Spain investigators: Train driver was on phone

Spain investigators: Train driver was on phone 

FILE - In this July 25, 2013 file photo, a derailed train car is lifted by a crane at the site of a train accident in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. A Spanish court official said Monday July 29, 2013 that judicial police would soon begin extracting information from the “black box” of a train that crashed last week killing 79 people and injuring some 130 in the country’s worst train accident in decades. It is hoped the box might establish what happened in the final seconds prior to the crash. The investigation has increasingly focused on why the driver failed to brake in time to stop the train from hurtling into a dangerous curve, where it careered off the tracks and slammed into a concrete wall. On Monday, Spain’s royal family and leading politicians were to attend a somber Mass in homage to the victims killed and injured.

MADRID (AP) -- The driver was on the phone with a colleague and apparently looking at a document as his train barreled ahead at 95 mph (153 kph) - almost twice the speed limit. Suddenly, a notorious curve was upon him.

He hit the brakes too late.

The train, carrying 218 passengers in eight carriages, hurtled off the tracks and slammed into a concrete wall, killing 79 people.

On Tuesday, investigators looking into the crash announced their preliminary findings from analysis of the train's data-recording "black boxes," suggesting that human error appears to be the cause of Spain's worst railway disaster in decades.

The derailment occurred near Santiago de Compostela, a city in northwestern Spain, late last Wednesday. 

Some 66 people injured in the crash are still hospitalized, 15 of them in critical condition.

The accident cast a pall over the city, which is the last stop for the faithful who make it to the end of the El Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that has drawn Christians since the Middle Ages. The crash occurred on the eve of annual festivities at the shrine, which subsequently were canceled.

The disaster also stunned the rest of Spain, with Spanish royals and political leaders joining hundreds of people in Santiago de Compostela's storied 12th-century cathedral Monday evening to mourn the dead.

According to the investigation so far, train driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo received a call from an official of national rail company Renfe on his work phone in the cabin, not his personal cellphone, to tell him what approach to take toward his final destination.

The Renfe employee on the telephone "appears to be a controller," a person who organizes train traffic across the rail network, said a statement from a court in Santiago de Compostela, where the investigation is based.

"From the contents of the conversation and from the background noise it seems that the driver (was) consulting a plan or similar paper document."

The statement on the preliminary findings did not indicate whether such a phone conversation is common between a driver of a moving train and a controller, and it did not say how long the call lasted. It did not name the Renfe official who called the driver, nor did it further describe what plan or document the driver was consulting.

The train had been going as fast as 119 mph (192 kph) shortly before the derailment, and the driver activated the brakes "seconds before the crash," according to the statement. The speed limit on the section of track where the crash happened was 50 mph (80 kph).

Authorities have said that a high-tech automatic braking program called the European Rail Traffic Management System was installed on most of the high-speed track leading from Madrid north to Santiago de Compostela - the route Garzon's train took. But the cutting-edge coverage stops just 5 kilometers (3 miles) south of where the crash occurred, placing a greater burden on the driver to take charge.

The Spanish rail company has said the brakes should have been applied four kilometers (2.5 miles) before the train hit the curve.

A court spokeswoman told The Associated Press that the boxes "did not indicate any technical failures" contributed to the accident. She spoke on condition of anonymity because court regulations bar her from identifying herself by name.

Garzon was provisionally charged Sunday with multiple counts of negligent homicide. He was not sent to jail or required to post bail because none of the parties involved felt there was a risk of him fleeing or attempting to destroy evidence, according to a court statement.

Investigators from the court, forensic police experts, the Ministry of Transport and Renfe examined the contents of the two black boxes recovered from the lead and rear cars of the train.

But the investigation is ongoing and could last several more weeks. The next steps include measuring the wheels on the cars and examining the locomotive, the statement said, without providing an explanation for those checks.

Sniffer dogs will also be used to search for human remains in the wreckage, it said.

Manning guilty on many charges, not most serious

Manning guilty on many charges, not most serious 

FILE - In this Monday, July 29, 2013, file photo, Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is escorted to a security vehicle outside of a courthouse in Fort Meade, Md. U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was acquitted Tuesday, July 30, 2013, of aiding the enemy for giving classified secrets to WikiLeaks. The military judge hearing the case, Army Col. Denise Lind, announced the verdict.

 

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) -- U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning was acquitted of aiding the enemy - the most serious charge he faced - but was convicted of espionage, theft and other charges Tuesday, more than three years after he spilled secrets to WikiLeaks.

The judge, Army Col. Denise Lind, deliberated for about 16 hours over three days before reaching her decision in a case that drew worldwide attention as supporters hailed Manning as a whistleblower. The U.S. government called him an anarchist computer hacker and attention-seeking traitor.

Manning stood at attention, flanked by his attorneys, as the judge read her verdicts. He appeared not to react, though his attorney, David Coombs, smiled faintly when he heard not guilty on aiding the enemy, which carried a potential life sentence.

When the judge was done, Coombs put his hand on Manning's back and whispered something to him, eliciting a slight smile on the soldier's face.

Manning was convicted on 19 of 21 charges, and he previously pleaded guilty to a charge involving an Icelandic cable. He faces up to 136 years in prison. His sentencing hearing begins Wednesday.

Coombs came outside the court to a round of applause and shouts of "thank you" from a few dozen Manning supporters.

"We won the battle, now we need to go win the war," Coombs said of the sentencing phase. "Today is a good day, but Bradley is by no means out of the fire."

Supporters thanked him for his work. One slipped him a private note. Others asked questions about verdicts that they didn't understand.

Manning's court-martial was unusual because he acknowledged giving the anti-secrecy website more than 700,000 battlefield reports and diplomatic cables, and video of a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack that killed civilians in Iraq, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver.

In the footage, airmen laughed and called targets "dead bastards." A military investigation found troops mistook the camera equipment for weapons.

Besides the aiding the enemy acquittal, Manning was also found not guilty of an espionage charge when the judge found prosecutors had not proved their assertion Manning started giving material to WikiLeaks in late 2009. Manning said he started the leaks in February the following year.

Manning pleaded guilty earlier this year to lesser offenses that could have brought him 20 years behind bars, yet the government continued to pursue all but one of the original, more serious charges.

