Storm death toll at 31 as floodwaters recede

Nashville, Tennessee (News Today) - Water continued to recede in flood-struck Tennessee Thursday, as the Cumberland River fell below flood stage for the first time since heavy weekend rains overflowed it.

As of Thursday afternoon, the river stood at 39.5 feet, or about half an inch under flood stage, officials said.

The waters had receded in much of the city of Nashville, six days after the record-setting rains swelled rivers to historic levels and flooded several neighborhoods.

Nashville's major business and government district, Metro Center, partially reopened at noon Thursday. Business owners and workers were allowed access to their properties at Metro Center, but the area remained closed to the public.

Other parts of downtown were also reopened Thursday to residents and shop owners, the Nashville mayor's office said.

The death toll in three states has risen to 31 from the storms, authorities said Thursday.

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Twenty-one people have died in hard-hit Tennessee, authorities said. One person died in a tornado in Hardeman County that was spawned by heavy storms, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency.

The same storm system killed six people in Mississippi and four in Kentucky, emergency management officials said.

The death toll could rise as rescue crews continue to search for several people who have been reported missing, including two kayakers in Kentucky and several people in Tennessee, officials said.

Latest updates on the flooding and aftermath

"Nashville has obviously been hard-hit, and it's a well-known city, but there are so many other counties in the state and areas ... that have been hit very hard as well," Gov. Phil Bredesen said from Nashville on Thursday morning.

"A lot of people who didn't have flood insurance, because they never thought floodwaters would ever come anywhere near their home, are really looking at a total loss of their home," he said. "It's very tough on a lot of people right now."

President Obama has declared 10 Tennessee counties disaster areas, he said.

FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate said his agency was looking to add more counties to the federal disaster declaration.

The flooding was one of the biggest responses FEMA has made under his leadership, Fugate said at a news conference Thursday.

He asked those affected by flooding to contact FEMA to verify damage and apply for federal aid, if possible, he said.

As the floods recede, Bredesen said, people are facing the damage.

"We're going to get through this," he said. "This is a very resilient state."

Nashville Mayor Karl Dean was also optimistic Wednesday night.

"We are coming out of this thing," Dean said. "This has been devastating, but right now we're going to be focused on getting our city back up and working. "

The iconic Country Music Hall of Fame is also expected to reopen before week's end.

Nashville "will remain Music City and we will go forward doing what we've been doing," Dean said.

The mayor estimated the flood damage to his city to easily top $1 billion.

One of the city's main water treatment plants remained closed because of the flooding Thursday, prompting the city to tell residents to put off washing dishes and limit toilet flushing.

"Citizens are using water at a greater rate than we can treat it and pump it out to the community," said Sonia Harvat of Nashville's water department.

See photos as the cleanup begins

Harvat said "assessment and repairs are proceeding well at the K.R. Harrington Water Treatment Plant."

"There is still a significant amount of inspection, repair and testing to accomplish before the plant can be placed back in service and operations evaluated," she said in an e-mail to CNN.

The city would be forced to rely on bottled water unless more people started conserving, officials said.

Bredesen warned residents to be wary of con artists looking to capitalize on the flood response.

"There are always people who come in and do these scams of charging people -- and they seem to prey on elderly people an awful lot -- just charging people an awful lot to do something," Bredesen said.

Singer and Nashville resident Kenny Chesney flew home to check on his house.

The damage Chesney saw from the air while flying in was nothing compared to what he's seen on the ground, he said.

"I didn't know what to think. I was numb to it all," he said.

The road leading to Chesney's 40-acre waterfront property was under five feet of water, accessible only by a motor boat.

"I lost a lot but not near as much as a lot of people," he said.

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Mumbai gunman sentenced to death

(News Today) - The only surviving gunman in the 2008 Mumbai attacks was sentenced to death on Thursday.

Mohammed Ajmal Kasab, a Pakistani, was convicted Monday of murder, conspiracy, and waging war on India.

More than 160 people were killed in Mumbai during the three-day siege in November 2008, as 10 men attacked buildings including the Taj Mahal Palace and Tower and Oberoi-Trident hotels, the city's historic Victoria Terminus train station, and the Jewish cultural center, Chabad House.

