Syria threatens to 'cleanse' rebel area in Homs

Syria threatens to 'cleanse' rebel area in Homs

Free Syrian Army supporters chant anti government slogans under snowfall on the outskirts of Idlib , north Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012.

BEIRUT (AP) -- The Syrian regime showed a new determination Wednesday to crush its opponents, vowing to "cleanse" a rebel-held district in the besieged central city of Homs after nearly four weeks of shelling.

Government troops massed outside the embattled neighborhood of Baba Amr, raising fears among activists of an imminent ground invasion that could endanger thousands of residents, as well as two trapped Western journalists, who have been under heavy bombardment.

A Spanish journalist who had been stuck in the area escaped Wednesday to Lebanon, the second foreign reporter to do so since a government rocket attack last week killed two of his colleagues and wounded two others.

The fate of the foreign journalists has drawn attention to Homs, which has emerged as a key battleground between government forces and those seeking to end the regime of authoritarian President Bashar Assad.

The government's increasingly bloody attempts to put down the 11-month uprising have fueled mounting international criticism.

The Obama administration summoned Syria's senior envoy in the U.S., Zuheir Jabbour, over the Homs offensive.

The State Department's top diplomat for the Mideast, Jeffrey Feltman, expressed his "outrage over the monthlong campaign of brutality and indiscriminate shelling" in Homs, according to a statement.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told members of Congress on Tuesday that Assad could be considered a war criminal.

U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos said Syria had not yet agreed to allow her to into the country. Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, called that refusal "shameful."

"Rather than meeting the needs of its people, the barbaric Syrian government is preparing its final assault on the city of Homs," Rice said in a statement. "Meanwhile, food shortages are reported to be so severe that people, especially children, will soon start dying of hunger."

The U.N. and the Arab League have appointed former Secretary-General Kofi Annan as their joint envoy to Syria, but Damascus says it needs more information on his mission's goals before it will let him in.

The U.N. estimated that more than 7,500 people have been killed since the anti-Assad struggle started in March 2011, when protesters inspired by successful Arab Spring uprisings against dictators in Tunisia and Egypt took to the streets in Syria. As Assad's forces used deadly force to stop the unrest, protests spread and some Syrians took up arms against the regime.

Activists put the total death toll at more than 8,000, most of them civilians.

China urged world powers to provide humanitarian assistance to Syria, as Beijing tries to bolster diplomacy while continuing to oppose any armed intervention in the conflict.

Heightening fears of greater carnage, a Syrian official said the government was planning a major offensive against the Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr.

"Baba Amr will be under control complete control in the coming hours and we'll cleanse all the armed elements from the area," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity under government protocols.

Activists reported heavy shelling throughout Homs, raising concern that the government was preparing a ground invasion to take back the city.

Since the first week of February, government forces have showered parts of Homs with daily barrages of mortars, tank shells and rockets. The violence has caused many to flee the city of 1 million people, Syria's third-largest, while those who remain are trapped inside.

Hundreds have been killed in recent weeks, activists said, including residents who foraged for food outside their homes.

It was virtually impossible to reach anyone inside Baba Amr on Wednesday. Activists elsewhere in Homs said their colleagues based in the neighborhood had quit communicating with the outside because of fears the army would trace their satellite signals to target them.

"Today has been very scary," said activist Mulham al-Jundi, speaking from another part of Homs via Skype. "They are still killing in Baba Amr and the water and electricity have been cut to most of the city."

He and his colleague ran their computer off of a small generator to communicate with the outside, he said. Armed rebels from a loose-knit group called the Free Syrian Army had been fighting with pro-government troops on the outskirts of Homs to try to keep them from entering, but he said their inferior arms weren't much of a deterrent.

"The Free Army has been trying to defend the area with almost no ammunition for 15 days. What can a Kalashhikov do against a tank and a mortar? How can they resist?"

Many civilians had fled the city's rebel-held areas, he said, "but now those who are in are stuck. There's no way out."

Homs is about 12 miles (19 kilometers) northeast of the frontier with Lebanon, and cross-border smuggling has been key to the city's survival and to arming the rebels because of the links between Sunnis in northern Lebanon and the Sunni majority in Homs.

The city also has a minority population of Alawite Muslims, the sect to which Assad and most of his security forces belong.

The ordeal of the foreign journalists, who sneaked into Syria illegally to report on the uprising, has drawn attention to Homs' plight.

Spanish photographer Javier Espinosa crossed safely into Lebanon, according to his domestic partner, Monica Garcia Prieto. His employer, El Mundo, confirmed it.

Two French journalists, Edith Bouvier and William Daniels, remain in Baba Amr, Prieto said.

Bouvier and British photographer Paul Conroy were wounded last week in a government rocket attack on a makeshift media center that killed American-born journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Conroy was smuggled into Lebanon on Tuesday after fleeing the neighborhood Sunday night.

The activist group Avaaz said Syrians it supported got both men out of Baba Amr and into Lebanon. It said Espinosa left the neighborhood with Conroy, but the group came under shelling and Espinosa stopped to tend to the wounded while Conroy went on. Espinosa later met another group of Syrians who took him to Lebanon, Avaaz said.

Thirteen Syrians were killed while aiding the escape, the group said.

The Local Coordination Committees, a human rights monitoring group, said Bouvier refused to leave Baba Amr without the Syrians who were wounded by shelling while attempting to help her escape, and she has called on the French ambassador for help. The French Foreign Ministry demanded that the Syrian regime observe a cease-fire so Bouvier and Daniels could be evacuated.

In Damascus, Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the government wants to evacuate the journalists but is being prevented by gunmen.

Makdissi added, however, that by entering Syria illegally, the reporters had "raised skepticism about the nature of their mission and the reality of their work."

The Syrian government blames the uprising on Islamist extremists and armed thugs. It has barred most media from operating in the country.

The LCC and another monitoring group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported government shelling and arrest campaigns across the country Wednesday. The Observatory said at least 17 had been killed, while the LCC put the death toll at 23.

The LCC reported that the town of Sermin in the northwestern province of Idlib was subjected to shelling in recent days. An Associated Press team in the town saw cars run over by army tanks as well as damaged homes and shops.

Residents held a funeral Tuesday for a man they said was beheaded when troops stormed the town Sunday.

"They are killing people who have nothing to do with all this, who have nothing to do with the situation," said Sheik Moussa, a Sermin resident.

Syria's state-run news agency said three gunmen were killed and others were wounded as they tried to cross from Lebanon into Homs province. The agency said a Syrian soldier was wounded in the clash.

Storms damage country music resort town, kill 9

Storms damage country music resort town, kill 9

Sherry Cousins and her brother Bruce Wallace of Hollister, Mo., sit in the wreckage of their secondhand store in Branson, Mo, Wednesday, Feb. 29, 2012. A powerful storm system that produced multiple reports of tornadoes lashed the Midwest early Wednesday, roughing up the country music resort city of Branson.

HARRISBURG, Ill. (AP) -- Twisters roared through the nation's heartland in the early morning darkness Wednesday, flattening entire blocks of homes in small-town Illinois and Kansas and killing at least nine people.

Winds also ripped through the country music mecca of Branson, Mo., damaging some of the city's famous theaters just days before the start of the busy tourist season.

In Harrisburg, a town of 9,000 in southern Illinois, residents sorted through piles of debris and remembered their dead while the winds still howled around them.

Not long after the storm, Darrell Osman raced to his mother's home, arriving just in time to speak to her before she was taken to a hospital with a head injury, a severe cut to her neck and a broken arm and leg.

"She was conscious. I wouldn't say she was coherent. There were more mumbles than anything," he said. "She knew we were there."

Mary Osman died a short time later.

In Branson, an apparent twister seemed to hopscotch up the city's main roadway. At least 37 people were reported hurt, mostly with cuts and bruises.

"We were blessed with several things - the time of year and certainly the time of day, when people were not in their vehicles or outdoors," said Mayor Raeanne Presley, noting that during Branson's peak season, up to 60,000 visitors would have been in the city on any given day and staying in many of the hotels that were damaged.

"If it was a week later, it'd be a different story," said Bill Tirone, assistant general manager for the 530-room downtown Hilton hotel, where the intense winds shattered windows and sucked furniture away. Hotel workers were able to get all guests to safety.

John Moore, owner of the damaged Cakes-n-Creams `50s Diner, said the tornado seemed to target the city's main strip, plowing through the entertainment district and a convention center.

"The theater next to me kind of exploded. It went everywhere," Moore said. "The hotels on the two sides of me lost their roofs."