Manning said during a pre-trial hearing in February he leaked the material to expose the U.S military's "bloodlust" and disregard for human life, and what he considered American diplomatic deceit. He said he chose information he believed would not the harm the United States and he wanted to start a debate on military and foreign policy. He did not testify at his court-martial.

Coombs portrayed Manning as a "young, naive but good-intentioned" soldier who was in emotional turmoil, partly because he was a gay service member at a time when homosexuals were barred from serving openly in the U.S. military.

He said Manning could have sold the information or given it directly to the enemy, but he gave it to WikiLeaks in an attempt to "spark reform" and provoke debate. Counterintelligence witnesses valued the Iraq and Afghanistan war logs at about $5.7 million.

Coombs said Manning had no way of knowing whether al-Qaida would access the secret-spilling website and a 2008 counterintelligence report showed the government itself didn't know much about the site.

The defense attorney also mocked the testimony of a former supervisor who said Manning told her the American flag meant nothing to him and she suspected before they deployed to Iraq that Manning was a spy. Coombs noted she had not written up a report on Manning's alleged disloyalty, though had written ones on him taking too many smoke breaks and drinking too much coffee.

The government said Manning had sophisticated security training and broke signed agreements to protect the secrets. He even had to give a presentation on operational security during his training after he got in trouble for posting a YouTube video about what he was learning.

The lead prosecutor, Maj. Ashden Fein, said Manning knew the material would be seen by al-Qaida, a key point prosecutor needed to prove to get an aiding the enemy conviction. Even Osama bin Laden had some of the digital files at his compound when he was killed.

Some of Manning's supporters attended nearly every day of two-month trial, many of them protesting outside the Fort Meade gates each day before the court-martial. They wore T-shirts with the word "truth" on them, blogged, tweeted and raised money for Manning's defense. One supporter was banned from the trial because the judge said he made online threats.

Hours before the verdict, about two dozen demonstrators gathered outside the gates of the military post, proclaiming their admiration for Manning.

"He wasn't trying to aid the enemy. He was trying to give people the information they need so they can hold their government accountable," said Barbara Bridges, of Baltimore.

At a press conference Tuesday, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange blasted the verdict, calling it "a dangerous precedent and an example of national security extremism."

"This has never been a fair trial," Assange told journalists gathered at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

The court-martial unfolded as another low-level intelligence worker, Edward Snowden, revealed U.S. secrets about surveillance programs. Snowden, a civilian employee, told The Guardian his motives were similar to Manning's, but he said his leaks were more selective.

Manning's supporters believed a conviction for aiding the enemy would have a chilling effect on leakers who want to expose wrongdoing by giving information to websites and the media.

Before Snowden, Manning's case was the most high-profile espionage prosecution for the Obama administration, which has been criticized for its crackdown on leakers.

The WikiLeaks case is by far the most voluminous release of classified material in U.S. history. Manning's supporters included Pentagon Papers leaker Daniel Ellsberg, who in the early 1970s spilled a secret Defense Department history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam.

The 7,000 pages of the Pentagon Papers showed that the U.S. government repeatedly misled the public about the Vietnam War.

The material WikiLeaks began publishing in 2010 documented complaints of abuses against Iraqi detainees, a U.S. tally of civilian deaths in Iraq, and America's weak support for the government of Tunisia - a disclosure that Manning supporters said helped trigger the Middle Eastern pro-democracy uprisings known as the Arab Spring.

The Obama administration said the release threatened to expose valuable military and diplomatic sources and strained America's relations with other governments.

Prosecutors said during the trial Manning relied on WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange for guidance on what secrets to "harvest" for the organization, starting within weeks of his arrival in Iraq in late 2009.

Federal authorities are looking into whether Assange can be prosecuted. He has been holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London to avoid extradition to Sweden on sex-crimes allegations.

 

Child prostitution: Raids rescue 105 young people

Child prostitution: Raids rescue 105 young people 

Ron Hosko, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division, speaks during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington, Monday, July 29, 2013, about "Operation Cross Country." The FBI says the operation rescued 105 children who were forced into prostitution in the US and arrested 150 people it described as pimps and others in a series of raids in 76 American cities.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Declaring child prostitution a "persistent threat" in America, the FBI said Monday that authorities had rescued 105 young people and arrested 150 alleged pimps in a three-day sweep in 76 cities.

The agency said it had been monitoring Backpage.com and other websites as a prominent online marketplace for sex for sale. Backpage.com said that it was "very, very pleased" by the raids and that if the website were shut down to the advertisements, the ads would be pushed to sites that wouldn't cooperate with law enforcement.

The young people in the roundup, almost all of them girls, ranged in age from 13 to 17.

The largest numbers of children rescued in the weekend initiative, Operation Cross Country, were in the San Francisco Bay and Detroit areas, along with Milwaukee, Denver and New Orleans. The operation was conducted under the FBI's decade-long Innocence Lost National Initiative. The latest rescues and arrests were the largest such enforcement action to date.

"Child prostitution remains a persistent threat to children across the country," Ron Hosko, assistant director of the bureau's criminal investigative division, told a news conference. "We're trying to put this spotlight on pimps and those who would exploit."

In Operation Cross Country, federal, state and local authorities cooperated in an intelligence effort aimed at identifying pimps and their young victims.

The FBI said the campaign has resulted in rescuing 2,700 children since 2003. The investigations and convictions of 1,350 individuals have led to life imprisonment for 10 pimps and the seizure of more than $3.1 million in assets.

In their efforts to identify child victims, investigators seek help wherever they can find it - in some cases from adult prostitutes, Hosko said. He said almost all the victims in sweeps like the one over the weekend are girls and that the profiles of the victims cut across racial lines and boundaries of wealth.

Social media are a common denominator in many of the rescues.

"We are seeing it more and more, kids being put out on the street and being trafficked because of the Internet," said Detective Angela Irizarry of the Hayward Police Department not far from San Francisco. 

"Many of these kids come from runaway or group homes and they feel like this is the only for them to survive on the street."

She said her department identified three girls, ages 15, 16 and 17 and a woman seen dropping off two of the girls was arrested as a pimp. One of the girls was a runaway, another had been missing from a group home for several months and a third ran away off and on from her family's home, Irizarry said. The detective said she had not had a chance to speak with the girls and does not know how long they had been involved in prostitution, but that one of them "is denying any involvement of the individuals we had arrested for pimping. 

