Murder charge out in Trayvon Martin case

Amid furious public pressure to make an arrest in the killing of Trayvon Martin, the special prosecutor on the case went for the maximum Wednesday, bringing a second-degree murder charge against the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot the unarmed black teenager.

There's still no word on whether George Zimmerman will be charged in the death of Trayvon Martin -- but if he is, the charge won't be first-degree murder.

George Zimmerman, 28, was jailed in Sanford -- the site of the shooting Feb. 26 that set off a nationwide debate over racial profiling and self-defense -- on charges that carry a minimum of 25 years in prison and a maximum sentence that could put him in prison for life.

The special prosecutor who's deciding whether to file charges announced today that she's not going to take the case to a grand jury. That's a step that would only be required if a first-degree murder case. 

"We do not prosecute by public pressure or by petition. We prosecute based on the facts on any given case as well as the laws of the state of Florida," Corey said.

Martin's parents, who were in Washington when the announcement came, expressed relief over the decision to prosecute the killer of their 17-year-old son.

Angela Corey could still charge Zimmerman with a serious felony such as manslaughter, which can carry a lengthy prison sentence.

Zimmerman's new attorney, Mark O'Mara, said Zimmerman will plead not guilty and will invoke Florida's powerful "stands your ground" law, which gives people wide leeway to use deadly force without having to retreat in the face of danger.

One Florida defense attorney says the decision not to go to a grand jury means Corey won't have to rely on potentially-unpredictable jurors. David Hill says Corey may know that there isn't enough for a first-degree murder charge, but she wants to charge him with something else -- and she now can "maintain control" of that process.

Corey took over the case last month after the prosecutor who normally handles cases out of Sanford recused himself.

The death of the unarmed black teen at the hands of the neighborhood watch volunteer has led to protests across the nation. One of those protests today prompted the temporary closing of the Sanford Police Department offices to the public, as about a half-dozen student activists blocked the entrance.

Zimmerman, whose father is white and whose mother Hispanic, turned himself in earlier in the day and will make a court appearance as early as Thursday, when his lawyer plans to ask for bail.

Myanmar historic election; spotlight on Suu Kyi

YANGON - Pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi looked set to clinch a seat in parliament in Myanmar's third election in half a century on Sunday, a crucial test of reforms that could convince the West to end sanctions and its pariah image.

The United States and European Union have hinted that some sanctions - imposed over the past two decades in response to human rights abuses - may be lifted if the election is free and fair, unleashing a wave of investment in the impoverished but resource-rich country bordering rising powers India and China.

"My whole family voted for her and I am sure all relatives and friends of us will vote for her too," said Naw Ohn Kyi, 59, a farmer from Warthinkha.

"Daw Aung San Suu Kyi has won 65 percent of the vote so far," the official told Reuters, referring to Suu Kyi by her honorific title.

Ko Myint Aung was one of 15 constituents contacted by Reuters, who all said they had voted for Suu Kyi.

President Thein Sein, a general in the former military junta, has surprised the world with the most dramatic political reforms since the military took power in a 1962 coup in the former British colony then known as Burma.

Voters across Myanmar cast their ballots Sunday in a historic parliamentary election that could see Aung San Suu Kyi win a seat in the legislature after a decades-long fight for democracy.

Voters across Myanmar cast their ballots Sunday in a historic parliamentary election that could see Aung San Suu Kyi win a seat in the legislature after a decades-long fight for democracy. Myanmar opposition says Suu Kyi takes lead in vote The Associated Press Party says Suu Kyi wins Myanmar parliament seat Atlanta Journal Constitution Hopes High as Myanmar Casts First Vote in Two Decades on media.

While the balance of power in the parliament will not change even if the opposition wins all 45 seats up for grabs, the vote is a symbolic victory for many in the country who have lived under military rule for almost half a century.

Released in November 2010, Suu Kyi was allowed to crisscross the country to rally support for her once-banned National League for Democracy party for Sunday's race.

The NLD has fielded a candidate for every seat, with Suu Kyi representing Kawhmu, south of the former capital city of Yangon. She is running against a former military doctor.

Suu Kyi, the Nobel peace prize laureate who has been the face of the country's struggle for representative rule, won by a landslide the last time Myanmar held multiparty elections in 1990.

But the junta ignored the results and placed her under house arrest.

Occupy Oakland: Police Use Teargas, Flash Grenades

Police said they used teargas Occupy Oakland protesters pelted near Lake Merritt and warned them with bottles, rocks, burning flares and other objects

At about 3:45 p.m., the crowd still had not dispersed around the intersection of Jackson Street and 12th Street.

Occupy Oakland protesters say they will gather outside City Hall on Saturday, march to an undisclosed vacant building and commandeer the space as a social center and political headquarters for the movement.

Police have used tear gas and "flash" grenades to break up hundreds of Occupy protesters after some demonstrators started throwing rocks and flares at officers and tearing down fencing.

 

Police declared the intersection an unlawful assembly area and began running toward protesters with their shields.

Three officers were hurt and 19 people were arrested, the Oakland Police Department said in a release. No details on the officers' injuries were released.

The crowd grew as the day wore on, with afternoon estimates ranging from about 1,000 to 2,000 people.

Occupy organizers said the plan today was to go to a vacant building that was to be their new home. Once they reach their destination, organizers had planned to kick off a two-day "Oakland Rise-up Festival" to celebrate the establishment of the movement's new space.

Police were in the process of arresting about 100 Occupy protesters for failing to disperse Saturday night, hours after officers used tear gas on a rowdy group of demonstrators who threw rocks and flares at them and tore down fences.

Oakland, New York and Los Angeles were among the cities with the largest and most vocal Occupy protests early on. The demonstrations ebbed after those cities used force to move out hundreds of demonstrators who had set up tent cities.

In Oakland, the police department received heavy criticism for using force to break up earlier protests. Among the critics was Mayor Jean Quan, who said she wasn't briefed on the department's plans. Earlier this month, a court-appointed monitor submitted a report to a federal judge that included "serious concerns" about the department's handling of the Occupy protests.

Interim police Chief Howard Jordan also warned that officers would arrest those carrying out illegal actions.

Oakland officials said on Friday that since the Occupy Oakland encampment was first established in late October, police have arrested about 300 people.

Japanese man who admitted to raping and strangling

A Japanese guilty of killing British teacher

A British teacher found guilty and sentenced to life in prison that’s a Japanese man who admitted to raping and strangling.

The same way the Casey Anthony trial the United States month-long trial of Tatsuya Ichihashi riveted Japan.

The victim Lindsay Hawker's battered, naked body was found in a bathtub in Ichihashi's apartment in March 2007 -- buried in sand.

Ichihashi then went on the run, altering his face through cosmetic surgery several times to elude arrest.

After arrested two and half years later, Ichihashi acknowledged killing Hawker. But the question at the center of the trial was whether he intended to.

Hawker's parents who were in Chiba District Court, east of Tokyo, for the verdict had asked prosecutors to hand down the harshest sentence: death.

Later, he told Hawker to follow him to his apartment so he could pay her, prosecutors said. Killing when police arrived to interview Ichihashi, he fled. he would drop in at clinics to undergo more cosmetic surgery, prosecutors said.

Before the verdict was read Thursday, hundreds of people lined up outside court to take part in a lottery that would allow 57 of them seats inside.

Authorities offered a 10 million yen reward ($127,000) reward for information leading to Ichihashi's capture. They finally caught up with him at a ferry terminal in the western Japanese city of Osaka in November 2009.