Back in Harrisburg, where six people were killed, scientists said the tornado was an EF4, the second-highest rating given to twisters based on damage.

The storm was 200 yards wide with winds up to 170 mph, meteorologist Rick Shanklin said.

The winds were strong enough to blow the walls off some rooms at the Harrisburg Medical Center, leaving disheveled beds and misplaced furniture. The staff had enough warning to move the most endangered patients. Then they heard the walls collapse, officials said.

The hospital discharged patients who could go home or moved them to other medical facilities. But they also had to confront an influx of injured.

"Helicopters have been coming in and out here all morning," said the hospital's CEO, Vince Ashley.

Osman and his sister sorted through twisted debris and chunks of pink insulation at the site of their mother's duplex, looking for photos and financial records.

They found 10 old picture slides that were among a collection of hundreds. Some were caked in mud and damaged by water.

"My mother was a Christian," Osman said. "I know she's in a better place. That is the only thing getting me through this."

In Missouri, one person was killed in a trailer park in the town of Buffalo, about 35 miles north of Springfield. Two more fatalities were reported in the Cassville and Puxico areas.

The tornado that barreled through the tiny eastern Kansas town of Harveyville was an EF-2, with wind speeds of 120 to 130 mph, state officials said. It left much of the community in rubble.

The twisters were spawned by a powerful storm system that blew down from the Rockies on Tuesday and was headed toward the East Coast.

Corey Mead, lead forecaster at the U.S. Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said a broad cold front was slamming into warm, humid air over much of the eastern half of the nation.

At least 16 tornado sightings were reported from Nebraska and Kansas across southern Missouri to Illinois and Kentucky, according to the storm center, an arm of the National Weather Service.

Near downtown Branson, a strip mall lay in tatters, its roof missing and several walls gone. About 170 boats and several docks were destroyed on Table Rock Lake.

Branson has long been a tourist destination for visitors attracted to the beauty of the surrounding Ozarks. But the city rose to prominence in the 1990s because of its theaters, which drew country music stars including Merle Haggard and Crystal Gale as well as other musical celebrities such as Chubby Checker and Andy Williams.

It is about 110 miles southeast of Joplin, which was devastated by a monstrous twister last May that killed 161 people. Memories of the disaster fueled residents and guests to quickly take cover after the sirens sounded early Wednesday.

"I think so many people from Branson went over to help in Joplin and having seen that, it was fresh on our minds," said Presley, the mayor whose family owns the Presleys' Theater on the main strip. "We all reached for our loved ones a little sooner and got to the basement a little faster."

Branson leaders insisted Wednesday that the city remains open for business, suggesting that any repairs and rebuilding would happen in a matter of days.

Tornado season normally starts in March, but it isn't unusual to see severe storms earlier in the year.

The system also lashed parts of Kansas, Arkansas, Oklahoma and Kentucky, where three buildings belonging to an Elizabethtown trucking company were heavily damaged. Three trailers parked in a lot outside were pushed into each other, toppled like dominoes.

"It picked the whole building up," said Jim Owen, son of the owner of Harry Owen Trucking. "It would take a group of 20 men five days with equipment to tear that down."

The Midwest and South were to get a reprieve from the menacing weather Thursday, ahead of another strong storm system expected Friday.

Ryan Jewell, a meteorologist with the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla., said the approaching system is forecast to take a similar path as Wednesday's storms and has the potential for even more damage.

On Friday, he said, both the Midwest and South would be "right in the bull's eye."

Wounded British journalist smuggled from Syria

Wounded British journalist smuggled from Syria

On this Thursday, Feb. 22, 2012 file image from amateur video made available by Shaam News Network purports to show Paul Conroy of the Sunday Times, laying wounded, in a makeshift clinic in Homs, Syria. Two activist groups said on Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012, that Conroy has been smuggled to neighboring Lebanon. The Syrian opposition group Local Coordination Committees and global group Avaaz said that Paul Conroy was the only foreign journalist to escape to Lebanon. American Marie Colvin and Frenchman Remi Ochlik were killed in the same attack and their bodies are still in Syria.

BEIRUT (AP) -- A wounded British photographer who had been trapped in the besieged Syrian city of Homs was spirited safely into Lebanon on Tuesday in a risky journey that killed 13 rebels who helped him escape the relentless shelling and gunfire.

A Syrian diplomat stormed out of an emergency U.N. meeting amid renewed calls for a cease-fire to deliver humanitarian aid. A top human rights official said a U.N. panel's report concluded that members of the Damascus regime were responsible for "crimes against humanity."

The United Nations said the death toll in the 11-month uprising against authoritarian President Bashar Assad was well over 7,500, and activists reported more than 250 dead in the past two days alone - mostly from government shelling in Homs and Hama province.

Tunisia's president - the first since the country's own Arab Spring uprising toppled his predecessor - offered the Syrian leader asylum as part of a negotiated peace, an offer Assad will almost surely refuse.

The harrowing ordeal of British photographer Paul Conroy, who was wounded with a French colleague last week by government rockets that killed two others, has drawn focus to the siege of Homs, which has emerged as the center of the anti-Assad uprising.

Hundreds have been killed in the city, parts of which the army has surrounded and shelled daily for more than three weeks. Many have died while venturing outside to forage for food, and activists have posted videos online of homes reduced to rubble and alleyways rendered no-go zones by snipers.

Conroy's escape was the first sign of relief for a group of Western journalists who sneaked into Syria illegally and reached the embattled Homs neighborhood of Baba Amr only to find themselves trapped. Government rockets bombarded the makeshift media center they shared with activists last week, killing two of them and injuring Conroy and French reporter Edith Bouvier. Conroy and Bouvier later appeared in activist videos lying on makeshift hospital beds, pleading for help.

Conroy crossed the border into neighboring Lebanon after leaving Homs on Sunday evening, according to the global activist group Avaaz, which said it organized the evacuation with local activists.

The group said 35 Syrians volunteered to help get the journalists out and 13 were killed in the operation.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy retracted an earlier statement that Bouvier had also made it to Lebanon. He said he had been "imprecise" due to the complexities of the situation.

"It is not confirmed that Madame Bouvier is today safe in Lebanon," he said.

The journalists believed to still be in the neighborhood are Frenchman William Daniels and Spaniard Javier Espinosa. In addition, the bodies of American Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, who were killed last week, are thought to be still in the neighborhood.

Syria's conflict started in March 2011, when protesters inspired by the uprisings that ousted dictators in Tunisia and Egypt took to the street in impoverished hinterlands to call for Assad's downfall. As his troops have used increasing force to try to stop the unrest, the protests have spread, and some demonstrators have taken up arms to protect themselves or attack the regime.

U.N. political chief B. Lynn Pascoe said "well over" 7,500 people have died in Syria's violence and that there are credible reports that more than 100 civilians are dying daily. Activist groups said Monday the death toll for 11 months of unrest has surpassed 8,000.

The new U.N. death toll adds nearly 2,000 dead to last month's toll of 5,400, suggesting an acceleration in the killing.

At a meeting in Geneva, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said the situation in Syria had deteriorated rapidly in recent weeks and called for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.

She said her office has received reports that Syrian security forces "have launched massive campaigns of arrest."

Pillay cited a U.N. expert panel's report that concluded Syrian government officials were responsible for "crimes against humanity" committed by security forces against opposition members. The crimes included shelling civilians, executing deserters and torturing detainees. Some opposition groups, too, had committed gross abuses, the report said.

The panel has compiled a confidential list of top-level Syrian officials who could face prosecution over the atrocities.

Pillay reiterated her call for Syria to be referred to the International Criminal Court "in the face of the unspeakable violations that take place every moment."

"More than at any other time, those committing atrocities in Syria have to understand that the international community will not stand by and watch this carnage and that their decisions and the actions they take today ultimately will not go unpunished," she said.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, testifying in the Senate on Tuesday, said Assad fits the definition of a war criminal, but she stopped short of saying the international community should make that designation and level charges, pointing out that such a step is often a disincentive for leaders to step down.

Syria's U.N. ambassador in Geneva, Fayssal al-Hamwi accused members of the U.N. Human Rights Council of promoting terrorism and prolonging the crisis by organizing the debate on the situation in his country.

Al-Hamwi denounced a planned resolution on Syria as "malicious and prejudiced," and then said his delegation would withdraw from what he called "this sterile discussion." He then stormed out of the room.

Eileen Chamberlain Donahoe, the U.S. representative to the 47-nation council, called al-Hamwi's comments "delusional."