That is typical. Usually these girls don't immediately give up their pimps."

Irizarry said a multi-agency, cross-country effort was necessary because local police departments do not always have the resources to investigate tips about child sex trafficking.

Last year, five members of the Underground Gangster Crips contacted teens at school or through Facebook, DateHookUp.com or other online social networking sites, enticing the girls to use their looks to earn money through prostitution.

As for websites, Liz McDougall, the general counsel for Backpage.com, said that if that site were shut down to the advertisements in question, the information that can lead to the rescues would be lost to law enforcement because the ads would be pushed to "offshore uncooperative websites."

"We feel very strongly that we're doing the right thing, and we're going to continue to do the right thing and we congratulate the FBI and everybody with the task forces involved in the program," said McDougall.

In earlier sweeps, child prostitution victims have been recovered at major sporting events - including the NCAA Final Four and Super Bowl, Hosko said.

In the 1990s, gangs took control of street prostitution across America; that forced pimps to move girls into sporting events where security existed, said Dr. Lois Lee, founder and president of Children of the Night, a nonprofit group that has rescued 10,000 children from prostitution since 1979.

Hosko said the plight of the young people often goes unreported to authorities because the children in many instances are alienated from their families and are no longer in touch.

In Oakland, Calif., police Lt. Kevin Wiley said authorities "always afraid" for the girls.

"They usually get into this because they are running away from something else," said Wiley. "You're trying to find out what brought them into this lifestyle in the first place. It goes way beyond law enforcement to solve this epidemic."

Pimps operate wherever vulnerable potential victims can be found. Some are being recruited right out of foster care facilities, Hosko said.

For the past decade, the FBI has been attacking the problem in partnership with a private group, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

John Ryan, the head of the center, called the problem "an escalating threat against America's children."

The Justice Department has estimated that nearly 450,000 children run away from home each year and that one-third of teens living on the street will be lured toward prostitution within 48 hours of leaving home.

Congress has introduced legislation that would require state law enforcement, foster care and child welfare programs to identify children lured into sex trafficking as victims of abuse and neglect eligible for protections and services.

"In much of the country today, if a girl is found in the custody of a so-called pimp she is not considered to be 

a victim of abuse, and that's just wrong and defies common sense," Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing last month. Wyden co-sponsored the legislation with Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio.

 

'Who am I to judge?' pope says of gay priests

'Who am I to judge?' pope says of gay priests 

Pope Francis answers reporters questions during a news conference aboard the papal flight on its way back from Brazil, Monday, July 29, 2013. Pope Francis reached out to gays on Monday, saying he wouldn't judge priests for their sexual orientation in a remarkably open and wide-ranging news conference as he returned from his first foreign trip. "If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" Francis asked. His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, signed a document in 2005 that said men with deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests. Francis was much more conciliatory, saying gay clergymen should be forgiven and their sins forgotten. Francis' remarks came Monday during a plane journey back to the Vatican from his first foreign trip in Brazil.

ABOARD THE PAPAL AIRCRAFT (AP) -- A remarkably candid Pope Francis struck a conciliatory stance toward gays Monday, saying "who am I to judge" when it comes to the sexual orientation of priests.

"We shouldn't marginalize people for this. They must be integrated into society," Francis said during an extraordinary 82-minute exchange with reporters aboard his plane returning from his first papal trip, to celebrate World Youth Day in Brazil.

"If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?" the pope asked.

Francis' first news conference as pope was wide-ranging and open, touching on everything from the greater role he believes women should have in the Catholic Church to the troubled Vatican Bank.

While his predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, responded to only a few pre-selected questions during his papal trips, Francis did not dodge a single query, even thanking the journalist who asked about reports of a "gay lobby" inside the Vatican and allegations that one of his trusted monsignors was involved in a gay tryst.

Francis said he investigated the allegations against the clergyman according to canon law and found nothing to back them up. He took journalists to task for reporting on the matter, saying it concerned issues of sin, not crimes like sexually abusing children. And when someone sins and confesses, he said, God not only forgives - he forgets.

"We don't have the right to not forget," he said.

While the comments did not signal a change in Catholic teaching that homosexual acts are "intrinsically disordered," they indicated a shift in tone under Francis' young papacy and an emphasis on a church that is more inclusive and merciful rather than critical and disciplinary.

Francis' stance contrasted markedly with that of Benedict, who signed a document in 2005 that said men who had deep-rooted homosexual tendencies should not be priests.

Gay leaders were buoyed by Francis' approach, saying the change in tone was progress in itself, although for some the encouragement was tempered by Francis' talk of gay clergy's "sins."

"Basically, I'm overjoyed at the news," said Francis DeBernardo, executive director of the U.S.-based New Ways Ministry, a group that promotes justice and reconciliation for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people and the wider church community.

"For decades now, we've had nothing but negative comments about gay and lesbian people coming from the Vatican," DeBernardo said in a telephone interview from Maryland.

The largest U.S. gay rights group, Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement that the pope's remarks "represent a significant change in tone."

Still, said Chad Griffin, the HRC president, as long as gays "are told in churches big and small that their lives and their families are disordered and sinful because of how they were born - how God made them - then the church is sending a deeply harmful message."

In Italy, the country's first openly gay governor, Nichi Vendola, urged fellow politicians to learn a lesson from the pope.

"I believe that if politics had one-millionth of the capacity to ... listen that the pope does, it would be better able to help people who suffer," he said.

Vendola praised the pope for drawing a clear line between homosexuality and pedophilia. "We know that a part of reactionary clerical thought plays on the confusion between these two completely different categories," he said.

Francis also said he wanted a greater role for women in the church, though he insisted "the door is closed" to ordaining them as priests. In one of his most important speeches in Rio, Francis described the church in feminine terms, saying it would be "sterile" without women.

Funny and candid, Francis' exchange with the media was exceptional. While Pope John Paul II used to have on-board talks with journalists, he would move about the cabin, chatting with individual reporters so it was hit-or-miss to hear what he said. After Benedict's maiden foreign voyage, the Vatican insisted that reporters submit questions in advance so the theologian pope could choose three or four he wanted to answer with prepared comments.

