1 police officer killed, several wounded in Detroit

(News Terupdate) - A well-respected veteran Detroit, Michigan, police officer was gunned down early Monday, the first time in about five years a city officer has been killed in the line of duty, the city police chief said.

Police responded to an early Monday complaint of shots fired. They were met by someone armed with a handgun who shot at the officers when they arrived at a house, Chief Warren Evans told reporters.

The slain officer was shot several times. Four other officers and the alleged perpetrator were shot and were at a hospital, Evans said.

The four wounded officers were struck in the hands and legs. Where the suspect was shot was not disclosed.

"It's a tough time for all of us," Evans told reporters.

He didn't identify the officer, but Evans said he was a "great police officer, loved by almost everyone here."

Additional coverage from CNN affiliate WDIV

Evans said he had been on the job around 12 years and "certainly wasn't a rookie."

The slain officer leaves a widow and a 10-year-old son, officials said. Mayor Dave Bing, who met with the widow, said he apologized to her and knows she is in pain.

"I surely hope that the citizens here who know things, that can help the police department, that we need to come together as a city to stop this madness," Bing said.

Police have secured the scene and found drugs in the house, which may have been an abandoned structure.

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Mexican drug violence claims 24 lives in 24 hours

(News Terupdate) - Drug violence in the Mexican state of Chihuahua left 24 people dead in the span of 24 hours this weekend, the state attorney general's office said Sunday.

The killings were scattered over four locations throughout the state, with eight dead in Juarez, 10 killed in the capital of Chihuahua, five killed in Cuauhtemuc and one killed in Parral.

All the slayings occurred in public places, with the killings in Cuauhtemuc occurring in a bar, said Carlos Gonzalez, a spokesman for the Chihuahua state attorney general.

The killings took place between Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning, Gonzalez said.

The victims -- all male -- ranged in age between 18 and 25 years old.

No other details about the killings or the victims were immediately available.

"This is an indicator of the incrementally increasing war between the two cartels battling for Juarez Plaza, the state's drug trafficking corridor," Gonzalez said, referring to an ongoing battle between the Sinaloa and Juarez cartels for dominance in the area. Juarez Plaza is a major thoroughfare through the area.

"I can't give you a reason why the violence is picking up the last week of April going into this month," Gonzalez added.

Some Mexican news organizations have reported that the Sinaloa Cartel had defeated the rival Juarez organization but Gonzalez said, "There is no winner to this war."

The spate of weekend killings followed another bloody week in the Ciudad Juarez area.

On Wednesday, at least 15 people were killed in drug-related violence in Juarez, authorities said.

The slayings included four people whose bodies were found at one location, another three -- one of them a woman -- who were found slain at a second location, and another eight victims who were killed at a bar, police spokesman Jacinto Seguro said.

On Tuesday, 10 people were killed, Seguro said, including three who were shot outside a supermarket. Another victim was killed outside a shopping mall.

In all, 25 people were killed between Tuesday and Wednesday, Seguro said.

Ciudad Juarez is the most violent city in Mexico, with more than 2,600 drug-related deaths in 2009. No official numbers are available for this year, but more than 500 killings have been reported by local media. Some reports have the figures as high as 810 in Juarez this year.

According to a report released in April by the Mexican government, Chihuahua state is Mexico's hardest-hit state by drug violence, with 6,757 people killed since the start of the drug war at the end of 2006.

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Report: Trainer killed by whale momentarily freed herself in struggle

Orlando, Florida (News Terupdate) - The SeaWorld trainer killed by a whale in February fought to free herself from the animal after he caught her hair, a sheriff's report said.

Dawn Brancheau, 40, was working with a whale named Tilikum on February 24 when the animal pulled her underwater in front of shocked onlookers at SeaWorld of Orlando's Shamu Stadium.

The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that Brancheau and Tilikum interacted "nose-to-nose" when her hair floated on the water into the animal's mouth.

She briefly freed herself and tried to swim to the surface, but her efforts were thwarted when the 12,000-pound animal struck her.

An autopsy report confirms that Brancheau died of drowning and traumatic injuries.

Tilikum has been linked to two other deaths. In 1991, he and two other whales were involved in the drowning of a trainer at a Victoria, British Columbia, marine park. In 1999, Tilikum was blamed for the death of a 27-year-old man whose body was found floating in a tank at SeaWorld.

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Documents: Teens' killer stalked others

(News Terupdate) - Authorities believe that a registered sex offender who this month admitted killing two California teenagers attempted to follow an 11-year-old girl walking home from school the day before one of the teens disappeared, according to documents filed in the case.

John Albert Gardner, 31, pleaded guilty April 16 to killing Chelsea King, 17, and Amber Dubois, 14. He also pleaded guilty to a charge of assault with intent to commit rape in a December incident involving a third woman.