"Anybody who heard the Syrian ambassador should be aware that his comments were borderline out of touch with reality," she told reporters.

The U.N. said former Secretary-General Kofi Annan, the new U.N. special envoy to Syria, will meet in New York on Wednesday with current U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon.

Tunisia's first post-revolution president, Moncef Marzouki, said he would offer Assad asylum as part of a negotiated end to the conflict. But Assad, who blames the uprising on Islamist extremists and armed gangs, is unlikely to accept the offer.

Conroy's surprise arrival in Lebanon was celebrated by his family and British officials, who said they were trying to repatriate him.

"I have spoken to Paul this morning and he sounded in good spirits," Conroy's wife Kate Conroy said in a statement. "The family are overjoyed and relieved that he is safe and look forward to getting him home."

She told The Associated Press by phone that she wouldn't comment further for fear of jeopardizing the safety of those still attempting to leave.

Conroy, 47, and a father of three, is "in good shape and good spirits," said his employer, The Sunday Times.

Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague said Conroy was "safely in Lebanon, where he is receiving full consular assistance."

Britain's ambassador to Lebanon, Tom Fletcher, said in a message on his Twitter account that Conroy's experience was "a chilling testimony to what families in Homs (are) experiencing."

The French reporter Daniels was last seen in an amateur video posted by activists last week, standing next to Bouvier, who was lying on a couch. He appeared uninjured. Bouvier works for Le Figaro.

Espinosa, who works for El Mundo, last sent a tweet Sunday that linked to a photo he said was from the Baba Amr neighborhood, showing blood pooled in a gutter.

Spain's Foreign Ministry said it is trying to help to evacuate Espinosa. The newspaper said it does not know if he is injured and last spoke to him Monday.

Dow closes above 13,000, first time since crisis

Dow closes above 13,000, first time since crisis

Trader David O'Day works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2012. Stocks are opening mixed after weak reports on factory orders and home prices.

The Dow Jones industrial average on Tuesday reclaimed the last of the ground it held before the carnage of the Great Recession - bailouts, bank failures, layoffs by the million and a stock market plunge that cut retirement savings in half.

The Dow closed above 13,000 for the first time since May 19, 2008, almost four months before the fall of the Lehman Brothers investment bank triggered the worst of the financial crisis.

It just cleared the mark - 13,005.12, up 23.61 points for the day.

"I think it's a momentous day for investor confidence," said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Private Bank. "What this number implies is that the financial crisis that we were all losing sleep over, it never happened, because now we're back."

The milestone comes at a time when Americans are feeling better about the economy than they have in a year. The Conference Board, a private research group, said its consumer confidence index was 70.8 for February, up from 61.5 in January.

The report came out at 10 a.m. and lifted the Dow above 13,000. It stayed there most of the day.

"Two months ago, we were talking about a double-dip recession. Now consumer confidence is growing," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist for Schaffer's Investment Research.

He said the Dow's milestone "wakes up a lot of investors who have missed a lot of this rally."

The average first pierced 13,000 last Tuesday but fell back by the close. It floated above the milestone again on Friday and Monday, but slipped below both days. A strong rally for stocks this year seemed stalled as worry built on Wall Street about climbing prices for oil and gasoline.

Tuesday's gain puts the Dow 1,160 points below its all-time high, set Oct. 9, 2007. The Great Recession began two months later.

The milestone could draw some fence-sitting investors back into the market and add to the gains, said Brian Gendreau, market strategist at Cetera Financial Group.

"Already here in the first two months, we've blown past the consensus expectations for the entire year, and that certainly gets people's attention," he said.

The breaking of the 13,000 barrier continues a remarkable run for stocks this year. The Dow started with its best January since 1997 and has added to that gain. The index is up 6.5 percent for the young year.

Other averages have fared even better: The Standard & Poor's 500 is up 9 percent, the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks is up 11 percent, and the Nasdaq composite index, dominated by technology stocks, is up 14 percent.

The other major indexes sit at multi-year highs as well. The S&P closed Tuesday at its highest level since June 2008, and the Nasdaq has not traded so high since December 2000, during the bursting of the bubble in technology stocks.

Just last August, the Dow dropped 2,000 points in three frightening weeks. Investors were worried about the European debt crisis, gridlock in Washington over the federal borrowing limit, a downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and the threat of another recession.

After Labor Day, the recession fears melted away. Since then, the stock market has been engaged in a tug-of-war between optimism over the improving American economy and fear that crisis in Europe would derail the U.S. recovery.

The optimists have been winning.

The Dow cruised to 13,000 the old-fashioned way, riding the economy higher. The unemployment rate has come down five months in a row, the first time that has happened since 1994.

The economy added 243,000 jobs in January, one of the three best months since 2006. Gains were surprisingly robust in industries across the economy, including the strongest hiring in manufacturing in a year.

In the stock market, the improving economy has translated to slow, steady gains - about 20 points a day for the Dow, averaged over the eight weeks. The index has gained more than 100 points on only three days, and it has not fallen 100 points on any day.

On Tuesday, seven of the 10 industry groups within the S&P 500 index were higher, with information technology and consumer discretionary stocks leading the way. Utility stocks, traditionally solid investments in a weak economy, were lower.

Microsoft led the 30 stocks in the Dow with a gain of 1.7 percent for the day. Johnson & Johnson had the biggest price change. It gained 73 cents and was responsible for 5.52 points of the Dow's gain, enough to clear the 13,000 level.

The S&P 500 gained 4.59 points for the day and closed at 1,372.18. Technical traders said it was a breakthrough because the S&P has been hemmed between 1,100 and 1,370 for months.

The Nasdaq gained 20.60 and closed at 2,986.76.

Prices for U.S. Treasurys were little changed. Besides the consumer confidence figure, investors wrestled with a Commerce Department report that businesses cut back on machinery and equipment in January.

The price of the 10-year Treasury note dropped 12.5 cents for every $100 invested. The yield edged up to 1.94 percent from 1.93 percent late Monday. Shorter-dated Treasurys were nearly all unchanged.

The euro rose against the dollar a day before the European Central Bank is expected to give banks in the region another round of loans. A jump in U.S. consumer confidence also pushed traders to buy the euro.

The Dow first cracked 13,000 on April 25, 2007, when the unemployment rate was 4.5 percent, far below today's 8.3 percent, and the economy was growing at a relatively healthy clip.

From there, it was a quick ride to the Dow's all-time high. The average crossed 14,000 in July 2007, then peaked at 14,164.53 on Oct. 9, 2007. Concerns about weak corporate earnings and tighter credit were already haunting the market, though.

The trip back down to 13,000 was less pleasant. It took little more than a month. Ten months later came the fall of Lehman Brothers and the financial meltdown. The Dow hit bottom on March 9, 2009, at 6,547.05.

Analysts say the stock market has grown accustomed to lingering threats this year, including a debt crisis in Europe and an economic recovery in the United States that is still not as strong as economists would like.

The price of gasoline has emerged as the latest worry. A gallon of regular costs $3.72 on average. The price has risen 21 days in a row. Economists worry about whether gas will climb high enough to cut into consumer spending in the rest of the economy.

"It's important to remember that the stock market is not the U.S. economy, and the U.S. economy is not the stock market," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist for the brokerage BTIG. "Most people are likely to say, `Dow 13,000. So, where's my job?"

The consumer confidence reading of 70.8, while much stronger than the 63 that economists were expecting, is still far below the level of 90 that indicates a healthy economy. It was above 110 in mid-2007, before the recession.

Still, Greenhaus said, while 13,000 is just a round number, "it's a round number that's likely to make many Americans feel better about the economy and the stock market. It's another sign that things are getting better."

5th Grader Caught With Pellet Gun In North Philadelphia Elementary School

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — Police were called to an elementary school in the Allegheny West section of North Philadelphia for reports of a student with a pellet gun.

A 10-year-old 5th grade student at John G Whittier School is being held after shooting another student in the leg with a plastic pellet gun.

According to sources, school officials discovered the gun in the students backpack in the school yard. The student who was shot told school officials he felt something hit him in the leg, although he was not seriously injured.

For full story go to: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

White House helps pay for NYPD Muslim surveillance

White House helps pay for NYPD Muslim surveillance

FILE - In this Jan. 18, 2012 file photo, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly speaks at the New York Police Department in New York. Millions of dollars in White House money has helped pay for New York Police Department programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration said Monday it has no control over how the New York Police Department spends millions of dollars in White House grants that helped pay for NYPD programs that put entire American Muslim neighborhoods under surveillance. In New York, the police commissioner said he wouldn't apologize.

