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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Iconic coffee cup creator dies

New York (News Terupdate) - Leslie Buck, designer of New York City's iconic blue-and-white coffee cup, died Monday at home Glen Cove, New York. He was 87 years old.

Before there was a Starbucks on every corner, New Yorkers would stop into one of the city's many Greek-owned diners for their morning caffeine. They would most likely exit clutching Buck's famous "Anthora Cup" filled with steaming coffee.

The cup has made appearances in New York City TV shows and movies, from "Law and Order", to Al Pacino's 1989 film "Sea of Love." One of Buck's daughters, Beverly Eisenoff, remembers sitting in the movie theater when she saw the cup stretched across the screen, "That's my dad's cup!" she yelled.

Angie Gorman, Director of Communications at Solo Cup Co., told CNN that Solo now owns Sherri Cup Co., where Buck first designed the cup in the early 1960s. The cup can still be custom ordered, but demand for the cup tapered off in the new century and Solo decided to officially discontinue the product from its catalog in 2006.

Born Laszlo Büch in present-day Ukraine in 1922, Buck arrived in America a refugee of Nazi Germany after World War II. He lost his parents to the Nazis, but he survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald. His daughter describes him as a self-made man, "He came here with nothing, no parents, no job, no savings. He had nothing."

But that didn't stop him. "Because of what he suffered in the concentration camps he was somebody who really believed in respecting humanity, really was about loving your neighbor and respecting your neighbor," his daughter said.

It was this respect that led him to spend hours in the library, researching Greek history and design. He wanted to honor the heritage of the Greek diner owners who bought his products and gave him his livelihood.

His design features three steaming golden cups of coffee, and the essential phrase 'We are happy to serve you" bordered by two Greek Amphora vases. Buck's children say his Eastern European accent transformed "Amphora" to "Anthora," and that's how it's known today.

When Buck retired in 1992, the company printed 10,000 cups for him and his family with a slight change. The cups said, "It was our pleasure to serve you," as a farewell to the man who left his mark on the city that never sleeps.

When talking with CNN about the outpouring of attention and affection for her father following his death, Eisenoff described her father as incredibly humble, and impossible to buy presents for. "New York became his home when he left his home," she says. "This is the best present to give my father. What he did his whole life matters to the city that became his home."

Leslie Buck is survived by his wife, Ella, Eisenoff and another daughter, Linda Rush, his son Robert, his brother Eugene and four grandchildren.

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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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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.

Have you been affected by severe weather? Send in pics, video

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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'Godfather' of Cuban tobacco dead at 91

Havana, Cuba (News Terupdate) - Alejandro Robaina, considered a legend among Cuban tobacco growers, died Saturday, according to Cuban cigar company Habanos S.A., which produced cigars named for him.

Robaina was 91. He was diagnosed with cancer last year and died on his farm in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, said Habanos spokesman Jose Antonio Candia.

Robaina's tobacco leaves are considered some of the best in the world. In Cuba, he was called "The Godfather." His deeply wrinkled face smiled out from billboards, T-shirts and boxes of Vegas Robaina cigars, among Cuba's finest. A box of premium Vegas Robaina cigars can fetch more than $500 on the international market.

But the man behind the smile was also a simple country farmer who got up at the crack of dawn every day to survey his fields until cancer slowed him down.

"I wouldn't say I've triumphed, but I've done something with my life," he told CNN in 2008. "The first thing is to love the land, take care of the land."

Robaina's family have farmed tobacco continuously since 1845 on the plantation. Under Robaina, business flourished, and the plantation had some of the best yields in the region, producing highly-prized wrapper leaves used for the outer layer of cigars.

Cigar aficionados around the globe called him the dean of Cuba's cigar industry and every year thousands of visitors made the two-hour trek from Havana, hoping to share a stogie and a glass of rum with "the Don."

Robaina kept his lands even when many ranches were nationalized after the 1959 revolution led by Fidel Castro.

"I had a very strong conversation with Fidel 18 or 20 years ago," Robaina said in 2008. "He asked if I would join a big cooperative since I had so many workers, and I told him no.

"For me tobacco growing had to be in the family, done with love. Because in the big cooperatives, everyone's the boss, nobody worries as much as the grower."

Now, almost all of Cuba's tobacco farms are private, according to the Agriculture Ministry. And they generally take their lead from Robaina, planting and harvesting on the same days he did.