King was last seen leaving Poway High School in suburban San Diego, California, on February 25. Her car, with her cell phone inside, was found at Rancho Bernardo Community Park. King was known to run on the park's trails. Her disappearance triggered a massive search that ended a few days later, when King's remains were found in the park.

Dubois disappeared in February 2009 while walking to school in Escondido, California. She was considered a missing person for more than a year until her remains were found in March. Prosecutors said Gardner led police to Dubois' body after being assured that it would not be used against him in court.

Gardner avoided the death penalty with his guilty plea but will be sentenced June 1 to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, under terms of the plea deal with prosecutors.

On February 24, a day before King went missing, an 11-year-old girl reported that she was walking home from school when she heard a vehicle slowly approaching her from behind, according to an affidavit requesting a police search of Gardner's home, posted on the website of CNN affiliate KTLA-TV. The documents were unsealed Monday, KTLA reported.

The girl told police the vehicle drove past her and then parked about 30 feet in front of her, the documents said. The driver stayed in the vehicle, the girl said, and did not attempt to speak to her. But a woman pulled up next to the girl and told her the person in the vehicle "seemed very suspicious" and offered to follow her home, according to the affidavit.

The man, who was in a black car, then made a U-turn and left, and the woman followed the girl the remaining two blocks to her house, the documents said. The girl's mother called police after her daughter told her what happened.

The girl's mother told authorities that after seeing a photo of Gardner following his arrest in the King case, her daughter said Gardner was "the guy in the car," the affidavit said. Gardner's girlfriend drives a black 2002 Nissan Sentra, according to the documents.

The documents also detail the December assault on the third woman near where King's car was found at the park. She told authorities she was on a hiking trail and a man walked past her, the affidavit said. She told him, "Good morning," and he returned the greeting, but then tackled her from the side as he passed her, knocking her to the ground on her back.

The man pinned her to the ground, and she screamed while struggling with him, the affidavit said. He told her to "shut up," and she said, "You're going to have to kill me."

"That can be arranged," he responded. The man then demanded money from her, the affidavit said.

She was able to sit up and used her elbow to strike him in the nose, telling police she felt "the crunch of cartilage." The man let go of her and grabbed his nose, she said, and she ran.

A woman also told police that she saw Gardner on the jogging trails near the park on the day King disappeared, the affidavit said. She said he was sitting and drinking a beer and had several empty beer cans around him. He warned her about a rattlesnake that was nearby, and they spoke briefly.

The woman said she ran past the man and then talked to him some more on her return trip. The man was wearing blue jeans and a Hard Rock Cafe T-shirt, she said, according to the affidavit.

A second woman also recalled seeing a man in the Hard Rock Cafe shirt on a trail that day about 3 p.m., about an hour and a half after the first woman said she saw him, the affidavit said. The same woman believes she saw King on the trail as well. Both women told police they were 100 percent sure the man they saw was Gardner, the affidavit said.

The area where the second woman recalled seeing Gardner was "300 yards from where the panties of Chelsea King were found and about a mile from where the body of Chelsea King was found," the affidavit said.

At the time of his arrest, Gardner was a registered sex offender. In 2000 he was convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and a count of false imprisonment, according to a probation officer's report. The victim in that case was a 13-year-old girl, who was molested and beaten when she tried to resist, the report said.

"The defendant ... manifests marked predatory traits and is not seen as a suitable candidate for sex offender treatment insofar as he refuses to accept any responsibility for what he has done," according to the 2000 report.

Gardner knew the girl and was a former neighbor of hers, the report said. "The fact that he would try to force himself on her sexually is indefensible but then to beat her as he did out of frustration ... represents a qualitative leap to extremely serious criminal behavior."

The report recommended that Gardner be sentenced to six years in prison. KTLA reported that he served five years before being paroled.

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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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Obama meets, prays with Rev. Billy Graham

Asheville, North Carolina (News Terupdate) - President Obama prayed Sunday with the Rev. Billy Graham at Graham's mountaintop home before leaving North Carolina to attend the memorial service for 29 West Virginia coal miners killed in a recent explosion.

Obama became the first sitting U.S. president to visit Graham at his family home, according to Graham spokesman Larry Ross. He is the 12th president, dating back to Harry Truman, to meet with the so-called "pastor to the presidents."

"I am pleased to have had President Obama in my home this afternoon," Graham said in a statement, adding that Obama sought the meeting while on vacation in Asheville for the weekend. "My son Franklin and I enjoyed a brief visit with the president, followed by a time of prayer together."

During the meeting, Ross said, Obama shared some insights about his faith and the challenges of being commander-in-chief.