Kasab was photographed holding an assault weapon during the attacks.

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Personal assistant gets 27 to life in celebrity realtor's murder

New York (News Terupdate) - The personal assistant to "realtor to the stars" Linda Stein was sentenced Monday to 27 years to life in prison for stealing from Stein and beating her to death in her Park Avenue apartment.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers said Natavia Lowery, 28, "acted with uncommon and almost inhuman calculation," calmly lying to Stein's ex-husband and friends "at a time when her bloody corpse lay at her feet."

"An old and wise adage: The truth will come to light. Murder cannot be hid long," the judge said.

Lowery was convicted in February of second-degree murder in Stein's 2007 slaying. She also was found guilty of stealing thousands of dollars from Stein.

Lowery received 25 years to life for the murder and at least an additional two years for the larceny convictions.

She read from a three-page written statement, her voice barely audible in a crowded courtroom ringed with a dozen deputies.

"The fight has just begun," she said. "My innocence will continuously remain as it did since October 30, 2007. This case was turned into a media circus, it was never about evidence."

Stein's daughters offered emotional victim impact statements at the sentencing hearing.

"I toss and turn, unable to sleep because of the vivid imagery of my dead mother," said the victim's daughter, Mandy Stein. She found her mother's bludgeoned body.

Her older sister, Samantha Stein-Wells, directed her comments to Lowery.

"Natavia, there's so much I want to say to you but cannot say in this courtroom. I'm a lady," she said. "Where is your apology? You can't even look me in the eye. Natavia, you know the truth. You will forever live the legacy of a murderer and a thief."

Lowery had given detectives a written and verbal confession, which she later recanted, according to police and prosecutors.

Prosecutors had asked for the maximum sentence, 40 years to life in prison.

"Imagine the kind of person it takes to stand there and crush her skull, literally beating her to death," Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzi-Orbon told the judge. "Imagine what it felt like to stand over someone and crush her skull repeatedly."

Stein "had no idea she was letting in a sociopath" when she hired Lowery, she said.

Defense attorney Paul Brenner said he would appeal.

Brenner, who didn't try the case, was emotional in court, saying he was outraged that Lowery was expected to apologize or show remorse for something she says she didn't do.

"She's unjustly accused," he said.

Stein, 62, was one New York City's top real estate brokers and was known for her list of celebrity clients, including Madonna, Sting, Michael Douglas and Angelina Jolie.

She got her first taste of the limelight as manager of the Ramones -- a legendary 1970s punk rock group of the 1970s.

Stein was found dead in her posh Fifth Avenue apartment in October 2007, a victim of "blunt impact injuries of the head and neck," the New York medical examiner's office said.

Police said no sign of forced entry was found at the apartment.

Lowery told police that Stein had been verbally abusive to her and on the day of the murder had blown marijuana smoke into her face and waved a "yoga stick" at her, NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said at the time.

Lowery had been Stein's personal assistant for four months, Kelly said.

Lowery's only known previous arrest stemmed from an identity theft case in 2006, in which she stole another woman's identification and used it to get a credit card in her name, Kelly said.

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Actress Lynn Redgrave dies at 67

(News Terupdate) - Actress Lynn Redgrave died Sunday after a seven-year battle with breast cancer, according to her family.

Redgrave, 67, was surrounded by her children at her Connecticut home when she died, the family said in a statement Monday morning.

The star of stage, film and television was twice nominated for an Academy Award: for best actress in 1966 for her role in "Georgy Girl" and for best supporting actress in the 1998 film "Gods and Monsters."

"She lived, loved and worked harder than ever before," the family said. "The endless memories she created as a mother, grandmother, writer, actor and friend will sustain us for the rest of our lives. Our entire family asks for privacy through this difficult time," the statement said.

Redgrave is from "a family of actors, embracing as it does more than five generations," she wrote on her official website.

She is the younger sister of Oscar-winning actress Vanessa Redgrave and the aunt of the late actress Natasha Richardson.

Her parents, Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson, were British stage and film actors.

Her paternal grandparents, Roy Redgrave and Margaret Scudamore, were stage and silent film actors.