The White House has no opinion about how the grant money was spent, spokesman Jay Carney said. The Associated Press reported Monday that the White House money has paid for the cars that plainclothes NYPD officers used to conduct surveillance on Muslim neighborhoods and paid for computers that stored even innocuous information about Muslim college students, mosque sermons and social events.

The money is part of a little-known grant intended to help law enforcement fight drug crimes. Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush and Obama administrations have provided $135 million to the New York and New Jersey region through the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, known as HIDTA. It's unclear exactly how much was spent on surveillance of Muslims because the HIDTA program has little oversight.

The AP confirmed the use of White House money through secret police documents and interviews with current and former city and federal officials. The AP also obtained electronic documents with digital signatures indicating they were created and saved on HIDTA computers. The HIDTA grant program is overseen by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.

Carney said the White House drug policy office has no authority to direct, manage or supervise any law enforcement operations, including the NYPD's surveillance of Muslims.

"This is not an administration program or a White House program," Carney said. "This is the New York Police Department."

The disclosure that the White House is at least partially paying for the NYPD's surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods complicates its efforts to stay out of the fray over the controversial counterterrorism programs. Carney described the Office of National Drug Control Policy as a policy office, but he did not say whether the White House sees the NYPD's programs as good policy.

In New York, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly was again unapologetic. Kelly said that some local politicians who questioned the NYPD's methods were pandering to voters in upcoming elections, and said that others - including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez and Newark Mayor Cory Booker - were wrong to question the department.

"Not everybody is going to be happy with everything the police department does, that's the nature of our business," Kelly said. "But our primary mission, our primary goal is to keep this city safe, to save lives. That's what we're engaged in doing."

The Obama administration has pointedly refused to endorse or repudiate the NYPD programs it helps pay for. It remains unclear whether the White House knew how the NYPD was spending the grant money until the AP asked the White House about it last week.

"We make very clear that we consider Muslim Americans partners in the effort to combat, you know, radical extremism," Carney said Monday. "I think we've made that clear again and again. And that continues to be our position."

John Brennan, Obama's top counterterrorism adviser, last year called the NYPD's efforts "heroic" but would not elaborate. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, whose department also gives grant money to the NYPD and is one of the lead federal agencies helping police build relationships with Muslims, has refused in recent months to discuss the police tactics. Tom Perez, the Justice Department's top civil rights lawyer, has repeatedly refused to answer questions about the NYPD.

New York's attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, does not have the authority to investigate the NYPD, Schneiderman's spokesman said. The New York City council has also said it neither has the oversight authority nor expertise to investigate NYPD's counterterrorism programs.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the New York Civil Liberties Union on Monday called for a federal investigation into the White House funds paying for some of the NYPD's counterterrorism activities. So far, the federal government has not decided to investigate the NYPD, despite multiple requests to do so.

Kelly acknowledged Monday that the department uses HIDTA money but would not say how it spends the money.

The White House HIDTA grant program was established at the height of the drug war to help police fight drug gangs and unravel supply routes. It has provided about $2.3 billion to local authorities in the past decade.

After the terror attacks, law enforcement was allowed to use some of that money to fight terrorism. It's unclear how much HIDTA money has been used to pay for the intelligence division, in part because NYPD intelligence operations receive scant oversight in New York.

Congress, which approves the money for the program, is not provided with a detailed breakdown of activities. None of the NYPD's clandestine programs is cited in the New York-New Jersey region's annual reports to Congress between 2006 and 2010. And Congress has not requested that its investigative arm, the Government Accountability Office, look into the HIDTA grant program since 2005.

Most of the money from the White House grants in New York and New Jersey has been spent fighting drugs, said Chauncey Parker, director of the program there. He said less than $1.3 million was spent on vehicles used by the NYPD intelligence unit.

"Those cars are used to collect and analyze counterterrorism information with the goal of preventing a terrorist attack in New York City or anywhere else," Parker said. "If it's been used for specific counterterrorism effort, then it's been used to pay for those cars."

Former police officials told the AP those vehicles have been used to photograph mosques and record the license plates of worshippers.

In addition to paying for the cars, the White House money pays for part of the office space the intelligence division shares with other agencies in Manhattan.

When police compiled lists of Muslims who took new, Americanized names, they kept those records on HIDTA computer servers. That was ongoing as recently as October, city officials said.

Many NYPD intelligence officers, including those that conducted surveillance of Muslim neighborhoods, had HIDTA email addresses. Briefing documents for Kelly, the police commissioner, were compiled on HIDTA computers. Those documents described what police informants were hearing inside mosques and which academic conferences Muslim scholars attended.

When police wanted to pay a confidential informant, they were told to sign onto the HIDTA website to file the paperwork, according to a 2007 internal document obtained by the AP.

Parker said the White House grant money was never used to pay any of the NYPD intelligence division's confidential informants. The HIDTA computer systems, he said, are platforms that allow different law enforcement agencies to share information and work.

"I am shocked to hear that federal dollars may have helped finance the NYPD's misguided efforts to spy on Muslims in America," said Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., one of 34 members of Congress who have asked the Justice Department and House Judiciary Committee to investigate the NYPD.

Nermeen Arastu, an attorney with the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund, said the White House needs to put its money where its mouth is. She said if the White House promotes outreach to Muslims inside the U.S. and around the world, "why fund a program that basically destroys trust?"

Arastu's organization has filed freedom of information requests at the local and federal level to see how the NYPD's counterterrorism programs are being funded.

The connection between NYPD and the White House anti-drug grant program surfaced years ago, during a long-running civil rights lawsuit against police. Civil rights attorneys asked in court about a "demonstration debriefing form" that police used whenever they arrested people for civil disobedience. The form carried the seal of both the NYPD Intelligence Division and HIDTA.

A city lawyer downplayed any connection. She said the NYPD and HIDTA not only shared office space, they also shared office supplies like paper. The NYPD form with the seal of a White House anti-drug program was "a recycled piece of paper that got picked up and modified," attorney Gail Donoghue told a federal judge in 2003.

The issue died in court and was never pursued further.

Last week, the controversy over NYPD's programs drew one former Obama administration official into the discussion.

After the AP revealed an extensive program to monitor Muslims in Newark, N.J., police there denied knowing anything about it. The Newark police director at the time, Garry McCarthy, has since moved on to lead Chicago's police department where President Barack Obama's first chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is now the mayor.

"We don't do that in Chicago and we're not going to do that," Emanuel said last week.

Christie, the New Jersey governor, said the NYPD surveillance in his state was "disturbing" and has asked the attorney general to investigate. Christie was New Jersey's top federal prosecutor and sat on the HIDTA executive board during 2006 and 2007 when the NYPD was conducting surveillance in New Jersey cities. Christie said he didn't know that, in 2007, the NYPD catalogued every mosque and Muslim business in Newark, the state's largest city.

"I kind of think I would have remembered that," he said on Fox Business Network last week.

Activist group: 144 dead across Syria

Activist group: 144 dead across Syria

A Free Syrian Army fighter walks to meet his comrades as the Syrian Army advances towards the town of Sarmin, north Syria, Monday, Feb. 27, 2012. European Union foreign ministers said Monday they were increasingly appalled by the Syrian government's ruthless campaign of repression against civilians, and imposed new sanctions in hopes of pressuring the regime to change course.

BEIRUT (AP) -- A Syrian activist group reported Monday that 144 people have been killed across the country, scores of them in the embattled opposition stronghold of Homs by security forces as they tried to flee. A team from the Syrian arm of the Red Cross delivered aid to one of the city's most dangerous neighborhoods after days of trying to reach the area.

The activist group did not say whether all 144 died on Monday or were killed over the past few days. Many of the casualties were believed to be from the rebel-controlled Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs, which the Syrian Arab Red Crescent entered late Monday. Also in the neighborhood are two wounded foreign journalists along with the bodies of two of their colleagues who were killed last week.

European and American diplomats and aid workers have been trying desperately to find a way to evacuate them, but Red Cross spokeswoman Carla Haddad said late Monday that the Red Crescent had not managed to get them out. She did not know whether the group had stopped trying for the evening.

Homs has emerged as the center of the 11-month-old uprising seeking to oust authoritarian President Bashar Assad and has borne the brunt of his regime's bloody crackdown on dissent. Parts of the city have been surrounded for weeks, making it impossible for rescue workers to reach the wounded and for families to bring their dead and injured to the hospital.