Francis did not shy away from controversial topics, including reports suggesting that a group of gay 

clergymen exert undue influence on Vatican policy. Italian news media reported this year that the allegations of a so-called "gay lobby" contributed to Benedict's decision to resign.

"A lot is written about this gay lobby. I still haven't found anyone at the Vatican who has `gay' on his business card," Francis said, chuckling. "You have to distinguish between the fact that someone is gay and the fact of being in a lobby."

The term "gay lobby" is bandied about with abandon in the Italian media and is decidedly vague. 

Interpretations of what it means have ranged from a group of celibate gay priests who are friends, to suggestions that a group of sexually active gay priests use blackmail to exert influence on Vatican decision-making.

Stressing that Catholic teaching calls for homosexuals to be treated with dignity and not marginalized, Francis said he would not condone anyone using private information for blackmail or to exert pressure.

The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit author and commentator, saw the pope's remarks as a sign of mercy. 

"Today Pope Francis has, once again, lived out the Gospel message of compassion for everyone," he said in an emailed statement.

Speaking in Italian with occasional lapses in his native Spanish, Francis dropped a few nuggets of news:

- He said he is thinking about traveling to the Holy Land next year and is considering invitations from Sri Lanka and the Philippines.

- The planned Dec. 8 canonizations of Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will likely be changed - perhaps until the weekend after Easter - because road conditions in December would be dangerously icy for people from John Paul's native Poland traveling to the ceremony by bus.

Francis also he solved the mystery that had been circulating since he was pictured boarding the plane to Rio carrying his own black bag, an unusual break with Vatican protocol.

"The keys to the atomic bomb weren't in it," Francis quipped, referring to the case that accompanies U.S. presidents with nuclear launch codes. The bag, he said, contained a razor, a prayer book, his agenda and a book on St. Therese of Lisieux, to whom he is particularly devoted.

"It's normal" to carry a bag when traveling, he said, displaying a simplicity of style that separates him from previous pontiffs, who until a few decades ago were carried around on platforms.

"We have to get used to this being normal."

 

Police: Gunman in Fla. standoff lived in building

Police: Gunman in Fla. standoff lived in building 

Miami-Dade morgue workers carry out a body out at the scene of a fatal shooting in Hialeah, Fla., Saturday, July 27, 2013. A gunman holding hostages inside the apartment complex killed six people before being shot to death by a SWAT team that stormed the building early Saturday following an hours-long standoff, police said.

HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) -- A man set fire to his South Florida apartment, killed six people, and held another two hostage at gunpoint before a SWAT team stormed the complex and fatally shot him Saturday, according to police and witness accounts.

The ordeal lasted eight hours, with Pedro Vargas running through the building, firing at random and eluding officers for part of it, police said.

Vargas, 43, set a combustible liquid on fire on Friday evening to start the blaze, police spokesman Carl Zogby said.

The building manager and his wife noticed smoke and ran to the apartment. Vargas came out and shot several times, killing both of them, according to the police account.

Vargas then went to his fourth-story balcony and fired 10 to 20 shots in the street, killing a man who was parking a car outside, Zogby said.

Then, Vargas went down to the third floor, kicked the door in on another apartment and killed a man, his wife and their teen daughter.

Zogby said Vargas then ran through the building, firing "at random, in a very irrational fashion."

"He kept running from us as he fired at us, and we fired at him," Zogby said.

He forced his way into an apartment and took two people hostage at gunpoint.

Ester Lazcano lives two doors down from where the shooting began and said she was in the shower when she heard the first shots, then there were at least a dozen more.

"I felt the shots," she said.

Miriam Valdes, 70, lives on the building's top floor - one floor above where the shooting began. She said she heard gunfire and later saw smoke and what smelled like burned plastic entering her apartment, and ran in fear to the unit across the hall.

A crisis team was able to briefly establish communication with Vargas. Sgt. Eddie Rodriguez said negotiators and a SWAT team tried talking with him from the other side of the door of the unit where he held the hostages.

Valdes said she heard about eight officers talking with him as she stayed holed up at the neighboring apartment. She said officers told him to "let these people out."

"We're going to help you," she said they told him.

She said the gunman first asked for his girlfriend and then his mother but refused to cooperate.

Rodriguez said the talks eventually "just fell apart." Officers stormed the building, fatally shooting the gunman in an exchange of gunfire.

"They made the decision to go in there and save and rescue the hostages," Rodriguez said. Both hostages survived.

Neighbors said the shooter lived in the building with his mother. Police don't believe she was home at the time of the shootings.

"He was a good son," Lazcano said. "He'd take her in the morning to run errands" and took her to doctor appointments.

But Valdes said he was known as a difficult person who sometimes got into fights and yelled at his mother.

"He was a very abusive person," she said. "He didn't have any friends there."

Zogby called Vargas' background "unremarkable." He said police are investigating any possible disputes between Vargas and the building manager but don't yet have any information on a possible motive. "Nobody seems to know why he acted the way he acted," Zogby said.

He said police had not responded to any prior calls at his home or found any criminal background on him.

Zulima Niebles said police told her that three of her family members were among the victims. She said her sister Merly Sophia Niebles, her sister's husband, and her sister's teen daughter Priscila Perez were all shot and killed.

Zulima Niebles' husband, Agustin Hernandez, was moving the family's things out of the apartment building and into his car Saturday. Among them were several photos, one showing the teen smiling in a red graduation gown, another of his sister-in-law in a white dress and pearls.

Hernandez said his sister-in-law's husband was a friend of the building manager.

Marcela Chavarri, director of the American Christian School, said Priscila Perez was about to enter her senior year at the school.

"She was a lovely girl," Chavarri said through tears. "She was always happy and helping her classmates."

In Hialeah - a suburb of about 230,000 residents, about three-quarters of whom are Cuban or Cuban-American - the street in the quiet, apartment-building-lined neighborhood was still blocked by tape Saturday afternoon.

The building where the standoff occurred is an aging, beige structure with an open terrace in the middle. It has 90 to 95 units. The apartment where neighbors said the shooting started was charred, the door and ceiling immediately outside burned black.

Zogby called the whole building a crime scene. "He probably fired dozens of shots during the whole incident," he said.

"It could have been a much, much more dangerous situation."