"Like others before him, President Obama shared how lonely, demanding and humbling the office of president can be, and how much he appreciated the counsel of people like Mr. Graham and the prayers of so many citizens," Ross said.

The two men also discussed their love of golf and the city of Chicago, where Graham attended school and held several of his religious crusades, Ross said.

At the end, Graham presented Obama with two Bibles -- one for him and the other for first lady Michelle Obama, Ross said. The two men then prayed together, with Obama first praying for Graham and then Graham "concluded with a prayer for the president, his family and his administration," according to Ross.

Obama was "extremely gratified" that Graham made time for the meeting and private prayer, White House spokesman Bill Burton said.

The visit was a follow-up to Obama's telephone call to Graham on the evangelist's 91st birthday in November, Burton said. At that time, the two agreed to meet as soon as possible, according to Burton.

Ross told CNN the visit came together hastily after the White House officially inquired on Friday, after Obama arrived in North Carolina.

Obama and his family vacationed in Asheville over the weekend, and the first couple played tennis Sunday morning before their departure, Burton said.

The meeting with Graham came three days after the Army rescinded an invitation for Franklin Graham to speak at the Pentagon on the upcoming National Day of Prayer. The Army decision was because of controversial comments about Islam by the younger Graham.

Billy Graham's statement referred to the upcoming event without mentioning the controversy involving his son.

"As we approach the National Day of Prayer on May 6, I want to encourage Christians everywhere to pray for our president, and for all those in positions of authority, and especially for the men and women serving in our military," Graham said in the statement.

In December, Franklin Graham told CNN's Campbell Brown that "true Islam" could not be practiced in America because "you can't beat your wife, you cannot murder your children if you think they've committed adultery or something like that, which they do practice in these other countries."

Franklin Graham later tried to temper his remarks by saying that he had Muslim friends.

Last week, he said he regretted the Army's decision but stood by his comments.

"I don't like the way they treat women, the way they treat minorities. I just find it horrific. But I love the people of Islam," he said, adding some of his work has been in Muslim nations.

The Army, which oversees the National Day of Prayer ceremonies at the Pentagon, feared that if Graham spoke at the Pentagon on May 6, Islamic militants would publicize his comments, potentially fueling tensions in Muslim nations such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where U.S. troops are deployed.

Graham's invitation was not the only controversy swirling about the National Day of Prayer this year.

Last week, a federal judge struck down as unconstitutional the 1952 law that established the day, saying it violated the ban on government-backed religion.

On Thursday, the Justice Department informed a federal appeals court that the Obama administration will appeal that decision.

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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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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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Judge removed from Ohio serial killings case

(News Terupdate) - The Ohio Supreme Court has removed a Cleveland judge from a case after attorneys for serial killer suspect Anthony Sowell accused her of bias as a result of postings about their client on a newspaper website.

Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold was removed from the case Thursday, and it has been turned over to the Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court for reassignment to another judge.

Sowell faces murder, attempted murder, rape and attempted rape charges in connection with the killings of 11 women and attacks on five other women. He was arrested after the bodies of the slain women were found at his house last fall, and he has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Read the indictment (PDF)

Sowell's attorneys, John P. Parker and Rufus Sims, filed an affidavit Monday seeking Saffold's disqualification, according to court documents.

They alleged that Saffold had "improper," ex parte conversations with the former judge on the case, Timothy McGinty, and a newspaper reporter from The Cleveland Plain Dealer. They also said that e-mails from the judge's personal and office accounts allegedly were sources of information for a March 26 Plain Dealer article and that the judge has a financial interest in the case because she and her daughter have sued the newspaper over the apparent use of her e-mails as sourcing for that article.

The defense said someone using the moniker "lawmiss" posted derogatory comments on the newspaper's website about attorney Sims and Sowell.

Those comments were linked to Saffold's account, but she has denied posting them and has said her court computer was not used to make them.

Saffold could not be reached for comment Thursday.

However, she filed a response to the defense, insisting she harbors no bias in the case and denying she had any improper conversations about it with others. She also said her civil suit against the newspaper has nothing to do with the case against the defendant.

Still, acting Chief Justice Paul E. Pfeifer found the concerns over Saffold's e-mail accounts and the public postings particularly troubling.

"Although Judge Saffold denied that she was the source of these online comments, she has admitted that the comments originated from the online account shared by her and members of her family and that the comments were posted by her daughter," Pfeifer said in his ruling.

He said the "unfortunate postings" impede Saffold's ability to resolve legal issues in the case that would appear to be objective and fair.

While there's no evidence of Saffold's actual bias, Pfeifer said, "disqualification is appropriate where the public's confidence in the integrity of the judicial system is at stake."

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