Lawsuit filed over bin Laden death photos

 A conservative legal watchdog group has filed the first lawsuit seeking public release of video and photographs of the U.S. military raid and aftermath that left al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden dead.

Judicial Watch is asking the Department of Defense to comply with a Freedom of Information request for the material, especially photos of the September 11 mastermind lying dead on the third floor of his Pakistan hideout. The legal complaint to force compliance was made in federal court in Washington on Friday.

The group says it is being "irreparably harmed" by the Obama administration's "unlawful withholding of requested records."

Justice Stevens says bin Laden killing legally justified

Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens has voiced support for the killing of al Qaeda terrorist leader Osama bin Laden by U.S. forces, saying it was legally justified.

In remarks Thursday evening at his alma mater, Northwestern University, the 91-year-old former justice said the order by President Barack Obama for the covert mission by U.S. Navy SEALs was "to remove an enemy who had been trying every day to attack the United States," according to two people who attended a symposium and dinner that was closed to the media.

Stevens said he was pleased the president took the risky decision to launch the May 2 commando assault on bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. The justice added, "I must say I was very proud of the SEALs."

Unreleased bin Laden audio message called 'puzzling'

An unreleased audio message from Osama bin Laden, produced in late April, days before his death, in which he talks in support of the so-called "Arab Spring," was seized at the compound during the U.S. raid, according to a U.S. official.

The message refers to the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia but doesn't mention the uprisings in Libya, Yemen, Syria or elsewhere.

The official spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the classified nature of the information.

The official said it is "puzzling" that bin Laden would "suddenly join the bandwagon on the uprisings," months after they started and not mention all of the Arab nations in turmoil. For instance, the official said it was a "head scratcher" why bin Laden would not indicate his support for the uprising against Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi, a man bin Laden detested.

Osama Bin Laden Killed By Navy Seals in Firefight

Osama Bin Laden was killed not by a drone strike, but up close during a firefight with U.S. troops. He was not living in a cave when he died, but in a million-dollar mansion with seven-foot walls just 40 miles from the Pakistani capital, where U.S. forces killed him Sunday.

Response

In our class discussion, it was about immigration. It was really interesting and i learned a lot of stuff about it. For me, we need this illegal immigrants because American doesn't want to do the dirty job and we can pay them lower than the minimum wage. Even though they're illegal they're still a human with dreams. they just want to have a better life. They actually work harder than Americans do. They just want to have little money to support their family to buy diapers or food for their children and we cant judge them because even though theyre illegal immigrants this are people who  also have feelings.

Netflix now America's biggest video service provider

7% of Americans subscribe to Netflix

Netflix knocked over a new milestone Monday: It now has more subscribers than the largest cable TV operator in the U.S.

Netflix's global subscriber base grew almost 70% over the past year, to 23.6 million users. With that audience, it dethroned Comcast as the country's biggest provider of subscription video content. More than 7% of Americans now subscribe to Netflix.

Those details came out Monday in Netflix's first-quarter report, in which the company reported earnings of of $60.2 million, or $1.11 a share. That's up from $32 million, or 59 cents a share, a year ago.

Act goes awry, human cannonball dies

A man who was taking part in a human cannonball show in Detling, England, was fatally injured Monday when the event failed to go off as planned, Kent police said.

The incident occurred in the afternoon during Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Show at the Kent County Showground, southeast of London, police said.

The British Press Association, citing police, said a safety net failed to engage.

A Kent Police spokesman declined to identify the man beyond saying he was in his 20s. Relatives of the man had been informed of the mishap, but his body had not been formally identified, a police spokesman said.

A statement on the Scott May website said all shows had been canceled "until further notice."

Judge orders NFL owners to lift lockout

A federal judge ruled in favor of NFL players on Monday, issuing an injunction that ordered the league's owners to lift their lockout.

However, Greg Aiello, NFL senior vice president of public relations, said the league will seek an immediate stay of the ruling pending an appeal.

A lockout was imposed after talks between the players and owners broke down last month and the players disbanded their union.

An NFL statement said an appeal will be on the grounds that federal law prohibits injunctions in labor disputes.