Reports by numerous activists that more than 60 bodies were brought to the hospital, all of whom appeared to have died in one incident, reflect the spreading carnage.

The high death toll reported by the Local Coordination Committees activist group is sure to add to the growing international pressure on Assad to give up power. But so far, his regime has shown no signs that it is ready to leave peacefully.

Syrian officials announced the results of a referendum on a new constitution held Sunday that Syrian authorities lauded as a step toward political reform.

The referendum allows at least in theory for opening the country's political system. It approves a new constitution, which allows for a multiparty system in Syria, which has been ruled by the Baath party since it took power in a coup in 1963. Assad's father, Hafez, took power in another coup in 1970.

It also imposes a limit of two seven-year terms on the president, meaning Assad could remain legally in power through 2028.

The U.S. and its allies dismissed the vote as a "farce" meant to justify the regime's bloody crackdown on dissent. Syria's main opposition groups boycotted the vote, and violence elsewhere prevented polling.

Syrian state TV said 89 percent of eligible voters approved the new document, while nine percent rejected it. It put turnout at 57 percent of Syria's 14.9 million eligible voters.

Representatives of more than 60 countries met in Tunisia last week to forge a unified strategy to push Assad from power and began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after the regime falls. On Monday, the European Union imposed new sanctions.

Syria has been able to count on allies China and Russia to protect it from condemnation by the U.N. Security Council. Both staunchly opposed any interference in Syria's affairs.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin warned Monday against military intervention in Syria and blasted the West, saying it had backed the Arab Spring to advance its interests in the region.

In Damascus, a Syrian official accused the West of trying to destabilize the country for its own gain and warned that militarizing the opposition is a big mistake that will backfire.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi told The Associated Press in a rare interview that dialogue among all parties is the only way to end the conflict.

"The West took advantage of the awakening of the Syrian street. Instead of helping Syria to overcome this painful crisis, they are using this to hit the stability of Syria for other geopolitical reasons," he said.

Activists groups said Monday that the death toll for 11 months of unrest has now surpassed 8,000 people.

The diplomatic pressure on Syria comes as the humanitarian and security situation on the ground is collapsing. The Local Coordination Committees said 64 of those reported dead on Monday were fleeing shelling in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs when security forces stopped them at a checkpoint in the city's Abil area and killed them.

Another activist in Baba Amr, reached via Skype, said a security officer who had seen a report on the incident leaked its contents to activists, with whom he sympathizes.

The activist, Abu Mohammed Ibrahim, said the group left the neighborhood Sunday evening and were stopped at a checkpoint, where security forces loaded them onto four busses. A while later, the buses stopped and the soldiers started killing passengers. Locals found the bodies dumped in two places outside of town on Monday, the activist said.

A second activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 68 bodies were brought to the hospital in Homs and that they were found between the villages of Ram al-Anz and al-Ajriyeh.

But the group's head, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said no one had identified the dead or knew where they were from.

"We know they are from Homs, but we don't know anything for sure about who they are or how they died," he said.

None of the death tolls could be independently verified.

Some of the worst fighting in Syria's nearly one-year-long conflict has come in Homs, where residents have been bombarded by Syrian government forces for nearly four weeks.

Two western journalists were killed in government shelling in Homs last week, and two other journalists injured.

Poland said Monday its diplomats are working with U.S., British and French authorities to evacuate the two reporters - Edith Bouvier of France and Paul Conroy of Britain - as well as the bodies of American Marie Colvin and Frenchman Remi Ochlik, who were killed in the same attack.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy accused Syrian authorities of assassinating Colvin and Ochlik by targeting a makeshift media center where they were killed.

"When the Syrian army fires shells several times on a building that they perfectly well knew was a press center ... it's an assassination," he said during an interview with RTL.

Girl, 11, fights classmate, dies hours later

Girl, 11, fights classmate, dies hours later

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- After getting her nose bloodied in a fight with another girl near their Southern California elementary school, 11-year-old Joanna Ramos told her mother on the way home she felt sick. Hours later, she was dead.

"My daughter started complaining, saying she doesn't feel good, let's go home, so we went to home and I changed her clothes, and she go to sleep, that's the only thing that I know," Joanna's mother, Cecilia Villanueva told KNBC-TV. "We took her to the hospital but it was too late. She was in a coma."

Ramos died at a Long Beach hospital at 9 p.m. Friday, about six hours after the fight in an alley, police said Saturday. Authorities have not released the girl's name but Villanueva told KNBC the girl who died was her daughter, Joanna.

"I want to know what happened," she said through tears.

Police spokeswoman Nancy Pratt stressed the unusual nature of the tragedy, urging caution about linking the fight to the girl's death until a coroner's report is released. Police, who have interviewed the other girl involved in the fight, were investigating and said that no arrests are immediately planned.

"I think it's safe to say this is definitely an isolated incident," Pratt said. "I personally don't hear of 11-year-old fights like this especially girls. I can't say they never happen but I think everyone was completely caught off-guard by this event."

The after school fight near Willard Elementary didn't appear to be especially serious or violent, no weapons were used and neither girl was knocked to the ground, police said. Police could not say what prompted the fight but friends had their suspicions.

"They were fighting over a boy," said Stephanie Guadalupe, a friend of Joanna. "I told the teacher and she said she would talk to all the girls on Monday."

The Long Beach Press Telegram reported the fight was pre-planned. Long Beach Unified School District Superintendent Chris Steinhauser told the newspaper there was no indication that adults at the school, attended by about 800 students in kindergarten through fifth grade, were aware of the fight or notified about beforehand.

The students involved in the altercation left an after-school program and went to an alley near the school to fight. Some students said bullying had been a problem at the school but Deputy Chief Robert Luna could not confirm if this was an issue in this incident.

"They took off their backpacks, and they put their hair in a bun, and then that's when they said `go' and that's when they started hitting each other," Joanna's friend and classmate Maggie Martinez, who watched the fight, told KNBC.

Martinez and other witnesses said Joanna's nose was bleeding after the fight. Joanna's mother told the station she picked up Joanna after the school called her.

The girl was hospitalized and had emergency surgery but died about six hours after.

"There are times when words do not convey the sense of sadness we feel," Mayor Bob Foster said at a press conference. "This is one of those times."

Oscar stars arrive, with one dressed like statue

Oscar stars arrive, with one dressed like statue

George Clooney arrives before the 84th Academy Awards on Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Best actor nominees George Clooney and Jean Dujardin hit the Academy Award red carpet Sunday night to the delight of fans in the bleachers outside the Hollywood & Highland Center, but comedian Sacha Baron Cohen threatened to upset the chic Hollywood tone.

Cohen arrived dressed in an over-the-top white military uniform, sunglasses and a thick beard to promote his upcoming film "The Dictator." Holding an urn he jokingly claimed were the ashes of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, Cohen then dumped the container onto "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest.

The stunt couldn't dampen Dujardin's hopes. He would like to become the first Frenchman to win best actor and his "The Artist" is favored to become the only silent movie to take the best-picture prize since the first Oscar ceremony 83 years ago.

Christopher Plummer is in line to become the oldest acting winner ever at 82. Meryl Streep might join the acting three-peat club with a third Academy Award.

Along with Streep, Hollywood's big night on Sunday has plenty of returning stars, too, with past Oscar winners and nominees such as Clooney - who arrived with girlfriend Stacy Keibler dressed like an Oscar statuette - Brad Pitt, Glenn Close, Michelle Williams and Nick Nolte in the running again.

The show also has a returning favorite as ringmaster: After an eight-year absence, Billy Crystal is back for his ninth time as host. Some early cheers were heard for dresses worn by Viola Davis, who wore a green Vera Wang, and Octavia Spencer in a gown by Tadashi Shoji.

Because of a change in voting rules, the Oscars feature nine best-picture nominees for the first time, instead of the 10 they had the last two years.

Competing against "The Artist" for the top honor are Clooney's family drama "The Descendants"; the Deep South tale "The Help," featuring best-actress nominee Davis and supporting-actress favorite Octavia Spencer; and the Paris adventure "Hugo," from director Martin Scorsese.

Also in the lineup: the romantic fantasy "Midnight in Paris," from writer-director Woody Allen; Pitt's baseball tale "Moneyball" and his family saga "The Tree of Life"; the World War I epic "War Horse," directed by Steven Spielberg; and Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock's Sept. 11 story "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close."

"Hugo" leads with 11 nominations, with "The Artist" right behind with 10.