"I like to sow during a waxing moon, and harvest in a waning moon," he said.

Robaina said he'd been smoking cigars since he was 10 years old. "When I get really old, I'll stop smoking the strong stuff," he said.

In 1997, Cuba launched the Vegas Robaina brand, named in his honor. They're made from the golden wrapper leaves grown on Robaina's plantation but are rolled in a separate factory.

Like most of Cuba's cigars, they're largely exported. Because of the U.S. trade embargo, however, Cuban cigars are off-limits in America.

Robaina said in 2008 he hoped that policy would end during his lifetime.

"Of course I have hope they'll open up the market," he said. "Cuba's willing to send cigars and they're willing to smoke them. They're going crazy because they can't smoke cigars from here."

Robaina will be buried Sunday, said Candia.

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World leaders struggle to reach Poland for funeral

Warsaw, Poland (News Terupdate) - World leaders' plans to reach Poland this weekend for the funeral of President Lech Kaczynski were in limbo as volcanic ash from Iceland continued to ground flights to and from Europe.

President Obama canceled his trip to Poland because of the ash, the White House said. The United States will be represented at the funeral by the U.S. ambassador to Poland, Lee Feinstein.

"I spoke with acting President [Bronislaw] Komorowski and told him that I regret that I will not be able to make it to Poland due to the volcanic ash that is disrupting air travel over Europe," Obama said in a statement released by the White House. "Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers, and will support them in any way I can as they recover from this terrible tragedy."

While French President Nicolas Sarkozy was already in Poland on Saturday and prepared to attend services the next day, other key leaders who planned to attend, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, still faced possible cancellations due to the ash.

Kaczynski, his wife, dignitaries and top military leaders were killed when their plane crashed in bad weather on April 10. They were on their way to a service commemorating Polish prisoners of war massacred in Russia during World War II.

It wasn't clear whether Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who was still in Moscow on Saturday, would take a flight to Poland for the funeral of the Polish first couple. The Kremlin last week said Medvedev did plan to attend.

Other leaders, including Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip, ditched plane tickets and opted to drive to Poland instead. Latvian President Valdis Zatlers, a close friend of Kaczynski, also planned to make the 13-hour journey from his country to Poland by car.

The White House said the United States would be represented at the funeral by its ambassador to Poland, and that Obama had spoken with Poland's acting president.

"Michelle and I continue to have the Polish people in our thoughts and prayers, and will support them in any way I can as they recover from this terrible tragedy," Obama said in a statement. "President Kaczynski was a patriot and close friend and ally of the United States, as were those who died alongside him, and the American people will never forget the lives they led."

Eurocontrol, Europe's air traffic authority, said it expects about 5,000 flights to take place Saturday in European air space, compared to 22,000 on a normal Saturday. On Friday, there were 10,400 flights instead of the normal 28,000.

The ash cloud was drifting south and east over Europe. Although barely visible in the air, the ash -- made up of tiny particles of rock, glass and sand -- poses a serious threat to aircraft.

The volcano was still erupting and spewing ash Saturday. The eruption began March 20 beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier in southern Iceland, blowing a hole in the ice. It worsened over the week, forcing local evacuations and eventually affecting European air space.

There were restrictions on civil flights across most of northern and central Europe, including Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, most of France, most of Germany, Hungary, Ireland, northern Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United Kingdom.

The funeral Sunday will proceed as scheduled, though it will be affected by the travel restrictions, said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorsky.

"The papal legate who was supposed to lead the funeral Mass has apparently canceled," he said. "And quite frankly, we can't blame people for not wanting to take even the smallest risk to the security of air traffic in the circumstances."

Several leaders -- including Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Britain's Prince Charles, Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf and Bulgarian President Georgi Pyrvanov -- planned to attend Kaczynski's funeral if flights resumed in their countries.

Britain's Gordon Brown, who has been campaigning to hang on as prime minister since the Parliament officially dissolved Monday, was never scheduled to attend. British Foreign Secretary David Miliband was seeking alternate travel plans.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso was in Strasbourg, France, and was seeking alternative travel options to get to Poland.

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, South Korean Prime Minister Chung Un-chan and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero canceled their plans to attend.

Meanwhile, thousands of people gathered in the Polish capital on Saturday to mourn the 96 victims of the plane crash.

Central Warsaw was in a lockdown as a trumpeter played, photos of the dead were displayed in Pilsudski Square, and speeches were delivered honoring the victims.

