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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Nigerian President Yar'Adua has died

Lagos, Nigeria (News Today) - Nigeria's ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua, who gave amnesty to armed militants in the troubled oil-rich Niger Delta region, died Wednesday, the country's information minister said. He was 58.

Yar'Adua had not been seen in public since November, when he went to Saudi Arabia for treatment of an inflammation of tissue around his heart. He was diagnosed with that condition, acute pericarditis, last fall after he complained of chest pain.

He returned to Nigeria in February but had remained out of sight.

Vice President Goodluck Jonathan has served as the country's acting leader since Yar'Adua fell ill.

Yar'Adua took office in 2007 in an election mired in controversy and accusations of vote-rigging.

"There was ballot snatching, voters were molested, voters were beaten ... and also payment inducement to vote for certain candidates," said Eneruvie Enakoko of the Civil Liberties Organization, a human rights group in Lagos.

The president, a soft-spoken and unassuming figure who did not bask in the media spotlight like past leaders of the West African nation, pledged to fight to improve the country of 150 million people despite the accusations.

"Our collective goal is to deliver for our children a Nigeria better, stronger, more peaceful, more secure and more prosperous than we met it," Yar'Adua said.

President Barack Obama issued a statement late Wednesday expressing his condolences to Yar'Adua's family and the Nigerian people.

"President Yar'Adua worked to promote peace and stability in Africa through his support of Nigerian peacekeeping efforts as well as his strong criticism of undemocratic actions in the region," Obama said in the statement. "He was committed to creating lasting peace and prosperity within Nigeria's own borders, and continuing that work will be an important part of honoring his legacy."

His election followed wide support from his predecessor, leading critics to label him a puppet of the former president, Olusegun Obasanjo.

After he was elected, Yar'Adua replaced some of Obasanjo's top officials, including the head of the army, a move analysts said was aimed at shedding off his predecessor's influence.

One of Yar'Adua's biggest successes was offering amnesty to militants in the troubled oil-rich Niger Delta region, a move that brought fragile peace to the area after years of conflict. The well-armed Niger Delta rebels have been battling Nigeria's armed forces over oil profits, which they say are unequally distributed.

While he has hospitalized in Saudi Arabia, the militants called off the truce, dealing a blow to plans to end violence that has crippled oil production in the nation.

Analysts say he did little to institutionalize reform in a country where two-thirds of the population lives on less than a dollar a day.

"Because many people feel disillusioned economically and as long as they have those sentiments -- I think the risk of radical uprisings in places like northern Nigeria and certainly southern Nigeria in the Delta will continue regardless of who is in power," said Rolake Akinola, an analyst at Control Risks West Africa.

Yar'Adua, a former chemistry teacher, was married twice and has nine children.

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Coroner: Corey Haim died of natural causes

Los Angeles, California (News Today) - Pneumonia, not drug abuse, killed actor Corey Haim, the Los Angeles County Coroner ruled in an autopsy report released Tuesday.

Although the investigation into Haim's death began as a "suspected prescription medication overdose," toxicology tests "revealed no significant contributing factors" from drugs, the coroner reported.

The autopsy found "an extremely large amount" of swelling in Haim's lungs, it said.

The ruling that his death was not related to his well-publicized drug addiction confirmed what his mother and manager have insisted for weeks: that Haim, 38, did not overdose.

Haim died March 10 after collapsing at the Los Angeles apartment he shared with his mother.

Although the 1980s teen actor battled drug addiction for decades, his death came when Haim "was making major progress" with a program to wean him from pills, said his manager, Mark Heaslip.

Toxicology tests showed that Haim's blood did have "low levels" of a list of drugs, including an antidepressant (Prozac), an antipsychotic (Olanzapine), diazepam (Valium), a muscle relaxer (Carisoprodol), a tranquilizer (meprobamate) and THC (a chemical in marijuana).

Haim also was taking a cough suppressant, antihistamine and ibuprofen.

"These medications are present in low levels and are non-contributory to death," the autopsy report said. Read the autopsy report (PDF)

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has used Haim's death to publicize his enforcement efforts against illegal prescription drug use. At a news conference last month, Brown called Haim "the poster child" for the problem of addicts "doctor shopping" for dangerous drugs.

State investigators found that the former child actor obtained four dangerous drugs -- including Vicodin, Valium, Soma and Xanax -- just five days before he died, Brown said.