Spencer's a virtual lock for supporting actress, having dominated earlier film honors for her breakout role in "The Help" as a brash maid in 1960s Mississippi. The same holds true for Plummer, the front-runner for supporting actor for his role as an elderly widower who comes out as gay in "Beginners."

The lead-acting categories are where the drama lies. Best actress shapes up as a two-woman race between Davis as a courageous maid leading an effort to reveal the hardships of black housekeepers' lives in "The Help" and Streep as British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in "The Iron Lady."

The record-holder with 17 acting nominations, Streep has won twice and would become only the fifth performer to receive three Oscars. Jack Nicholson, Ingrid Bergman and Walter Brennan all earned three, while Katharine Hepburn won four.

It's been almost three decades since Streep last received an Oscar, for 1982's "Sophie's Choice." Though she has the most acting nominations, she also has the most losses - 14. Another loss would be her 13th in a row.

Best actor also looks like a two-person contest between Clooney as the distressed patriarch of a Hawaiian clan in "The Descendants" and Dujardin as a silent-era superstar whose career tanks as talking pictures take over in "The Artist."

It would be the second Oscar for Clooney, who won the supporting-actor prize for 2005's "Syriana." While French actresses have won before, among them Marion Cotillard and Juliette Binoche, Dujardin would be the first actor from France to receive an Oscar.

Dujardin was picked as best actor Saturday at the Spirit Awards honoring independent film, where "The Artist" ruled with four prizes, including best picture and director for Michel Hazanavicius, who is favored for the same trophy at the Oscars.

"The Artist" has dominated Hollywood honors this season, winning key prizes at the Golden Globes and awards shows held by the Directors, Producers and Screen Actors guilds.

"This means a lot, because it's a small movie. It's not expensive. We did it with small money," Hazanavicius said backstage at the Spirit Awards. "And it's black and white and silent."

If "The Artist" comes away with the best-picture trophy, it would be the first win for a silent film since the war story "Wings" was named outstanding picture at the inaugural Oscars in 1929.

The 84th Academy Awards show begins at 8:30 p.m. EST, broadcast live on ABC from the Hollywood & Highland Center in Los Angeles.

BP faces billions in fines as spill trial nears

BP faces billions in fines as spill trial nears

FILE - In this April 21, 2010 photo provided by the U.S. Coast Guard, fire boat response crews spray water on the burning remnants of BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. The gargantuan legal bill for the 2010 catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is coming due for BP as a federal trial opens Monday, Feb. 27, 2012 to determine the company’s liability for the blowout of its Macondo well. On the cusp of trial, phalanxes of lawyers, company officials and state officials spent the final hours in high-stakes settlement talks that law experts believed could still yield a deal right before the courtroom doors open Monday morning.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- On the cusp of trial over the catastrophic 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, phalanxes of lawyers, executives and public officials have spent the waning days in settlement talks. Holed up in small groups inside law offices, war rooms and hotel suites in New Orleans and Washington, they are trying to put a number on what BP and its partners in the doomed Macondo well project should pay to make up for the worst offshore spill in U.S. history.

It is a complex equation, and the answer is proving elusive.

The federal government, Gulf states, plaintiffs' attorneys, BP PLC, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and cementer Halliburton Energy Services Inc. have been in simultaneous and separate negotiations in New Orleans, according to a person with direct knowledge of the talks and others who had been briefed on them.

Trial is set for Monday, and by Friday, no deal had been reached, several people familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The biggest stumbling block appeared to be the sheer size and sprawling uncertainty over the unprecedented dollar amounts at stake.

Financial analysts estimate BP's potential settlement payout at $15 billion to roughly $30 billion. The company itself estimated it would cost about $41 billion in the weeks after the explosion to account for all of its costs, including cleanup, compensating businesses, and paying fines and ecological damage.

"This one is off the charts in terms of size and significance," said Eric Schaeffer, the director of the Environmental Integrity Project in Washington and former head of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Regulatory Enforcement.

BP has to weigh its chances of getting off cheaper by piecing together a sweeping settlement or put its fate in the hands of one man, a federal judge who will hear testimony in lieu of a jury. If the judge sides with plaintiffs on the amount of oil spilled and determines BP was grossly negligent, the company conceivably could face up to $52 billion in environmental fines and compensation alone, according to an AP analysis.

While such a scenario is unlikely, it illustrates the broad range and staggering sums at play.

No matter what, the case is all but guaranteed to set records as the most expensive environmental disaster in history, far surpassing the Exxon Valdez disaster in 1989. Exxon ultimately settled with the U.S. government for $1 billion, which would be about $1.8 billion today.

If BP settles, it's almost certain to dwarf previous deals the U.S. has reached with corporate offenders in any industry. That record now stands at $2.3 billion against Pfizer Inc. in 2009 to settle claims over the painkiller Bextra, according to the Justice Department.

And once the civil case is resolved, depending on the scope of any settlement, BP still could face criminal fines; penalties for violations of oil pollution, clean water and wildlife protection laws; and still-pending economic losses due to the partial shutdown of the Gulf. Morgan Stanley analysts estimated criminal fines would come in between $5 billion and $15 billion in any eventual settlement.

Robert Wiygul, an environmental lawyer in New Orleans who represents spill plaintiffs but is not involved in the settlement talks, said putting a dollar figure on what is the right sum for BP to pay is extremely difficult.

"There is going to be a lot of voodoo there," he said.

The bill will be commensurate to the magnitude of the disaster: An epic engineering failure that highlighted the dangers of drilling in extreme conditions miles from shore and miles under water.

The April 20, 2010, blowout of BP's deepwater Macondo well killed 11 workers and injured 17. The burning drilling rig Deepwater Horizon toppled and sank to the Gulf floor, where it sits today.

It took engineers 85 days to permanently cap the well. By then, more than 200 million gallons of oil leaked from the well and had covered much of the northern half of the Gulf of Mexico - endangering fisheries, killing marine life and shutting down offshore oil drilling operations.

About 900 miles of shoreline were fouled and beaches were closed for months. The spill forced President Barack Obama in June 2010 to make his first Oval Office speech, in which he called the BP spill "the worst environmental disaster the nation has ever faced."

Under the Clean Water Act, which is designed to punish companies and prevent future spills, a polluter pays a minimum of $1,100 per barrel of spilled oil; the fines nearly quadruple for companies found guilty of grossly negligent behavior. Under this statute, BP could owe $5 billion to $21 billion. Transocean and Anadarko Petroleum Corp., a minority owner of the Macondo well, also face paying hefty fines.

One of the biggest questions facing U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier, a maritime law expert presiding over the trial, will be to determine if BP was guilty of gross negligence.

Under the Oil Pollution Act, companies must pay to restore what they fouled. Based on criteria from what Exxon paid after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill in Alaska, BP could pay about $31 billion, or $148 per gallon, to cover the ecosystem damage to the Gulf. Exxon paid $900 million for 11 million gallons of spilled oil, or about $81 per gallon. Adjusted for inflation, that's $148 per gallon.

Experts said Barbier will weigh a number of factors in determining what BP should pay to restore damaged natural resources, and BP's liability under the Oil Pollution Act could be much higher or much lower than what Exxon paid per gallon.

There are several arguments that BP is likely to make. The company could say the amount it pays should be much lower because it has spent billions on cleanup already and provided $1 billion for early ecosystem restoration. BP may say the spill's effects were minimized by the Gulf's warm waters, oil-eating bacteria and other factors.

The Gulf has been soiled by past spills and natural oil seeps, so the oil giant could say it's too hard to pinpoint what is BP damage and what isn't, said Mark Davis, a Tulane University law professor who specializes in water resources.

State and federal lawyers are likely to argue that the damage was extensive and that the Gulf's marine environment is more varied and rich than even that of Prince William Sound, where the Exxon Valdez went aground.

Beyond that, there are more than 110,000 people and businesses - among them large fishing and hotel operations - who have not settled with BP and have outstanding claims against the company. Technically, people have until April 20, 2013, to file claims against BP, which committed to pay $20 billion to cover damage claims and so far has spent about $7 billion.

What makes this trial so good for plaintiffs - and a nightmare for BP, Halliburton and Transocean - is that the spill was a chronicle of corporate failures. Federal investigators have concluded cost-cutting by BP and shoddy work by all three companies caused the blowout.

"It's the perfect case for plaintiffs' lawyers," said Blaine LeCesne, a tort law specialist at Loyola University New Orleans who's analyzed the case. "They have everything to gain by going to trial."