 

Police arrest Spain train crash driver as suspect

Police arrest Spain train crash driver as suspect 

In this photo taken on Wednesday July 24 2013, Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Police say they have detained the driver of a train that crashed in northwestern Spain and killed 78 people. Galicia region National Police Chief Jaime Iglesias says driver Francisco Jose Garzon Amo was officially detained in the hospital where is recovering.

 

SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA, Spain (AP) -- Spanish police said Friday they have arrested the driver of the train that sped through a curve and toppled over, killing 78 people, and plan to question him over suspected reckless driving.

As blame increasingly fell on the still-hospitalized driver over Spain's deadliest railway crash in decades, authorities located the train's so-called "black box" that is expected to shed further light on the disaster's cause.

Investigators said they would seek evidence of failings by Francisco Jose Garzon Amo, the 52-year-old driver, as well as the train's internal speed-regulation systems in the Wednesday derailment.

The chief of the train operator, Renfe, defended the driver Friday, lauding what it called his exhaustive experience. But the country's railway agency, Adif, noted that the driver should have started slowing the train long before reaching the disastrous turn.

In an interview with The Associated Press, an American passenger injured on the train said he saw on a TV monitor screen inside his car that the train was traveling 194 kph (121 mph) seconds before the crash - far above the 80 kph (50 mph) speed limit on the curve where it derailed. The passenger, 18-year-old Stephen Ward, said the train appeared to have accelerated, not decelerated.

And Gonzalo Ferre, president of the rail infrastructure company Adif, said the driver should have started slowing the train 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) before reaching a dangerous bend that train drivers had been told to respect.

"Four kilometers before the accident happened he already had warnings that he had to begin slowing his speed, because as soon as he exits the tunnel he needs to be traveling at 80 kilometers per hour," Ferre said.

At the scene, hundreds of onlookers watched as crews used a crane Friday to hoist smashed and burned-up cars onto flat-bed trucks to cart them away. The shattered front engine had been tipped back upright but remained resting beside the tracks, just yards (meters) from the passage of resumed train traffic.

Grieving families gathered for funerals near the site of the crash in Santiago de Compostela, a site of Catholic pilgrimage that had been preparing to celebrate its most revered saint, James, but those annual festivities were canceled Thursday.

Police lowered the death toll Friday to 78 as forensic scientists matched body parts. They previously had identified 80 dead.

Amo was officially arrested Thursday night in the hospital. Photographs indicated he suffered a head wound in the crash.

Jaime Iglesias, police chief of Spain's northwest Galicia region, said Amo would be questioned "as a suspect for a crime linked to the cause of the accident." When asked, Iglesias described Amo's alleged offense as "recklessness." He declined to elaborate.

The driver is being guarded by police and has yet to be interviewed. That might be delayed because of his medical treatment, Iglesias said.

Renfe said Amo is a 30-year employee of the state train company, who became an assistant driver in 2000 and a fully qualified driver in 2003.

Amo had driven trains past the spot of the accident 60 times and "the knowledge of this line that he had to have is exhaustive," Renfe's president, Julio Gomez-Pomar, said in a TV interview.

Police are still working to identify what they believe are the remains of six people. Antonio del Amo, the chief scientific officer of Spain's National Police, cautioned that the death toll could be revised as they continue their work matching body parts.

Iglesias said police took possession of the train's "black box," which is expected to shed light on why it was going faster than the speed limit. The box will be handed over to the investigating judge, Iglesias said, adding that the box had not been opened yet.

The box records the train's trip data, including speed, distances and braking, and is similar to a flight recorder for an airplane. A court spokeswoman declined to comment on how long analysis of the box's contents would take.

One American died in the cash. She was identified by the Diocese of Arlington as Ana Maria Cordoba, an administrative employee from northern Virginia.

Also among the dead were an Algerian and a Mexican, Spanish police said Friday.

Eyewitness accounts backed by security-camera footage of the moment of disaster showed that the eight-carriage train was going too fast as it tried to turn left underneath a road bridge. After impact, witnesses said a fire engulfed passengers trapped in at least one carriage, most likely driven by ruptured tanks of diesel fuel carried in the forward engines.

Ward, an 18-year-old Mormon missionary from Utah who was on the train, said he was writing in his journal when he looked up at the monitor and saw the train's speed. Then, he said, "the train lifted up off the track. It was like a roller coaster."

Seconds later, Ward remembered, a backpack fell from the rack above him and he felt the train fly off the track. That was his last memory before he blacked out on impact.

When Ward woke up, someone was helping him walk out of his train car and crawl out of a ditch where the car had toppled over. He thought he was dreaming for 30 seconds until he felt his blood-drenched face and noticed the scene around him.

"Everyone was covered in blood. There was smoke coming up off the train," he said. "There was a lot of crying, a lot of screaming. There were plenty of dead bodies. It was quite gruesome."

It was Spain's deadliest train accident since 1972, when a train collided with a bus in southwest Spain, killing 86 people and injuring 112.

 

US govt says won't seek death penalty for Snowden

US govt says won't seek death penalty for Snowden

FILE - In this July 25, 2013 file photo, Attorney General Eric Holder speaks in Philadelphia. Holder tells Russia US won't seek death penalty for Edward Snowden.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Attorney General Eric Holder has assured the Russian government that the U.S. has no plans to seek the death penalty for former National Security Agency systems analyst Edward Snowden.

In a letter dated Tuesday, the attorney general said the criminal charges Snowden now faces in this country do not carry the death penalty and the U.S. will not seek his execution even if he is charged with additional serious crimes.

Holder says his letter follows news reports that Snowden, who leaked details of two top secret U.S. surveillance programs, has filed papers seeking temporary asylum in Russia on grounds that if he were returned to the United States he would be tortured and would face the death penalty.

Snowden has been charged with three offenses in the U.S., including espionage, and could face up to 30 years in prison if convicted.

The attorney general's letter was sent to Alexander Vladimirovich Konovalov, the Russian minister of justice.

Holder's letter is part of an ongoing campaign by the U.S. government to get Snowden back. When Snowden arrived at Moscow's international airport a month ago, he was believed to be planning simply to transfer to a flight to Cuba and then to Venezuela to seek asylum. But the U.S. canceled his passport, stranding him. He hasn't been seen in public since, although he met with human rights activists and lawyers. He has applied for temporary asylum in Russia and has said he'd like to visit the countries that offered him permanent asylum - Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua.

