposition posts Facebook report of "chemical shelling" in Ein Tarma area of the Ghouta
• 02:47: Second opposition report says chemical weapons used in Zamalka area of the Ghouta
• Unverified video footage shows people being treated on pavements in the dark and in a makeshift hospital
• Reports say chemical weapons were used in Ghouta towns of Irbin, Jobar, Zamalka and Ein Tarma as well as in Muadhamiya to the west, but this is not confirmed
• Syrian government acknowledges military offensive in the Ghouta but denies chemical weapons use

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Son to finish Leonard's last novel

25 August 2013 Last updated at 07:37 ET

The son of late author Elmore Leonard has said he hopes to complete his father's last novel.

Elmore Leonard, whose books included Get Shorty and Out of Sight, died aged 87 on Tuesday after a suffering stroke.

He did not finish his 46th novel Blue Dreams. His son Peter, also an author, told BBC Radio 4 he had talked to other family members about completing it.

Leonard's funeral was held in the author's home town of Birmingham, Michigan, on Saturday.

Blue Dreams was to have featured the Stetson-wearing US marshal Raylan Givens, who has appeared in a string of Leonard's stories.

In an interview with Radio 4's Broadcasting House that was aired on Sunday, presenter Paddy O'Connell asked Peter Leonard whether he would finish the book.

"I would, I think so," he replied. "It's been discussed among family members and I've talked to Greg Sutter, Elmore's longtime researcher."

Pater Leonard added that he did not know how many pages his father had written.

At the funeral, another son, Bill Leonard, told mourners: "Everyone knows that Elmore was a great writer. But only a few of us know that he was a great father - funny, patient and incredibly generous."

As well as the order of service, attendees were given a small card listing Leonard's famous 10 Rules of Writing, which include "never open a book with weather" and "try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip".

Following the service, Leonard, who served as a Navy seaman during World War II, was given military honours, which included the playing of taps and a flag-folding ceremony, according to the Associated Press news agency.

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Afghan massacre soldier given life

23 August 2013 Last updated at 16:50 ET

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Staff Sgt Robert Bales pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, as Alastair Leithead reports

The US soldier who murdered 16 Afghan villagers last year has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Staff Sgt Robert Bales, 40, opened fire on men, children and women during the attack in Kandahar on 11 March 2012.

The father of two pleaded guilty in June to avoid the death penalty.

He apologised during his sentencing hearing at a Washington state military base on Thursday, calling the attack an "act of cowardice".

Sgt Bales had been making a case for why he should one day be eligible for parole, which would have meant he could have been released in 20 years.

Weeping mother

But on Friday the military jury of six ruled against him at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, south of Seattle.

Continue reading the main story

Alastair Leithead BBC News, Joint Base Lewis-McChord

---

The minute-by-minute account of the night Staff Sgt Robert Bales left his base revealed a cold-blooded killer who murdered 16 civilians at random with astonishing brutality.

The court was shown gruesome pictures of the dead and the injured, heard how he crushed the skull of an elderly woman under his foot, how he executed men, women and children and set fire to their bodies, before calmly returning to base as though having accomplished a routine mission. Nine Afghan survivors of his attack and relatives of those killed or injured were flown in to give evidence at the hearing.

After the verdict, some of them made a statement to journalists outside the court. One man shot and injured by Sgt Bales said he should have received the death penalty.

Sgt Bales showed no emotion as the sentence was announced. His mother bowed her head, rocked in her seat and wept.

An interpreter gave a thumbs-up to a row of Afghan villagers who were flown out by the US Army to give evidence at the trial.

But afterwards they were far from happy with the outcome.

"We wanted this murderer to be executed," Haji Mohammad Naeem, who was shot and injured in the attack, said through an interpreter.

"We came all the way to the US to get justice. We didn't get that."

He added: "I saw his [Sgt Bales'] mother trying to cry, but at least she can visit him. What about us? Our family members are actually six feet under."

Sgt Bales was serving his fourth combat deployment when he attacked two villages in the middle of the night, spraying bullets into mostly women and children.

His lawyers argued that post-traumatic stress disorder and a brain injury were factors in the killings.

Nine Afghan villagers testified at the court martial.

Among them was Haji Mohammad Wazir, who lost 11 family members, including his mother, wife and six children.

The jury returned the sentence just hours after the prosecution and defence made closing arguments.

'Darkness swallowed him'

Prosecutor Lt Colonel Jay Morse showed jurors photos of a young girl who was killed as she screamed and cried.

In his closing arguments, he showed surveillance video of Sgt Bales returning to his base with what he said was "the methodical, confident gait of a man who's accomplished his mission".

"In just a few short hours, Sgt Bales wiped out generations," Col Morse said. "Sgt Bales dares to ask you for mercy when he has shown none."

The prosecution focused on Sgt Bales' remark when he returned to base after the slaughter: "My count is 20," a reference to the number of people he apparently believed he had killed.

But defence lawyer Emma Scanlan read a letter the soldier sent to his children 10 weeks before the killing: "The children here are a lot like you.