While the settlement haggling stretches through the weekend, the hundreds of lawyers who have come to New Orleans are primed for battle.

Garret Graves, an aide to Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and a member of a federal and state council assessing damage from the spill, was adamant that any last-minute settlement in the price range of $20 billion would let BP off too easily.

"We're not going to sell short the citizens and we're not going to let BP walk away," Graves said.

Mike Brock, a BP trial lawyer, said BP was ready to prove "that no single action, person or party was the sole cause of the blowout."

At trial, BP will try to spread blame to the other companies and try to convince the judge that what happened at the Macondo well was an accident, not an act of gross negligence or willful misconduct.

"How culpable was BP? How bad were they? How bad was the violation and how sloppy was their conduct?" said Schaeffer, the former EPA official. "There are risks for both sides, but they are significantly greater for BP. They don't want this potential of billions of dollars hanging over them."

Clinton rips Russia, China for U.N. veto on Syria

Clinton rips Russia, China for U.N. veto on Syria

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, shakes hands with United Arab Emirates' Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, left, with British Foreign Minister William Hague at center, at the Friends of Syria Conference in Tunis, Tunisia on Friday Feb. 24, 2012. In an effort to jolt Syria's president into accepting demands for a democratic transition, more than 60 nations give the U.N. a green light to begin planning a civilian peacekeeping mission after the Assad regime stops its bloody crackdown on the opposition.

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton blasted Russia and China as "despicable" for opposing U.N. action aimed at stopping the bloodshed in Syria, and more than 60 nations began planning a civilian peacekeeping mission to deploy after the Damascus regime halts its crackdown on the opposition.

In his most forceful words to date on the Syrian crisis, President Barack Obama said the U.S. and its allies would use "every tool available" to end the bloodshed by the government of President Bashar Assad.

"It is time to stop the killing of Syrian citizens by their own government," Obama said in Washington, adding that it "absolutely imperative for the international community to rally and send a clear message to President Assad that it is time for a transition. It is time for that regime to move on."

Obama spoke as a group known as the Friends of Syria, led by the U.S. and European and Arab nations, met in Tunisia in the latest effort to halt the Assad regime's nearly year-old suppression of an anti-government uprising.

The group's actions are aimed at jolting Assad and his allies into accepting demands for a democratic transition, even as they are still unwilling to commit to military intervention.

While the Tunisia conference offered nothing other than the threat of increasing isolation and sanctions to compel compliance from Assad, Clinton went on to predict a military coup inside Syria of the kind that ended the old regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

"We saw this happen in other settings last year, I think it is going to happen in Syria," she told reporters at the end of the meeting. "We also know from many sources that there are people around Assad who are beginning to hedge their bets - they didn't sign up to slaughter people."

Assad allies Russia and China, which blocked U.N. action on Syria and are eager to head off any repeat of the kind of foreign intervention that happened in Libya, gave no sign they would agree to peacekeepers. Moscow and Beijing have vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions backing Arab League plans aimed at ending the conflict and condemning Assad's crackdown.

Their vetoes prompted a particularly strong reaction from Clinton.

"It's quite distressing to see two permanent members of the Security Council using their veto while people are being murdered - women, children, brave young men - houses are being destroyed," she said. "It is just despicable and I ask whose side are they on? They are clearly not on the side of the Syrian people."

The conference, meeting for the first time as a unified bloc, called on Assad to end the violence immediately and allow humanitarian aid into areas hit by his regime's crackdown. The group pledged to boost relief shipments and set up supply depots along Syria's borders, but it was unclear how it would be distributed without government approval.

Syrian government troops kept up the shelling of rebel-held neighborhoods in the besieged central city of Homs, while thousands of people in dozens of towns staged anti-regime protests. Activists said at least 50 people were killed nationwide Friday.

A Red Cross spokesman said the group evacuated seven people from Baba Amr, a heavily shelled neighborhood in Homs, to a hospital elsewhere in the city.

The U.N. estimated in January that 5,400 people were killed in the conflict. Hundreds more have died since, with activists saying the death toll is more than 7,300.

Assad's regime blames the violence on terrorists and armed thugs - not people who want to reform the system.

The Friends of Syria group also vowed to step up ties with the Syrian National Council, an opposition umbrella group. They took a tentative step toward recognition by declaring the council to be "a legitimate representative" of the Syrian people, a possible precursor to calling it "the legitimate representative."

Despite the show of unity, which diplomats said they hoped would impress upon Assad that the end of his family's four-decade autocratic rule is inevitable and at hand, there were signs of division. Some nations argued for arming Assad's foes, while others called for the creation of protected humanitarian corridors to deliver aid.

Neither idea was included in the conference's final document, which instead focused on steps nations should take to tighten the noose on the regime, including boycotting Syrian oil, imposing travel and financial sanctions on Assad's inner circle, and working with the opposition to prepare for a post-Assad Syria, including lucrative commercial deals. It also welcomed the appointment of former U.N. chief Kofi Annan to be a joint U.N.-Arab League special envoy for Syria.

On the sanctions front, France said the European Union would on Monday freeze assets of Syria's national bank held in EU jurisdictions while Clinton vowed that already tough U.S. penalties would be strengthened.

Highlighting the divisions, though, Saudi Arabia called publicly for weapons and ammunition to be sent to the opposition, including the Free Syrian Army, a Turkey-based outfit made up largely of Assad regime defectors.

"I think it's an excellent idea," Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told reporters before meeting Clinton on the margins of the conference. Asked why, he replied: "Because they have to defend themselves."

Clinton demurred on the question. But on Thursday in London, she said the opposition would eventually find arms from some suppliers if Assad keeps up the relentless assault.

The Obama administration initially opposed arming the opposition but has recently opened the door to the possibility by saying that while a political solution is preferable, other measures may be needed if the onslaught doesn't end.

The Syrian National Council, for its part, said it would be grateful for help in any area.

"We welcome any assistance you might offer, or means to protect our brothers and sisters who are struggling to end the rule of tyranny," council president Burhan Ghalioun told the conference. He laid out the council's goal of a free, democratic Syria free of the "rule of a Mafia family" in which the rights of all would be respected.

Qatari Foreign Minister Hamad Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, who has been a driving force to unite Arab opinion against the Syrian regime, directly called on Assad to step down. And, together with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, he called for the creation of humanitarian corridors to get aid to embattled citizens.

Highlighting the deepening isolation of Damascus, the Hamas prime minister of Gaza voiced support for Syrian protesters seeking to overthrow Assad. It was the first time a senior Hamas figure has publicly backed the uprising and rebuked the Syrian regime.

Tunisian President Moncef Marzouki, the host of Friday's conference who only recently assumed power after his country became the first in the Arab Spring to topple its longtime leader last year, called for an Arab peacekeeping force to ensure stability during an eventual transition.

"We have to respond to the demand of the majority of the Syrian people to get rid of a corrupt, persecuting regime," he said. "We have to stop the bloodshed, but this cannot be through military intervention."

The Friends group recognized this call by giving a green light to U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon to start drawing up plans for such a joint Arab League-U.N. peacekeeping operation that would be comprised of civilian police officers. Ban is expected to begin recruiting possible contributors to the mission and preparing its mandate.

Such an operation would not be a military intervention but would still require authorization from the U.N. Security Council, where it will likely face opposition from veto-wielding members China and Russia, neither of which attended the Tunis conference, and Iran. Russia and Iran are Syria's two biggest military suppliers.

In New York on Friday, U.N. deputy spokesman Eduardo del Buey said the secretary-general's office had no immediate response to a call for a peacekeeping mission.

As the conference began, about 200 pro-Assad demonstrators tried to storm the hotel. The protest forced Clinton to be diverted briefly to her hotel.

The protesters, waving Syrian and Tunisian flags, tussled with police and carried signs criticizing Clinton and President Barack Obama. They were driven out of the parking lot by police after about 15 minutes.

Romney would raise eligibility age for Medicare

Romney would raise eligibility age for Medicare

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks to the Detroit Economic Club at Ford Field in Detroit, Friday, Feb. 24, 2012.

DETROIT (AP) -- Four days before critical primary elections, Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney outlined a far-reaching plan Friday to gradually delay Americans' eligibility for Medicare as well as Social Security.

Romney said the shift, as people live longer, is needed to steer the giant benefit programs toward economic sustainability.

Speaking to the Detroit Economic Club - in cavernous Ford Field, where the Detroit Lions football team plays - he also made a play for primary election support in Michigan, which votes on Tuesday along with Arizona.