Brown launched an inquiry of what he said was Haim's "doctor shopping" for drugs. Seven doctors gave him prescriptions for four controlled substances in the last 10 weeks of his life, Brown said.

Haim sometimes threatened to find other doctors to prescribe him drugs when his primary physician wouldn't give him what he wanted, his manager said.

"I would be the only one who could talk him out of it," Heaslip said Monday night.

His doctor was providing pills only in one-day supplies in an effort to wean him, Heaslip said.

Haim began his acting career in 1982, with a television appearance on the Canadian series "The Edison Twins." His first film role was in the 1984 American movie "First Born."

Haim also won rave reviews for his title role in the 1986 film "Lucas."

Film critic Roger Ebert said at the time, "If he continues to act this well, he will never become a half-forgotten child star, but will continue to grow into an important actor."

His most famous role was in the 1987 movie "The Lost Boys," in which Haim played a fresh-faced teenager whose brother becomes a vampire.

In recent years, the actor was reunited with longtime friend and frequent co-star Corey Feldman in a reality show. "The Two Coreys" ran for two seasons on the A&E Network.

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Russian pilots ordered out of Iran

(News Terupdate) - Iran's transportation minister says the Islamic republic is sending home Russian pilots who fly for Iranian airlines, according to local reports.

"Sending back the foreign pilots is on the agenda of the ministry of road and transportation and the issue is being implemented now," Transportation Minister Hamid Behbahani told the semi-official Fars News Agency on Monday.

Behbahani added the Russian-made Tupolev 154 planes -- Soviet-era aircraft operated by several Iranian airlines -- will gradually be replaced by newer passenger planes. It was not immediately who would supply the new planes.

In March, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued an order to expel the foreign pilots within a two-month time period. Following that announcement, Behbahani said Iran should not employ foreign pilots when there are enough skilled Iranian pilots, Fars reported.

The report did not say how many Russian pilots are flying in Iran, or how many Tupolevs are in operation in the country.

Iran has a recent history of plane crashes and mishaps with Russian-made Tupolevs. Most recently, 46 people were injured in January when a Taban Air plane caught fire after landing at Mashhad International Airport in eastern Iran.

In 2009, a Caspian Airlines flight crashed in a field near the northern city of Qavzin, killing more than 160 people.

The Tupolev 154 is essentially banned in the West because it does not comply with European noise and pollution regulations, but it has a safer-than-average accident record, aviation safety experts told CNN after the Caspian crash.

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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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Death penalty sought for Fort Hood shooting suspect

(News Terupdate) - The Army officers responsible for prosecuting the Fort Hood shooting suspect will be seeking the death penalty, the suspect's attorney told CNN.

John Galligan -- the attorney for the suspect, Maj. Nidal Hasan -- said that the filing of a memo by the prosecutors Wednesday indicated that finding Hasan guilty of more than one of the murders would constitute the "aggravating factor" necessary for the Army to seek the death penalty.

Thirteen people died in the shooting spree at the Texas base last November.

"It is the first 'formal notice' but, of course, it has been a virtual given from the start," Galligan wrote in an e-mail to CNN. "In short, the Army has been pursuing death from the git-go."

The actual decision to seek the death penalty occurs after an Article 32 hearing. The hearing -- the military justice system's rough equivalent of a grand jury hearing -- is scheduled to start June 1 at Fort Hood in Texas.

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Somalia rebels battle pirates, government troops

Mogadishu, Somalia (News Terupdate) - Islamist rebels advanced on a pirate haven in central Somalia and battled government troops in Mogadishu in a clash that killed at least 10 people, ambulance crews and a local journalist reported Sunday.

Fighters from the al Qaeda-linked militia al-Shabaab were advancing on Harardhere, the pirate stronghold on the Somali coast, a local journalist in contact with pirate sources told CNN. The pirates recently captured a boat loaded with weapons from Yemen that were intended for the militia, and had stopped paying bribes to the Islamists, said the journalist, whose identity is not being disclosed for security reasons.

The journalist said a spokesman for al-Shabaab, which is trying to topple Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government, said the Islamists are only a few kilometers from Harardhere. The journalist reported that the pirates appeared to be retreating from Harardhere to the port town of Hobyo, Somalia with their captured ships.

No further details were immediately available, and the European Union naval force that patrols the waters off Somalia said it had no information about the situation.