Your guide to the NFL talks

In her ruling Monday, U.S. District Judge Susan Richard Nelson said the decision by the players to disband their union meant the case no longer came under federal labor law that prohibits injunctions, as claimed by the owners.

Tennessee investigators plead for help in woman's abduction

Investigators and community members in Tennessee continued their hunt Sunday for a 20-year-old nursing student, offering a fresh appeal for tips on the man they believe forcibly took her from her home last week.

Holly Bobo was on her way to school when her brother saw her being led from their Darden, Tennessee, home into the woods by a man wearing camouflage, said John Mehr, special agent in charge for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Official: 5 troops killed in Afghanistan bombing are all Americans

Five troops killed in a suicide bombing this weekend at a military base in eastern Afghanistan were members of the U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division, a senior U.S. military official said Sunday.

Earlier, authorities had said only that five members of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, which includes troops from the United States and other nations, were killed in the Saturday incident.

The families of all five have been notified of the deaths, and a formal announcement from the Army is forthcoming, said the official, who declined to be identified pending the announcement.

Budget debate shifts to raising debt ceiling

 An escalating national debate on federal deficits and government spending focused Sunday on the upcoming deadline for Congress to increase the amount of money that the United States can borrow.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said congressional leaders told President Barack Obama last week that they will raise the federal debt ceiling when it reaches its limit, which is expected to happen sometime within the next 10 weeks.

None of us was Gadhafi's lover, one of his nurses says

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi’s Ukrainian nurses lived well and traveled with him in style, but none of them ever was his lover, one of them told Newsweek after returning to her home country.

"The only time we ever touched him was to take his blood pressure,” said Oksana Balinskaya, who left Libya for Ukraine in early February, the month Libya’s civil war began, according to Newsweek partner The Daily Beast.

Balinskaya, who said she fled Libya because she was pregnant and believed Gadhafi wouldn’t approve of her Serbian boyfriend, told Newsweek Gadhafi "chose to hire only attractive Ukrainian women, most probably for our looks." She said she and other nurses would ensure the 68-year-old, who she said had the "heart rate and blood pressure of a much younger man," would take daily walks and get vaccinations.

Gadhafi military hurt, but prospect of stalemate looms, official says

After weeks of U.S. and NATO bombardment, about one-third of Moammar Gadhafi's ground armor has been destroyed, as well as most of the fixed air defense sites and aircraft, but a stalemate between government and rebel forces is emerging and could last for some time, according to a senior U.S. official with direct knowledge of the latest military assessments.

The official agreed to speak Monday only on background because of the sensitive nature of the information.

The official said the latest U.S. and NATO view is that both sides essentially remain in their fixed positions -- the rebels near Ajdabiya and the pro-government forces near al-Brega.

At least 6 killed in new Japan earthquake

At least six people were killed when a magnitude-6.4 earthquake struck Japan Tuesday morning, a local fire department said.

The six were killed when a landslide triggered by the quake buried three homes in Iwaki, the city's fire department said. Three people were rescued and hospitalized, and fire officials were working to rescue an unknown number of others believed to be trapped, the department said.

The quake struck at about 8:08 a.m. Tuesday (7:08 p.m. Monday ET), according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It had a depth of about 13 kilometers (8 miles) and was centered about 77 miles east-southeast of Tokyo.

Texas Speed Limit Raised: Is it Safe?

85 mph speed limit could mean more fatalities in crashes.

Misrata wounded speak of fighting, resolve

 Hundreds of people hurt in the fighting in the Libyan city of Misrata were picked up by a Turkish hospital ship Sunday and spoke of the violence they left behind.

Despite the fierce fighting that left many of them severely wounded or mourning family members, those aboard said they would return to the besieged city in a heartbeat.

"By God, I would go back to Misrata the first chance I get," said Muhammad el Suker, 28. A salesman-turned-rebel fighter, el Suker was hit in the stomach by shrapnel, forcing him to leave behind his father, mother, seven brothers and three sisters.

He said he is worried about his family and painted a disturbing picture of a war-torn city.

"There are so many killed," he said. "They're killing, violating our honor, robbing our homes. Anything that is wrong, they are doing. You can't imagine what's going on there."

DC schools' test score improvements under Michelle Rhee 


face scrutiny. CNN's Sandra Endo explains.