The attorney general's letter may allay reported Russian concerns about how Snowden might be treated if he is deported to the U.S.

Some Russian politicians, including parliament speaker Sergei Naryshkin, have said Snowden should be granted asylum to protect him from the death penalty.

If Snowden were to go to a country that opposes the death penalty, providing assurances that the U.S. won't seek the death penalty may remove at least one obstacle to his return to the U.S.

"I can report that the United States is prepared to provide to the Russian government the following assurances regarding the treatment Mr. Snowden would face upon return to the United States," Holder wrote. "First, the United States would not seek the death penalty for Mr. Snowden should he return to the United States." In addition, "Mr. Snowden will not be tortured. Torture is unlawful in the United States," Holder's letter said.

The attorney general said that if Snowden returned to the U.S. he would promptly be brought before a civilian court and would receive "all the protections that United States law provides."

Holder also said that "we understand from press reports and prior conversations between our governments that Mr. Snowden believes that he is unable to travel out of Russia and must therefore take steps to legalize his status. That is not accurate; he is able to travel."

Despite the revocation of Snowden's passport on June 22, Snowden remains a U.S. citizen and is eligible for a limited validity passport good for direct return to the United States, said the attorney general.

Snowden, who is believed to have been staying at the Moscow airport transit zone since June 23, applied for temporary asylum in Russia last week.

A spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said Russia has not budged from its refusal to extradite Snowden.

Asked by a reporter whether the government's position had changed, Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies that "Russia has never extradited anyone and never will." There is no U.S.-Russia extradition treaty.

Peskov also said that Putin is not involved in reviewing Snowden's application or discussions of the ex-NSA contractor's future with the U.S., though the Russian Security Service, the FSB, had been in touch with the FBI.

While he awaits asylum, from several countries, Snowden has not overtly threatened to release more damaging documents. The journalist through whom he has been working, Glenn Greenwald, has said that blueprints detailing how the NSA operates will be made public if something should happen to Snowden.

Putin has said that if Snowden releases any more of the materials, Russia will not grant him temporary asylum.

There's little chance Snowden will be able to use what information he has as a bargaining chip to negotiate his prosecution or extradition. Giving in to threats would risk opening the door for others to take similar action in the future.

The government must take the position: "We don't negotiate with extortionists," said Michael Chertoff, the former head of the Justice Department's criminal division and former secretary of homeland security. Chertoff said he can't recall a case in which the U.S. government has caved under this type of threat.

U.S. officials have said what Snowden already released will harm national security, though it's too early to tell what damage has been done. The U.S. intelligence community has a good idea of what other documents he has.

 

Juror says she owes Martin's parents apology

Juror says she owes Martin's parents apology

This image released by ABC shows host Robin Roberts, left, with Juror B29 from the George Zimmerman trial, center, and attorney David Chico on "Good Morning America," in New York on Thursday, July 25, 2013. Portions of Roberts' interview with the only minority juror from the Zimmerman trial, will air on "World News Tonight with Diane Sawyer," and "Nightline" on Thursday and the full interview will air on "Good Morning America," on Friday.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) -- The second juror to speak publicly told ABC News in an interview made available Thursday that she feels George Zimmerman got away with murder for fatally shooting Trayvon Martin, but that there wasn't enough evidence at trial to convict him under Florida law.

Juror B29 told Robin Roberts that she favored convicting Zimmerman of second-degree murder when deliberations began by the six-member, all-women jury.

"I was the juror that was going to give them a hung jury," she said. "I fought to the end."

But by the second day of deliberating, she realized there wasn't enough proof to convict the 29-year-old neighborhood watch volunteer of a crime.

"George Zimmerman got away with murder, but you can't get away from God," she said. "And at the end of the day, he's going to have a lot of questions and answers he has to deal with."

Zimmerman was acquitted earlier this month of second-degree murder and manslaughter charges in the 2012 slaying of the unarmed 17-year-old. The Miami teenager was shot and killed during a confrontation with Zimmerman in Sanford. The case spawned heated national debates about racial profiling and the so-called Stand Your Ground self-defense laws in Florida and other states.

Zimmerman was seen publicly for the first time last week when he assisted a family after their SUV flipped over on a Florida highway.

Juror B29 is the second panelist to go public with what went on during deliberations earlier this month. She allowed her face to be shown and used her first name, Maddy, unlike Juror B37, who was interviewed on CNN last week with her face obscured.

Four jurors, not including the one interviewed by ABC, issued a statement last week saying the opinions expressed by Juror B37 to CNN's Anderson Cooper did not represent their views.

That juror said the actions of Zimmerman and Martin both led to the teenager's fatal shooting, but that Zimmerman didn't actually break the law.

Juror B29 also told ABC that she didn't believe race was an issue at the trial. Though the judge so far has refused to release the names or biographical information about the jurors, B29 said she was 36 years old and Puerto Rican.

Martin was black and Zimmerman identifies himself as Hispanic. Martin's parents believe Zimmerman racially profiled their son when he started following him after spotting him walking through the neighborhood where Zimmerman lived and Martin was visiting. B29 said she couldn't speak for her fellow jurors on the race issue. 

The other women on the jury were white.

Juror B29 is a nursing assistant and mother of eight children who recently moved to Florida from Chicago.

She said she feels like she owes Martin's parents an apology.

"I felt like I let a lot of people down, and I'm thinking to myself, `Did I go the right way? Did I go the wrong way?'" she said. "As much as we were trying to find this man guilty ... They give you a booklet that basically tells you the truth, and the truth is that there was nothing that we could do about it."

AP PHOTOS: Pope ventures into tough Rio shantytown

AP PHOTOS: Pope ventures into tough Rio shantytown 

People greet and take pictures of Pope Francis as he visits the Varginha slum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Thursday, July 25, 2013. Francis on Thursday visited one of Rio de Janeiro's shantytowns, or favelas, a place that saw such rough violence in the past that it's known by locals as the Gaza Strip.

Pope Francis spent Thursday morning in one of Rio de Janeiro's most violent shantytowns, whose residents gave him a warm and happy greeting.