U.N. reports have found that Yemen is a source for arms shipments into Somalia despite a longstanding U.N. embargo on weapons. The Yemeni government, which is battling its own al Qaeda uprising, has attempted to crack down on arms dealing within its territory but also faces an influx of Somali refugees.

The advance on Harardhere, about 430 km (270 miles) north of Mogadishu, came the same day a clash between al-Shabaab fighters and government forces left at least 10 people dead and 40 wounded, ambulance crews reported. Heavy shelling followed an attempt by government troops to ambush al-Shabaab fighters, witnesses reported.

Al-Shabaab has ties to al Qaeda and is considered a terrorist organization by the United States, but it has taken control of much of Mogadishu and southern Somalia.

The fighting has escalated a long-running humanitarian crisis in the Horn of Africa nation, which has not had an effective central government since 1991.

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Taliban suspected of sickening female Afghan students

(News Terupdate) - Afghan authorities will investigate the sudden illness of students and staff at three schools in the past week in northern Afghanistan, the Afghan Human Independent Rights Commission said on Sunday. Local doctors suggested the Taliban may be the perpetrators of possible poison attacks.

"During the last seven days three cases of poisoning [have] occurred in Kunduz Province," said Syed Karim Talash, the director of the commission office in the province.

At least 88 girls and teachers became ill in separate cases at three girls' schools.

The cause of the illnesses was not known, but Talash said poison gas was suspected.

"It is really big concern for us, and big concern for the family of the girls," Talash said.

Dr. Mohammad Qasam Khamoosh, who treated girls from two schools, said "unknown gases" were responsible for the mass illnesses.

These are "terrorist activities against education in the country," he said.

Girls were not allowed to attend school during the Taliban's rule. Girls' schools have been open in the region since 2001.

Khamoosh said authorities were able to gather a sample of the gas, which has been sent off for testing.

Kunduz province has seen a drastic influx in terrorist activity, particularly by the group known as Hizb-e-Islami, led by the notorious leader Gulbudeen Hekmatyar. It's an independent group that has increasingly worked under the Taliban umbrella in recent years.

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Rescuers comb debris for survivors after Mississippi tornado

Yazoo City, Mississippi (News Terupdate) - Rescue crews in Mississippi continued to search for survivors Sunday from a powerful tornado that ripped through the state a day earlier, killing 10 people, injuring dozens of others and leveling scores of homes.

Two children and a 3-month-old baby were among the victims.

Two sisters, 9 and 14, were killed inside a mobile home, Choctaw County Coroner Keith Coleman told CNN.

The tornado tore a path nearly a mile wide and decimated neighborhoods as it raked cities from the central western border with Louisiana northeastward to Alabama. It leveled a church, sheared roofs off houses, overturned cars, snapped down hundreds of trees and plunged large swaths of the state in darkness as it toppled power lines.

The same storm system that unleashed Saturday's twister delivered severe weather to other parts of the South on Sunday, with tornadoes hitting Alabama and South Carolina.

On Sunday, a tornado in Darlington County in northern South Carolina overturned as many as four mobile homes and toppled trees and downed power lines.

Three people were hospitalized with minor injuries, according to Linwood Epps of the county's emergency management agency. He said that the local Cain Elementary school was damaged, with part of its roof missing.

The National Weather Service on Sunday gave the Mississippi tornado a preliminary rating of at least 3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale of 0-5, with wind speeds of up to 160 miles per hour and a preliminary path width of one and a half miles.

Were you affected by the tornado? Send in pics, video

Ron Sullivan, a store owner in Choctaw County, said he was lucky to be alive after the storm hit around midday Saturday. "They always talk about you hearing the train," Sullivan told CNN. "There was no train. There was a bomb."

He said two customers were walking toward the door of his store when the tornado struck and that "when they opened the door, it hit and blew me back."

"The only thing that went through my mind were two things -- 'Please don't let anything else fall on me' and 'I hope my wife is OK,' " Sullivan said.

The hardest-hit counties were Yazoo and Choctaw, where assessment and rescue crews continued operations Sunday, though a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency said there weren't any specific reports of people trapped inside the rubble.

Authorities had recorded at least 681 homes damaged across six counties, according to MEMA spokesman Greg Flynn.

The agency was reporting 33 injuries, but it hadn't received counts from Yazoo and Choctaw counties.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said he has not yet requested emergency federal aid but plans to do so on Monday. Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency were scheduled to arrive Monday, anticipating an application for a disaster declaration, Flynn said.