Redgrave teamed with daughter Annabel Clark in 2004 to produce the book "Journal: A Mother and Daughter's Recovery from Breast Cancer."

"I thought I was living very fully before this happened," she said in 2005. "But in comparison, no, I really wasn't. I wasn't taking the time to notice things. I didn't see things as brightly or as sharply or as memorably as I do now.

"I really don't let a moment slide by. I just don't. It's a big price to pay, isn't it, to have to have cancer to learn that? But it is in the end, I have to say, a price worth paying," Redgrave said.

Redgrave's professional acting debut was in 1962 at London's Royal Court Theatre in a production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." A year later, she was invited to join Britain's National Theatre for its inaugural season under the direction of Sir Laurence Olivier, according to her personal biography.

Her first film performance came in "Tom Jones," a 1963 movie co-starring Albert Finney and her mother.

Redgrave's "Georgy Girl" role three years later, opposite James Mason, earned her a best actress Golden Globe and the Academy Award best actress nomination. Her portrayal of a wisecracking young woman was a box office hit.

Other early film roles included "The National Health," "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex," "The Happy Hooker" and "Getting It Right."

Redgrave enjoyed a revitalized film career late in life. She won a second Golden Globe and her second Oscar nomination for her comedic role in "Gods and Monsters."

She continued to make movies despite her illness, including her last film role in "Confessions of a Shopaholic," which hit theaters a year ago.

Redgrave debuted on Broadway in 1967 in "Black Comedy." The first of three Tony nominations came in 1976 for "Mrs. Warren's Profession." She was nominated again for her Broadway roles in "Shakespeare for My Father" in 1993 and "The Constant Wife" in 2005.

She teamed with her sister Vanessa Redgrave on the London stage in "Three Sisters" in 1991.

The sisters worked together the same year in a television version of "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?"

Her three Emmy nominations all came for TV work in the 1980s, including an episode of "House Calls" in 1981, "The Shooting Company" in 1982 and "Walking on Air" in 1987.

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Al Qaeda confirms death of 2 top leaders

Baghdad, Iraq (News Terupdate) - Al Qaeda in Iraq has confirmed in a statement posted online that two of its two most senior leaders have been killed.

The confirmation, posted late Saturday night on Islamist websites, comes a week after U.S. officials announced the deaths of Abu Ayyub al-Masri and Abu Omar al-Baghdadi.

The two men were killed in a joint Iraqi-U.S. operation in a strike on April 18 near Tikrit, U.S. officials said.

"We find it quite difficult that we are announcing the news of the loss of the Islamic nation once again. The loss of two great Jihadi leaders who are known for their heroism on the path of struggle," said the statement signed by Abu Al-Walid Abdel Wahab Al-Mashadani, the minister of the Religious Committees in the Islamic State of Iraq.

The U.S. military has said the deaths dealt a "potentially devastating blow" to the terrorist group.

"The death of these terrorists is potentially the most significant blow to al Qaeda in Iraq since the beginning of the insurgency," the commander of U.S. Forces-Iraq, Gen. Raymond Odierno, said in a news release last week.

In an interview with CNN, Odierno said it would be "very difficult" for the al Qaeda network to replace the two men.

Al-Masri, a native of Egypt, was military leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.

Al-Baghdadi was leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an umbrella group that includes al Qaeda in Iraq.

The U.S. military said al-Baghdadi held the title "Prince of the Faithful."

Odierno said al-Masri was the link in Iraq to Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda -- "that was the foreign element of al Qaeda that was established here."

Al-Masri became the head of al Qaeda in Iraq in 2006 after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. attack.

Al-Masri's assistant and al-Baghdadi's son, who also were involved in terrorist activities, were killed as well, the U.S. military said.

A U.S. soldier was killed during the assault when a U.S. helicopter crashed, the military said in the news release.

An Iraqi intelligence cell pursuing high-level leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq gathered information for the operation, said Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The two men were hiding in a hole within a house, where their bodies were eventually found by security forces, he said.

The arrests of other senior leaders of al Qaeda in Iraq in the past couple of days led authorities to discover the safe house, al-Maliki said.

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