The pontiff mounted an open vehicle to cruise through the narrow streets of the Varginha slum past residents crowding the route under a sea of umbrellas. As he is fond of doing, Francis also got down and walked into the crowds to shake hands and talk with people.

Later in the day, the pope headed to Rio's famed Copacabana beach, to deliver an address to hundreds of thousands of young Roman Catholics attending the church's World Youth Day festival.

Fears over Zimmerman verdict riots prove overblown

Fears over Zimmerman verdict riots prove overblown 

FILE - In this July 20, 2013, file photo, people protesting the George Zimmerman verdict gather in prayer in front of the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Riverside, Calif. Community leaders and scholars say the overwhelmingly peaceful response to the Zimmerman verdict reflects increased opportunities for African-Americans, the powerful image of a black president voicing frustration with the verdict, and the modern ability to create change through activism and social media rather than a brick.

The predictions were dire: Black people would burn and loot America's cities if George Zimmerman was found not guilty. White people everywhere would be attacked in revenge for the killing of Trayvon Martin.

Judging from water-cooler conversations, social media and viral emails, many people took these warnings seriously - yet they proved to be largely wrong.

Community leaders and scholars say the overwhelmingly peaceful response to the Zimmerman verdict reflects increased opportunities for African-Americans, the powerful image of a black president voicing frustration with the verdict, and the modern ability to create change through activism and social media rather than a brick.

"There was the assumption that black people, Latino people, inner-city people are inherently violent, and that's the farthest thing from the truth," says Kevin Powell, whose BK Nation advocacy group helped organize peaceful marches involving thousands of people in New York City.

"They need to stop racially stereotyping people," Powell says. "It's the same thing George Zimmerman was engaging in. To automatically assume an explosion from the Zimmerman verdict - I don't think they understand black people."

The talk of violence originated long before the verdict with some conservative commentators, who said riots should be blamed on liberals who distorted facts to make Zimmerman look guilty. "Media's dishonest motives in Trayvon Martin case could end in riots," read one headline on Glenn Beck's website.

Speculation intensified when news broke that Florida police were preparing for possible unrest. Pundits highlighted dozens of tweets from average citizens threatening violence if Zimmerman was acquitted. Reminders circulated about a handful of "this is for Trayvon" assaults by black people when the case first gained national notice.

"I fully expect organized race rioting to begin in every major city to dwarf the Rodney King and the Martin Luther King riots," wrote former police officer Paul Huebl. "If you live in a large city be prepared to evacuate or put up a fight to win. You will need firearms, fire suppression equipment along with lots of food and water."

In the week after the verdict, amid peaceful protests involving tens of thousands of people across the country, there was some violence.

In Oakland, protesters broke windows, vandalized a police car and started street fires. In Los Angeles, people splintered off two peaceful protests to smash windows, set fires, attack pedestrians, and assault police with rocks and bottles. About 50 teenagers took the subway to Hollywood to rob pedestrians; 12 were arrested.

Individual attacks were reported in Mississippi, Milwaukee and Baltimore, where black people were accused of assaulting two white people and a Hispanic in Martin's name.

Overall, the response to the Zimmerman verdict was nothing like the massive 1992 Los Angeles uprising that killed 53 people, injured more than 2,000 and caused $1 billion in damage after police officers were acquitted in the Rodney King beating. And there was no comparison with the 1960s riots that struck cities across the country in response to oppression of African-Americans and the assassination of Martin Luther King.

The `60s riots sprang from a sense of deep frustration that progress was being thwarted, says Max Krochmal, a history professor at Texas Christian University.

"They saw the limits to what they could achieve," Krochmal says.

President Barack Obama, who spoke emotionally after the verdict about the frustrations many African-Americans felt over the verdict, is a reminder that limits have been lifted.

"In the `60s, there was just a lot of anger with the way things were. There was a hopelessness. When King was killed, that was the worst. It was like killing the hope," says the Rev. Herbert Daughtry, 82, who leads The House of the Lord Church in New York.

"Maybe the anger is not there like it was before," says Daughtry, who organized several peaceful rallies after the verdict.

He added that Obama's statement helped keep things calm. The president told people that "I feel pain, I've been through the same thing, I'm not distant to the pain you feel," Daughtry says. "I've got a man in the White House who knows that pain."

For many, social media has been a constructive outlet for that pain.

"I definitely think that social media has helped to defuse anything that happens out on the streets," Powell says. "Because people are able to use their voices. They can be heard."

"Imagine if there was no Twitter and Facebook and this verdict came down," he says. "Where would people go?"

"People are using social media to vent," Powell continues. "That's where all the energy is being placed. It's easy - people can click a button and say exactly what they want - like boycott Florida."

John Baick, a history professor at Western New England University, says the Zimmerman trial is another skirmish in the battles over the direction of American culture.

"Use of the word `riot' is talking about race without talking about race," Baick says. "It's like, look at `them.'"

"The word riot says so much about fears, about assumptions," he says. "It's deep in our culture that we are afraid of `them.'"

 

Spain passenger train derails, killing at least 35

Spain passenger train derails, killing at least 35 

Emergency personnel respond to the scene of a train derailment in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, on Wednesday, July 24, 2013. A train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, toppling passenger cars on their sides and leaving at least one torn open as smoke rose into the air. Dozens were feared dead, with possibly even more injured.

MADRID (AP) -- A passenger train derailed in northwestern Spain on Wednesday night, killing at least 35 people and leaving hundreds injured, officials said.

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, president of the region of Galicia, said at least 35 people aboard the train were killed.

State-owned train operator Renfe said in a statement that 218 passengers and an unspecified number of staff were on board at the time of the accident. Renfe did not give an estimate of the numbers of dead or injured.

Feast day festivities planned in the city of Santiago de Compostela were cancelled, town hall spokeswoman Maria Pardo told Spanish National television TVE.

A photographer at the scene said he saw dozens of what appeared to be dead bodies being extracted from the wreck by emergency workers. TVE showed footage of what appeared to be several bodies covered by blankets alongside the tracks next to the damaged train wagons.

The photographer, Xabier Martinez, told The Associated Press that he also spoke to two injured train passengers who said they felt a strong vibration before the derailing.