Nearly 80 Mississippi National Guard troops, including 50 military police, had been deployed to Choctaw and Yazoo counties, MEMA reported. Forty highway safety patrol troops were also sent to the affected areas.

Five of the dead were from Choctaw County, in the north central part of the state; four were from Yazoo County, north of Jackson; and one was from Holmes County, also in north central Mississippi, said Flynn.

Barbour, who was in Yazoo City where his home is located, called the twister gigantic and said that "in places (it) seemed to be to be several miles wide."

Only 38 people stayed overnight in shelters in Yazoo City, Flynn said, adding that most of the affected were able to stay with family or friends.

Mississippi residents shared stories of tragedy and survival on Sunday.

"You could just feel the glass and debris flying in and cutting you," said Stacy Walker, who took cover in a hair salon in Yazoo City where she worked. "It felt like minutes and minutes. but I'm sure it was just seconds the time that it lasted."

Walker made it out safe but later learned that a high school friend died protecting her children.

Dale Thrasher was inside Yazoo City's Hillcrest Baptist Church when it was flattened by the tornado. "I went in the sanctuary and got under the pulpit table and the whole building fell around me," he said. His injuries: "Three little scratches."

In all, 12 counties reported injuries, with some of the injured airlifted to a level one trauma center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson.

Local coverage from CNN affiliate WAPT

President Obama has "been briefed on the tragedy in Mississippi and the situation is being followed by the White House," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Mississippi residents reported that the path of the twister was a half-mile to a mile wide, said Mark McAllister, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson.

CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said the twister had traveled 150 miles across Mississippi, starting in the western part of the state and moving northeast before weakening as it moved into Alabama.

Early Sunday morning, Alabama's emergency management officials confirmed a tornado touched down in Marshall County in the state's north.

At least one mobile home park and some homes in Albertville were destroyed, said CNN affiliate WAFF in Huntsville, Alabama.

On Sunday, Nancy Brooks surveyed the damage to her Albertville home, which was extensive. Part of home's roof was blown off, and debris littered the floors, which were now barely visible.

Brooks awoke to the sound of the incoming tornado, only to witness a moment later a large tree branch rip into her bedroom just feet from where she sleeps.

"I'm very lucky, I'm very fortunate," she said, as friends helped her begin the cleanup process.

Saturday's tornado was part of a broad band of storms that stretched from Missouri to the panhandle of Florida, Jeras said.

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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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Cult leader, ex-Nazi Schaefer dies in Chile

(News Terupdate) - Paul Schaefer, a former Nazi who fled Germany in 1961 and founded a cult-like commune in Chile, died Saturday in a prison hospital.

He was 88.

Schaefer was serving a 20-year sentence at the national penitentiary in Santiago for sexually abusing children at the notorious commune known as Colonia Dignidad (The Dignity Colony).

The commune in southern Chile, also called Villa Baviera, was created as a place to safeguard Germanic traditions. Under Schaefer's rule, contact with outsiders was largely forbidden.

Some of Schaefer's crimes date to the 1970s and 1980s, during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, who had visited the commune.

Former members of the colony have admitted that human rights violations and sexual abuse of children occurred there, saying in a 2006 letter published in a leading Chilean newspaper that they were led by Schaefer's influence.

Schaefer had been in prison since 2006 when he was extradited to Chile from Argentina, where he had been living in hiding.

Schaefer died Saturday morning of cardiopulmonary arrest, the penitentiary said.

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Mississippi tornado leaves at least 10 dead

(News Terupdate) - A tornado almost a mile wide tore through Mississippi on Saturday, killing at least 10 people and causing significant injuries and damage as it raked cities from the central western border with Louisiana northeastward to Alabama.

Two of the dead were children and one was a 3-month-old baby, according to Mississippi Emergency Management Agency (MEMA) spokesman Jeff Rent.

The death toll is expected to rise as rescue crews reach hard-hit areas where structures have been badly damaged, said another MEMA spokesman, Greg Flynn.

Five of the dead were from Choctaw County, in the north central part of of the state, four were from Yazoo County, north of Jackson, and one was from Holmes County, also in the north central Mississippi, he said.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who was in Yazoo City where his home is located, called the twister "gigantic" and said that "in places [it] seemed to be to be several miles wide."

Some residents were trapped in badly damaged homes, he said.