Romney said previous steps to toughen government emission standards had "provided a benefit to some of the foreign automakers" at the expense of American companies. He said future changes should be worked out cooperatively between government and industry.

Campaigning in the city where he was born, Romney described himself as "a car guy" who has a Ford Mustang and a Chevy pickup and whose wife, Ann, drives "a couple of Cadillacs." Aides said they were model year 2007 and 2010 SRX vehicles, one each registered in Massachusetts and California.

Romney said his proposals for Medicare and Social Security would begin in 2022, meaning no current or near-retirees would be affected. He also said he favors adjustments to curtail the growth of future benefits for the relatively well-to-do, so "lower-income seniors would receive the most generous benefits." He had described his Social Security proposals previously.

The two programs provide retirement and health care benefits to tens of millions of older Americans.

Beginning in 2022, Romney said, "We will gradually increase the Medicare eligibility age by one month each year. In the long run, the eligibility ages for both programs will be indexed to longevity so that they increase only as fast as life expectancy."

Under current law, the age for collecting full Social Security benefits is gradually rising from 65 to 67. Medicare is available at age 65. In both cases, the age is set in law, and Romney's suggestion that it be tied automatically to increases in the life expectancy of Americans would mark a major change.

He spoke in the run-up to a pair of primaries that mark his latest tests as he tries to break free of Rick Santorum and his other persistent but underfunded rivals in the presidential race.

He is widely expected to win Arizona. Neither he nor his rivals is airing television ads in the state, a reliable sign that all sides view it as a closed case.

Although public and private polls in Michigan show Romney has erased much or all of an earlier deficit, he still faces a stiff challenge from Santorum in the state, where the disparity in television advertising is not as overwhelmingly in Romney's favor has it has been elsewhere.

It is an unwritten rule of Michigan politics that presidential candidates appear before the Detroit Economic Club. Santorum addressed the group several days ago, and officials familiar with the details said Newt Gingrich's camp had been in discussions for an appearance as late as last week. A spokesman for the former House speaker did not respond to a request for comment.

Romney's commitment caused a spike in interest, and as a result, the former governor spoke in the huge stadium. He stood on a makeshift stage set up on the 35-yard line, with his audience on the stadium floor ringed by thousands of empty stadium seats. Goalpost uprights were visible above the black draping that served as his backdrop. United Auto Workers protested outside.

He spoke as Santorum intensified his effort to score an upset on what amounts to Romney's political home field.

The former Pennsylvania senator often stresses social issues in his campaign appearances. But public opinion polls consistently show the voters care most about the economy, and Santorum's campaign announced that later in the day, he would unveil an "economic freedom agenda" that he hoped to enact in his first 100 days in office.

By contrast, Romney rarely strays from economic issues as he presses his case that as a former businessman he is best equipped to help restore an economy still recovering from the worst recession in decades.

"I not only think I have the best chance. I think I have the only chance" of defeating Obama, Romney told his midday audience, although he quickly added with a nervous-sounding laugh, "Maybe I'm overstating it a bit."

While aides earlier had touted the speech as a major economic address, Romney seemed to pre-empt himself earlier in the week when he called for across-the-board income tax cuts of 20 percent to help the economy grow and begin creating jobs in large numbers.

He repeated that proposal, along with his calls to cut the corporate income tax rate and abolish the estate tax.

On Medicare, Romney also supports changing the program to give beneficiaries a choice between the traditional setup and one in which the government provides them with a monthly payment that can be used to purchase private coverage.

"With these commonsense changes, we will have fixed our balance sheet," Romney said. "Instead of $62 trillion in unfunded commitments hanging over America's future, we'll have a balance sheet that is actually in balance."

In all there are 30 Republican National Convention delegates at stake in Michigan next week, 29 in Arizona.

Three Harrisburg residents file restraining order against Receiver and his plan

Three Harrisburg residents file restraining order against Receiver and his plan

The three city residents who filed this suit say the state takeover of Harrisburg and appointment of the receiver was unconstitutional. And before anything happens, they would like the process stopped while their claim is addressed in court.

This restraining order was filed by former mayoral candidate Nevin Mindlin, union leader Eric Jenkins and Reverend Earl Harris. They say that after Harrisburg entered into Act 47, the state changed the rules therefore violating the city's right to equal protection under the law.

They said Harrisburg was treated differently than any other municipality that was in a similar situation, which violates the Constitution. Plus, with the Receiver the elected officials lost the right to govern the city, therefore the people lost their right to elected leaders.

“Harrisburg is being taken advantage of Constitutionally, which is really what this is all about,” explained Mindlin. “In the manner in which the whole process of this debt came to be and the only way we have to stop it and go back to a fair way of resolving it is to stop it through the constitutional question.”

We did speak with the Receiver, David Unkovic about the lawsuit and restraining order that was filed and he said he doesn't have a comment at this time. He's going to continue to work on trying to solve the city's problems and let the legal process work its way out.

Copyright 2012 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copter collision kills 7 Marines in Calif. desert

Copter collision kills 7 Marines in Calif. desert

Map locates Brawley, California, where two military helicopters collided killing 7 marines.

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Two Marine Corps helicopters collided over a remote section of the California desert during a nighttime exercise, killing seven Marines in one of the deadliest military training accidents in years.

There were no survivors in the latest in a series of crashes involving troops from Camp Pendleton, officials said Thursday.

Two Marines were aboard an AH-1W Cobra and the rest were in a UH-1 Huey utility helicopter when the crash occurred Wednesday night near the Chocolate Mountains along the California-Arizona border, said Lt. Maureen Dooley with Miramar Air Base in San Diego.

Six of the victims were from Camp Pendleton - the largest base on the West Coast - and one was from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona. Their identities will not be released until their families have all been notified.

Officials were still scrambling after sunrise to gather evidence at the crash site in a remote section of the Yuma Training Range Complex.

The sprawling 1.2 million-acre range in Arizona and southeastern California is favored by the U.S. military and its allies for training because the hot, dusty conditions and craggy mountains replicate Afghanistan's harsh environment and the clear weather allows for constant flying.

The weather was mild on Wednesday when the helicopters were flying as part of a two-week standard training called "Scorpion Fire" that involved a squadron of about 450 troops from the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing.

The wing has about 17,500 Marines and sailors, including six helicopter squadrons that fly both Cobras and Hueys. It's headquartered at Miramar Marine Corps Air Station and also has personnel stationed at Camp Pendleton and Yuma.

The helicopters collided at 8:45 p.m. near dunes at the edge of the Yuma range. Ground troops were in the area, but they were not affected, said Gunnery Sgt. Dustin Dunk, a spokesman at Marine Corp Air Station Yuma. The station is about an hour and a half drive from the accident site.

Part of the exercise involved having helicopters low on fuel descend to ground troops that have set up a refueling outpost, Dunk said.

He did not know if that's what the pilots were doing at the time of the crash, which occurred about an hour before the range was to shut down for the evening.

"Our training is always evolving, safety is paramount, and being prepared is paramount," he said. "It was a very standard exercise for what we do. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family members ... Our investigation will look to see what went wrong and how to correct it."

The AH-1W carries a crew of two - a pilot and gunner - and is considered the Marine Corps' main attack helicopter. The UH-1Y, which is replacing the aging version of the Huey utility helicopter first used during the Vietnam War, carries a crew of one or two pilots, a crew chief and other crew members, depending on the mission.

Hueys often are used to pick up and drop off ground crews, while Cobras hover by ready to fire if the Huey comes under attack.

Several accidents have happened in the past year involving Marine training in Southern California.

In September, a twin-engine, two-seat AH-1W Cobra helicopter went down during training in a remote area of Camp Pendleton, killing two Marine pilots and igniting a brush fire that burned about 120 acres at the base north of San Diego.

In August, two Marines were ejected from their F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet as it plunged toward the Pacific Ocean. The two Marines spent four hours in the dark, chilly ocean before they were rescued. Both suffered broken bones but survived.

In July, a decorated Marine from western New York was killed during a training exercise when his UH-1Y helicopter went down in a remote section of Camp Pendleton.

Another Hornet sustained at least $1 million damage when its engine caught fire on March 30 aboard the USS John C. Stennis during a training exercise about 100 miles off the San Diego coast. Eight sailors, a Marine and two civilians were injured.

A decade ago, in February 2002, a helicopter crash in the Chocolate Mountains California killed two Camp Pendleton Marines and injured two others. The UH-1N Huey was on a routine training mission in the Naval gunnery range.