"They like to eat candy and play soccer. They all know me because I juggle rocks for them."

She told the court: "These aren't the words of a cold-blooded murderer."

She also read from a letter sent by an Army captain who said that Sgt Bales seemed to have snapped from all his deployments.

"The darkness that had been tugging at him for the last 10 years swallowed him whole," it said.

The trial heard that Sgt Bales had a number of personal problems at the time of the attack: he had stopped paying his mortgage, was unhappy in his marriage and felt he had been passed over for promotion.

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Affleck is Batman in Superman film

23 August 2013 Last updated at 00:47 ET

Ben Affleck has been cast as Batman in a forthcoming Superman sequel, bringing together the two superheroes in one film for the first time.

The 41-year-old will star opposite British actor Henry Cavill, who will reprise his role as Superman from the most recent film, Man of Steel.

Director Zack Snyder revealed the big screen superhero mash-up at a comic convention in San Diego last month.

Production is expected to begin next year for release in the summer of 2015.

"We knew we needed an extraordinary actor to take on one of DC Comics' most enduringly popular super heroes, and Ben Affleck certainly fits that bill and then some," Warner Bros President Greg Silverman said in a statement.

Mr Snyder, who also directed Man of Steel, said in a statement that Mr Affleck will provide an "interesting counter-balance" to 31-year old Cavill's Clark Kent.

"(Affleck) has the acting chops to create a layered portrayal of a man who is older and wiser than Clark Kent and bears the scars of a seasoned crime fighter, but retain the charm that the world sees in billionaire Bruce Wayne," said Snyder. "I can't wait to work with him."

The sequel - which has yet to be given a title - will reunite Man of Steel stars Amy Adams (Lois Lane), Laurence Fishburne (Perry White) and Diane Lane (Martha Kent).

Christian Bale most recently played Batman in director Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy.

Michael Keaton and George Clooney have also donned the black mask and cape in previous Batman films.

Ben Affleck's film Argo, which he starred in and directed, won an Academy Award for best picture earlier this year.

The superhero genre is not new to Mr Affleck, who previously starred as the blind hero in the 2003 Daredevil film based on the Marvel Comics.

Batman and Superman are part of DC Comics universe, which is part of the Warner Bros Entertainment division.

Revenues from the latest films featuring Superman and Batman have exceeded $1bn (£655m) in recent years.

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Nasdaq boss blames halt on outsiders

23 August 2013 Last updated at 10:18 ET

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Alastair McCaig, from IG, said there was a risk from from the interruption

Nasdaq boss Robert Greifeld has alluded to outside parties to explain a three-hour trading freeze on Thursday.

"We have to be aware that the other person will not always act in the proper way," he told news channel CNBC, admitting that the stock exchange's systems needed to be more robust.

The chief executive said the suspension prevented computerised professional traders getting an unfair information advantage over other investors.

Trading halted from 12:14 to 15:25 EST.

Trading on the other US exchanges was uninterrupted.

'Defensive driving'

Many professional traders have data fed directly into their computers from the stock exchange, while other investors rely on a "consolidated feed" that combines data from all 13 of the US stock exchanges.

Mr Greifeld said Thursday's technical glitch affected the consolidated feed, meaning professional traders might receive sensitive trade data earlier than others.

He specifically mentioned high-frequency traders - financial firms that buy and sell thousands of times a second, using computers to take advantage of tiny price discrepancies between the different stock exchanges.

"We're deeply disappointed with what happened yesterday. We aspire for perfection. We want to get to 100% up-time," he said, while conceding that he could not promise that there would never be a problem.

The chief executive said there was a need for more "defensive driving" - by which he meant that the exchange needed to be able to react better to the behaviour of other financial market participants.

"We have 13 different exchanges, we have hundreds of market participants, we are all interconnected in a number of fundamental ways."

Past problems

The Nasdaq is the second-largest stock exchange in the US, and the world's largest electronic stock market. It is dominated by major tech stocks such as Apple and Facebook.

Nasdaq said that trades executed between 12:14:03 and 12:23:31 would stand.

But trades between 12:23:31 and the resumption of trading would not stand, it said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission said it wants to meet with Nasdaq following the outage.

"Today's interruption in trading, while resolved before the end of the day, was nonetheless serious and should reinforce our collective commitment to addressing technological vulnerabilities of exchanges and other market participants," SEC chairwoman Mary Jo White said.

Shares in the stock exchange's owner Nasdaq OMX Group - which themselves trade on the Nasdaq - fell over 3% by the end of the day.

This is not the first technical glitch to affect recent US share trading.

Last year, trading was delayed in the much-anticipated debut of social network Facebook.

Nasdaq agreed to pay a $10m penalty to settle federal civil charges after regulators said its systems and decisions disrupted the float, and it paid out a further $62m in reimbursements to investment firms that lost money because of the problems.

Its rival, the New York Stock Exchange, had similar problems last year when a software glitch at market-maker Knight Capital caused huge price swings in trading in 140 stocks. During Thursday's suspension, Nasdaq advised firms to route their trades elsewhere.

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