"They're working to get to the people and rescue as many as they can," said Dan Turner, a spokesman for the governor, reporting "significant injuries" in at least three counties.

Residents from the region shared tales of tragedy and survival on Saturday evening.

Dale Thrasher was inside Yazoo City's Hillcrest Baptist Church when it was flattened by the tornado.

"I went in the sanctuary and got under the pulpit table and the whole building fell around me," he said.

His injuries: "three little scratches."

Rob and Ashley Saxton were driving to a Yazoo City restaurant owned by Rob's father -- planning to take shelter in the restaurant's walk-in freezer ahead of the tornado -- when the twister blew out the car's windows at a red light. The car was tossed across the intersection, then picked up again and flung into the restaurant.

"When the windows exploded it wasn't like anything I've ever experienced," Rob Saxton said. "It was amazing. It scared us plumb to death."

Watch Gov. Barbour's update on storm damage in Yazoo City Video

In all, 12 counties were reporting injuries, with some of the injured airlifted to a Level 1 trauma center at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, said Jeff Rent, a MEMA spokesman.

The hospital has 27 patients with injuries sustained in the tornado, including eight adults in critical condition and six children in serious condition, according to spokesman Jim Albritton.

Many tornado victims were seeking attention at King's Daughters hospital in Yazoo City, where only one doctor was on duty Saturday night, said Jess Silvino, a nurse there.

The hospital is expecting "another one or two waves of victims" as crews are able to fully access the tornado's path, said Richard Summers, chairman of emergency medicine at the medical center.

The hospital has crews in Yazoo City and Lexington that have been "amazed and astounded" by the amount of damage they're seeing, Summers said.

The state's emergency management officials have set up a command post near U.S. 49 in Yazoo City and the state has activated a 25-person rapid response team from Hattiesburg that is capable of search and rescue operations.

my601.com: Local reports of damage, fatalities

The governor said he is activating local members of the National Guard in Yazoo City to maintain order.

President Obama has "been briefed on the tragedy in Mississippi and the situation is being followed by the White House," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said.

Barbour said that he has not yet requested emergency federal aid but that he plans to do so on Monday.

"FEMA is in contact and coordination with our state and local partners and stand ready to help if a request is made," said Brad Carroll, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agancy.

Mississippi residents reported that the path of the twister was a half-mile to a mile wide, said Mark McAllister, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Jackson.

CNN meteorologist Jacqui Jeras said the tornado had traveled 150 miles across Mississippi, starting in the western part of the state and moving northeast before weakening as it moved into Alabama.

In Yazoo City, Fire Chief Roy Wilson said that between 20 to 30 houses were destroyed, and said some people were trapped inside structures. Wilson said he didn't yet have confirmed numbers on injuries.

"It's in pretty bad shape so far," he said of the city.

Speaking to reporters in Yazoo City, Barbour said that 17 injured have been taken to a hospital via ambulance and that two others were airlifted to Jackson.

"By God's grace [the tornado] did not go into the most central part of the city, the most populous. However, it went through the southern edge and eastern edge of town in a number of large neighborhoods," he said. "A number of businesses have been destroyed and others severely damaged -- there are churches that have been obliterated."

The sheriff's department in nearby Hinds County is sending two dozen deputies and 100 inmates to assist with the response in Yazoo County and to clear debris, MEMA said.

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In Eagle Lake, near the Louisiana border, about 30 homes were destroyed, Turner said. In Holmes County, 50 homes sustained structural damage, the National Weather Service reported.

Parts of three highways were closed due to downed trees and other damage: State Highway 3 in Yazoo County and State Highways 14 and 17 in Holmes County, according to the the Mississippi Department of Transportation.

On I-55, traffic was down to a single lane in each direction in parts of Holmes County and in the area north of Pickens, the transportation department said.

Linda Green, a dispatcher with the Issaquena County Sheriff's Department, said there was minimal damage in the area around Valley Park, and a few power lines were down.

No injuries have been reported in Valley Park after the twister ripped through around 11:30 a.m. (12:30 p.m. ET), she added.

Valley Park is in Issaquena County, while Yazoo City is located in Yazoo County. Issaquena County is in the western part of the state, north of Vicksburg.

Saturday's tornado was part of a broad band of storms that stretched from Missouri to the Florida Panhandle, Jeras said.