Investigators find parts of downed Air France jet

French investigators said Sunday that they have found pieces of the Air France jet that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean in 2009, killing all 228 people on board.

Air France Flight 447 disappeared after taking off from Rio de Janeiro on its way to Paris.

France's air accident investigation agency, the BEA, said that a team -- led by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution -- discovered parts of the aircraft during an underwater search operation conducted within the past 24 hours.

The agency did not immediately say what parts of the jet the team found.

Investigators have not yet established what caused the crash, and large parts of the plane -- including both flight recorders -- have never been located, despite an extensive search operation that included a French navy submarine.

'Search surge' finds more bodies in Japan

A search for missing people in Japan, conducted by the Japanese and U.S. militaries, led to the discovery of nearly 70 more bodies from the earthquake and tsunami, authorities said Sunday.

Joint Task Force Tohoku, overseeing the search, said it was a joint three-day effort by land, sea, and air. It was conducted from 8 a.m. until sundown.

Between Friday morning and Sunday afternoon, the 69 bodies were found, the task force said. The operation was timed to coincide with spring low tides which concentrated floating debris and allowed searchers to access tidal flats.

The overall confirmed death toll from the March 11 quake and tsunami stands at 12,087, according to Japan's National Police Agency. Another 15,552 are missing or unaccounted for and 2,876 are injured.

Official: Tens of thousands of evacuees can't head home for months

Tens of thousands of people who evacuated an area around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power plant may not be allowed home for months, a Japanese minister said Friday.

There is no end in sight for the nuclear crisis amid fresh concerns about alarming radiation levels in beef, seawater and groundwater.

While he didn't set a firm timetable, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said people who'd lived within 20 kilometers (12 miles) of the nuclear plans would not return home permanently in "a matter of days or weeks. It will be longer than that.

Protests ripple across Syria; at least 7 dead

At least seven people died and dozens were injured as Syrian troops assaulted demonstrators who took to the streets after Friday prayers, witnesses and activists said.

Troops used gunfire amid protests in the Damascus suburb of Douma, according to witnesses and opposition sources, and one witness saw at least six dead demonstrators taken into a hospital morgue. Witnesses also said a man was shot in the head with a rubber bullet and dozens were injured.

Another death and 10 injuries occurred when troops shot at protesters marching toward the southern town of Al Sanameen, the witnesses said.

Protests also were reported by witnesses in the cities of Daraa, Latakia, Homs, Baniyas and Kamishli, sources said. Opposition sources cited witnesses in Homs as saying thousands of people had gathered around a mosque.

Libyan opposition lays out conditions for cease-fire

Battles raged in Libya Friday as mixed messages of peace put forth from several corners brought no guarantees of an end to the bloody conflict.

In the rebel stronghold of Benghazi, Libyan opposition leader Mustafa Abdul Jalil laid out conditions for a cease-fire with Moammar Gadhafi's forces.

Among them were the removal of snipers, mercenaries and militias from western cities, an end to the sieges laid on cities such as Misrata and freedom of expression for the Libyan people.

But ultimately, he said, the opposition's goal remains regime change in Libya.

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Japan live blog: 43 die in hospitals since quake, NHK reports

A magnitude 9.0 earthquake hit northern Japan on March 11, triggering tsunamis that caused widespread devastation and crippled a nuclear power plant. Are you in an affected area? Send an iReport. Read the full report on the quake's aftermath and check out our interactive explainer on Japan's damaged nuclear reactors.

[3:44 p.m. ET Thursday, 4:44 a.m. Friday in Tokyo] The outlook is generally good for two workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, who were hospitalized after they stepped in contaminated water, experts said Thursday, provided they were promptly decontaminated.

Hispanic population exceeds 50 million, firmly nation's No. 2 group

The growing Hispanic population in the United States has reached a new milestone, topping 50 million, or 16.3% of the nation, officially solidifying its position as the country's second-largest group, U.S. Census Bureau officials said Thursday.

"Overall, we've learned that our nation's population has become more racially and ethnically diverse over the past 10 years," Nicholas A. Jones, chief of the bureau's racial statistics branch, told reporters.