An estimated 1.5 million people are expected to turn out Sunday to bid farewell to Kaczynski, first at the state funeral and then at a church service in the historic city of Krakow.

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Dalai Lama seeks to visit quake-ravaged area of China

(News Terupdate) - The Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Buddhist leader long exiled from China, is seeking to visit the Tibetan region rocked by a deadly earthquake this week.

In a statement issued Saturday from Dharamsala, the northern Indian town where he lives, the religious leader said the devastated region is where he was born and that he wants to go there to help people cope with the tragedy.

"To fulfill the wishes of many of the people there, I am eager to go there myself to offer them comfort," said the Dalai Lama, who went into exile in 1959 after an aborted Tibetan rebellion against Chinese rule.

"The Tibetan community in exile would like to offer whatever support and assistance it can towards the relief work. We hope to be able to do this through the proper and appropriate channels as soon as possible."

The magnitude 6.9 quake struck the country's Tibetan region on Wednesday. Rescuers have been working around the clock to pull survivors from the rubble.

The death toll from the earthquake reached 1,484 late Saturday, according to relief officials quoted by China's official Xinhua news agency. Xia Xueping, a rescue official, said 312 remain missing and 12,088 were injured, with 1,394 of them in serious condition.

The powerful quake struck the impoverished county of Yushu in China's Qinghai province. It toppled about 15,000 homes in and around Yushu, and caused more than 100,000 people to flee the area.

In Jiegu, the town closest to the epicenter, people were taken to a sporting field serving as a makeshift hospital; there are no hospitals in the town. More than 85 percent of Jiegu's poorly constructed mud and brick houses collapsed. On Saturday, monks there chanted Buddhist prayers as hundreds of victims were cremated on a hillside.

Ethnic Tibetans have accused Chinese soldiers of not doing enough to help in the immediate aftermath of the quake, an allegation the Chinese government denies.

But the Dalai Lama on Saturday praised Chinese authorities for visiting the predominantly ethnic Tibetan region. He singled out Prime Minister Wen Jiabao for offering comfort to people in the region and overseeing the relief efforts. He also said he appreciates the freedom given to the media to report on the quake and its aftermath.

The Dalai Lama wanted to visit victims of the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan that killed about 70,000 people, but he wasn't allowed to visit China. He visited Taiwan last year when it was struck by a typhoon.

As for Tibet, the Dalai Lama said that "because of the physical distance between us, at present I am unable to comfort those directly affected, but I would like them to know I am praying for them."

Qinghai province in northwestern China is home to about 5 million people and is considered a gateway to Himalayan Tibet. About half its people are Han Chinese, but the area is home to more than 40 ethnic groupings, including Tibetans, Hui and Mongols.

"I appeal to governments, international aid organizations and other agencies to extend whatever assistance they can to enable the families of those devastated by this tragedy to rebuild their lives," the religious leader said.

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Ex-Los Angeles Police Chief Gates dies

Los Angeles, California (News Terupdate) - Daryl Gates, former chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, has died at age 83 after a battle with bladder cancer, Los Angeles police said.

Gates was the city's top police official from 1978 through 1992 when he resigned in the wake of the turmoil from the 1991 Rodney King police beating and the riots that followed.

"Daryl Francis Gates was a one-in-a-million human being," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said. "He inspired others to succeed and, in doing so, changed the landscape of law enforcement around the world."

Gates' 14 years as chief was a time of change, growth and turmoil in Los Angeles, as the city passed Chicago, Illinois, to become the nation's second largest.

His reputation was tarnished by racial gaffes, including one highly publicized remark when he defended officers' use of carotid chokehold that sometimes led to injuries or death.

Gates suggested that blacks had arteries that "do not open up as fast as on normal people." He later said he intended "normal" to mean all healthy people.

His department was credited with keeping the 1984 Summer Olympics safe.

A native of the Los Angeles area, Gates joined the force as a rookie in 1949.

Gates called the rise of drug trafficking a "deadly plague invading our shores" and made it a priority in the 1980s.

"More than half of all murders and bank robberies were narcotics-related" in 1987, according to a statement from the Los Angeles police.

Gates is credited with the creation of the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, which was based on his belief "that the present generation had already surrendered to drug dependency and that the country's future lies with the readiness of our children to resist involvement," Los Angeles police said.

The DARE program has spread throughout U.S. law enforcement agencies over the past two decades.

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