The storm system struck Louisiana before it moved into Mississippi. A Tallulah, Louisiana, police dispatcher said a chemical plant in the city had been damaged, but could not give further details.

Turner, the Mississippi governor's spokesman, said emergency response teams had been slowed by people out surveying the effects of the storm.

"One of the biggest obstacles is, of course, people are curious and want to get out and see the damage," he said. "We've urged people to stay away from those areas, not only because it slows down the emergency response, but there are also still live electrical wires, there are open gas lines that will have to be shut down."

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Lawyers hopeful for 'sorcerer' on death row

(News Terupdate) - A Lebanese man sentenced to die for "sorcery" in Saudi Arabia remains on death row but may not be executed -- at least not yet, the man's lawyer said.

May El Khansa said that Lebanon's justice minister met with Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Lebanon this week in an effort to spare the life of her client, Ali Hussain Sibat.

The Saudi ambassador told Lebanon's justice minister, Ibrahim Najjar, that Sibat wouldn't be beheaded because a final verdict had not been reached, El Khansa said, citing an account of the conversation that she received from the Lebanese justice minister.

Religious police in Saudi Arabia charged Sibat with sorcery as he visited the country in 2008. A court convicted him and sentenced him to death.

Saudi authorities have not disclosed details of the charge for which Sibat has been condemned. They also have declined to comment about the case.

Najjar could not be reached for comment this week, but he has told CNN that he considered the sentence "disproportionate."

"As far as I know, such an act doesn't deserve such a punishment," he said last month, "unless there is something else -- something that I have not had the possibility to study or to examine myself."

Sibat used to offer predictions and advice to callers on a Lebanese television network. Saudi Arabia's religious police charged him with sorcery while he was on an Islamic pilgrimage in the countr€y in 2008.

Outraged international rights groups have called on Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to pardon Sibat.

His lawyer says her conversation with the Lebanese justice minister gave her reason to hope.

"I trust Miniser Najjar," El Khansa told CNN, "and I know he's doing so much to make sure Ali Sibat will be released.

"I have put my trust in the Saudi justice system and hope he will soon be allowed to come back to Lebanon," said El Khansa, who has asked Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah to pardon her client.

Sibat, the married father of five, was convicted by a court in Medina and sentenced to death in November, El Khansa said. He appealed, and his case was sent back to the trial court for reconsideration. But the judges in Medina upheld their original verdict in March, she said.

Sibat's wife made an emotional plea for mercy last month.

"All I ask is for the Saudi king and the Saudi government to show him mercy -- let him come back to his country and his family," Samira Rahmoon said.

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6 police, 1 civilian dead in Juarez shootout

(News Terupdate) - A noon shootout left six police officers and a civilian dead on the streets of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday, city officials said.

Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz said five of the dead were federal police officers and one was a female city officer, all part of the joint police task force formed to combat drug violence in the border town.

Another federal officer was gravely wounded, Reyes said, and a city officer was wounded but not with life-threatening injuries.

A civilian was hit by shrapnel but those injuries were also not serious, he added.

Reyes said the incident began when two patrol cars, one from federal police and one from city police, stopped several people they had been investigating.

Gunmen in three other cars attacked the police convoy with a variety of weapons, including AK-47s, he said, based on bullets and shell casings found on the scene.

The gunmen, who escaped in a gray Dodge Durango and a green Dodge Caravan, may have been drug dealers, Federal Police said. The attack may have been in response to several recent arrests in Juarez, including eight people apprehended Thursday for possession of weapons, drugs and a stolen van, the agency said.

The mayor said it wasn't immediately clear why the police had stopped the people or whether the incident was drug related. Investigators are treating the incident "as a direct attack on police officers," he said.

Federal police launched an aerial search for the gunmen's vehicles but there have been no arrests.

Reyes said at a meeting with federal police that he was ordering an increase of patrol cars so there will be three or four cars per location.

About 800 cars patrol the city, Reyes said. The city police force consists of 3,000 officers, bolstered by 5,000 federal officers.

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At least six people kidnapped in Mexico hotel raid

(News Terupdate) - Mexican authorities on Thursday continued to investigate the kidnappings of at least six people from a Holiday Inn in Monterrey, Mexico, Wednesday.

Nuevo Leon state Attorney General Alejandro Garza y Garza said in a news conference that the unidentified gunmen entered a second hotel as well, the state-run Notimex news agency reported.