Several trends emerged from the 2010 census, according to Robert M. Groves, director of the census bureau, and Marc J. Perry, chief of the population distribution branch.

The country is growing at a smaller rate. Growth is concentrated in metropolitan areas and in the American West and South. The fastest-growing communities are suburbs such as Lincoln, California, outside Sacramento. And standard-bearer cities such as Boston, Baltimore and Milwaukee are no longer in the top 20 for population, replaced by upstarts such as El Paso, Texas, and Charlotte, North Carolina, the officials said.

The most significant trend, however, appeared to be the nation's new count of 50.5 million Latinos, whose massive expansion accounted for more than half of the nation's overall growth of 27.3 million people, to a new overall U.S. population of 308.7 million, officials said.

SPANISH PROJECT

Obama charms Brazilians during two-day visit, observers say

Brazil's cool and contentious relationship with the United States over trade and foreign policy has warmed a few degrees, analysts said Sunday, as President Barack Obama's visit appeared to charm officials and crowds during his two-day visit to South America's largest nation.

Sustained applause echoed through Rio de Janeiro's Municipal Theatre as Obama spoke a few words in Portuguese, made allusions to Brazilian culture and drew parallels to U.S. history.

"Our journeys began in similar ways," Obama said during the televised speech.

"We became colonies claimed for distant crowns, but soon declared our independence. We welcomed waves of immigrants to our shores, and eventually cleansed the stain of slavery from our land," 

Before and After: Devastation in Japan

Heart of Gadhafi compound hit

Airstrikes Sunday in the heart of Moammar Gadhafi's Tripoli compound had a military objective, but also no doubt brought a message of allied resolve to the Libyan leader's doorstep.

A coalition military official confirmed to CNN that the compound was targeted because it contains capabilities to exercise command and control over Libyan forces. The coalition's goal is to degrade Gadhafi's military capabilities.

The official, who was not identified because of the sensitivity of the information, insisted that neither Gadhafi nor his residence was the intended target. The leader's whereabouts were not known.

My Response
When I came in to class last wednesday, I know that we will have a discussion about Education. Honestly im not  prepared and I dont know what to say. My parents wants me to have straight A's I know I can. But im just lazy. I realize that I have to make my own way to have a better grade. I remember when Mr.Bennet said that all of us are super heroes with different special powers and he's right. theres alot of students in different country, have to walk miles just to go to school. some of them doesnt have access to internet. and some of them have to share books just to learn. We already have does stuff that we need . all we have to do is use them and give them importance. we have to motivate ourselves. We have to make our own future.

RamenRoots4 Production :)

Japan Earthquake 2011: Magnitude 6.3 Quake Hits Off Main Honshu Island

The U.S Geological Survey is reporting that a magnitude 6.3 earthquake has hit off the coast of Honshu, Japan's main island.

The earthquake hit at a depth of about 1 mile below sea level. Honshu is the largest island of Japan, and is home to both Tokyo and Yokohama.According to Reuters, the quake was centered 126 miles from the city of Sendai.

Brother: No warning signs from Colorado boy charged in parents' deaths

The brother and uncle of a 12-year-old Colorado boy charged in the deaths of his parents and the wounding of two siblings said they are baffled by the allegations.

Wisconsin Senate passes union limits despite Democratic walkout

Madison, Wisconsin  -- Wisconsin's Republican-led state Senate passed Gov. Scott Walker's proposed restrictions on collective bargaining for public employees Wednesday, getting around a Democratic walkout by stripping financial provisions from the bill.

How to get America's groove back

New powers are rising, and if America wants to maintain its economic competitive edge, it needs to make major changes – fast.  But does America have the political will to act? Are Americans willing to sacrifice short-term consumption for long-term investment?

Libya crisis sends U.S. gas prices up 33 cents in two weeks

U.S. gasoline prices increased nearly 33 cents in two weeks, the second-biggest two-week jump in the history of the gasoline market, according to a new survey of filling stations.

OUR PROJECT :)

Catholic Church voices support for unions, to a point


With the Roman Catholic Church in the United States mostly identifying with conservative political causes these days - think abortion or gay marriage - seeing the American bishops come out for union workers battling Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker came as something of a surprise, a throwback to an era when the church was pretty well aligned with the American left