| Missouri couple wins half of $587 million Powerball lottery Dec 1st 2012, 00:54  DEARBORN, Missouri (Reuters) - A Missouri couple who won half of a record $587.5 million Powerball jackpot said on Friday they plan to stay put in their rural community, but know their lives will be changed. "I think we'll have a good Christmas," Cindy Hill said at a news conference where she and her husband, Mark Hill, were presented as winners of the jackpot by the Missouri Lottery. Cindy Hill, 51, is a former office manager who got laid off in 2010. Mark Hill, 52, was a mechanic for Hillshire Brands, a food company, but has now quit his job. ...
|  | High court leaves open if it will take up gay marriage case Dec 1st 2012, 00:52  (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court's nine justices met in private on Friday to consider whether to enter the legal fray over same-sex marriage but made no announcement about any decision they may have reached. The high court is considering whether to review five separate challenges to a federal law that prevents married same-sex couples from receiving federal marriage benefits such as Social Security survivor payments and tax exemptions. It is also considering whether to review California's ban on same-sex marriage, known as Proposition 8, which voters narrowly approved in 2008. ...
| | Gay "conversion therapy" proponents seek to halt California ban Dec 1st 2012, 00:01 SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - A Christian legal group urged a federal judge on Friday to halt a landmark California law that bars a controversial therapy aimed at reversing homosexuality from being used on children and teenagers, calling the law a violation of privacy and free speech. California's Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the ban into law in September, making the nation's most populous state the first to ban so-called conversion therapy among youths. Gay rights advocates say the therapy can psychologically harm gay and lesbian youths. ... | | War on al Qaeda is not indefinite: Pentagon lawyer Nov 30th 2012, 23:13 WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military campaign against al Qaeda should not be seen as a conflict without end, the Pentagon's chief lawyer said on Friday in a speech that broached a rarely discussed subject among U.S. officials. The Defense Department's highest-ranking lawyer, Jeh Johnson, predicted al Qaeda would some day be so "effectively destroyed" that the United States would no longer say it is in an armed conflict. A text of his remarks to be given at Oxford University in England was made available to Reuters in advance in Washington. The U.S. ... | | Two Pakistan-born brothers arrested in Florida on terrorism charges Nov 30th 2012, 23:10 MIAMI (Reuters) - Two Pakistan-born brothers living in Florida have been arrested on charges of providing support to terrorists and conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction within the United States, authorities said on Friday. The men were charged in a grand jury indictment announced by the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida. Federal prosecutors allege the men, both U.S. citizens, provided money, housing, communications equipment and transportation as part of a conspiracy. ... | | Act of kindness turns New York cop into media darling Nov 30th 2012, 22:51  NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. national media just got the perfect holiday gift: a feel-good tale about a young police officer who dug into his own pocket to put boots on a barefoot panhandler on a freezing city sidewalk. Even better was the way the story of New York City Police Officer Larry DePrimo's kindness unfolded. Thanks to a blurry Facebook photo snapped on a cell phone by a tourist who happened the incident in Times Square, DePrimo, 25, went from anonymous Good Samaritan to national media celebrity in less than 72 hours. ...
| | Judge rules Louisiana school voucher program unconstitutional Nov 30th 2012, 22:50 (Reuters) - A state judge on Friday shot down Louisiana's sweeping school voucher program, ruling that the state could not use funds set aside for public education to pay private-school tuition for thousands of low- and middle-income children. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal, who had championed the program, called the ruling "wrong-headed" and "a travesty for parents across Louisiana who want nothing more than for their children to have an equal opportunity at receiving a great education." Jindal, a Republican, vowed to appeal. ... | | Male model convicted in New York killing of Portuguese reporter, lover Nov 30th 2012, 22:18 (Please note the story contains graphic and sexual content) NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York City jury on Friday convicted a young male model who killed and castrated his lover, a prominent Portuguese journalist, rejecting the defense argument that he was not guilty by reason of insanity, prosecutors said. Renato Seabra, 23, killed Carlos Castro, 65, in January 2011, and pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to a charge of second degree murder at Manhattan criminal court. The trial lasted nearly two months, in part because it was delayed several days by Hurricane Sandy. ... | | Alabama man sentenced for impeding child abuse investigation Nov 30th 2012, 22:12 MOBILE, Alabama (Reuters) - An Alabama businessman convicted of attempting to cover up his son's molestation of children at a family-run orphanage in Honduras was sentenced on Friday to two months in jail. Bill Atkinson, 58, also was ordered to serve three years of home supervision and he was fined $25,000. A jury convicted Atkinson earlier this year on charges of conspiracy and obstructing justice. Federal prosecutors presented evidence that he had instructed two of his sons to destroy a digital video recorder that contained footage of his eldest son sexually abusing children. ... | | Explosion outside federal building in Arizona prompts evacuation Nov 30th 2012, 21:52 PHOENIX (Reuters) - An explosion and small fire on Friday outside a federal office building in southern Arizona caused minor damage and prompted an evacuation of the complex, but no injuries were reported, authorities said. The blast occurred at about 8:30 a.m. near a rear doorway to the Social Security Administration building in downtown Casa Grande, a small city about 50 miles south of Phoenix. ... | |
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