A convoy of between 10 and 15 vehicles carrying as many as 30 gunmen pulled into the Holiday Inn at around 2 a.m., Garza y Garza said.

According to him, the gunmen brought a handcuffed man into the lobby, who gave them information on the intended victims.

A businessman from Mexico City, Luis Miguel Gonzalez, was kidnapped, along with three other guests, Garza y Garza said.

The other guests were identified as Angel Ernesto Montes de Oca of Mexico City, Manuel Juarez and Aracely Hernandez, an employee of a staffing company near the border with the United States.

A hotel receptionist, David Salas, was also kidnapped, together with another hotel employee, authorities said.

A security guard at the hotel was missing, but it was not confirmed that he too was kidnapped, Garza y Garza said.

Before leaving, the gunmen took the computer from the reception desk as well as the video from the security camera, he said.

Minutes later, there was a report of the same group of gunmen entering the Mision Hotel, located near the Holiday Inn. Police responded to the hotel, but the officials there declined to report a crime to the authorities.

Northern Mexico, particularly the states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, have seen a recent uptick in violent activity, much of it blamed on warring drug cartels.

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Bench warrant issued for 'Deadliest Catch' star Jake Harris

(News Terupdate) - "Deadliest Catch" star Jake Harris is now among the hunted.

Harris failed to appear at a hearing Wednesday in his reckless driving case "so the court issued a bench warrant for his arrest," King County, Wash., prosecutor spokesman Dan Donohoe told PEOPLE. The bail amount on the warrant is $500.

"Jake just made a mistake on his scheduling," his attorney, Ed Ritter, told PEOPLE on Wednesday. "We plan on going in tomorrow at 2 p.m. to clear it all up."

Harris, 24, whose father Capt. Phil Harris died from complications of astroke on Feb. 9, has been formally charged with reckless driving and driving with a suspended license. If convicted, he faces a maximum of a year and three months in jail.

A memorial to honor Phil Harris is planned for the second annual "Deadliest Catch" fanfest, known as CatchCon, in Seattle on April 30.

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Dead woman's mom aids Cancun investigators

Cancun, Mexcio (News Terupdate) - Monica Beresford-Redman's mother met with a prosecutor in Cancun, Mexico, for several hours Tuesday night concerning her daughter's death at a resort two weeks ago.

Quintana Roo state Attorney General Francisco Alor was still waiting Wednesday on forensic test results before deciding if reality TV producer Bruce Beresford-Redman, the dead woman's husband, would be allowed to leave Mexico.

Beresford-Redman was detained as a suspect soon after his wife's body was found in a sewer near their Cancun hotel room, but he was released a day later while police gathered more evidence. The initial investigation suggested Monica Beresford-Redman "died of strangulation, because of the bruising," regional police spokesman Adrian Cardena said.

Ely Burgos flew to Cancun Tuesday on a mission to retrieve her daughter's body and to provide information to investigators. Burgos gave them copies of e-mails exchanged between Bruce and Monica Beresford-Redman in the weeks before their Cancun trip -- a trip that was an effort to save their troubled marriage, relatives said.

The couple and their children were staying at Cancun's Moon Palace resort when the husband, a former producer on CBS' "Survivor," reported her missing.

Beresford-Redman built his career as a Hollywood reality television show producer. He worked for several seasons on the popular CBS show "Survivor," in which contestants compete against each other in a variety of extreme outdoor scenarios. He was nominated for three Emmys as a producer on the show but was last credited as a producer in 2004. He also worked on NBC's "The Contender" and "The Restaurant" as well as MTV's "Pimp My Ride," according to entertainment media company IMG.

Monica Beresford-Redman, a native of Brazil, owned a restaurant in Los Angeles, California.

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Colorado baseball team president found dead

(News Terupdate) - Colorado Rockies President Keli McGregor was found dead Tuesday morning in a Salt Lake City, Utah, hotel, police said.

Police received a call shortly before 9 a.m. that a man was found unconscious in a room at the Grand America Hotel. Medics tried to revive him, police said.

The cause of his death is unknown.

"Words cannot describe the level of shock and disbelief that we all are feeling this morning at the loss of Keli," team Chairman and CEO Charlie Monfort said in a statement released by the team Tuesday. "Our thoughts, our prayers are with [McGregor's wife] Lori and the entire family as we all try to cope and understand how such a tragic loss could occur with such a wonderful man."

