Peterson murder trial

Peterson murder trial
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. -- No video or still cameras will be allowed in the courtroom for the verdict in Scott Peterson's murder trial, the judge ruled, citing concern for the families of both the former fertilizer salesman and his slain wife.
Judge Alfred A. Delucchi also ruled Thursday that transcripts from the many private meetings with attorneys held in his chambers throughout the trial will remain sealed. "The defendant's right to a fair trial trumps the public's need to know," Delucchi said.
Meanwhile, jurors deliberated Peterson's fate for a second day before breaking up around 4 p.m.
Peterson faces two counts of murder in the deaths of his wife, Laci, and the fetus she carried. Prosecutors claim Peterson killed his wife around Christmas Eve 2002, then dumped her weighted body into San Francisco Bay. Her badly decomposed remains and those of the fetus were discovered four months later, not far from where Peterson claims to have been fishing alone the day she vanished.
Defense lawyers claim someone else abducted and killed the Modesto woman, then placed the bodies in the water.
The issue of television coverage pitted both the prosecution and defense against the news media.
John Edwards' wifeto undergo more tests
WASHINGTON -- Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of Sen. John Edwards, will undergo more tests to determine how far her breast cancer has advanced and ways to treat it.
Mrs. Edwards was diagnosed with invasive ductal cancer, the most common type of breast cancer. It can spread from the milk ducts to other parts of the breast and beyond.
"Elizabeth is as strong a person as I've ever known," Edwards, a senator from North Carolina, said in a statement Thursday. "Together, our family will beat this."
Mrs. Edwards, 55, discovered a lump in her right breast while on a campaign trip last week, spokesman David Ginsberg said. Her family doctor told her it appeared to be cancerous and advised her to see a specialist when she could. She put off the appointment so as not to miss time campaigning for her husband, the Democratic candidate for vice president.
The Edwards family went to Massachusetts General Hospital from Boston's Faneuil Hall after presidential candidate John Kerry conceded the election Wednesday. A needle biopsy confirmed the cancer, Ginsberg said.
"Everybody feels good about it, that this is beatable," Ginsberg said.
Gov. Schwarzeneggercalls Democrats 'losers'
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Just a day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for bipartisan cooperation in the Capitol, he dismissed the new Senate leader and other Democrats as "losers."
The governor's office scrambled Thursday to explain that the Republican Schwarzenegger's remark was directed at the Democratic idea of raising taxes, not at Democrats as a group.
Both legislative leaders -- incoming Senate President Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez -- seemed to accept that explanation and declined to comment.
But outgoing Senate President John Burton of San Francisco said the governor's taunt was not constructive for a relationship with his successor.
"I'm sure it was a slip of the tongue, but I think Don is not the type of guy who is gonna laugh off those off-the-cuff jabs," he said. "Me, I just took Arnold as he was -- a guy who would forget to dip his tongue in his brain before he spoke."
The governor's unscripted moment came at a news conference to introduce Tom Campbell as his new finance director. When asked if he would consider budget-balancing proposals from Perata and other Democrats to increase taxes, Schwarzenegger said, "Well, I mean, why would I listen to losers?"
Global warming protocol
MOSCOW -- President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill confirming Russia's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, the Kremlin said today, clearing the way for the global climate pact to come into force early next year.
Both houses of parliament last month ratified the protocol, which aims to stem global warming by reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Putin signed the bill Thursday, the Kremlin said.
Without Russia's support, the pact -- which has been rejected by the United States and Australia -- could not have come into effect. It needed endorsement by 55 industrialized nations accounting for at least 55 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions in 1990.
The United States alone accounted for 36 percent of carbon dioxide emissions in 1990, while Russia accounted for 17 percent.
Associated Press