The accident occurred along a high-speed stretch of track near the train station in Santiago de Compostola, 95 kilometers (60 miles) south of El Ferrol. Rescue workers were seen in the television images caring for people still inside some of the wagons.

Television footage also showed one wagon pointing upwards into the air with one of its ends twisted and disfigured. Another carriage had left the track altogether and could be seen resting on a nearby road.

The train, which belongs to the state-owned Renfe company, was headed to El Ferrol from Madrid.

Officials at the Interior Ministry and the Adif rail infrastructure authority did not immediately answer telephone calls or return messages seeking comment. Officials with Renfe also did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

William, Kate, show off their royal newborn son

William, Kate, show off their royal newborn son 

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge hold the Prince of Cambridge, Tuesday July 23, 2013, as they pose for photographers outside St. Mary's Hospital exclusive Lindo Wing in London where the Duchess gave birth on Monday July 22. The Royal couple are expected to head to London’s Kensington Palace from the hospital with their newly born son, the third in line to the British throne.

LONDON (AP) -- Prince William and his wife Kate presented their newborn son to the world for the first time Tuesday, drawing whoops and wild applause from well-wishers as they revealed the new face of the British monarchy - though not, yet, his name.

"We're still working on a name. So we'll have that as soon as we can," William told scores of reporters gathered outside St. Mary's Hospital as he cradled the child.

The young family's debut public appearance was the moment the world's media had been waiting for, but the royal couple showed no sign of stress in the face of dozens of flashing cameras. Instead the couple, both 31, laughed and joked with reporters as they took turns holding their baby son, who appeared to doze through it all.

"He's got her looks, thankfully," William said, referring to his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge, as the newborn prince squirmed in his arms and poked a tiny hand out of his swaddling blanket, almost like a little royal wave.

"He's got a good pair of lungs on him, that's for sure," William added with a grin. "He's a big boy. He's quite heavy."

The infant is third in line to become monarch one day, after his grandfather, Prince Charles, and William.

But for now, the media and the public were focused on getting all the details of new parenthood they could from the couple: How they feel, what the baby looks like, and even who changed the diapers.

Kate, wearing a simple baby blue dress, said William had already had a go at changing the first one.

"He's very good at it," she said.

Asked how she felt, she said: "It's very emotional. It's such a special time. I think any parent will know what this feeling feels like."

And William poked fun at his own lack of hair when he responded with a wink to a reporter's question about the baby's locks: "He's got way more than me, thank God."

It was a much more relaxed scene than the one when Princess Diana and Prince Charles carried their newborn son, William, out to pose for photographs on the same hospital steps in 1982.

Charles, wearing a dark suit, tie and boutonniere, spoke awkwardly to reporters. By contrast, William, dressed in jeans and a blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up, joked with the assembled media and addressed some by name. At his side, Kate waved and smiled broadly, the blue sapphire engagement ring that had been Diana's on her finger.

The photographs snapped Tuesday are likely to be reprinted for decades as the baby grows into adulthood and his role as a future king, and onlookers were elated to witness the historic moment.

"William gave us a wave as they drove away, so it was perfect. Days like this really bring the country together," said Katie Allan, 26, from Bristol, England.

The couple re-entered the hospital to place the child in a car seat before re-emerging to get into a black Range Rover. With William at the wheel, they drove away. Palace officials said they will head to an apartment in Kensington Palace and spend the night there.

The birth marks a new chapter for William and Kate, who had enjoyed a quiet life away from the public eye in Anglesey, Wales, since their wedding in April 2011.

The couple had been living in a small Welsh cottage while William - known as Flight Lieutenant Wales - completed his term as a search-and-rescue pilot.

Now that they are a family, they are moving to a much larger apartment in Kensington Palace in central London, where William spent most of his childhood and where it will be much more difficult to keep a low profile and avoid the press.

Earlier Tuesday, William's father, Charles, and his wife, Camilla, as well as Michael and Carole Middleton - Kate's parents - visited the young family at the hospital.

Charles called the baby "marvelous," while a beaming Carole Middleton described the infant as "absolutely beautiful."

It was not immediately clear when Queen Elizabeth II would meet the newborn heir. The queen was hosting a reception at Buckingham Palace Tuesday evening, and was due to leave for an annual holiday in Scotland in the coming days.

Meanwhile, much of Britain and parts of the Commonwealth were celebrating the birth of a future monarch.

News that Kate gave birth to the 8 pound, 6 ounce (3.8 kilogram) boy on Monday was greeted with shrieks of joy and applause by hundreds of Britons and tourists gathered outside the hospital's private Lindo Wing and the gates of Buckingham Palace.

Revelers staged impromptu parties, and large crowds crushed against the palace gates to try to catch a glimpse - and a photograph - of the golden easel placed there to formally announce the birth.

Hundreds were still lining up outside the palace gates Tuesday to get near the ornate easel.

In London, gun salutes were fired, celebratory lights came on, and bells chimed at Westminster Abbey, where William and Kate wed in a lavish ceremony that drew millions of television viewers worldwide.

The baby is just a day old - and may not be named for days or even weeks - but he already has a building dedicated to him.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said an enclosure at Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo would be named after the prince as part of a gift from Australia. The government will also donate $9,300 on the young prince's behalf toward a research project at the zoo to save the endangered bilby, a rabbit-like marsupial whose numbers are dwindling in the wild.

British media joined in the celebration, with many newspapers printing souvenir editions.

"It's a Boy!" was splashed across many front pages, while Britain's top-selling The Sun newspaper temporarily changed its name to "The Son" in honor of the tiny monarch-in-waiting.

"His First Royal Wave" read the headline on the Times front page that accompanied a photo of the newborn, his tiny fist poking out from the white blanket he was swaddled in.

The birth is the latest driver of a surge in popularity for Britain's monarchy, whose members have evolved, over several decades of social and technological change, from distant figures to characters in a well-loved national soap opera.

"I think this baby is hugely significant for the future of the monarchy," said Kate's biographer, Claudia Joseph.

For some, though, it was all a bit much.

The wry front page on British satirical magazine "Private Eye" - which simply read "Woman Has Baby" - summed up the indifference some felt about the news.

"It's a baby, nothing else," said Tom Ashton, a 42-year-old exterminator on his way to work. "It's not going to mean anything to my life."