Monfort said he was in Utah on a business trip with McGregor and team Executive Vice President Greg Feasel.

McGregor, 48, had been the National League baseball team's president since October 2001, according to the team's website.

"As president of the Colorado Rockies, Keli was one of our game's rising young stars. He was a great athlete and equally great as a baseball administrator. Also, he was a great human being," Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement Tuesday afternoon. "All of baseball will miss him."

An online biography says McGregor began working with the Rockies in October 1993 as senior director of operations before being promoted to senior vice president in 1996 and executive vice president in 1998.

McGregor joined the Rockies after working as an associate athletic director at the University of Arkansas for four years.

He was a two-time All-American tight end at Colorado State University and was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the fourth round (110th overall) of the 1985 NFL draft. He played for Denver, Indianapolis and Seattle football teams before retiring.

He also coached football at the University of Florida for two seasons, in 1988 and 1989.

The online biography says McGregor lived in Golden, Colorado. He and his wife have four children.

He was born in Primghar, Iowa, and raised in Colorado.

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Dorothy Height, 'godmother' of civil rights, dies at 98

Washington (News Terupdate) - Dorothy Height, a leading civil rights pioneer of the 1960s, died Tuesday at age 98, Howard University Hospital confirmed.

Height died at 3:41 a.m., said hospital spokesman Ron Harris. No cause of death was given.

Height, who had been chair and president emerita of the National Council of Negro Women, worked in the 1960s alongside civil rights pioneers, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., future U.S. Rep. John Lewis and A. Philip Randolph. She was on the platform when King delivered his "I Have a Dream" speech at the 1963 March on Washington.

President Obama called her a hero and the "godmother" of the movement, noting she "served as the only woman at the highest level of the civil rights movement -- witnessing every march and milestone along the way."

"And even in the final weeks of her life -- a time when anyone else would have enjoyed their well-earned rest, Dr. Height continued her fight to make our nation a more open and inclusive place for people of every race, gender, background and faith."

Blog: Height's career highlights

Friend and former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis M. Herman said she was "deeply saddened" by Height's death.

"She was a dynamic woman with a resilient spirit, who was a role model for women and men of all faiths, races and perspectives," Herman said. "For her, it wasn't about the many years of her life, but what she did with them."

Height's years of service span from Roosevelt to the Obama administration, the council said in a statement announcing her death and listing the highlights of her career.

Height was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1994 by President Clinton and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004. She was among a handful of key African-American leaders to meet with Obama at the White House recently for a summit on race and the economy.

Her name is synonymous with the National Council of Negro Women, a group she led from 1957 to 1988, when she became the group's chair and president emerita. She was also a key figure in the YWCA beginning in the 1930s.

Height was born in Richmond, Virginia, and grew up in Rankin, Pennsylvania. Her civil rights work began in 1933 when she became a leader of the United Christian Youth Movement of North America. Among the issues she tackled were fighting to stop lynchings and working to desegregate the armed forces.

She experienced discrimination and wrote in her memoir about being turned down for admittance to Barnard College in New York.

"Although I had been accepted, they could not admit me," she wrote in "Open Wide the Freedom Gates."

"It took me a while to realize that their decision was a racial matter: Barnard had a quota of two Negro students per year, and two others had already taken the spots."

At its 1980 commencement ceremonies, Barnard awarded Height its highest honor, the Barnard Medal of Distinction.

Under Height's leadership, the National Council of Negro Women dealt with the "unmet needs of women and their families by combating hunger and establishing decent housing and home ownership programs through the federal government for low-income families."

The organization spearheaded voter registration drives and started "Wednesdays in Mississippi" in which female interracial groups helped at Freedom Schools, institutions meant to empower African-Americans and address inequalities in how the races were educated.

Lewis, the Georgia Democrat and fellow civil rights leader, said Height was fighting for social justice "long before Dr. King and some of us appeared on the scene."

"She was truly a pioneer, and she must be remembered as one of those brave and courageous souls that never gave up, never gave in," Lewis said. "She was a feminist and a major spokesperson for the rights of women long before there was a women's movement."

iReport: Height speaks at the 2008 Democratic National Convention

U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, the California Democrat who is chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said Height's efforts "undergirds the work" of the caucus.

She called Height "a bold and brilliant African-American woman who blazed many trails and opened many doors for a countless number of Americans, particularly the empowerment of women and girls, during her lifelong quest for justice."

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